<p>Do you continue to attend this event for all 4 years? Or did you do it for the freshmen and sophomore years only? I guess a lot depends on how often you see your student,and how close to home the campus is?</p>
<p>Attended freshman year for S2. Not attending this year. We’ll make the drive on another fall weekend, just to see a football game, take him to lunch and replenish supplies. It makes no difference to him whether we show for Parents’ Weekend, so we’ve chosen to avoid the hassle and mobs.</p>
<p>For S1 who was at college 2500 miles away, we never attended a Parents’ Weekend, but did make a family visit winter of his sophomore year.</p>
<p>Is your S2 at Villanova?</p>
<p>Like Archiemom…we went to ONE parents weekend for our first kiddo. To be honest…after that he was busy those weekends, so we didn’t go. BUT we did see him about once a month (went to music concerts).</p>
<p>DD was 3000 miles away. We dropped her off freshman year and then went to graduation. No parents weekend (we might have gone ONCE but hers was the thurs/fri before President’s Day weekend in February and I couldn’t take off work.</p>
<p>We also only went to D1’s freshman year parents weekend. We went to her dance performance or a random weekend when the campus wasn’t so busy. It’s a small town with a large student body,it’s very hard to get hotel rooms whenever there is a spacial event. We had to book a place for graduation 1.5 year ahead.</p>
<p>qdogpa: yes</p>
<p>And actually, more than distance, I think attending Parents’ Weekend would depend on how much emphasis the student put on it. Neither of our sons really cared when or if we visited them on campus.</p>
<p>Thought so,our D1 is also a student there…</p>
<p>We live 20 minutes away,so we see her whenever she wants us to,lol…thinking of passing on Parents weekend,and attend more 'Nova hoops games</p>
<p>No - there was no point to. My kids were usually too busy and it was better for all of us to arrange a visit on some other weekend when the campus and surrounding areas were less crowded and the kid not as busy with projects, etc.</p>
<p>We didn’t ever go with our oldest. It’s a long drive - they weren’t doing anything that interested us and we knew our son didn’t care about seeing us. We went last year for our younger son, but partly to combine it with a visit to my Mom. She came with us and saw the campus heard a few talks and we took our kid out to lunch. He didn’t have time for more. The main reason we wanted to go was to suss out the Global Leadership Institute since we knew at that point that our son was planning to get money from them to travel in Pakistan and India. (Yes the guy running that place is every bit as charismatic as we expected!) Haven’t decided whether we’ll go back this year.</p>
<p>I have never been and don’t feel that I missed anything. The hotels gouge on that weekend and I absolutely refuse to pay $300 a night for a Holiday Inn with a 2 night minimum. There oughta be a law! I visit my D’s school more than most but prefer quieter weekends.</p>
<p>We went Freshman year and it was a nice time to meet her new friends and their parents. It was nice to be able to put a face on the names of the people I would hear about. The next year she had joined a sorority and they had a things for the parents like a scholarship brunch at the house cooked by their chef. Awards were given out during the event, so it was nice to have all of the parents there together. Junior year she was abroad, but we will go back this year again. We do live driving distance which makes this easier, and since she has a car with her, she usually comes home for visits more than we go up there so going up there for the weekend is not a big deal.</p>
<p>We will go this year for my dd freshman year and will decide on futures years after our experience this time.</p>
<p>We are not planning to go this first year mostly because our DS really doesn’t care. Plus flying from Calif to Penn for a crazy, busy 2 day weekend doesn’t sound very interesting as well as having to pay FULL price for any hotel near by (no discounts for parent weekend). If DS changes his mind or wants us to come another time, we will (no matter the cost). DS will be home for Christmas (my requirement LOL).</p>
<p>We went for freshman year with S2 and S3; while it was nice to meet a few other parents, it didn’t make any difference otherwise, except that tickets to the campus theatre and football games were scarce. And the hotels are twice the price… I’d say, go for freshman year so your child will know he’s loved, and from then on, go for a nice fall weekend when you have a good reason to be in the area.</p>
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That is exactly what our son recommended. This past year we went to a game on the Saturday of spring break and then brought him home. This year we’ll try to get down for a couple of games cause we’re more of a bball family than football.</p>
<p>My kids have never been into that sort of thing, which is just fine with us! We have visited campus for performances and just to visit on ordinary weekends or vacation days, though. We do go for all the hoopla at graduation, though.</p>
<p>Did not go freshman year, will not go any other year. What’s the point? We live across country with limited funds, so can only visit once a year. I would much rather schedule that visit when it is convenient for me and for my child, rather then when the university dictates. It is so much more fun planning a weekend of sightseeing, dining out and shopping with my D than attending lectures and speeches on campus. (Plus her school does not have a football team!)</p>
<p>I only attended D1’s freshman year.</p>
<p>Never went to a parents weekend.</p>
<p>Parent of a rising sophomore here. We had an absolute blast at parents weekend. The college arranged fabulous concerts and lectures, most of which our kid didn’t attend with us, but we enjoyed thoroughly. </p>
<p>We also live 2000 miles from the college and can do, at most, one visit. If it works out, I’d make it parents weekend again. There is enough other “parent” stuff to do that it takes the pressure off the kid to feel like she needs to spend time with us–which made her far more fun to be with when we actually did spend time with her.</p>