Welcome new freshmen parents! Reserve the date!
Here is schedule from previous year: https://parents.sa.ua.edu/programs/family-weekend/schedule/
2017 schedule will be out later this spring.
I know this gets debated a lot. But, in your opinion, should we parents wait until homecoming? Apparently it was extremely hot at last year’s football game during parents weekend and some recommend waiting until homecoming to go visit for various reasons.
Personally I go down for 1 game each season -
I went to parents weekend one time, homecoming one time, and Iron Bowl/Thanksgiving weekend twice
I’m glad I went to parents weekend once to have the experience, but I’d talk to your student about how important it is to them and how much time they’ll have available (especially if they will be joining a fraternity or sorority).
I’d also ask your student if they’re interested in attending any of the events before buying tickets - I bought a ticket for all the events and the only thing we wound up doing was the brunch before I left town as my son wasn’t interested in going to any of the other events.
Also, I would recommend not buying the football tickets that are sold through the school - since parents weekend is not a high demand game, you can get much better seats for the same money or even less.
I went to parents weekend when my daughter was a freshman, but haven’t been since. In subsequent years I’ve gone down for Homecoming and/or another game. Homecoming this year will be a conference game, so it should be a much better game than the non-conference game during parents weekend. Homecoming also has the parade and all the lawn decorations on sorority row, which are fun to look at. The temperatures should also be lower. I didn’t think any of the parents weekend events were must-dos. And for anyone who is not interested in football, coming during a non-football weekend will be cheaper and less crowded. That said, I think the most important thing is coming at a time that works for your student. If you think they’ll be missing you (or more likely that you’ll be missing them) by parents weekend, maybe that’s the right time to come. If they won’t make it home until winter break, you might want to space it out so you see them more in the middle of the semester.
Registration starts tomorrow, May 16th, @ 10 am: https://parents.sa.ua.edu/programs/family-weekend/
…and, apologies, should have named this thread “Family Weekend” (it’s not just for parents!). Enjoy!