Are you at the Moonrise? 
Good thing about that location is that you will get time to spend at the Delmar Blvd restaurants, desert shops and stores that your son will likely frequent during his time at WashU.
Yes, the Sam Fox School and bio programs at WashU are exceptional.
THe program for First Days for 24s school very clearly outlines a post lunch kiss and goodbye! We will also stay the night at the local hotel since he will have no car and Walmart is about 20 minutes away. I am hoping that we drop him and dont see him again until parents day but I am always a pessimist and since lodging is limited for his rural school, rather be too close than too far!
We did Clayton for admitted students, and the Moonrise for the first visit, but looks like we are opting for a rental nearish the Delmar Loop this timeâthe NiceUnparticulars become pretty MeanParticular about having ample space, and it has a garage which seems like not the worst idea with a car full of stuff for the first evening.
Yes! We stayed there last time and got such a kick out of the crazy moon landing decor. The other half of the family (def not me!) are in aerospace engineering. Sam Fox is awesome and that is where S24 will be and so weâre walking a delicate line with S26, who is fiercely independent. Nothing to see hereâŠ
Speaking of dropping off/moving them inâŠeven though this is our second go-around with a kid in college, it is our first ânormalâ one.
We moved D20 into an off-campus apartment in the height of covid (her school did not allow kids in the dorm her first year). This involved basically driving up to Boston in the morning, unloading the car and moving in to the apartment while the other roommates who sheâd not yet met in person were out (we were all trying to minimize any exposure to others back then), then hugging her goodbye and high tailing it out of there so the roommates could come back inside and actually meet. It was surreal. In retrospect, I canât believe we just left her there like that, but those were the times we were living through, I guess. We got back on the road at 4pm and looked at each other like, âdid we really just do that?â and drove the 4 hours back home. No prolonged goodbyes, no last dinner out together, no school-sponsored âfamily programmingââŠjustâŠâgoodbye, good luck, donât burn the place down learning to cook.â 
So, yeahâŠlooking forward to whatever RIT has in store for move-in weekend!
This will be our first ânormalâ drop-off as well. D20âs first semester was at home, and she only got to live on campus for 6 weeks at the end of spring semester- I moved her in just the two of us and drove back home after as she had zoom classes in the afternoon. Such a surreal experience. Iâm looking forward to the traditional move-in with D24, and perhaps a short getaway with DH after!
Iâve pinged my son to see if he knows any Physics majors. Will let you know.
In the meantime, here is some information on undergrad Physics at WashU:
Thank you! Sheâs encountered lots of friendly current and prospective STEM-focused students, some who have taken physics classes, but no physics majors yet.
If a school has stuck with a deadline of May 1st, do you need to let them know today (4/30) or tomorrow 5/1?
5/1
2 stupid things:
Prior attempts to communicate with U of A on housing & enrollment questions have been frustrating. Got a fair amount of âthatâs not my job, call this other department insteadâ sort of answers, but did they include a phone number or contact info for the other department? No. It was like standing in the DMV line in Zootopia with the sloth.
So glad that D24 ended up choosing the school she did.
OK, it is after 5 (where I live), so I can safely report that the newly-created âWashU Downâ cocktail is . . . dangerously fantastic!
For such a boozy cocktail (2 ounces of hard stuff, another 3/4 of liqueur), it is VERY well-balanced and incredibly smooth. Operating under peer pressure, I used TWO drops of absinthe, rather than the planned one, but I am definitely going to keep upping that in future efforts until I cry âno mas,â because I think it will stand up to more.
Iâd classify it mostly as a sour, but with the rum playing second fiddle to the bourbon, grenadine, orgeat I used instead of simple syrup, and absinthe, it definitely has a bit of Tiki vibe as well.
So, basically hard to categorize as any one thing, but a complex and excellent overall blendâjust like its namesake university!
He did it! Itâs Amherst! They upped his FA offer a couple of thousand dollars today, and that clinched it (I think he was already leaning Amherst). Iâm going to buy a purple mammoth t-shirt! (they already gave him one when he visited)
So letâs see, first-less-than-24 hours, I have booked an AirBnB, plotted out restaurants and tourist sites, identified a halfway point for the drive (still need to actually book halfway hotels), helped S24 figure out when the housing form is due and some of his options, pointed him to the first year programs site and noted when that application is due, figured out where and when (adjusting for the time change) in Switzerland we will be when the move-in day/time website opens . . . .
I need a WashU Down!
Congrats! I had no idea that the Amherst mascot was the Mammoth, and Iâve made it a point to search out a lot of mascots this past year! 
In other news, D24 has declined her last six schools. An era is over; another is beginning.
They have a very cool Mammoth in the Museum.
We read up about it a few weeks ago; they used to be the âLord Jeffsâ after Lord Jeffrey AmherstâŠonly it turns out Lord Jeff was a big fan of giving smallpox-infested blankets to Native Americans. So students lobbied a few years ago to get the mascot changed and nowâŠmammoths.
D23âs college had a similar end of the day buffet and farewell to parents. We were planning to go. Then D23 told us at about 3:00 that she had met some kids who had flown in without parents, and she would be eating dinner with them, so if we wanted to get on the road, that was fine with her âŠ
Looking for some advice. Sending S24 to California from the Midwest and so definitely not a drive. (Would love to do the cross-country drive at some point, but not for move-in.)
DH and I realized that weâve literally NEVER not been a drive away from a school or next move. Not for either of us for any school or life change and not for S22. So this is new.
For those whoâve sent kids or are sending kids a flight away for school, weâd welcome tips on best practices for what to ship, what to pack and bring on the plane, and what to buy once in the area. Thanks!
Oof, I can see that happening. Actually when we moved D21 into her freshman dorm, there were 3 days between her move-in day and Convocation (staggered move-in days because of Covid and she wanted to move in on the earliest day to get acclimated). We ended up staying at our Airbnb near campus and exploring the area for those extra days, even though D21 kinda sorta wanted us to leave after move-in. But selfishly, I really wanted to go to Convocation (a true once in a lifetime event since sheâs my first kid and only family member to go to Stanford), so I told her weâd be sticking around but wouldnât really be available so she didnât need to worry about us. In the end, Iâm glad we stayed, but I know it made it harder for her, knowing we were still in the area. She was hoping the bandaid could have been ripped off quicker.