7 in one sunny state.
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Right after graduating college, I actually spent a summer in Nagoya pursuing an internship. Nice city, although somewhat over shadowed by Osaka and Tokyo. If I recall correctly, Nagoya U has a pretty campus.
Hope your D/S22s are successful with their Japan college applications, @baerli and @Evie800!
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Name checks out
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13 in one state
(CA, all UCs & CSUs.)
We really should have had him apply to 4 or 5 schools, but I sort of panicked as he was finishing his applications and added more schools than weâd considered before. His top choice is a reach (he matches their admit stats, but the school is a reach for all CS majors, so itâs a reach) and his second choice is a strong match (bordering on safety, but I wonât go that far). Given that his second choice should be easier for him to get into than half the schools we applied him to, I have my feet firmly on the ground again and Iâm recognizing we paid a bunch of $70 fees for no good reason. I knew this in advance. Weâd talked about just 5 applications (ranging from a true safety to a true reach). But I had other family members
Encouraging more schools and all the talk about the low acceptance rates last year had me hedging bets in a major way. I started thinking, âwhat if Iâm wrong and his second choice rejects him? Then what?!â So we over-applied.
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No, you did it just right. I mean, itâs prob just +/- a few CSUs and maybe a UC here and there. But like we all said, sometimes they have the weirdest decision across each admission office so you never know. You are playing it safe!
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Dropping in from 2021. For the parents who have kids who have made their decisions w/ admissions in-hand, I recommend looking at the academic calendar for next year and checking when move in timing is. Most hotels are refundable and you donât get charged (donât booked the advanced purchase package). I would go reserve hotels now. I know when my son moved in, I was sitting pretty. Other parents couldnât find hotels nearby. This is especially hectic when you have a city that has a few colleges in the same vicinity. I have 3 different date ranges booked for move in this year already.
A lot of times, airlines have bookings with points (if you have them) where if you change or cancel, the points get re-deposited back. I reco that if you book flights closer to move-in date but asap. Easier to change and you donât lose $ with points.
And as spring appears, itâs a good time to buy winter clothes and boots on sale for kids who are planning to attend colleges in cold and frigid weather.
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Thanks so much for the advice! I booked hotels for move in and family weekend:)
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For those who live within relatively easy driving distance is there any reason to stay overnight? I assume not? What about parentsâ weekend? Is that really a two day thing at most schools where we will want to stay overnight even if we live only 90 minute drive?
I think it really depends on the schoolâs programming (how interested are you in football?) and your own goal in visiting. Honestly with our eldest, we did not go to parentâs weekend but opted to go a week earlier or later (depending on her schedule) so hotels were cheaper and restaurant waits shorter. We were less interested in seeing the school and more interested in seeing HER. By going at a different time, we were also able to take her and her friends to breakfast so got to meet them (as they were free and not with their parents). This pertains to parentâs weekendâŠ
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@advitha My D18 is at ASU and while she was accepted at higher ranked colleges, she received a full scholarship and has loved it there. Sheâs an education major and has had a very fulfilling experience with great mentors and professors. Sheâs a small town kid who doesnât party, but found her crew with a Scrabble Team that also goes to all the football games. Her freshman dorm shared the cafeteria with the brand new engineering dorm and she said itâs an amazing space. I think it was built in 2017 and was specially designed to house the engineering students so it has all kinds of amenities that engineering students would appreciate. I think itâs an excellent option for any student who is self-driven and wants a large state university setting.
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@s318830 We ended up doing the same thing. S22 had 5 schools on his list initially, then we decided that maybe the safeties and targets were not as safe as we thought as we heard stories from friends of the 2021 cycle so we started adding more and more to the list and ended up with 15! S22 got deferred from a target school that he applied to EA so we are pretty worried about the news to come in March. 
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No football at Vassar 
Because itâs not super far I expect I could also go down to take her to lunch at least once a semester. But I wouldnât want to drive back & forth on both Saturday and Sunday on parentsâ weekend - but not sure Iâd be interested enough in all the activities to spring for a hotel room & have to find someone to walk/feed my dogs, etc. I guess Iâll play it by ear freshman year & my guess is Iâll probably skip parentsâ weekend in future years. Thanks.
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I think it was built in 2017 and was specially designed to house the engineering students so it has all kinds of amenities that engineering students would appreciate.
I have to ask - what kinds of amenities would engineering students appreciate? 
Underfloor heating and Japanese toilets?
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@froggerw Starbucks and Wifi! Lol. But this is from the dorm website:
The âdorm built for engineersâ features on-site digital classrooms, state-of-the-art makerspaces complete with 3D printers, and laser cutters and soldering tools needed for a broad range of engineering courses and projects. Tooker House is fully Wi-Fi accessible with enough bandwidth to accommodate four devices per resident.
Engineers like to see how things work. Thatâs why much of the buildingâs infrastructure has been purposefully exposed so that students may study the electrical, plumbing, HVAC and other primary systems within the building.
Outside, students can learn from the buildingâs most striking feature, hundreds of vertical perforated louvers on the south façade. Each is positioned according to a sophisticated algorithm, ensures daytime sunlight control unique to each windowâs location.
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I donât think you have to stay overnight. We moved a kid 2615 miles away (thank you, Southwest Airlines for two free checked bags per person!) so that was necessary. For Family Weekend, S21âs school had things that ran to about 7pm and I wanted to participate (Soledad OâBrien speaking will get me to sign up any time!). They had late night events, etc. It was a fun weekend for us. We also learned that our kid had his own life and schedule so some days, it was better to spend time with him later in the PM. For moving in, I donât think you have to stay overnight. Worst case, itâs only a drive away.
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@MommaLue - I saw your advice about hotel booking on another thread. Great advice. I just booked three sets of hotels for Cal Poly SLO (open house, Quarter plus drop-off, and regular drop-off) and one set of dates for CPP (regular drop-off). Iâll definitely have to cancel and modify dates depending on the results. Iâve set reminders in my calendar to pop up two weeks out to make sure I donât forget to cancel the ones I donât need.
@Evie800 - With that many schools (I feel yaâ!) Iâm sure you guys will have some great options. And your description of the Engineering dorm would have my son beyond ecstatic! Heâd love it all.
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Where is this?
ASU, I believe.
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