<p>Hi folks -</p>
<p>Parents of an out-of-state student accepted to the class of 2018. </p>
<p>Very taken by SMCM on our visit, but have read comments about it being a 'suitcase school' (i.e. - it empties out on the weekend). Given SMCM's remote location, this is not a plus.</p>
<p>Any & all first-hand insight welcome.</p>
<p>Just wanted to post for the record that it does not empty on the weekends. Yes some kids go home on occasion but not every weekend. Most kids stay for the weekend. </p>
<p>Your student needs to talk to students there about that. As to how empty a school gets on weekends, if the school has things for the kids to do on weekends, are all relevant issues when a school can’t depend upon the surroundings to take up the slack. There are Facebook groups and other social media where your student can get a feel for what it’s like there.</p>
<p>Some of the least expected schools shut down weekends. Some of them are in major cities are near them and just let the kids go off campus. My kids schools were that way. I was aghast as to what shuts down on campus on weekends. Only a snack shop and cafeteria at a huge school was open, the buildings all shut down. The school didn’t do squat for most of the weekend. And it was not a school one would think of as a suitcase school But a lot of the kids did live within an hour of the school and there were resources in the surroundings so the school did not provide much at all except as show on parent weekends or other such times.</p>