<p>My son will be attending Cal in the fall, and will be attending one of the first CalSO sessions. At this point, I am not signed up to attend the parent session. (We live less than 100 miles away, so it's not a hardship for either myself or my son to get there.) Is there any real reason for me to attend the parent session? I mean, a reason that will benefit my son? Sounds like the parent and student sessions are concurrent, but they do not overlap. Sounds like he's doing all the meeting with advisors on his own, trying to figure out his schedule, etc. Even if I went to the parent session, it's not like I could help him with this.</p>
<p>I like the idea of the parent session, and it really is a cool thing for Cal to do for incoming students and their families, especially considering some may be coming from a considerable distance. But I've toured the campus already, seen the videos, gone to the alumni presentations...hey, I'm sold! Again, are either of us (student or parent) missing out on anything by the parent not attending?</p>
<p>No. Not necessary to attend CalSO with your son. The parent program seemed to be designed to keep parents from hovering around their kids as they negotiated their way through the advising and registration process. </p>
<p>The parent program was fun and informative, but your son will not miss out on anything if you are not there. Things on the parent agenda you would miss – campus tour, dining hall meal, overnight dorm stay, meeting with the dean of your son’s college (they did this for College of Chemistry, not sure if all colleges do the same), dorm tour, health center tour, chance to meet other parents, chance to explore around town, etc.</p>
<p>I opted to attend last year mostly because my son had not done the plane and BART ride by himself yet, and I had not had a chance to explore much of the campus and town. We both had a great time.</p>
<p>I don’t think you would be missing out on anything. My parents enjoyed it - it was the first time my mom visited the city, and they got to experience the dorms and campus. At the end of it though we agreed that it wasn’t worth the cost.</p>
<p>Agree, but it depends more on your student’s comfort level. My son appreciated me being there, but only because he knew of no one else attending or going to CalSO, and it would have been his first time flying solo or taking BART, and he was not the most social kid in the world.</p>
<p>But yes, you hardly see your son during the day, but we were there if we were needed. We enjoyed sleeping in the dorms and eating dorm food, and everything else, since we never had that experience when we were going to college.</p>