Parents of the Class of 2019

[Eureka]

Ugh, that's rough. We're running into some of the same, though thankfully the one teacher DD really, really wants a recommendation from (he's the campus minister and her philosophy teacher, and he probably knows her better than any other school staff) is going to be there at least one more year. It was touch-and-go for a bit and she was so relieved that his contract was officially signed and done on Monday because she hated the idea of leaving for Japan and not finding out until August if he was going to be back. Her favorite English teacher left, though, so she's stressing a bit about the teachers she asked for the other two letters. Wellesley wants two teachers and one admin/other school staff, so the campus minister is serving as the latter.

She got her schedule the day she left too, which is something else settled that she didn't think would be. She's not thrilled - AP Bio and Environmental Sci. are being offered the same hour, as are AP Calc and Honors Stats, so she had to choose between some classes she really wanted. But I think in the long run she'll be happier. She's still got 3 AP and one honors class but she'll also have a free hour and an art class so she'll have a bit of breathing room to enjoy her senior year without quite as heavy a workload as this year.

DS has taken AP Bio and Environmental Science (we call it APES here) and liked Bio a lot better. Some of it was the teacher, he had his Bio teacher for honors Bio and AP and loved her. But APES just wasn't what he expected. Just our 2 cents.

At our school, they have to choose a faculty mentor for senior year. He has picked his math teacher, who he had for the last two years for AP Calc (AB and BC), is young but knows his stuff and is a really nice guy. He's probably going to be a reference for most of his schools too. I am not sure exactly what the mentor does but he made a good choice, so we'll see what happens with that. He's got a couple teachers who graduated from two of the schools he's looking at, so he will probably ask them each to write his letter for their alma mater.

 

[Colleen27]

DS has taken AP Bio and Environmental Science (we call it APES here) and liked Bio a lot better. Some of it was the teacher, he had his Bio teacher for honors Bio and AP and loved her. But APES just wasn't what he expected. Just our 2 cents.

That was how DD went too, mostly because of the teacher. This is the first year the APES class is being offered, and the teacher who has the class teaches a standard ES section that didn't get the best reviews from higher-achieving/STEM-oriented students (it has kind of a "science for non-science people" rep) so DD figured she'd rather do AP Bio with a teacher she knows will be challenging and hands-on than the APES section with the teacher she's not so sure of.

 

[Eureka]

That was how DD went too, mostly because of the teacher. This is the first year the APES class is being offered, and the teacher who has the class teaches a standard ES section that didn't get the best reviews from higher-achieving/STEM-oriented students (it has kind of a "science for non-science people" rep) so DD figured she'd rather do AP Bio with a teacher she knows will be challenging and hands-on than the APES section with the teacher she's not so sure of.

Makes a lot of sense. DS discovered that his APES teacher did not teach everything that was on the exam. There was stuff he had never seen before and he was disappointed to get a 2. He has higher hopes for the Bio exam.

 

[PollyannaMom]

At our HS, they recommend getting those recommendation requests to the teachers spring of junior year, so they can get a lot of them done over summer. Essays are also next on her list.

Ours too. I thought it was neat that they gave the kids at DS's school a form to fill out now to give to teachers they wanted to ask.

 

[bjscheel]

Okay, mama's dying inside a little. DD had a great first night at camp, now she's so homesick and crying to come home. She misses us, her cats, feels like being stuck there is ruining camp for her (normally her happy place when we're there for family week), not close with any of the others, missing out on spending time with us before college comes... She has a cousin there but she's not super close with him. His brother will arrive Thursday night and that should help- she's close with him and he will be in the same department with her. Two weeks from today she comes home for our vacation and then she's supposed to go back for a few more weeks. I hope she can pull it together for these two weeks and either things will improve or if she's still miserable, I might consider letting her not go back. DH has no sympathy though and the money is good so IDK.

 

[tink1970]

Okay, mama's dying inside a little. DD had a great first night at camp, now she's so homesick and crying to come home. She misses us, her cats, feels like being stuck there is ruining camp for her (normally her happy place when we're there for family week), not close with any of the others, missing out on spending time with us before college comes... She has a cousin there but she's not super close with him. His brother will arrive Thursday night and that should help- she's close with him and he will be in the same department with her. Two weeks from today she comes home for our vacation and then she's supposed to go back for a few more weeks. I hope she can pull it together for these two weeks and either things will improve or if she's still miserable, I might consider letting her not go back. DH has no sympathy though and the money is good so IDK.

I'm sorry to hear she's having a rough time. Hopefully she'll bounce out of it--sometimes the first days are the hardest. to you...it's so hard to let them struggle as a mom.

 

[mom2rtk]

Okay, mama's dying inside a little. DD had a great first night at camp, now she's so homesick and crying to come home. She misses us, her cats, feels like being stuck there is ruining camp for her (normally her happy place when we're there for family week), not close with any of the others, missing out on spending time with us before college comes... She has a cousin there but she's not super close with him. His brother will arrive Thursday night and that should help- she's close with him and he will be in the same department with her. Two weeks from today she comes home for our vacation and then she's supposed to go back for a few more weeks. I hope she can pull it together for these two weeks and either things will improve or if she's still miserable, I might consider letting her not go back. DH has no sympathy though and the money is good so IDK.

That's so hard! Hang in there. I bet things will turn around and she will learn a lot about herself from the experience.

 

[bjscheel]

Thanks guys. Last nights call was slightly better. Her sister is going to try to go up Friday and by then her other cousin will be there. She’s still talking like she won’t go back in July but stopped asking to come home right now.

 

[sk!mom]

Okay, mama's dying inside a little. DD had a great first night at camp, now she's so homesick and crying to come home. She misses us, her cats, feels like being stuck there is ruining camp for her (normally her happy place when we're there for family week), not close with any of the others, missing out on spending time with us before college comes... She has a cousin there but she's not super close with him. His brother will arrive Thursday night and that should help- she's close with him and he will be in the same department with her. Two weeks from today she comes home for our vacation and then she's supposed to go back for a few more weeks. I hope she can pull it together for these two weeks and either things will improve or if she's still miserable, I might consider letting her not go back. DH has no sympathy though and the money is good so IDK.

I'm sorry, that's really tough.

Isn't your DD one that is considering distant college choices? This could be a really good trial and discussion point with her. If she goes to school far away, she won't likely know anyone, and will have to push through the homesickness. Especially if this is a familiar place to her, I would be concerned about a distant unfamiliar college choice if this is overwhelming.

My DD22, went to college 4 hours from home. At ages 14 and 15, she went away to 5 week summer camps. That experience helped us feel assured that she could handle being far from home for college.

It is possible that your DD is just dealing with the reality of working there being very different than what she had imagined. If that's the case, then she hopefully will settle in.

Having said all that, if I'm confusing your DD and her college search with someone else, forgive me. And best wishes! Unhappy children is tough- no matter how old they get.

 

[bjscheel]

I'm sorry, that's really tough.

Isn't your DD one that is considering distant college choices? This could be a really good trial and discussion point with her. If she goes to school far away, she won't likely know anyone, and will have to push through the homesickness. Especially if this is a familiar place to her, I would be concerned about a distant unfamiliar college choice if this is overwhelming.

My DD22, went to college 4 hours from home. At ages 14 and 15, she went away to 5 week summer camps. That experience helped us feel assured that she could handle being far from home for college.

It is possible that your DD is just dealing with the reality of working there being very different than what she had imagined. If that's the case, then she hopefully will settle in.

Having said all that, if I'm confusing your DD and her college search with someone else, forgive me. And best wishes! Unhappy children is tough- no matter how old they get.

Yes you are correct, we looked at one a flight away and this is a really good indicator that maybe she should be where she can drive home for a weekend whenever. Even though she fancies herself a traveler. Definitely gives her food for thought. Our next visit will be at one three hours from home and just one hour from a good friend she would probably go visit.

She doesn’t mind the work part at camp at least. It’s the down time that’s getting to her. It will be a very busy week coming up with a few hundred kids so that might help.

 

[bjscheel]

Sunday was pretty good for DD. I wondered about her all day, but laid low on contacting her. Finally sent a cat Snapchat at bedtime and asked, and she said it was a lot better. Lots of cabin cleaning to do, and played three different card games and ping pong in the down time. Maybe with the busy week now and her closest and fun cousin arriving by Friday we are through the worst of it.

Thanks for the moral support here

 

[Colleen27]

Sunday was pretty good for DD. I wondered about her all day, but laid low on contacting her. Finally sent a cat Snapchat at bedtime and asked, and she said it was a lot better. Lots of cabin cleaning to do, and played three different card games and ping pong in the down time. Maybe with the busy week now and her closest and fun cousin arriving by Friday we are through the worst of it.

Thanks for the moral support here

I think the first few days away are the worst. I used to get so homesick the first night at camp, when I was a counselor-in-training and had to go up a few days before the kids started arriving, but by the time camp was really underway I settled in and it got easier. Being away isn't so tough when you're keeping busy! Hopefully your daughter is through the worst of it and will be okay from here out.

 

[tink1970]

DD is back from Spain. She enjoyed it so much I only heard from her the day before she was coming back...because she ran out of money I have a feeling this is what is in the future for me She's making good progress with her college applications and today worked 5 hours on her service project so so far, so good!

 

[laughinplace199]

We just got back from taking DS to see Villanova and Fordham. He really liked both of them. As a bonus (AKA bribe, since our 11 yr old had to come on this trip with us), we spent a few hours at the Bronx Zoo yesterday. My boys love the TV show and they love zoos (DS works at our local zoo), so it was a great ending to the trip!

 

[mom2rtk]

ACT scores came out this week for the June test. She thought she embarrassed herself but it turns out she got the same score as last time. That just made her mad (to get so close to improving her score again) so we signed up with the late fee to try again in July.

 

[bjscheel]

We just got back from taking DS to see Villanova and Fordham. He really liked both of them. As a bonus (AKA bribe, since our 11 yr old had to come on this trip with us), we spent a few hours at the Bronx Zoo yesterday. My boys love the TV show and they love zoos (DS works at our local zoo), so it was a great ending to the trip!

For each college visit I try to take DD to a local nature park as a perk.

DD19 just visited DD16 at camp and I talked to DD19 most of her drive home. DD16 is doing very good at camp. Even talking about possibly returning next summer, though she might want to be home more right before college. Last night she asked me about a college in Colorado, so now that she's mostly gotten over her homesickness (she did cry when her sister left) it might be having the effect of making her feel braver instead . Still going to encourage her to go where she can drive home. The CO school was a bit over budget anyway.

 

[mjkacmom]

We just got back from taking DS to see Villanova and Fordham. He really liked both of them. As a bonus (AKA bribe, since our 11 yr old had to come on this trip with us), we spent a few hours at the Bronx Zoo yesterday. My boys love the TV show and they love zoos (DS works at our local zoo), so it was a great ending to the trip!

Dd liked Villanova a lot, her boyfriend is going to Fordham next year. I suggested giving him season passes to to zoo, she thought that was dumb, but ended up going with my second suggestion of tickets to A Bronx Tale, they’re going next week. I am glad Fordham doesn’t have her program, I would hate for a relationship to dictate her college choice. The Bronx Zoo is amazing.

 

[sk!mom]

Dd liked Villanova a lot, her boyfriend is going to Fordham next year. I suggested giving him season passes to to zoo, she thought that was dumb, but ended up going with my second suggestion of tickets to A Bronx Tale, they’re going next week. I am glad Fordham doesn’t have her program, I would hate for a relationship to dictate her college choice. The Bronx Zoo is amazing.

Whole heartedly agree. DD22 started dating her boyfriend just before prom senior year of high school. I was so glad that they had already made college choices so that a boyfriend didn’t influence her decision. His school was a great school but everything that she didn’t want in a college. Fast forward four years and they are newly graduated, still together, and just moved to a new city together. Their #1 job search criteria was to get in the same city after 4 years long distance (colleges 3 hours apart but closer to each other than home- it’s a big state.) They ended up with jobs in their top choice city.

Best wishes in the search.

 

[Colleen27]

We just got back from taking DS to see Villanova and Fordham. He really liked both of them. As a bonus (AKA bribe, since our 11 yr old had to come on this trip with us), we spent a few hours at the Bronx Zoo yesterday. My boys love the TV show and they love zoos (DS works at our local zoo), so it was a great ending to the trip!

What did you think of Fordham? That's one of the schools on DD's list that we didn't get to, but that she's still entertaining visiting if she doesn't get in to her top choice early decision. It is quite a bit bigger than most of the schools she's really liked, but she's attracted to the Jesuit schools as a whole so size alone didn't cross it off the list.

 

[Eureka]

What did you think of Fordham? That's one of the schools on DD's list that we didn't get to, but that she's still entertaining visiting if she doesn't get in to her top choice early decision. It is quite a bit bigger than most of the schools she's really liked, but she's attracted to the Jesuit schools as a whole so size alone didn't cross it off the list.

Has she looked at Georgetown? It’s got Jesuit’s roots which I am surprised didn’t turn DS off honestly bc we are not religious, but everyone needs to take two religion and two philosophy classes which said he would find really interestingly.