PhillieMooDo wrote:Thoughts on slim fit car seats for going from one to two kids in smaller cars? We went with the "Cadillac of car seats" for our first, and I'd like to do so again, but we just don't have the space in our vehicles.

I'd suggest that whatever you're considering, check them out in a store -- we got a small seat for the youngest that was the least expensive airline-approved model, a Graco I think. We used it as a backup in Vox's car after we took it to Disney. Biggest PITA ever to get secured, and even worse to get out. When he traded in the car, I ended up cutting the LATCH lower straps because I couldn't get the hooks unhooked.

I love Timmy more than words can say. Being a father is the best part of my life at this point.

That being said, I'm pissed off at him right now because he pulled the tone arm of my record player and drug it across the platter, destroying the needle. I just bought a new cartridge, and I'll be spinning again on Saturday when it comes in.

He loves records and asks me to play one every day. We dance along to old Motown, dad rock, cheap 80's pop and singer songwriters. I think his favorite song is "Mo Money Mo Problems".

That being said, I just walked out of the room because I need to breathe. He's 21 months old. He has no clue what he did. He thinks he can touch/interact with everything, and for the most part that's true.

I'm going to have to put the damn record player up on a shelf so that he can't reach it. He's growing like a weed.

Rev_Beezer wrote:I love Timmy more than words can say. Being a father is the best part of my life at this point.

That being said, I'm pissed off at him right now because he pulled the tone arm of my record player and drug it across the platter, destroying the needle. I just bought a new cartridge, and I'll be spinning again on Saturday when it comes in.

He loves records and asks me to play one every day. We dance along to old Motown, dad rock, cheap 80's pop and singer songwriters. I think his favorite song is "Mo Money Mo Problems".

That being said, I just walked out of the room because I need to breathe. He's 21 months old. He has no clue what he did. He thinks he can touch/interact with everything, and for the most part that's true.

I'm going to have to put the damn record player up on a shelf so that he can't reach it. He's growing like a weed.

Child proofing isn't just about protecting the child. It's about protecting your stuff.

Rev_Beezer wrote:I love Timmy more than words can say. Being a father is the best part of my life at this point.

That being said, I'm pissed off at him right now because he pulled the tone arm of my record player and drug it across the platter, destroying the needle. I just bought a new cartridge, and I'll be spinning again on Saturday when it comes in.

He loves records and asks me to play one every day. We dance along to old Motown, dad rock, cheap 80's pop and singer songwriters. I think his favorite song is "Mo Money Mo Problems".

That being said, I just walked out of the room because I need to breathe. He's 21 months old. He has no clue what he did. He thinks he can touch/interact with everything, and for the most part that's true.

I'm going to have to put the damn record player up on a shelf so that he can't reach it. He's growing like a weed.

I wish I had such problems these days

I guess this is a thing, but Lil' Vulture is all worked up about bees. I think we're going to end up with a hive in our yard, and then she's going to go off to college, and under my care, the bees were most likely perish.

I really want to have bees. But I'm afraid they may be able to sense my fear. Still, I want to get them in the near future (couple years). PSU offers an online course on bees that's supposed to be pretty good. I'm going to take it before I get a hive and then do a beekeeping workshop somewhere. Then I'll just hope for the best. Each state has beekeeping clubs and courses, if you'd like to have her take a workshop or get some free hands on experience before committing.

PSU beekeeping online course. It's now $159. It used to be $75, dang it.

https://extension.psu.edu/beekeeping-101

Monkeyboy wrote:I really want to have bees. But I'm afraid they may be able to sense my fear. Still, I want to get them in the near future (couple years). PSU offers an online course on bees that's supposed to be pretty good. I'm going to take it before I get a hive and then do a beekeeping workshop somewhere. Then I'll just hope for the best. Each state has beekeeping clubs and courses, if you'd like to have her take a workshop or get some free hands on experience before committing.

PSU beekeeping online course. It's now $159. It used to be $75, dang it.

https://extension.psu.edu/beekeeping-101

Our university continuing ed is offering a course that's $61. I guess she wants to take that course.

That sounds even better. Cheaper and hands on.

Tell her to have fun and BEE careful.

Rev_Beezer wrote:I love Timmy more than words can say. Being a father is the best part of my life at this point.

That being said, I'm pissed off at him right now because he pulled the tone arm of my record player and drug it across the platter, destroying the needle. I just bought a new cartridge, and I'll be spinning again on Saturday when it comes in.

He loves records and asks me to play one every day. We dance along to old Motown, dad rock, cheap 80's pop and singer songwriters. I think his favorite song is "Mo Money Mo Problems".

That being said, I just walked out of the room because I need to breathe. He's 21 months old. He has no clue what he did. He thinks he can touch/interact with everything, and for the most part that's true.

I'm going to have to put the damn record player up on a shelf so that he can't reach it. He's growing like a weed.

That sucks. Silver lining... Sounds like you'll have some shared interests!

For better or worse college acceptances are coming in, and things are getting real. 2 down 3 to go. The estimates cost so far is $30K or $60K per year. No guarantee of graduation in 4 years (actually seems pretty much unlikely). Time for the go fund me page.

Upside: He's 2 for 2. Downside: He has a younger brother.

thephan wrote:For better or worse college acceptances are coming in, and things are getting real. 2 down 3 to go. The estimates cost so far is $30K or $60K per year. No guarantee of graduation in 4 years (actually seems pretty much unlikely). Time for the go fund me page.

Upside: He's 2 for 2. Downside: He has a younger brother.

I feel your pain. We are 3 for 3 (with two deferred from early action schools, one of which was perhaps the most half-assed college application submission in history) but we're waiting on the top choices. Two of the acceptances include pretty generous scholarships, but we're still looking at a pretty hefty bill. The third school of course is my employer, and it would be free, but she wants to go away, and they really don't have the programs she's considering.

As far as the 4 year graduation plan--while no college would guarantee it, outside of programs like architecture or pharmacy, it should at least be possible to finish in four years with a little planning. Even if the student doesn't formally have to declare a major until sophomore year, he or she should know the requirements of the potential majors and start completing them as soon as possible. Quality and availability of advising varies great from one institution to the next, or even within an institution. Graduation rates are one indicator of what's happening, but by themselves they don't tell the complete story. But if you find yourself visiting a campus with a lot of people calling themselves fifth year seniors, that might be a good reason to stay away.

There are a few things every student should do though:

1. Read the catalog carefully before classes start and note the requirements for graduation for any major being considered. Too many students expect the adviser to do this, but it's really the student's responsibility. Taking ownership of your own academic progress is really important.
2. Don't drop or fail any classes.
3. Review the college's policy on AP and concurrent (and IB) credit and take advantage of that if possible.
4. Consider summer classes--these can be done on-line, and even if the home institution doesn't offer summer classes, lots of places do and it shouldn't be too difficult to transfer credit. Lots of summer classes are on-line, and thus a student can work a summer job and take a class or two without much trouble. Depending on circumstances, this could also save money--community college courses are going to be substantially less than any four year college. (Again, something to check.)

There is a good community college within walking distance and it does guaranteed admission to one of the dream colleges, which is super hard to get into. In fact they take more transfers then yearly admits. That would save me money, and get him into the school of choice, but sacrifice that four years college experience. Frankly I’m OK with that.

One of the big problems in Virginia for students is that we have some pretty great state schools. UVA, William and Mary, and Virginia Tech are all certainly prestigious ( you UVA guys can hang out in the corner and throw shade at Virginia Tech, all the schools produce graduates who get jobs. ). The way the state approaches things is that they allocate X number of slots per region, which makes things super competitive in Northern Virginia with our high population, our highly educated citizen, the strength the curriculum (high schools are teaching at a very high level), and our AAA+ plus personality types.

A 3.75 is not nearly enough if you are an NVA student. Routinely these kids with that GPA or better get deferred or not even into their school choice. At the same time the admissions process is more Mystic art and proprietary formulation then prescriptive. I guess it’s important to keep it that way when they say no to a kid with a high GPA and yes to a kid with a lower GPA. But there seems to be very little rhyme or reason when one kid was super good grades and a high-class ranking get to no, and another kid with good grades and average class ranking get excepted is accepted. That has already been the situation with one of my sons friends.

Baby 2 any day now. Oh ya

thephan wrote:
A 3.75 is not nearly enough if you are an NVA student. Routinely these kids with that GPA or better get deferred or not even into their school choice. At the same time the admissions process is more Mystic art and proprietary formulation then prescriptive. I guess it’s important to keep it that way when they say no to a kid with a high GPA and yes to a kid with a lower GPA. But there seems to be very little rhyme or reason when one kid was super good grades and a high-class ranking get to no, and another kid with good grades and average class ranking get excepted is accepted. That has already been the situation with one of my sons friends.

You've surely heard the term "holistic admissions". And yeah, it is a mysterious process. At many schools, there is a strong trend to either de-emphasize or simply not require standardized test scores. On the one hand, this makes sense, since performance on the tests has a lot to do with coaching and tutoring and there is substantial evidence that test scores do not correlate as well with college GPA as HS GPA. On the other hand, it's an objective data point, so eliminating it makes a mysterious process even more mysterious.

I don't know the particulars in Virginia, but it's also likely that those schools also reserve a number of seats for full-pay out of state students. It helps with the budget. It was interesting which out of state schools recruited Lil' Vulture--most have distressed budgets, and clearly were looking for some help with the bottom line. University of Oklahoma was especially aggressive, as was University of New Orleans. But it's unlikely those schools would've offered much aid.

It's crazy here in Arkansas--at University of Arkansas, something like half the students are from Texas. It's very tough to get into UT Austin or Texas A&M, and while Texas has plenty of other public universities, most don't have big time sports. I know Arkansas is a bottom of the barrel SEC team, but really, most fans don't seem to care much about actually winning. In fact, a bunch of the UT schools don't have football at all. UT-Dallas, with almost 30k students, is D-III with no football. So, basically, Texans are subsidizing higher ed here. Our school goes recruits heavily in small Texas towns, because even a school like UT-Tyler with almost 11,000 students might some overwhelming to a kid who graduated from a high school class with 50 students.

The Savior wrote:Baby 2 any day now. Oh ya

Hey, me too! Congrats and good luck!!

PhillieMooDo wrote:

The Savior wrote:Baby 2 any day now. Oh ya

Hey, me too! Congrats and good luck!!

Good luck lads. You can see what you need to consider with TV and I at the same point of line with high school seniors. Buckle up and enjoy the ride.

Filling out some of the "paperwork" for the more expensive university there was a somewhat immediate offer of a 25% discount in grants (merit and Eagle Scout). If that is the first offer, then it seems like there is room for more negotiation. I am viewing it as they need to be competitive with the other quality choices. The worst case scenario is that the best offer was made first. Maybe a little more expensive, but not 50% more. Now it is a waiting game until mid-March when two more report.

thephan wrote:Filling out some of the "paperwork" for the more expensive university there was a somewhat immediate offer of a 25% discount in grants (merit and Eagle Scout). If that is the first offer, then it seems like there is room for more negotiation. I am viewing it as they need to be competitive with the other quality choices. The worst case scenario is that the best offer was made first. Maybe a little more expensive, but not 50% more. Now it is a waiting game until mid-March when two more report.

Definitely work the financial aid. I may have mentioned this before, but I think a couple of phone calls and emails saved us about $60K. Long, mostly boring story, but the bottom line is we got his first choice to match another similar school, and to offer the scholarship for 5 years (he wanted to do a 4+1) instead of just 4. I can provide details if you want them, but pushing back, with documentation of the other offer(s), got us some results.

Granted, that was a small liberal arts school. My daughter is a freshman at a more "prestigious" school, and they couldn't have given less of a shit about any of her other offers. YMMV. But definitely ask for more.

Regarding 4 years graduation - I highly suggest having your kids take summer (or winter) online classes from their school, if available, for non-major classes. Gives them so much flexibility to drop a bad class later, with no repercussions. Or to only take 3 one semester when they've got their worst core classes, etc.

My daughter was invited to participate in a program where she spends her junior and senior years of high school at the local community college for free instead of her school and earns college credits. This would be awesome as it would cut down on the amount of actual undergrad college credits she would need.

Unfortunately, it would put her in college classes as a 16 year old which makes her nervous. Also, she wants a traditional high school experience...friends, football games, etc.

Ce la vie.

thephan wrote:Filling out some of the "paperwork" for the more expensive university there was a somewhat immediate offer of a 25% discount in grants (merit and Eagle Scout). If that is the first offer, then it seems like there is room for more negotiation. I am viewing it as they need to be competitive with the other quality choices. The worst case scenario is that the best offer was made first. Maybe a little more expensive, but not 50% more. Now it is a waiting game until mid-March when two more report.

Schools aren't necessarily as transparent as they could be when comparing offers--they often included loans (both subsidized and unsubsidized) as part of the financial aid award, as well as a campus job. Haggling is definitely a thing--in fact, Lil' Vulture was told as much by the admissions counselor at one school--she said you might be able to get another few thousand from us, but you won't get another 20k.

And yeah, there's no doubt the higher the prestige, the less they will negotiate with you.