^ The public schools we have gone to have all given us passes.
NEU, WPI, and Olin gave free passes (I don’t think Olin even needed a pass, just pointed them to a parking lot). MIT was a different story-H spent 30 minutes looking for a spot, no pass, no help from the info people he called from the car, and ended up parallel parking somewhere who knows where and jogging over to campus to catch up with D and Gpa. When I registered for the tours they either gave us links to parking passes to print out, or told them where to go to get them.
We only drove to Tufts and have to pay parking. For DC schools, we took train there. All the other places we visited, the car was parked at the hotels.
Mostly free parking everywhere. Definitely doesn’t align private v. public for us.
Man, fake-kid is way behind on checking Twitter. Things are heating up.
CWRU sent me a parking pass but we are not taking the trip there as S17, to me, is not ready for more college visits. I will schedule a trip either late August or during the Fall.
The reason why Tufts is off our list may be the $8 parking for the visit of a little over an hour. We were late due to traffic and leaving late from BU, so we missed the Info session and did only the tour. Boys did not want to linger around the campus afterward.
At BU, we parked on the street for 2 hours (at our cost) and it was not expensive.
Thanks for the youth ACBL info, @mtrosemom. I will look it up!
Language requirements: @Mom2aphysicsgeek #11701: As we read the language minors at Alabama (don’t know about majors—this is just the minors), they require a certain number of credits taken—so if you test into a certain level based on proficiency, you still have to take the requisite number of credits from that point (you just have a bit more freedom with electives). What I said about AP/IB credits (and CLEP would be the same) was that it’s certain that you can apply those credits toward language majors, but it’s not so clear whether you can do so for minors. (This is because the catalog language on the minors is really badly written. Catalog copy for minors being pretty slapdash is, however, not even remotely unique to Alabama.)
The poll: My D17 spent the summer: B. at a summer program offered at a college away from home, F. hanging out with friends, and G. other (family reunion and associated traveling).
Senior trips: Is a trip as a high school graduation gift a widespread thing? I have to admit to never having heard of one, or at least not one as major as the ones people here are talking about.
Parking passes: Thinking through our tours, the only place that made us pay for our parking was Minnesota, and they gave us a voucher for the length of the tour (that is, we basically only paid for the couple hours we walked around on our own and ate lunch). Everyone else, even the publics we visited (Alabama, Miami—Ohio, Kansas, and George Mason, though that last was kind of a special case) either had us park in a free visitors lot or gave us a one-day parking permit. (Alaska Anchorage would have made us pay, too, except that we were there as part of an organized school trip.)
Poll
A. At a summer program offered at a local college - No
B. At a summer program offered at a college away from home - No
C. Traveling - mission trip, etc. - Yes - vacation to Seattle, cheer camp, and we leave this weekend for a week to the Berkshires and Vermont
D. Summer school (local or online at home) - No
E. Working - No (got a job but hasn’t started - math tutoring place
F. Hanging out with friends - Yes all the time in between
G. Other (please specify) -
No free parking passes for us at UNT or Texas A&M. The only college that gave us free anything was OU.
Did I miss out on the poll? I’m going to put my S’s answers anyway…
Poll: Did your '17 child spend the summer
A. At a summer program offered at a local college No
B. At a summer program offered at a college away from home One week at South Dakota School of Mines’ ME camp
C. Traveling - mission trip, etc. Well, Rapid City is 10 hours from our house
D. Summer school (local or online at home) No
E. Working Busboy at local country club 10-15 hrs/wk
F. Hanging out with friends Quite a bit
G. Other (please specify) Soccer, soccer reffing, band, AP Lang homework, lots of video games and video watching, minimal college research/apps
Driving @2muchquan I’ll take bored. S falls asleep! We will be looking into public transportation no matter where he ends up at college, but it’s a must more than a couple of hours away. He’s a good, attentive driver while he’s awake though.
OK, now I’ll catch up on the other stuff.
Parking passes
Everywhere we’ve visited with either S17 or D14 had free parking or provided a pass. Technically, SD Mines didn’t but I didn’t see anyone enforcing the parking requirements during summer camp.
Senior pics
Just got S’s scheduled. We’re in the kind of place where it’s almost as big a deal as wedding or first baby photos and they’re done by independent photographers. We negotiated a very short (30 minute) session for S though.
Senior trips
Not common here, but I’d like to go on some these. Africa sounds awesome!
Wisdom teeth
S still has his, but he has a dentist appt. in August; guess we should ask about that. H and I both had ours well into adulthood. (H chose to get his out while I was home on maternity leave. Fortunately, no issues and he required less care than a 3-week-old.)
@dfbdfb Senior year trip - Not sure if it’s a thing. We always do our own thing. :)) I promised D as a graduation present (promise made freshman year) either a new car or trip anywhere in the world. She chose the trip. Has nothing to do with grades or anything like that. But she’s done extremely well in school and is a great kid so I’m happy to do it. And she’s only child. Not to mention that I’ll be saving tons of money on college because she’s been a good student. 
A nice trip with DS next summer would be a present to us to spend time with him before he goes away to college. I haven’t heard of it as traditional, however. I guess I figured he would work (for pay) next summer.
@Ynotgo I’m definitely looking forward to the time together, especially as our family trips will probably be on hold for a while due to all her study abroad.
@fun1234 Tulane is right on the St. Charles streetcar line. If you are coming directly from the airport to campus, a cab or Uber would be best, but if you are staying at a hotel in the Garden District or even the French Quarter you can just hop on the trolley to the Tulane stop. I think it’s only $1.25 pp to ride.
Senior trip, um no, unless the “senior” is the parent! We may do a family vacation, but we were not planning to gift S a trip. D15 may be overseas for an internship or research next summer, so we may plan a trip around wherever she lands. That would be a big deal trip.
Parking on campus. It has been a mixed bag for us. Some schools we paid for a day permit on campus, some we parked in town and walked, some provided a parking pass. ASU and OU were the best when it can to providing things like parking passes, water, and SWAG.
@dfbdfb I would definitely email with specific questions. I would ask if she enters with this certificate of proficiency, what additional courses must be taken to meet the minor requirement.
But I am a person who wants answers vs dd speculating and driving me crazy. If she is asking about things that she can get an answer to, then I tell her she needs to ask.
Oh, I forgot – hopefully a family trip to total solar eclipse, Aug. 21, 2017.
So far, we’ve only had free parking at Harvey Mudd.
Parking of any sort at Berkeley – ha!
Poll answers
A. At a summer program offered at a local college: took 1 college class, not really a special program but was a good experience
B. At a summer program offered at a college away from home: no
C. Traveling - mission trip, etc.: 1 week mission trip
D. Summer school (local or online at home) no
E. Working no
F. Hanging out with friends -yes!
G. Other (please specify) college planning and a few visits!