<p>Our daughter will be a new freshman this September. We are doing some travel planning, and were wondering if Parents' Weekend in October is a big deal. Do most parents attend? Any thoughts?</p>
<p>My experience (as a student at Chicago) has been that a large number of first-year parents come to Parents Weekend. Most students seem to be ready for and appreciate the visit from Mom and/or Dad at that point. Of course, plenty of parents don't come, but Parents' Weekend is certainly a noticeable event on campus.</p>
<p>There are good reasons to go to parents weekend:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>your kid may actually be ready for a visit by then.</p></li>
<li><p>you can meet the pres and key top administrators at a reception</p></li>
<li><p>you can meet your kid's advisor.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Believe it or not, UofC is one of few colleges that has a full time, 4 year dedicated professional advising staff. They are pros. My D's advisor has made a big difference in her college life, and helped with some problems. </p>
<p>We parents are not supposed to have much contact with the advising staff, but I can guarantee you that they would welcome relevant information from parents.</p>
<p>I could not agree more. Parents weekend was really done quite well. We especially enjoyed the faculty lectures they provided, which one can attend with or without one's kid. We attended with our S and it was great. S was very happy to see us, and us him.</p>
<p>As another posted it's a good time to come by as it's been in some cases about 6-8 weeks. Good for everybody. We participated once in some of the activities, but now we just visit our kid(s). Go out to a nice dinner, lounge by the pool, sit in the hottub and talk.</p>
<p>elgordo -
we had a wonderful time visiting last year - if your D has activities going on you will be able to visit the Oriental Institute and bookstores and so on. Be warned that some of the activities (e.g., the Robie House tour) fill up early. So - register soon if you want to do these activities.</p>
<p>Thanks! I will probably go, despite the great distance. Any idea when the details of the weekend will be posted? Thanks again.</p>
<p>You can check this site from time-to-time, there is an announcement at the bottom of the page.</p>
<p><a href="https://classof2010.uchicago.edu/%5B/url%5D">https://classof2010.uchicago.edu/</a></p>
<p>and here:</p>
<p><a href="http://familyweekend.uchicago.edu/%5B/url%5D">http://familyweekend.uchicago.edu/</a></p>