<p>Our son has received his Offer of Admission to USMA.
He plans on scheduling an overnight visit soon. He's been on a couple of day-trips to WP, but not an official orientation tour. My question is about a "parents' orientation visit"; do they offer such an informational tour for parents.</p>
<p>We still have dozens of questions (by the way, this forum has been very helpful these last couple of weeks; Thanks!) and need to physically see the place where our son will be living and learning for the next four years.</p>
<p>How do we schedule our visit? Can it be done while he's on his overnight visit? Should he schedule both an overnight and a daily visit? (We're fairly local enough to do that.) Is it just a walking tour or do they speak with the parents?</p>
<p>Son is very focused, confidant and well informed about his decision to attend WP. However, he's also only 17; so his questions may not be the same as ours. We would appreciate hearing from other like-minded adults and concerned (and VERY proud) parents.</p>
<p>Your son needs to schedule an overnight visit. I don't think another day visit is necessary. Your son's Regional Commander can give him the contact details for the lady who schedules the visits. You should accompany him to the admissions office when he reports for his overnight visit. Parents are given a briefing by a cadet and admissions personel and also a tour of the facilities. There will be plenty of opportunity to get your questions answered while your son is off on his visit (and hopefully getting his own questions answered).
Good luck and congratulations to your son!</p>
<p>We went last week. D did an overnight visit starting Monday at 8 AM and ending around 1 PM Tuesday. The visit started with a joint info briefing and video for parents and candidates together. The candidates were picked up by their hosts around 9:30 AM. Then a firstie cadet came in and held another info session with just the parents followed by a campus tour. Parents session ended around noon and you can have lunch there if you like. Since we went on a Monday we got to witness the weekly parade (formation?) before lunch. I went over to the visitors center at that point and picked up a 1:30 bus tour of WP. The visitor's center itself is worth an hour and there is a cool military museum behind it. You can easily fill the entire day. </p>
<p>The admissions office is right next to the Cadet store where you can shop for T-shirts, etc.</p>
<p>I was really eager for her to have the experience because I think she has this romantic/idealistic thing going on if you know what I mean.</p>
<p>She loved it. Her hostess was a bubbly, upbeat young lady - and a plebe. She went to language, psychology, math classes, worked out in the gym and got her own bed because there was a 3rd empty bed in the room. She said the instructors were terrific and welcoming. She said they got yelled at, as expected (although they are supposed to go easy on plebes hosting candidates) but that there is an undercurrent of humor in the 'hazing'. There was a bit of drama going on at the time so my daughter got to see how the girls rally together and actually be a part of that. It was more of a typical college experience than d thought it would be. The first words out of her mouth when I got her back were "I can definitely see myself here".</p>
<p>For me, I visited last summer for SLS so had seen the campus. I am always struck by the history and tradition of the place and how many of our best leaders walked those beautiful grounds. Our tour guide was a company leader (forgive me for not knowing the lingo) so he had a unique perspective. He introduced us to the head boy - I think there is another name for it - who was very pleasant and offered to answer any of our questions. D was the only girl in this group of about 10 visiting candidates. The other parents were from NY, PA, MI, TN, CO, etc.</p>
<p>I thought the program was very well run for both candidates and parents. I do advise those who want to visit to get on it right away. We wanted Monday-Tuesday so we could travel on Sunday and had to go about a month out to get an available slot.</p>