Parents of the Class of 2019

Awards night is tonight. We were informed DD is receiving at least one scholarship that is not from the University. Fingers crossed it’s a big one (or several small ones LOL).

Good luck! I hope it's huge :) Ours is tonight too. We learned of a few area ones early on for DD, but most that are just for our school had a 5/1 deadline and no news on most of those. I'm preparing myself that no news is bad news, but I'm also wondering if some are surprises. :confused3

DD found out this weekend that her roommate is also a valedictorian so that's cool and I'm going to take that as a good sign that school work will come first in their room ;).
 
Good luck! I hope it's huge :) Ours is tonight too. We learned of a few area ones early on for DD, but most that are just for our school had a 5/1 deadline and no news on most of those. I'm preparing myself that no news is bad news, but I'm also wondering if some are surprises. :confused3

DD found out this weekend that her roommate is also a valedictorian so that's cool and I'm going to take that as a good sign that school work will come first in their room ;).

DD’s school is putting all the honors kids together as roommates and in the better dorm, so that’s a huge plus for us :)
 
DD’s school is putting all the honors kids together as roommates and in the better dorm, so that’s a huge plus for us :)
Lol Dd is in the honors college with a nice dorm, and she is having a hard time connecting to anyone. Although she’s a high academic achiever, she is also very social, and most of the girls she’s contacted with seem a bit odd, quirky and she’s worried about being with the honors kids. Most of the seasoned parents of the parents Facebook page highly recommend filling out the form and letting the university choose roommates.
 


Lol Dd is in the honors college with a nice dorm, and she is having a hard time connecting to anyone. Although she’s a high academic achiever, she is also very social, and most of the girls she’s contacted with seem a bit odd, quirky and she’s worried about being with the honors kids. Most of the seasoned parents of the parents Facebook page highly recommend filling out the form and letting the university choose roommates.

DD is getting a great match. Plus, she’s the quirky one, so that’s not an issue LOL
 
When I went to college oh-so-many years ago, I was in the Honors program and the Honors dorm. I thought that everyone in the Honors dorm would also be in the Honors program, as it was presented as one of the perks of the program. However, I was mistaken. Of the 4 girls in my room, only two of us were Honors students. The 3rd girl was placed because she and the other Honors girl requested to be roommates. (They were from the same hometown. Girl #3 ended up being my favorite roommate.) I have no idea how Girl #4 ended up being placed. She was not an honors student, but she *was* crazy. If she made the kind of threats today that she did then, I'm sure she'd be expelled at minimum, and possibly even arrested. Back then, they just said "I'm sure she doesn't really MEAN that, and it's not nice of the 3 of you to gang up on her like this." when we reported it to the RA, Resident Director, and Student life. It was a nightmare.

My son applied to the Honors program at his college but did not get accepted. However, you don't have to be in the Honors program to be in the Honors dorm/community. Actual Honors students get priority, but if there's extra room, anybody who requests the Honors LLC can get in. I have also heard that the Honors LLC is usually in one of the nicest dorms. I urged my son to request it, and I think he was planning to, but his roommate was not on board. Both roommates have to make the same LLC requests, so he did not choose honors. I'd rather him live with someone he knows isn't crazy than "chance it," even for the Honors dorm.

Anyway, I hope it all works out splendidly for everyone... but it is very possible that everyone in the Honors dorm will *not* be an Honors student (and maybe not even the people in your hallway, floor, or room). That has been my experience anyway.
 
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When I went to college oh-so-many years ago, I was in the Honors program and the Honors dorm. I thought that everyone in the Honors dorm would also be in the Honors program, as it was presented as one of the perks of the program. However, I was mistaken. Of the 4 girls in my room, only two of us were Honors students. The 3rd girl was placed because she and the other Honors girl requested to be roommates. (They were from the same hometown. Girl #3 ended up being my favorite roommate.) I have no idea how Girl #4 ended up being placed. She was not an honors student, but she *was* crazy. If she made the kind of threats today that she did then, I'm sure she'd be expelled at minimum, and possibly even arrested. Back then, they just said "I'm sure she doesn't really MEAN that, and it's not nice of the 3 of you to gang up on her like this." when we reported it to the RA, Resident Director, and Student life. It was a nightmare.

My son applied to the Honors program at his college but did not get accepted. However, you don't have to be in the Honors program to be in the Honors dorm/community. Actual Honors students get priority, but if there's extra room, anybody who requests the Honors LLC can get in. I have also heard that the Honors LLC is usually in one of the nicest dorms. I urged my son to request it, and I think he was planning to, but his roommate was not on board. Both roommates have to make the same LLC requests, so he did not choose honors. I'd rather him live with someone he knows isn't crazy than "chance it," even for the Honors dorm.

Anyway, I hope it all works out splendidly for everyone... but it is very possible that everyone in the Honors dorm will *not* be an Honors student. That has been my experience anyway.
All freshman in the honors college are in the same dorm, and can only room with honors kids, but there are also kids not in honors in the dorm (it’s pretty big). Dd is pretty white bread (dd22 with her 2 piercings, tattoo, and fashion that screams thrift shop makes fun of her all of the time).
 


What are the benefits to the Honors Program, other than a specific dorm? When we go to Open Houses, most students can't tell us.
 
What are the benefits to the Honors Program, other than a specific dorm? When we go to Open Houses, most students can't tell us.

  • When I was in honors, hands down the biggest perk was that you got priority scheduling. (This is true of the honors program at my son's university, too, although he's not in Honors.) Lots of my non-Honors friends complained about the classes they wanted to take being full, but I never got closed out of a class.
  • You also got to live in the honors dorm "with like-minded students," which did not actually turn out to be the case in my experience.
  • You had the opportunity to schedule Honors sections of certain classes. I'm not sure if they were any more difficult than regular sections, but they were generally smaller class sizes than regular sections. (These were mainly for gen-ed classes.)
  • There were a variety of social and networking events for current students and alumni. I never went to those when I was on campus, but I still get invited to them now.
I'm sure there were other perks, but that's what I remember from 20+ years ago.
 
DD's school gives early registration, nicer housing, and apparently special funding available for things like study abroad. I did not have her apply since she already had an LLC with a good dorm and she doesn't need the added stress of Honors classes and projects. DD20 tried it at her school and it was too much on top of her regular school and work.

Last night's awards night was successful, there were in fact surprise scholarships and DD got 5 of those in addition to the ones we already knew about. The slideshow of baby/middle school/senior pics was fun and cute too. A bunch of them camped out last night and now they are at breakfast & graduation rehearsal.
 
My son did not get into the honors program either and his best friend did. They are going to the same college but last year DS said he wasn't sure he'd want to live with best friend anyway. Which I think is actually healthy for a friendship and also means he'll be forced to meet other people. He'll be living with others in his living and learning community, so we'll see what that means exactly. There are two dorms for this community and it has A/C so that is a plus. But still don't know if he'll be in a double, triple or even quad. He's got his last track meet ever tonight, and last AP test tomorrow. Last night he was saying he is just DONE. (Last day for seniors not counting grad practice is 5/22). He said he's done with the immaturity and DH and I both burst out laughing at that....he's been done with that since he was born. He's always been more mature for his age and has little patience for people who are immature (which slightly worries me about college, tbh).
 
We haven't heard back from the honors program DD applied to, but the deadline for applications isn't until Friday so we didn't expect to hear yet. She applied to a specific freshman honors living-learning community with a community activism/social justice focus, and from what a few of the upperclassmen she's connected with on social media have said, the admission process isn't as much competitive as it is about ensuring the kids are a good fit for the program. There aren't real advantages to it, other than fulfilling a bunch of core requirements in a one-year sequence with a coherent theme - the kids are all housed together, but on one floor of the regular freshman dorms, and because it is a first-year community program it doesn't even help with money for study abroad or anything like that - but she wants to do it for the social connections. She's also in the honors program in her major, which does come with some perks in terms of study abroad funding and research opportunities, but that is just a sub-set of the major, without any unique class offerings other than an undergrad thesis requirement and some seminar-style electives.

Graduation practice was today, and administration decided this was the right time to tell us that girls need to be in all white for graduation mass. I probably should have realized, since their caps and gowns are white, but it didn't occur to me and it wasn't included in any of the million-and-one notes and e-mails home about all of the senior happenings. So we went shopping today. Thank goodness for JC Penney clearance because apparently white isn't "in" right now - of 5 stores, Penneys was the only one that had anything that would fit the bill for a price I was willing to pay.
 
We haven't heard back from the honors program DD applied to, but the deadline for applications isn't until Friday so we didn't expect to hear yet. She applied to a specific freshman honors living-learning community with a community activism/social justice focus, and from what a few of the upperclassmen she's connected with on social media have said, the admission process isn't as much competitive as it is about ensuring the kids are a good fit for the program. There aren't real advantages to it, other than fulfilling a bunch of core requirements in a one-year sequence with a coherent theme - the kids are all housed together, but on one floor of the regular freshman dorms, and because it is a first-year community program it doesn't even help with money for study abroad or anything like that - but she wants to do it for the social connections. She's also in the honors program in her major, which does come with some perks in terms of study abroad funding and research opportunities, but that is just a sub-set of the major, without any unique class offerings other than an undergrad thesis requirement and some seminar-style electives.

Graduation practice was today, and administration decided this was the right time to tell us that girls need to be in all white for graduation mass. I probably should have realized, since their caps and gowns are white, but it didn't occur to me and it wasn't included in any of the million-and-one notes and e-mails home about all of the senior happenings. So we went shopping today. Thank goodness for JC Penney clearance because apparently white isn't "in" right now - of 5 stores, Penneys was the only one that had anything that would fit the bill for a price I was willing to pay.
How annoying! When it comes to finding dresses in a certain color, everyone here orders from lulu’s, not expensive, and free shipping back and forth, just sort by color, order a bunch, and send back the rest (at one point I had close to 10 white dresses in my living room for a sweet 16 where the court had to wear white, but different dresses).
 
Yikes about the surprise white dress! Ours says that white dresses are "traditional" for girls but didn't say they're required (must wear appropriate dress, or dress slacks and blouse). They didn't say anything about colors for the boys, but the caps/gowns are royal blue so I'd imagine they'll cover most things.

Today was the AP English Language exam. DS thought it went pretty well, although he said he felt like his hand was going to fall off after all the writing. After that, he went to the senior picnic. He was sure it was going to be "lame" so he was planning to come home quickly, but ended up staying the whole time. He ended up in the background of one of the photos that the school district posted on Facebook and looked like he was having a good time. Apparently one of his friends "almost" won a TV as a door prize. However, he had to leave the picnic early because he's running in the District track meet this afternoon. You had to be present to win, and he wasn't, so they moved on. (Seems like they should make an exception for kids who had a school-related commitment. DS missed the first prize draw because he was still in his AP test... but it doesn't sound like he would have won anything anyhow.)

For those of you who've already had grad practice, is your ceremony this weekend too? Ours is Sunday.

One more AP test tomorrow, then grad practice Friday.
 
How annoying! When it comes to finding dresses in a certain color, everyone here orders from lulu’s, not expensive, and free shipping back and forth, just sort by color, order a bunch, and send back the rest (at one point I had close to 10 white dresses in my living room for a sweet 16 where the court had to wear white, but different dresses).

I wish I had time to order one. Even if they'd made the announcement at the honors mass last week, I might have been able to do it. But graduation is this Sunday! Even Amazon Prime would have been cutting it close, and if whatever I ordered didn't work, it would leave us with almost no time to find an alternative. But she does like the one we got and since it was on post-prom/post-Easter clearance, it was only $35 so I'm satisfied.
 
For those of you who've already had grad practice, is your ceremony this weekend too? Ours is Sunday.

Grad practice is Friday, but the ceremony isn't until the 31st. The week of Memorial Day basically has nothing going on until the Friday graduation except for baccalaureate mass earlier in the week (Tuesday, I think)
 
My son did not get into the honors program either and his best friend did. They are going to the same college but last year DS said he wasn't sure he'd want to live with best friend anyway. Which I think is actually healthy for a friendship and also means he'll be forced to meet other people. He'll be living with others in his living and learning community, so we'll see what that means exactly. There are two dorms for this community and it has A/C so that is a plus. But still don't know if he'll be in a double, triple or even quad. He's got his last track meet ever tonight, and last AP test tomorrow. Last night he was saying he is just DONE. (Last day for seniors not counting grad practice is 5/22). He said he's done with the immaturity and DH and I both burst out laughing at that....he's been done with that since he was born. He's always been more mature for his age and has little patience for people who are immature (which slightly worries me about college, tbh).

Oh, I wish your son and mine were going to the same school, they would be great roommates! My also has no patience for anything he considers "drama" or immaturity.
 
Grad practice is Friday, but the ceremony isn't until the 31st. The week of Memorial Day basically has nothing going on until the Friday graduation except for baccalaureate mass earlier in the week (Tuesday, I think)
How big are these classes that just have one day of grad practice? DS has around 400 kids in his and they have four days (half days) of grad practice!
 

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