<p>My husband and I will be near the campus for a wedding the same weekend as graduation. I have never seen the campus and would like to take a 20 minute detour and drive around campus. D considered the college but never visited, and S is several years from caring about colleges. CC folks speak so highly of the campus and students, and I figure while we are close we should take a few minutes and let me get a glimpse. </p>
<p>It would just be us parents, S will not be traveling for the wedding. Husband thinks I’m crazy to try to get on campus during graduation weekend.</p>
<p>How crowded and crazy will it be on campus that weekend? I am assuming there will be no parking spots, so we would just do a drive through. What can we see if we don’t even get out of our car? Is it worth a 40 minute drive round trip out of our way?</p>
<p>Driving around won’t cut it. Find a place to park and walk at least part of the campus (especially around the quad area/stadium/President’s Mansion/fraternity & sorority row/science & engineering complex). Otherwise you may leave wondering what all the hype was about. Drive over to the Riverwalk and check it out as well.</p>
<p>I don’t think you’re crazy at all. But please be patient.</p>
<p>It will be beautiful, but you won’t get (from that weekend, anyway) what everyone is talking about, as far as being a student there. You may even be turned off by the very things that would frustrate parents: some streets might be blocked off…kids will be moving out of dorms…it will be crowded and busy…it may be a mess traffic-/parking-wise. These are not things that should make you form an opinion of how great a school it is! Keep in mind it will be hot and humid as well (or maybe even raining on top of it!), and as stated, you will not be able to see much from a car seat, so do get out and walk around (prepared for the weather). I take it you are from quite far away? If this is your only chance to conveniently visit, then go for it. Besides, you will probably have some great, random experience that you will come back on here and tell us all about. ;)</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies, and I welcome any other comments. The hard realities of graduation/move out chaos are strong points that give my husband the right to say “let’s not do this.” It would be an 8 hour round trip for us to visit at another time, and I just don’t see us doing that. So my thought is “what the heck, let’s just zip over and take a quick look.” My curiosity might be satisfied, and since we are not in “college visit” mode, I don’t think the chaos would have a huge influence. </p>
<p>I guess it will end up depending on the timing of the wedding festivities, the weather, and how early we end up getting on the road. We are driving to the middle of nowhere to attend a wedding, a town that doesn’t have any hotels, motels, or even a bed and breakfast. So I was thinking a little traffic and chaos on campus might be a nice change of pace!</p>
<p>We would be in the area early Saturday afternoon, guessing 2 or 2:30, before heading to the wedding. Probably need to be finished and leaving campus 3:00 or 3:15 at the latest.</p>
<p>Well, we did something similar when son did a summer program in high school between sophomore and junior year. He was in Chicago, and we decided to drive up to Milwaukee, a 90 minute drive, to check out Marquette, since he was expressing an interest in it. We actually did a full tour of Marquette and met with the department, and even better, we got experience with traveling from Milwaukee to NOLA. On the way up, though, we drove through both Loyola University Chicago, another Jesuit college, and Northwestern. It was a great comparison of three different styles of universities, just to see the layout, ie, urban, streets going through, lots of Greek graffiti, crime, transportation. If you’re not likely to not get to the area again, why not? Funny story, my mom says when she and my dad were on their way to Georgia, they took the opportunity to drive through Bama’s campus. It would have been in the 70s. We grew up following Bear Bryant and Joe Namath, so I’m not surprised they wanted to do this. My mom still remembered how beautiful the campus was and was so happy her grandson was going to college at such a beautiful school.</p>
<p>Look up alternate routes around campus such as Jack Warner Parkway (River Road) instead of University Boulevard in the event University Boulevard is closed. Graduation happens in Coleman Coliseum, which is not in a part of campus where students would typically be. Since you’d be there on a Saturday park in a surface lot such as the one across from Publix and walk around the Quad and the Science and Engineering Quad. Bryant Denny Stadium has limited parking if you want to see the statues of Bear Bryant and other UA football coaches. Contrary to popular belief, the general public is allowed to walk on the grounds of the President’s Mansion unless there’s a special event. There’s also a chance that you could walk through the “schoolhouse doors” at Foster Auditorium.</p>
<p>If you have time, you could eat at Buffalo Phil’s on the Strip. </p>
<p>My husband is from Alabama, and his family is a mixture of U of A, Auburn, and U of Tennessee fans. It gets crazy around football time. I am from ACC college basketball country, so when I met my future husband at college he was shocked that I didn’t even know who Bear Bryant was.</p>
<p>I have been on probably 20 college campuses, large and small, public and private, etc. I guess I am looking to get an image in my head of what the campus looks like, not really trying to gauge the “vibe” or feel of the students on campus. So if I can talk my husband into it, we will swing onto campus and just see what we can see.</p>
<p>Good idea Malanai. Just remember folks that the vids are a little dated. For example, it doesn’t show the final phase of the SERC, nor of the new quad there.</p>
<p>Oh just do it - the campus is different every time, admitted student days, move out, spring weekends vs. football weekends. I’ve never been unable to get a spot in the Ferg parking deck, and you can definitely get a good idea of the school area. People visit during football season and this will definitely be more manageable than that. Have fun and don’t worry!</p>
<p>We did it…it was a gorgeous day to visit U of A, even with the graduation ceremonies. I was struck by the expanse of green grass and trees everywhere, and the wide open spaces between buildings. The parts of campus we got to see (stayed away from the Coleman Coliseum area) had beautiful buildings, loved the brick and the columns. The staircases at the College of Nursing were breathtaking to me (I know I have an odd sense of what is pretty, but they just don’t make sweeping staircases like that anymore.)</p>
<p>My husband was gracious about the college campus tour, and we even got out at the stadium and took his picture with the Bear Bryant statue. We got called just as we arrived on campus, seems no one bothered to tell us we needed to arrive an hour and a half early for photos at the wedding. So we didn’t get to spend a lot of time on campus, but I feel like I have a good image in my mind of the university.</p>
<p>Thanks to all of you for your replies. We have a few years before S needs to think about colleges, but my niece who got married yesterday graduated from U of A and tells us it was a great experience for her.</p>
<p>I must say that the weather for move-out weekend was superb! Cool-ish and sunny, compared to what it is normally like. I left town on Friday morning, and I must say that it didn’t seem as busy as it did the previous year. You picked a great weekend to see the campus! </p>
<p>The campus was beautiful this weekend! Everything was so green and the weather was perfect! We took my parents for our DD’s graduation. It was the first time in 40 years they had been and they loved it!</p>