Naturally our student will be attending student orientation in August, but we’re wondering how important it is for us to attend the Family Orientation (for parents). The school charges $353 per person for the two days, which seems like quite a bit. (Alternatively, staying off-campus is a more reasonable $176 per person.) We’ve already visited the campus twice and toured once, plus attended Decision Day. Do you really get much additional info from the Family Orientation to make it worthwhile?
Don’t know about the orientation itself but we are staying in a hotel.
As a parent that attended when our son was a Freshman starting at UCD, my husband and I found it worthwhile. We were able to connect with many of parents (2 whom son’s roomed with my son Freshman year). Some of the material presented was redundant (could be found on the UCD website) but it helped us feel more comfortable sending our son 6 hours away to school. We had time to explore the downtown and the surrounding area and we were there also for moral support to our son whom was going to be living away from home for the first time and experiencing college life on his own.
The most important take away I got as a parent from the orientation was helping your student transition from HS to College and what that involved: such as not being the big fish in the small pond anymore, having to handle and understand finances, learning to make the right and/or wrong decisions on their own etc…
I happen to be an involved parent and I like to know everything that is going on (within reason), so worth it for me.
We also stayed in a local hotel while our son stayed in the dorms and the costs are definitely cheaper and much more comfortable. I happen to enjoy visiting Davis and over the last 4 years, we have made many trips to the school and area.
You have to decide what is best for your situation.
Thank you for the replies; I guess it IS a good idea for us to attend. It’s a six hour drive for us as well and naturally we’ll be concerned about our daughter in her first experience living apart from us. However she’s pretty independent and is understandably looking at this as a new step and a a big adventure in her life; she initially wanted us to just drop her off for the two days of student orientation. Until yesterday none of us realized that there’s also a parent/family orientation going on concurrently.
Time to book a motel for this and also for move-in weekend; they’ll probably fill up quickly. There are some good, affordable motels in nearby Dixon as well as west Sacramento.
I’m sure we’ll be making the journey up there many times over the next four years. We’re already getting to know the town, and some good places to eat (including the Dumpling House, which I think you pointed out in another thread @Gumbymom).
@LarryM: Definitely book ASAP for orientation and move-in weekend. My son graduates June 18 and we booked our hotel for that weekend a year in advance. If you find the orientation a bit too much, there is always wine tasting in downtown (Vini Wine Bar) or Putah Creek Wine Tasting room if you are into that. A nice stroll through the Arboretum or a drive over to Winters to explore their downtown.
Meh on parent’s orientation. I attended, but stayed in a hotel in Davis, and ended up leaving the orientation as much of it was common sense or info I could find on the the UC Davis website. Instead I explored the town of Davis. walked the campus and walked the Arboretum. I also ordered my D’s bike at Green’s Bike Depot, which nice because I was able to take my time and test out different bikes for my D, so that when she showed up, it took little time to purchase the bike which the owner stored for us for free until we picked the bike up during move in day. Two years later and the bike is still doing its job as my D’s mode of transportation. We also bought a very good bike lock which helped - a Kryptonite New York bike lock and registered the bike with the city so that when my D moved out after year 1, she was able to store her bike for the summer on campus for a nominal fee.
As for hotels, I started off staying in Davis, but then grew to like West Sacramento, which is just 10 minutes away from Davis and now stay there when I visit my D.