<p>jessiehl, I enjoy your posts, and I agree it will work out. </p>
<p>To be fair to parents though, I still laugh over the angst I felt when my H and I toured the East Campus dorms during the parent tours at CPW a couple years ago. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. This visit was my first glimpse of MIT; my H and S had visited in depth previously and loved the place. I couldn’t wait to share in their excitement. </p>
<p>At the time, there was a “tranny” fashion show or something of the sort going on in a front lounge. It happened to coincide with the open tour times for parents. The student’s were having a great time being provocative and rather ribald, and we were clearly interrupting their fun. </p>
<p>We had an interesting host to say the least. But by the time the tour was complete, I was completely impressed with the young man leading my H and I around and answering our many questions about life and studies at MIT. I came away feeling that if my S was half as thoughtful, respectful, and eloquent, he would be well served by his MIT education. </p>
<p>Cocomom: One year ago my D also visited her first choice school, a top liberal arts school in central Indiana, for an overnight. She was repeatly offered alcohol that evening(no real surprise there!), but what really sent my husband through the roof were the sleeping arrangements, which included my daughter, her hostess, and the hostess’s boyfriend in the room! We were stunned, to say the least. After that wore off, we realized that that was simply not God’s plan for her life! Today, she is happy as can be at a school that is a much better fit for her. (Yippee! She is home for Thanksgiving!!!). Better to have learned in advance and make other plans…</p>
<p>Yet my D visited what I assume would be the same LAC ksm’s D visited, also last year, and her experience was quite different.</p>
<p>The important thing, as so many have stated, is that YOUR D is comfortable at the school. If she feels that there are enough people with similar interests, she is probably right.</p>
<p>I just don’t get the appeal of no pants/clothing optional/naked whatevers…
Maybe I’ve officially reached old fart status, but I don’t think it would have appealed to me back in college either.</p>
<p>Old fart status is reached when you think it’s a satisfying bedroom activity to fold sweaters in your closet so you’re all set for winter. So I’m there.</p>
<p>Clothing optional?? Brrrrr. Better left to others.</p>
<p>I sorted through our mittens and scarves. I’m afraid clothing optional for me would not be an appetizing prospect. But if my kid or his friends want to go there–whatever.</p>
<p>Not to put too fine a point on it, I asked S about this and he said it should depend on the movie. Weird movies, he said, would be fine clothing optional but it would not be appropriate at serious movies. I’m glad to see he has his standards. I wonder if he’d let his kid go to a school that showed serious movies clothing optional? Haha.</p>
<p>I honestly think many of us in this country–including me–have a very odd attitude about nudity. It’s how I was raised too, but I wouldn’t mind if my son had a more relaxed attitude. The human body is not toxic.</p>
<p>OK…the whole nudie movie thing grosses me out; not from a prudish standpoint but a hygienic one. Sitting on a movie theatre seat in a thong or less is simply disgusting for the sitee as well as those who come after them. EWWWWW!</p>
<p>And I’m with kelsmom…all of those “What not to Wear” tricks that I employ to create the illusion of fitness would be…for lack of a better word…exposed ;-)</p>
<p>I was musing on this thread today in the car and was wondering about Earlham–might that be the nice LAC where there isn’t much wild partying? Just a thought.</p>
<p>But (without much actual knowledge) I would suggest that absolutely everything that the OP described at whatever college this was could have happened at Earlham. There was absolutely no wild partying in the original post. A “clothing-optional movie” is not a wild party (and no one actually went to see if it was wild or not). If I recall correctly, no one drank and no one smoked (although one person talked about smoking). A performance-art club put on a performance. </p>
<p>JHS: This couldn’t be my kids’ schools because neither of them had ever hear of this performance art, and neither seemed to think it was as cool as I now do. Just out of the loop I guess.</p>
<p>However, the big activity for D was going to a hookah bar with friends, which she really didn’t like, but for a frosh was way boho. Talk about unsanitary! I didn’t say a word.</p>
<p>The next year the hookah bar they frequented closed, right underneath her second year dorm, an apartment, and when the walls were deconstructed for the new dwelling all the little mousies scampered into their apartment for months. Since the college didn’t own the building there was almost nothing it could do. Ewww!</p>
<p>You are naive. This kind of thing went on when you were in college and it goes on now. Your D sounds like she can make her own good choices and you ahve done your job of teaching her and coaching her…she will be fine. Sometimes making good choices can be isolating but it sounds like they were inclusive of her…and probably were pulling her leg some.</p>
<p>I’m sure there are campuses with more conservative vibes, and we could all suggest them, but your daughter seems to like this college. If you have serious reservations, there are ways to find more conservative schools if your daughter is aboard.</p>
<p>(Sorry, this is off the original topic…)
No worries about hygiene, historymom: one carries a towel to sit on when one attends any clothing-optional event. And for those who accurately note that most of us are more gravity-affected and/or zaftig than we were in college, it should be enough to say that clothing-optional beaches and events do not exist for the purpose of showing off one’s physique or judging others. It’s a non-concern, and much less stressful over-50 than it would have been for me under-25.</p>
<p>When I hear “hookah bar”, I naturally think back to being in college in the early '70s and assume something illegal is being smoked, even if I know it can’t possibly be that way. (Right? So… what DO they put in hookahs at hookah bars? Tobacco?)</p>
(it’s my old dorm, as I may have said before)</p>