Another happy parent of two recent grads.
The best advice I got from my welcome call (and I was later a caller,) was to book graduation hotel rooms as early as the hotels will allow. What I found is the Hilton Garden Inn just doesn’t accept them the prior fall. BT, book what you can, when you can, and if something opens up later, you can decide.
Same applies for parents weekend.
Frankly, on one of our early trips, we stayed at the Motel 6 (because we had the dog and they allow pets) and continued to stay there. We’d see plenty of Bates folks. We were more about the time with the girls.
Both of mine started in Smith, neither complained about noise (that came later, when one lived in a quiet dorm.) The rooms are funny- the ones I know are old doubles with two rooms, now set for four kids. D1’s roommates were an amazing match, close during the four years and after. (Two non-athletes, two athletes.) D2 continues to be close with one of her freshman roommates.
The highlight for both AESOPs was seeing moose.
It’s a great college. Congrats.