Honors weekend in March

fallenchemist
Wed, 23 Mar 2011 06:15:51 +0000

It would be unusual but you have to deal with the circumstances as they are. If your visa problems cannot be worked out and your Mom can travel, which is obviously the case right now, then you take advantage of the resources available to you, which in this case is your Mom. I can imagine situations where the parent really couldn’t substitute for the student in any way, because they wouldn’t learn anything you wouldn’t already know from the written material and here on CC and the only point is your experience. But there are things your Mom can experience and bring back her impressions, only you can decide if you and your Mom are alike enough or if she is empathetic enough with you that her take on it will suffice. Of course the other advantage is the comfort level she gains with Tulane.

Is it worth the cost of coming from Country X? That is a harder question to answer, since she certainly won’t get as much out of it, and therefore you won’t either, as if you were going. If the cost of it isn’t much of an issue for you or the money is already mostly already spent and you cannot get it back, then sure it could be worth it depending on my initial comments.

I think she should just have a very short explanation already planned and rehearsed a bit so she can set the circumstances when she is talking to profs and others. Something like “I know it is very unusual that I am here without my daughter, but we are from Country X and her visa application ran into a red tape snag. But I was able to travel so she wanted me to come and see what I thought and also to ask some questions for her, and of course I wanted to see Tulane. I hope you understand.”