10/2 can’t come soon enough. We miss our daughter and when we left she was exhausted and frazzled. We know she is fine - we’ve texted, emailed, called & face-timed. But really looking forward to hugging her. Ours looks to be epic w 2 cars, 1 going to CT to get 88 yr old Grandma! We’re not signing up for any activities, we’ll just wing it and just want to see her and have her show us whatever she wants. 2 nites and 1 full day then the whole reverse extravaganza. Staying in an Air B&B for the 1st time - shud be interesting! especially with Grandma!
I’m going to the Parents Weekend for a young cousin who is a first-year at the same college where, a decade ago, he attended Parents Weekend for one of my sons. Full Circle.
Me! I don’t know that we will visit after this, but we will go then.
We wanted to go when S was a freshman but he requested we not, since we had just spent 2 weeks in LA with him and he figured he’d see us over the holidays. He was fine with us visiting in subsequent years, as we didn’t see much of him over the summers.
We did sign up for the football game, touring the college of engineering, tour of LA, and a few other things. We enjoyed it.
We live too far away to attend a weekend event, but our best friends who have known our daughter since birth are attending on our behalf. Just knowing that people who love her almost as much as we do will hug her means a lot. Daughter is performing in several music groups performing especially for parent’ s weekend, and our friends have never been able to see her perform before. That will be special for them.
Not sure! Ours is actually later in October. With our other two, we often went for the day (one was 1 hour 15 mins away, another was 3 hours away). Most times we just enjoyed being together, going out to eat, walking around campus and maybe seeing part of a football game - we always punted the organized activities.
Our first was a 3 hour drive away, our second is a 5 hour drive away. Both universities have a 20K student body.
We attended the first parent weekend for the first kid the first year. Never again.
Hotel prices were 3X normal rates. The eateries were over crowded, overbooked and the staff was hassled. Parking was a game of hide and seek. The activities needed to be booked and planned in advance. The University itself did a great job of organizing, but there is only so much you can do when there’s a huge influx of people. Plus, parent weekend was about 4-5 weeks after the start of the term.
That said, I visited our first one very regularly. I’d spend two nights in a very nice hotel, she would spend one night with me and the other in her dorm. We hung out at coffee shops, saw movies, went to the beach - all without the accompanying other 10K+ people who’d have been in town were it parent weekend.
We now visit the second one about once a quarter. Again, never on parents weekend.
If the goal is to spend time with your kid, see the area, walk the campus and not feel like you are at a major concert/sports event…then avoid parent weekend. We were also able to take a number of their friends out to dinner with us at each of our visits. That’s something you most likely can’t do on parent weekend.
We did it for S a few years ago and decided if we ever do it again we would get away from the school so we could spend quality time with him rather than getting caught up in the hustle and bustle of all the activities going on. And so he wouldn’t be in a rush to dump us at days end so he could go out with friends. haha. Plus he was exhausted the next day when we made him get up at 8 to go out to eat breakfast with us.
Wow! Really? Our kids’ colleges do group pricing at several local hotels so rates are actually cheaper! (And even though we live reasonably close enough to commute, we’ll take advantage of it so we don’t have to go back and forth)
Yes, we’ll be attending but we also get those quiet visits in addition to the busy family weekend visit (which for us isn’t until February!)
I’m looking forward to all those activities,meeting other parents and faculty, sitting in on classes etc. My S’s school even has a “parents vs students” type of competition. But then again my kids go to small LACs so it’s probably a very different experience.
We are going.
My kids went/go to smaller privates as well. Even at that, every restaurant in town will be packed from the fanciest to Panera. I actually really agree that not only did we prefer going NOT on parent weekends (but other weekends instead) but our kids after the first year felt the same way. After seeing their campus infested with families galore, they were perfectly content to hole up in their room or the library and enjoy quiet time away from the crowds.
Also in our experience parents were not looking to “meet and greet” with other parents - they were there to see their kids and that’s it. I never found it to be a social occasion beyond with my own child.
Sitting in on classes on family weekend???
Yes, at the Claremont Colleges they open up many (not all) classes for parents to sit in on. We got lucky our first year, my daughters Calc class was among these and she had been raving about the teacher. So we went and could definitely see why she loved that class— and loves her college.
Ours is this weekend. It’s a four-hour drive, and I’m looking forward to seeing D after five weeks. She’s not the most communicative kid, so I hope to be able to learn more about her life when I see her in person. It’s been a difficult time in ways for her so far as she broke up with the hometown boyfriend and her great-uncle, whom she considered a grandfather, died. So there’s that stress on top adjusting to college life.
That is also why I agreed to bring one of her friends down with me for the weekend, even though I’d far rather have D all to myself. I had already said I’d be happy to take her roommate out for dinner and other activities since her parents live too far away to get there.
I went to Parents Weekend freshman year for all three kids. I went all 4 years for #2 because it was really fun and since it is only an hour a way I could just go for the Friday events. For #1 & #3 I visited at least once a year, and usually went to some sort of athletic event, but did not go during Parent’s Weekend. I liked the planned events for the weekend because if my student had other things they wanted to do, we had something to occupy us. My favorite things were observing my college student in their natural habitat, and meeting other parents who were gong through the same things we were.
“Sitting in on classes on family weekend???”
Yes, some colleges have that option. Mr. B went to one of such weekends and ended up sitting in on a class. Boy did he embarrass our kiddo by opening his mouth to opine on some subject when the professor asked some question no one was eager to answer! I was embarrassed, too. So parents… please, please! If you decide to do this, sit tight, enjoy the experience, and do not volunteer to answer. 
Your kid will thank you.
Yes, we attended a class about Hitchcock taught by a noted scholar on the topic when we went to our D’s Parent’s Weekend–her major was Cinematic Arts. It was fascinating and gave new insights to some Hitchcock films we had previously seen but never had explained in a broader context. There were some sessions just for parents and families, where comments from families and parents were welcomed and those were the only ones where folks spoke up. In the classes, only the students and professors spoke.
So did Parents Weekend w/classes start on a Friday? Otherwise I"m picturing fake staged weekend classes!!!
OMG, BB that would SO be my H!!!
BB, I’m sure your husband said some very bright remarks.
I think my sons college only had Parents day in freshman year. For me, it was a wonderful experience. A prof opened the door for me, and I looked at his name tag, and said, “oh my, you just won the Nobel prize for …” He answered sheepishly, that he let his colleagues do the interviews, he felt it was for a project he had done years before, etc. we spoke awhile, my first and only experience with a Nobel winner. He could not have been nicer or more humble.
then I sat next to a mom who was a local. When she heard that i had come from the opposite coast, she gave me her phone number and offered lots of help, like names of dentists, docs. She invited me and my son for T-day, saying it would be easier for son to stay local then fly home for a few days. We spent T-day with her that first year. Her son and mine became friends, and lived in the same House 4 years. I only wish I had stayed in touch with her more, she was just that nice.
My son is 500 miles away and parent weekend is the weekend of Columbus Day. I was torn about the parent weekend because (a) it is far to go for a weekend and (b) it was so hard to say goodbye when we dropped him off and I was almost afraid it would hurt that much the second time. (Me, not him. He’s fine.)
However, as luck would have it I have a wedding in another state on the parents weekend, plus, my son has a mini break the following weekend. We decided he would fly home for the mini break, that way he can go to the orthodontist which will be a good thing, he’ll get to relax at home, away from his drunken roommate for a few days, and we still get to see him! By then, it will be a long nine weeks since we dropped him off.
Also, he’s never flown by himself before, so it will be a good experience for him (I hope).
Some colleges have classes available on Friday, others on Monday…no they aren’t “staged”. LOL!