<p>Hello,</p>
<p>My son is a freshman at RPI, and I'd like to know what activities people recommend we attend for Family Weekend. Are the meals on campus fun or should we plan to eat off campus? What about the other activities? Some parents have recommended we visit another weekend. Any advice from current or format students or parents? We already have hotel reservations, but we haven't purchased plane tickets. We will likely make the 7ish hour drive assuming we go.</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>My son is a current sophomore and last year we had planned on attending some of the activities but ended up letting him decide when we got there what he wanted to do. He was a bit tired from all the studying and he’s not the type that goes for the planned activities and dinners so we ended up being off campus most of the time. The weather that weekend wasn’t great as we were on the edge of the fluke snowstorm that dumped the east coast with a lot of snow. I think he just really enjoyed spending time with us and having some down time staying in the hotel. We went to his favorite restaurants for meals and to the mall shopping and he did take us on a tour of campus and showed us around. It was a wonderful weekend. So no matter what you end up doing, I think they just appreciate that you are able to be there.</p>
<p>My S is a senior and we went when he was a freshman and sophomore.</p>
<p>You might enjoy a tour of EMPAC and we liked the International Festival early Saturday afternoon.</p>
<p>I think someone messed up, as there are usually hockey games on Friday and Saturday nights, but none this year. You could try the football and women’s hockey on Saturday afternoon.</p>
<p>We always skipped the meals at the school and ate on our own.</p>
<p>Not as many parents there as I would have expected. That surprised me.</p>
<p>We always enjoyed the Family Weekend. But then, we always enjoy visiting the school, as we like it so much.</p>
<p>We attended the family weekend my sons freshman year and were very disappointed. We were excited to go to the International Festival and try food from different cultures, but since there are not a lot of events going on the festival was so crowded we could barely move. We ended up leaving without trying any food at all. We had signed up for the Tuscany dinner so we went out shopping to kill time. The dinner was good, but it was so crowded that we only went through the line once for food, then the time was up for the next seating. It would have been a very nice event as they sat you at big tables so conversations would have been nice, but music was playing and you had to yell to be heard. If you go just expect crowds and plan to find a quiet place to hang out where your child can tell you about their college life.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone. I think we will skip the dinners on campus, as my son has no interest in going to them. We want to go to the honors convocation and just make sure he’s alive. It sounds like there will be no particularly good games to go to, so we will probably just take him out to dinner and hang out.</p>
<p>1-Go to a hockey game. The Club team plays Friday 10/19 at 7pm and they are always looking for fans. I think the women play Saturday. Hockey is a big part of RPI though I am biased as my son plays on club team.</p>
<p>2-Food, get off campus quickly. There is no good food on campus. Defazios pizza is good pizza and Italian and Dinasour BBQ is also good.<br>
The Wine Bar and Bistro on Lark is worth the trip if you want to venture a little further. Its is an ecelectic area with lots of good choices.</p>
<p>3-Apple picking can be fun. Bowmans orchard is nearby</p>
<p>4-Talk to your son/daughter to see if they have visited career center yet. never too soon to start looking for a summer internship.</p>
<p>Thanks for the tips. We have reservations at Dinosaur already. I’m trying to keep from nagging this weekend, but will remind him about the career center.</p>
<p>@1214mom - I totally hear you about the nagging. As parents we have so many suggestions don’t we? We just want them to put the best odds in their favor and we have so many years of experience to help them out with right? I am laughing while writing this because I can’t stop nagg…no no I mean I can’t stop suggesting either.</p>