I think taking at least one dual enrollment class REALLY helps. That way, he’ll already have the hang of asking for help, going to office hours, navigating a campus, emailing professors, using Canvas, etc. The stress of transitioning to living alone is plenty for a kid to deal with, so I think it’s nice to already feel confident about the things above.

Congrats!!!!!🎉 Almost all of my kids’ friends at UCLA turned down Berkeley. One even turned down a Regents there!? I went to Berkeley in the 90s and that would have been unheard of. The tide has definitely turned!!!

That sounds awful for your DD!! My kiddo also dealt with a drunken roommate for 3-4 months. The girl would party until 5am, then sleep all day and get mad when my DD came home in the middle of the afternoon since it woke her up. Their university records almost all lectures, which makes it easier to skip class to recover from the partying. A terrible cycle. We had to jump through a ton of hoops to get her out of the room but we finally did.

The students at UCLA sell everything to each other. Freshman and sophomores are in triple rooms that were built as doubles—have a spare $2000 and you can find someone to switch with you. Need someone to hold a spot in a class for you? That’s another $500. It makes me sick. It’s all over Reddit and I’ve been waiting for someone to get them in a sting operation. On the other hand, my kid is THRILLED she’s at a school where no one bought their way in, either with donations, fancy private high schools, or even well-funded public schools (most kids there are ELC, which means they’re top of their high school rather than top overall across the state, to TRY to maintain some equity). The egalitarianism is strong there.

1000% agree with this. ❤️❤️ Honestly, this could be a very good thing for her—learning to take more control now will mean she’ll be much more equipped when she gets to college. The one thing I wish we had done was get a much better start on the essays during the summer after junior year. This helped my DD tremendously: Hack the College Essay

😀👍

My college kiddo has also thanked me several time for making her do AOPS. Says she can always reason backwards and figure out whatever math is in front of her.

My DD got a research job on campus at the beginning of the school year, and she’ll be able to keep doing that over the summer. Her professor gave her a fantastic research project, but it’s totally unstructured—this will be her introduction to the ‘it’s up to you to get it done’ life of a grad student. I have no idea how it will go. I’m crossing my fingers for some big jumps in maturity over the summer. Her voice teacher is on campus all summer too, so hopefully she can make real strides there too. For next year, she’s stuck in a triple room again—I thought she was going to cry when she found out. Her school guarantees housing for all 4 years, but the options aren’t great. Off-campus is extraordinarily expensive, so she’ll have to bear it another year. 🤷‍♀️

Congrats!!!!!! 🎉🎊🎈

I don’t track her phone either. You’re not alone.

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I kind of, maybe agree with your kiddo. I’ve wondered how in the world universities are keeping up with the changes going on in CS right now, with all the upheaval and progress AI is bringing. Everything is changing so so fast!! And I don’t buy that these professors are able to keep up. My DH is an engineering professor, and he has to train his students in Matlab, Python, Excel, etc. as part of that—with all the other pressures (publish or perish, department meetings, office hours, editing journal articles, politics, etc.), there’s NO WAY he can keep up with all the changes happening with regards to programming. Things are changing weekly! So, if I were a really smart kid with tons of coding experience, I may be tempted to do a coding boot camp and just try to go for it. Even a year ago, I never would have thought that. But for the right kid, it feels to me like things are evolving too quickly to waste time on a 4 year degree right now. 🤷‍♀️ I am super risk averse, so this is out of character for me.

Ahhh, that makes sense. It definitely seems pretty darn crowded! ☹️

Definitely check out the College of Creative Studies at UCSB, especially for math. @Roadrunner knows way more about it.

I wouldn’t discount the UCs. DD started at UCLA over the summer and nothing feels sink-or-swim so far. The pre-med students are intense and competitive, but I think that can be true at any university. I think Caltech or Stanford would be WAY more sink or swim than anything I’ve seen so far. The only hard part is staying on top of bureaucratic deadlines (registration, housing) since there’s not a lot of hand holding. But that has felt worth it to me since the price is low and the resources are absolutely tremendous, especially for a kid who eventually wants to go to grad school. (there’s also a pretty widely available middle-class scholarship)

Two musical, science-y homeschoolers running around in the non-stop California sunshine!! 😃

My kids have had great luck starting with Duolingo and then moving to audiobooks in the new language, ideally with books they already know very well. Then movies/tv in the new language. I find the audiobooks help them get completely immersed in the language, without the distraction of what’s happening onscreen.

NM

Hmmm, what you describe does seem like way too much to me. I guess this is generational. A new era.

I looked in the stickies to see if this has been discussed. I have a college freshman who started last week (her school has a summer start program). She’s simultaneously having the time of her life in the dorms, but also texting and calling home way way too much. Any resources for helping them navigate this new reality?

I think they can get doubles as sophomores! When we went to the housing talk, the guy said that nearly all freshmen get triples. But I haven’t heard anything about that continuing next year. I sure hope not!

Does the school have a Reddit page? If so, you can often get a good sense there of the liveliness of the campus and things like the club scene. He could also post there and ask about how active the clubs tend to be.

Mine just left this morning for a summer of adventure. Giant backpack (ahh, the memories!), flying off to see old friends, then to a very sweet and nurturing choral festival, then more travel. UCLA doesn’t start until late September (!) and she just couldn’t wait anymore—she’s been doing DE for 5 years and is so so ready. So, she signed up for their summer program for incoming freshmen and will knock out two important classes and start exploring LA. I guess almost all freshman are given triple rooms there. Her building was built as doubles but they’ve now been turned into triples. Should be interesting!! She hasn’t done registration for the fall yet (that will happen in August), but they did take almost every single one of her DE credits and so she has junior standing now and is really hoping that helps with getting the classes she needs!!

I could *maybe* see taking such a risk for Harvard or Yale law, especially if she had dreams of clerking for the Supreme Court or going into politics. But no way would I give up a free ride for full pay at Georgetown. And what if it’s true that AI will begin to make lawyers obsolete? It’s all happening so fast now: “One new study, by researchers at Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania and New York University, concluded that the industry most exposed to the new A.I. was “legal services.” Another research report, by economists at Goldman Sachs, estimated that 44 percent of legal work could be automated.” A.I. Is Coming for Lawyers, Again

He points out in his book that the male/female ratio is very even at most private schools, where the right to admit by gender is protected by a clause in Title IX (designed to protect women’s colleges). But far more women are admitted where affirmative action has been banned. 🤷‍♀️

If affirmative action falls in June, it will be interesting to see what happens to gender balance at the elite private schools. Since affirmative action is banned at the UC schools, gender balance is waaaaay off at the most selective campuses (58% female, 41% male).