<p>Hey,</p>
<p>Is anyone here going to the Celebration of Diversity or Sleeping Bag Weekend this weekend (COD is two nights and three days, Sleeping Bag is just the second night and the second two days).</p>
<p>applicannot</p>
<p>We are considering the January 2010 CMU Sleeping Bag weekend… any been-there/done-that hints ??</p>
<p>I did the COD weekend last november. it was so much fun. definitely take advantage of the fancy dinner reception thing, where you’ll get to talk to admissions representatives/directors from each school at CMU as well as ROTC people and athletic coaches if you’re interested in those. also, use the monday as an opportunity to get a feel for the classes at CMU; I went to a philosophy class and a chemistry class, and both were pretty cool.</p>
<p>pollocampero6060 - Did you go yourself, or were parents there too? CMU is the only campus of interest that we didn’t catch during summer trips, so my husband and I might go too.</p>
<p>wish I would have known about COD</p>
<p>colorado - I went along with my son for a SBW four years ago and there were events geared to parents. I specifically remember going to a talk by the admin of SCS and a skit/presentation on campus life performed by students. Also a continental breakfast. I’m sure there were more. As it happened, the Steelers were playing in the SuperBowl that Sunday and won, so I can’t say DS got a typical picture of campus life (they don’t usually set sofas on fire in the streets, for example) but he did have a great time and did get to most of the planned activities, including an interview.</p>
<p>And if you have some spare time, you can go to Phipps Conservatory and/or the Carnegie Musueums, both within walking distance of campus.</p>
<p>Marilyn - Thanks for the musuem hints. My husband had his heart set on visiting Frank Lloydd Wright Falling Waters… …and darn I see they are closed in Jan/Feb.
[Fallingwater</a> | Home](<a href=“http://www.fallingwater.org/]Fallingwater”>http://www.fallingwater.org/)</p>
<p>There is always accepted student weekend in April. I have wanted to visit Fallingwater since my S decided on CMU.</p>
<p>thanks bosssr - It is tempting to defer until April… but my S may need to be revisiting some other schools then. With prep for five May IB exams (yuk), I think he’ll only have time then to visit the top choices. If CMU is at top choice at that poit, we’d likely send him for a revisit alone. Of course we might have four years after that to see Fallingwater… ya never know. What made your son decide on CMU?</p>
<p>I think it was the sleeping bag weekend and how the overnight panned out. He loves movies and he said they stayed up to 1-2AM just talking about and watching movies. He is now a Sophomore in CIT/ECE and a member of the AB Films board. Busy as he** but loving pretty much every minute.</p>
<p>bosssr - That’s neat that your son found other interested in movies. Music (piano, sax, composing) is what makes my son tick. Our goal while college shopping is to find the right combo of music opportunities (and time to take advantage of then), without the risk of music majors out-auditioning him for jazz band etc.</p>
<p>colorado_mom: I went by myself (the CMU coordinators flew me in for free, which was really cool). I really didn’t see too many parents at the COD Weekend, but I know that the parents who went had a lot of things going on like events and stuff. There were definitely many activities for the parents as well as for the students to partake in, so I would suggest going if you’re interested in seeing what the campus is like.</p>
<p>DS did his research and We did ours.
My first high tech boss was a Carnegie Tech grad (early developer of broadband cable)and who made it possible to afford DS’s conception. CMU is not well known in the NW and I had lost contact with him. </p>
<p>We did find via DS’s orthodontist, another local family with an attending son. This family answered our parental questions and enthused confidence in their DS’s choices. </p>
<p>If your son choses CMU and you want to visit, I suggest you make a visit during Spring Carnival or after parent’s weekend in the fall.</p>
<p>I’m not a parent, so I dunno how much help I can offer, but I have been a host for the sleeping bag weekends. I live in a fairly desirable part of Mudge House dormitory, so we tend to have tons of “baggers” every SBW. It seems like a flip of the coin-- either your kid gets a good host and has the time of their life, or they get a bad host and are miserable. (see: the stoners down the hall, the kid who signed up just so he could have fun hazing a high school senior, or the studious girl with too much homework who dumps your child on her friends to show around.)</p>
<p>You run the risk of taking a chance; if that’s fine with your kid, sign him up! Otherwise-- I would also, as LongPrime recommended, say that during Spring Carnival would be the best time to visit, or over accepted students’ weekend.</p>
<p>We are getting ready to buy airline tickets for the 1/24 Sleeping Bag weekend. We’ll also see Case in the same trip. Then depending on his thoughts and acceptances/$-offers… perhaps my son would go back by himself later. </p>
<p>I’ve gotten a few kind hints offline/PM. But more info is always appreciated! We are especially interested in opportunities for classroom visits. </p>
<p>And if you have experiences to help us understand factors of CMU vs Case (where I remember neighborhood being rough 30 years ago) vs Northeastern (where he’d have good National Merit merit $)… I’d love to know that too. Confusing times.</p>
<p>If I remember correctly, there’s an entire schedule of available classroom visits for SBW. But if you are interested in specific classes or departments, contact them directly and see what can be arranged.</p>
<p>We just got back from dropping DS off for his final semester - kind of sad! Over the years we determined our favorite place for dinner is Bravo in the Waterfront, our favorite breakfast place is Pamela’s in Shadyside, and our favorite lunch was Shady Grove in Shadyside, although lately DS is a fan of Sam’s subs in Squirrel Hill and Oakland. The best views were from Mt. Washington. As HHonors members, we’ve almost always stayed at the Hampton Inn Downtown, which is nicer and free parking, or the University Hampton, which is closer with a shuttle but smaller rooms and paid parking.</p>
<p>We saw Case and CMU on the same spring break trip and DS decided against applying to Case. I think it was too spread out, especially with the main road running through it, and I think they didn’t even show us the engineering department except in passing. But unfortunately my memories are somewhat faded by this time so I have no specifics.</p>
<p>Ditto</p>
<p>The dinner / reception (which is open to registered COD weekenders-- not the regular sleeping bag - but you don’t have to be a URM to register for COD) was excellent! I spent time talking to deans from each of the schools I was interested in applying to-- got lots of specifics about courses and met loads of current students. I went as a jnr.
It’s not like they are remembering your name and writing to admissions or anything- just super helpful for getting a feel for the school and asking questions of specific faculty/students in specific departments.
The food was really good-- an international flavor-- buffet style with different ethnic foods in each corner of a large room in the UC.</p>
<p>On sunday the regular sleeping bag weekend starts-- you can attend those info sessions – but you get the same materials to you at COD on Saturday afternoon in a smaller setting. Sunday my host took me all over campus and we had brunch at the schatz…monday classes - and I hooked up with my parents then and went home. They also went to the reception on saturday night— but we had an agreement not to connect there…thought that was best. I think fewer than half the cod students came with parents-- but CMU pays for flying COD students in with a demonstrated financial need…we drive - I live in DC area and stopped at other schools in Phillie along the way…</p>
<p>all history now-- but don’t miss the weekend if you can make it-- it was helpful for me and sealed my interest in CMU! The fit was there-- and I knew it by the end of the first day on campus…</p>
<p>Good luck everyone- maybe see you next fall!</p>
<p>Thanks for you updates CMUGUY. It is good to hear positive things about Sleeping Bag Weekend. </p>
<p>This weekend will be a good chance for my husband, son and me to get first glimpse of Case/Cleveland and CMU campuses (and some family in Columbus too). I’ve been feeling bad because we accidentally booked the Thurs night flights in conflict with a jazz band concert… but I did not want to forfeit the tickets and loose this opportunity.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the above feedback and hints! </p>
<p>We enjoyed our visit to CMU Sleeping Bag Weekend. It is VERY well organized, with events for students and parents. At Sunday buffet lunch, there was a shortage of seats. We sent our son off to find his own seat with students, and we did not talk with him (other than in passing, and coincidentally in some of the same info sessions) until Monday afternoon. </p>
<p>There were tours and info sessions on Sun and Mon. On Monday there was also a detailed class listing allowing the students to drop into any classes that interested them. </p>
<p>My son was in a group of 8 sent with on host to stay in his suite. There was an evening party and a lot of time to talk with other students. At this particular weekend there were a LOT of engineering students. </p>
<p>It seemed like there is plenty of music for non-music majors (one of my concerns). There is a “Scotch and Soda” drama group for non drama majors, but one person commented that not as much opportunity on campus as there would be for amatuer musicians.</p>
<p>Food gets good reviews, but their system is geared toward food courts and coffee shops (instead of traditional dining hall idea). </p>
<p>The campus is urban, but seemed more self-contained than our other urban campus tour at Case (I added updates in the Case discussions too.)</p>
<p>Colorado_mom, did you guys stay at the hotel in Oakland (I think it’s a holiday inn, but it might be a mariott, I forget)? If so, you got a much different picture of the CMU campus than you would if you had stayed further up Forbes Ave in Squirrel Hill or Shadyside. During the time I lived on that side of the school it didn’t feel very urban (it felt more like living in the center of a medium sized town). Whereas when I lived in North Oakland it felt much more like city-living.</p>