Just wondering if any of you plan to be at UCLA tomorrow?
Did you end up going?
@sandiegodad2017 , yes, I did attend. It was pleasant and I enjoyed meeting other parents. Peoples’ questions and comments indicated that a lot of them were pretty uniformed about things like housing, health insurance, the quarter system, and so forth. The consensus among participants seemed to be that the session was very informative. Personally, having spent a lot of time on the website and reading material I picked up at admitted student day, I did not hear much that was new to me. Nevertheless, I’m glad I went.
@sandiegodad2017, I was SHOCKED at the number of parents who seemed totally unprepared and uninformed as mentioned by @pickledginger Some of the most vocal were the most ill informed; Several were visibly angered that there was no storage on campus for summer quarter?!? My thought is that many possibly have first gen kids and did not know what to expect or bother to seek out the information prior to allowing their kids to apply. Lack of knowledge concerning meal plans was also surprising, especially since the initial deposits were due.
@plan42, wasn’t it a little disconcerting to hear people’s complaints and questions? The people I heard who were complaining about things like 3 students to a dorm room weren’t first gen, though. They were saying this wasn’t what they expected based on their own personal experience as college students.
I admit that I was surprised a couple of years ago during a campus tour when I learned all or almost all UCLA freshmen are housed 3 to a room (so surprised that it really factored in to whether my son applied there), but the information was readily available.
Last year I accompanied my kid to his new student orientation. I didn’t attend the parent orientation though, went sightseeing over 3 days instead, but did hang around the last day on campus waiting to pick him up. I was able to chat with several groups of parents that did attend the orientation, and their consensus was it wasn’t worth the time unless the student is first generation, and the parent/family needed guidance navigating through the university system in general. So already being very familiar with US university system and UC’s specifically, it worked out fine that I didn’t go.