<p>how beneficial is it for parents to attend this event? its going to be really hectic around that time for my family</p>
<p>We attended both of our kids’ first parents weekend, but we didn’t attend any scheduled event. After the first year, we visited them when they had special event (recital) or on a quieter weekend. We enjoyed those visits a lot more. I didn’t get the impression that most parents showed up. We took quite a few of our kid’s friends out to eat.</p>
<p>My parents did my freshman year, but it’s definitely not a big deal. Find something going on at Cornell or in the Ithaca area a different weekend and have them come then. Applefest is a solid choice (I went with my parents sophomore year).</p>
<p>I think some of the kids felt sad that their parents weren’t there (we went), but coming another weekend is just as good. Parents can only do so much and obviously not everyone can be there on any given weekend. As it is, students are busy with school work on parents’ weekend. We were there, but our son had a lot of work to do.</p>
<p>We offered to come for parents weekend and our student was pleased that we could make it. It was great because we had all been pretty stressed out on accepted students day (very short visit to Ithaca) as well as on move-in day (we saw much more of Bed, Bath & Beyond and Target than Cornell)!
The parents weekend was lovely - the autumn weather was beautiful and we had a chance to go to classes, take part in parent activities, walk around the campus and attend a Cornell concert. We met our student’s friends and went out to dinner with them and their parents. Most of the students whose parents did not come were hanging out with each other - they appeared to be just fine.
We gave our student “space” on Friday and Saturday and left early Sunday afternoon. Our student did not have a car so we drove (again!) to Bed, Bath & Beyond, Target and Wegman’s to pick up forgotten/cumbersome items and stock up on food. We also brought our student’s winter wear and took back summer clothes.
As other posters have said, if you cannot make it, it is not the end of the world but if you are even thinking about attending parents weekend, I would make a reservation asap. We have found that it is usually easier to cancel than to find a room in Ithaca on big Cornell weekends but of course you should definitely confirm the cancellation policy with the hotel.</p>