Parents weekend is totally overrated. It’s crowded, hotels jack up their prices, and other than one event at my D’s honors college that last 30 minutes, we could have passed on all the rest. There are better times to visit campus.
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I don’t even think very many parents go to them.
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We are going because we have a companion pass on SWA and I have so many hotel points from not traveling last year. It’s also around S21’s 18th bday so we wanted to do a belated bday celebration. I don’t plan on going in subsequent years.
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Texas Tech’s Parents Weekend is Oct 22-24, which of course is smack in the middle of marching band season for Thing 1 & Thing 2 lol…we will have a marching contest that Saturday and your girl here is Band Booster president for 2021-22 so yea, don’t think I’m going to make it to Lubbock that weekend… I think S21 will be fine 
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We are leaving D at Colgate for fall break. We left S at Bowdoin for his. I’m sure campus will be more quiet but it will be fine. It’s dumb to fly them home and then see them for family weekend two weeks later. For S, he was just fine. Had a ton of homework and just relaxed on campus.
Just reread your post and you’re talking about not attending family weekend. I think that’s fine too! It’s really just programming on Friday and Saturday. He’ll be ok!!
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Are you assuming that state flagships are less selective? Because that’s definitely not the case in a lot of states.
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My kids have always wanted to be with friends for fall break and spring break, so I just assume we won’t see them!
A lot of freshmen at Bowdoin just go home for fall break if they are from the NE. They don’t know enough kids to travel somewhere together at that point. S19 didn’t know anyone else who stayed very well so he was pretty much by himself those four days but it was fine. Caught up on sleep. Did homework. We were there ten days later for parents weekend.
For my oldest, who just graduated, we never attended parents’ weekend and she flew home for the Christmas winter break only. Thanksgiving didn’t seem worth it, especially given the fact that there were no non-stops and transfers typically involved airports in regions with bad winter weather. She did fine. She spent Thanksgiving and fall and spring breaks with friends. For Parents’ Weekend, the parents of her friends included her in various activities, including restaurant meals. It will all be fine!
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I was responding to @2Devils, whose flagship accepted 90% of the apps from their high school.
But, my thinking on changing to the flagship at this point in the summer - for a student who had already been admitted to the flagship but originally chose to attend elsewhere - isn’t about selectivity but about enrollment level. If the school is at or under enrollment for the class, i.e. they have room, it seems likely that the flagship would allow the accepted student to enroll now. If they’re overenrolled, then it’s less likely they’d allow the student to enroll now.
It could be finances or doesn’t want to be far from home which could be nerves or a serious family issue.
As for late accepting a spot, we received a weird email from U of Arizona about making sure my D sent her IB/AP scores so she could get credit. She already withdrew from there, so it was really weird. The last paragraph of the email said something about click here and check out you deposit options, and sure enough they were fine with her depositing in June after withdrawing in March.
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Question about health insurance- is the only need for the insurance through the schools if your own insurance doesn’t cover your child out of state?
Are there other reasons to have the school health insurance?
Our coverage follows my daughter wherever she goes, so when she started college we declined the school’s coverage. She came to wish she had the school’s insurance because of the massive inconvenience factor. Her school has in-house doctors and nurses and physical therapists, but none took our insurance. The doctor she was assigned by our insurance was a pain to get to and specialists ended up being far enough away that she deferred care her first semester. If you can afford it, I can see situations for sure where getting it would still make sense regardless of coverage from a parent.
I took a little break from CC and have now caught up with what you all are doing. Congrats to all the grads! My daughter’s school was able to have an outdoors, distanced, but in person graduation ceremony which was beautiful but also left me a little sad. Her HS was wonderful and I’m sorry she wasn’t able to get the full benefit of it due to COVID. But mostly it hit me that yes, she really is leaving home and the empty nest awaits. It will be a big adjustment to go from full time mom to texting mom and I have very mixed feelings about it.
She had one final AP to wrap up last week and is now getting excited about going to college. She’s enjoying learning more about other admitted students on social media, and has been proactive about turning in forms, housing questionnaires, etc. Her future classmates look like nice, interesting people, without the intimidation factor you sometimes see online. She’s having the college match her for a roommate. We’ve made travel arrangements on Southwest so we’ll have plenty of baggage allowance. However, she’s not particularly fussy about the contents of her dorm room, to the point of being happy to take linens that we already own. So I’m hoping for a more minimalist approach to bringing stuff, if only to promote harmony between her and her future roommate!
@dar222 In most cases you can get a waiver for the college’s health care plan if you are satisfied with the coverage from your family plan. Your child should be able to access the campus clinic for routine matters even if you decline the school’s plan. But it’s always a good idea to check the particulars at your kid’s school.
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Does any one know anything about Federal loans? I am trying to help my sons friend since parents do not know how colleges work in the US. He needs to take the federal loan, he only qualified for unsub loans, his award letter said $2k but he wants the full amount. Does he contact the school FA office and say he wants the full amount or he can only take what is in his award letter?
The selective schools will have waitlists to draw from. The schools struggling with enrollment (and I teach at one) will keep accepting apps. I’m sure all of our kids are still getting random emails from colleges asking them to apply even at this late date! Can you imagine applying to a new school at this point?
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Yes, contact the school’s FA office, they can help. He can take $5,500 unsubsidized loan regardless of what the award letter says (assuming he filed FAFSA).
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One of my S’s baseball teammates (2021 grad) committed to and enrolled in a selective Midwest LAC often mentioned here on CC about 4 weeks ago!
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Wow, that’s unusual for them to have roster spots open so late in the game. Someone must have bailed. My daughter still gets recruiting emails from small schools (volleyball). She even got one today!
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Because of the pandemic, this has been a strange recruiting year, with many late commits! So happy for this kid too!
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