We went to an Orange Preview day in September (+/- 1 month). Is it worth buying another pair of plane tickets, plus hotel and car, for a Spring Reception?
We won’t need the visit to make a decision. With acceptable aid, D will go.
If you can swing Own the Dome, I highly recommend it. Kids sleep in The Carrier Dome overnight. It’s very well organized, with fun activities and food. The next day is individual college talks and tours, dorm tours, etc. it fills quickly and, if last year was any indication, they announce the dates pretty late. And I was a bit surprised that it happened before many of the RD decisions were sent out. But overall, highly recommended. My D met some kids there that she still sees on campus. If you’re interested, I suggest sett8ng up a Google alert or otherwise stalking the Admitted students page.
No. It’s more useful if you’re unsure about a school or deciding between 2. They won’t tell you anything at accepted students day thats not in the acceptance packet or on any other tour you’ve taken.
Out last trip cost about $1,000 all in. Owning the Dome sounds great but I don’t think it sounds Grand-great, if you know what I mean.
We are doing Orange Preview if my child gets in. The amount of money is beyond what we paid for our home or cars. Single biggest investment of our lives. We need to visit to be sure. We are not doing ‘own the dome’. It is the same weekend as UConn admitted student orientation. UConn and Syracuse and Temple are my daughter’s top 3 choices. She needs to spend a day at each. Own the dome seems more like psyching the kids up to go than it does helping you decide if it’s the best fit. Fine if you already visited once but Syracuse is the only one of her top choices we haven’t seen in person. We were going to go but then my mom passed away so we cancelled at the last minute.
@JerseyMom2022 condolences for your Mom. We got a lot out of Syracuse Saturday and I see they are doing additional dates for admitted students in April but I’m unclear as to how it will be different from the one we did in the fall. If Saturday is better for you consider those dates as well. My D may need to go again to finalize her decision if her financial aid looks good and comparable to other schools. Any session that involves a VPA specific tour for your daughter would be fine. The new art buildings are beautiful.
My D is not going “own the dome”. For my kid that would be akin to punishment. She gets crowd anxiety.
@PruPru25 we specifically picked ‘orange Preview’ because it includes a dorm tour. A lot of the other tours don’t. It’s on a Friday but that’s okay because we wanted to spend the next day exploring on our own before driving home.
Sounds ideal! We did a separate University tour the same day that covered one dorm. You will have a great time.
As an aside for all those visiting with your admitted students: use your time and also explore the Wescott street area and the small streets in between. So many of those little streets beyond the park toward Wescott are student rental houses. It is likely that your kids will be living in that area if they choose off campus housing as upper classman. Wescott has restaurants, a cool hipster coffee shop ( in my Husband’s old rental home 30 years ago, lol) and a few boutiques. I worked in a bakery on a Wescott as a student back then. It’s definitely an unofficial part of SU.
And do eat dinner at Pastabilies in Armory Square if it’s in the budget. A little too pricey for most students but delicious.