Schedule Conflicts

[aelf]

As always, life is a series of schedule conflicts. This weekend is the Swim Championship. But this weekend is also the Model UN Conference. Zoë talked with her swim coach and the Model UN sponsor, and among them determined that Model UN won out

Comments

[reedrover]

Congratulations on sorting out the near-term allergies. With regards to shots, the one argument that worked for me was that most modern cures for major illnesses are contra-indicated to allergy medication. So if she gets Hep anything, or Lymes, or cancer, she'll be sick and miserable in ways she could have avoided.

[aelf]

She's young enough to not find those reasons good enough. I'll try another push once she's 18 or so and maybe more able to understand short (in comparison) term discomfort can be a good payoff for long term gain.

[ba1126]

Harvard has crew programs. In fact, many years ago my brother went there and they require each student to take some sport. My brother was skinny and underweight and they made him the 'coxswain' on a rowing crew! He got to sit in the bow and coordinate the rowers, calling "Stroke! Stroke!Stroke",etc.!! I'm nearly certain that Harvard is now co-ed. It's big and not rural. I'm not sure there is swim, but there might be. My brother ALSO has allergies, and I have had off and on problems, with the main one being DUST, of all things!! Best wishes to her!!

[aelf]

Harvard is co-ed these days, and their crew program is great. My 5'6 daughter is too short for any of the Ivy crew programs though. She'll find a place on a boat in a club program, or maybe a D3 program, although I'd personally prefer she stick with club just because I think college athletes have tremendous sports requirements that can overshadow their academics. Coxswains have to do SO much more than just yelling! They plan the race, they get to know their rowers and how to motivate them. A good coxswain can make a boat.

Dust is one of her big allergies too! Fortunately she already has a wood floor in her room, so it's mostly a matter of washing all of her bedclothes every single week, and not doing the "wash the comforter once a season" thing.

[coercedbynutmeg]

Ha, I went to Wash U (my grandfather actually went to their long-defunct dental school), and you're absolutely right. I was psych/French and pre-med curious, but the first semester they you had to take Chem 111 and it was so unbelievably awful. I got a D- and considered myself weeded. A lot of other people went down in organic chemistry the next year.

They still send us tons of mail, which never includes the tuition rates, but they're heart-stoppingly high.

[aelf]

Oof, yeah, there's no reason to torture people with classes like that. I had to work hard in my SLAC science classes because I'm not a science person, but I *learned* things in them because that was the goal. They weren't trying to weed out kids. If I'd gone to NCSU right out of the gate instead of Grinnell, I'm not sure I would have made it through my science courses. (NCSU weeds for its vet program, med school hopefuls probably go to UNC.)

College costs have gotten insane. I honestly don't know how anyone who isn't rich affords it. Like, really rich, because if you have to spend 70K/yr on college, you need to bring in 1/3rd over that to cover the taxes, which means you're basically making 100K/yr over and above your living expenses that you can afford to throw at school.

[coercedbynutmeg]

I could go on at length about college costs. We've been putting money in 529s for years, and my husband redesignated his GI bill towards the kids, and we're still not going to be able to cover it, to the point that we're not really even trying. We also are planning, given the insane room and board costs, to just buy a house or condo in commuting distance from the school and then selling it whenever the child graduates. In the case of WUSTL, we could lose $50K on the arrangement and still come out ahead vs the room and board costs.