Coming in from CO with DS19 (interested in engineering) and DS20 (interested in STEM but not engineering) on Sunday 2/18-Monday 2/19. DS19 is working with admissions to set up his campus visit on 2/19. Any recommendations for actual campus visit? Any tips for Sunday afternoon and Sunday dinner? Thanks!
We have visited UAH and a few other schools with DS18. Our take is that we find he gets the best information talking with other students. At UAH we took a campus tour. We were put with a student majoring in what DS is considering and DS peppered him with questions which he gladly answered. Very informative.
I would also be sure to schedule with the engineering dept. he is interested in and see if he can get a glimpse of the labs etc there. Even asking if maybe there is a grad student who can take you. We have done that at other schools and they are a huge source of information!
Also try to make time to just hang out. That may be good to do Sunday afternoon. When DS went for the overnight visit, he was there a day before and hung out around campus. Went to the library and looked around, went into the rec center and looked around etc. Wander around campus with no set plan. Take your time eating and people watch.
When we were there in the summer, we were taking some pictures (I’m a picture person!) and a guy came up and offered to take a family shot. He turned out to be a grad student who worked in student housing there. He was so friendly and told us lots of info about UAH. He had done his undergrad at Mississippi State and also told us about his thoughts of MSU! So friendly and we got some good insights on UAH and MSU!
I would also be careful to not over schedule. We have made that mistake. Had one appointment after another and when they run over their time limit, we found ourselves almost running across campus to get to the next one. Very stressful!! We learned that sometimes less is more. For instance, I really didn’t need to talk to the admissions people. DS is going to get admitted since he is not applying to reach schools and you can get most info you might need online or email, so no need to have that in the schedule. Use your on site time to do things you can’t do remotely.
I think going OOS, it is very important that DS really feels like he can live there for 4 years. He can’t come home for even a 3 day weekend, so being able to really wander the campus and hang out was very important to us.
Loved this for dinner - southern comfort food!
http://www.blueplatecafe.com/lunch-dinner.php
We spent a day at the space center and took the extra tour of the Redstone Arsenal.
We were able to attend a few meet and greets as we went on a Discovery Day. Learn about the Co-op and internship opportunities, this was valuable. We also met with the Dean of the Honor College, he was able to answer Dd’s questions and give us insight on the value of the honors program. Eat in the food court if possible. I think its important for the kids to know what to expect.
I really can’t wait to see the new dorm complex as it was under construction when we were there.
I second both the visit with the honors college dean and a visit – or two – to the food court. There are limited places to eat, so your child needs to make sure they are ok with what is in the main cafeteria.
As I said at another time, the honors college visit, along with attending a class and meeting afterward with the professor, convinced my daughter to choose UAH over a much larger, higher-ranked east coast university. She hasn’t regretted her decision at all.
Thanks for all of the insight! UAH checks off the academic and cost boxes for him so the focus would be on fit. If it remains high on his list, I would definitely have him do an overnight next year to make sure.
All this is good advice. Another thing I would recommend is that if he decides to go there, make a real effort to connect with potential suite mates. It makes a big difference. The Housing questionnaire is not very detailed, so it really doesn’t help much, so don’t count on that.
We did the housing reservation last night.
Very basic:
Smokers for suite-mates: Y or N
Cleanlines: Neat, casual or messy
Room temp: Above or below 72
and a question about night person vs morning person.
DD Ranked No Smoking/Smokers as her #1 and casual cleaner as #2 - as she said, she doesn’t want a neat freak or a slob, she wants someone who may be a bit messy but knows how to clean. She also doesn’t want the stink of a smoker. I smoked most of her life (always outside) and now that I don’t, I really can smell it and I gotta say, I don’t blame her for this request.
Due to a gap year and a late B-Day, DD is going to be almost 20 when school starts, I am really hoping that with her being in the honors college, she will get suite-mates with some maturity. Another reason I am so thankful for the separate rooms.
My son, who is now a senior at UAH, and his dad did a one-day visit during the second semester of his senior year in high school. He toured the campus, then he met with the department chairs for economics/finance/ accounting and mathematics. Wonderful visits. So I strongly encourage a meeting with a possible chair of the department in which your student could major in. Also, make sure you eat at the Cafe. If your student does not like the food now, he or she will not be crazy about it in the future. My son liked the food, but he admits that after four years, he also likes going off campus for lunch or dinner.