What surprised you most about your DC's first year in college?

[Anonymous]

I guess for me it was (a) how much she stayed in touch and (b) how little money she spent. I was also surprised by how small her classes and how accessible her profs have been at the major research university she chose.

[Anonymous]

Mine also spent less money than I thought he would, but the biggest pleasant surprise was that he found his tribe. Finally. Another happy even is that his grades improved from HS (not that they were not already decent, but I thought he might have trouble as he chose a fairly difficult major).

[Anonymous]

DC matured a lot Freshman year. Very focused on grades for first time ever (3.94 last semester and 3.8 for the year - DC was a A-/B+ student in HS), made great friends, played a lot of sports and worked out and stayed away from party crowd (to keep up grades - kind of shocking). Frugal with money. Transferred into Honors College. Called like clockwork every Wednesday (a pleasant surprise).

[Anonymous]

My DC didn't put up fantastic grades, but she did get A-/B+ grades in lab sciences where the average grade was a C. She was a B student in HS and, with the exception of one class in the fall, generally did better than she did in HS. I was worried that maybe she had picked the wrong major, but she's holding her own.

[Anonymous]

The amount of drinking and drug use, particularly weed. I can't believe parents spend this much money only to have their kids piss it away.

[Anonymous]

How well he did academically (much better than in high school) and how much he has matured. He has major executive functioning problems and not only held it together, but excelled.

I am also very happy to see how he is thriving generally.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I guess for me it was (a) how much she stayed in touch and (b) how little money she spent. I was also surprised by how small her classes and how accessible her profs have been at the major research university she chose.

Exact same here.

[Anonymous]

I have had three graduate from college, so I picked the common issues.

Academically, how prepared they were. Not that the classes were easy, but they seemed to be able to grasp what they needed to do to get a good grade. How to prepare, how to study, etc.

How sheltered they were. My kids attended HS where most of the kids were similar to them - similar SES, similar childhoods, etc. For all of them, college was the first time that they were exposed to the extremes from a diversity standpoint (not just racial, but SES, political). That was really true with the oldest who attended a SLAC in a predominantly blue collar town in the red portion of a state.

[Anonymous]

Out of curiosity, how many books per class do your kids buy (if you know)? I can't tell if this is a science vs humanities thing or whether workload has changed or a function of how much is online now or a reflection of the increased cost of books, but DC's book purchases are dramatically lower than DH's and mine were.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Out of curiosity, how many books per class do your kids buy (if you know)? I can't tell if this is a science vs humanities thing or whether workload has changed or a function of how much is online now or a reflection of the increased cost of books, but DC's book purchases are dramatically lower than DH's and mine were.

I believe mine rented most textbooks through Amazon.....so yes, far cheaper than we had it back in the day. But what a scam those prices were!

[Anonymous]

1. How much she partied. Her grades didn't suffer and it actually doesn't concern me, but she we very much a homebody in HS and not really into that scene. From her FB page and what's she's told me, she goes out at least once a weekend and has tons of friends. Makes me happy.

2. The fact she spent the entire year training for a half marathon. I had no idea.

[Anonymous]

To the OP -

Thanks for this post about something real, instead of a chance for us all to be judgmental and petty (see the ten pages on the pizza essay).

And to all of you whose kids surprised you in a good way - you give me hope. May sophomore year be even better!

[Anonymous]

Not to be downer. But sort of sad that the race for internships is already on.... seems like they never get a break. Remember when kids aspired to a job as a lifeguard???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How well he did academically (much better than in high school) and how much he has matured. He has major executive functioning problems and not only held it together, but excelled.

I am also very happy to see how he is thriving generally.

First year used to be a weed-out year, now it's a joke. Advisors make kids take really light loads, and colleges water down first-year courses so they can inflate their retention numbers and keep kids on campus.

Get confident after your DC aces sophomore year courses.

[Anonymous]

What's the difference between an internship and a co-op?