College Freshman, Day One

As of Thursday 8/27 my oldest is a college freshman.  That’s pretty unbelievable.

He was mapping out his routes around campus and changing his class schedule right up until tonight trying to get everything worked out so he can get across the Big Red Spread from class to class.  He has an hour between each class, which I think is a good idea for the first semester.  Next time he can recalibrate and will know what classes he can put end to end.

He’s excited, but you can tell he’s a bit nervous, too.  No one knows who you are or what you can do so you have to begin to prove yourself all over again.  Plus, as I’ve tried to remind him over and over, they will not coddle him at the university the way they tend to in the school here.  It’s all about personal responsibility — wanting to be there, wanting to learn and wanting to succeed.  They’ll be plenty happy to take your money and flunk you if you don’t.

Even though I thought I was prepared for the cost I’ll admit the book prices took my breath away.  He has five classes and his book cost was $523.  He was in one of the last orientation sessions so one of the last on the book reservation list, thus most of the used books were gone, but still.  Amazing how expensive some of these books are.  One computer book was something like $130.

Jones Stadium Expansion

I am really getting jazzed about this.  I remember having some of the same feelings about the West Side Building (WSB) going up, and although I don’t like SITTING up there it is a thing of beauty.  I’m a little like that guy in the Miller commercial I guess – I want to be in the stands with the people that came to watch the game, not the social hobnobs.

Now the East Side Building (ESB) is going up and all those extra seats on the north end are coming in day by day.  This is exciting stuff.  I hope my freshman son will appreciate how much his university’s stadium is about to improve.

Now if we could just get the cost of those freshman class books under $500…man alive! Take care of ‘em kid, ‘cuz you’re selling ‘em back!

RRO

Justin completed his orientation at Texas Tech today.  He was there from Sunday morning through Tuesday morning doing various activities, including getting his fall schedule in place and reserving his books, getting counselling on the class schedule and lots of fun activities with some other incoming freshmen.  It seems Tech is doing a far better job of this these days than when I was a student.  They could probably still use some improvement but it’s come a long way.

Among the things Justin will be able to take advantage of is a brand new water complex just outside the Rec Center which was completed in late May 2009.  It has been open for a while for summer students, but the flood of fall students will be it’s first real exposure for the vast majority of Tech students.  It looks pretty neat, and includes a “lazy river” for just kicking back and relaxing.  Justin was pretty pumped that he’d have access to it and the rest of the Rec Center.  There is a picture of the water complex below.

This was also Justin’s first experience staying in a dorm.  He roomed with another incoming freshman for two nights.  Short as it was, it was an eye-opening experience for him.  His roommate apparently came from a quite affluent family (e.g. a $4000 sound system in his car was “normal”, as was spending this summer in Germany).  Good thing it was only a two day stay because I don’t think these two would have gotten along.  Justin plans to stay at home.  I wish he’d stay on campus at least the first semester and immerse himself in the college experience.  College campus in the fall is like nothing else.  But his mind’s made up.  Tech is not much of a commuter campus, and I think those living off campus miss out on some of the things going on, socially and academically, that make college what it is.

During RRO Justin found out there is club baseball at Tech.  He might be interested in that.  Not sure if they only play in the spring.  That might be best so that Justin has a semester to adjust to the rigors of college before deciding if he wants to try out for a club team that would travel to play other college club teams.  Gotta keep up with the studies, and travel, and work.  That’s a load.

Only three more weeks until classes start.  I expect a rude awakening during those first two weeks.  I must brush up on my statistics, because that’s his math class…

Texas Tech's Lazy River and Leisure Pool Complex

This ‘n’ That

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything.  Summer doldrums I guess.

Hey, the Cubs are in 1st place!  Not sure how long that will last with the injuries they seem to be racking up and the acquisitions the Cards are making, but for this day at least I’ll take it!  To even be within sniffing distance of first after the year they’ve had up to this point is quite an accomplishment (Ramirez out extensively, Zambrano and Lee out for a while, Lilly and Soto and Dempster all currently on the DL, Soriano and Bradley in long hitting slumps).

Did you notice the article in the AJ on 7/27 where they mentioned the new Ag museum in Lubbock?  They have like 25 acres

Just Completed a FAFSA

Somebody ought to come up with a new acronym for this.  And it ought to be a lot more nasty than “FAFSA”.  FAFSA sounds like some sort of 1970s diet soda drink, you know what I’m saying?  You ever taste the original Diet Dr Pepper?  I think it contained FAFSA, that’s what made it taste like antifreeze.  <shudder> 

If you’ve ever filled one of these out for the first time, I guess you know it’s kind of depressing.  If you’ve done your taxes there aren’t any answers that you don’t have access to, but it is still kind of tedious.  That amount of money you have saved away that seems so danged puny to you starts looking too danged BIG when you fill out FAFSA.

Plus you have to start declaring in concrete terms that your eldest is headed off for this next big step.  By concrete terms, I mean you begin to be faced with the stark reality of “OMG!  We can’t afford this!!!” 

I checked off on campus living for every school Justin wanted us to send this to (and that list sort of surprised me).   Well, there wasn’t a place for “Mom and Dad’s cardboard box, which is what they’re going to be living in once they start paying for this ride”…

Seriously though I believe that first semester at least you should experience on campus living.  Makes you want to rush home and hug Mom and Dad around the neck.  Yeah, even Dad.  Shoot, maybe even little brother.

“FAFSA”.  Yeah, that’s about the odds we’re gonna get any help from the feds sending this boy to school. 

ME: “What are the chances we’ll get some aid”?

THEM: “FAFSA.”

ME: “What’s ‘FAFSA’”?

THEM: “A value slightly south of zero…..”