<p>My daughter has been invited to the Philly Area Special Reception. I have read on CC that these special receptions are worthwhile. </p>
<p>We are having trouble deciding whether or not go though, because (1) It is being held over an hour and a half from our house on a school night, (2) My daughter is definitely attending UA in the fall of 2014, and (3) With a son currently a sophomore at UA, we feel we already know a lot about the university.</p>
<p>Not having been to one of these receptions, though, we don’t know what will take place there. Would my daughter benefit from attending? Of course, we would love to spend time with other members of the Bama family, but… Suggestions anyone? Thanks so much!</p>
<p>When you arrive, your student is given a name tag with her name (and sometimes hometown name or school name, depends on the recruiter).</p>
<p>You will be given many UA brochures.</p>
<p>There is food and drink (non-alcoholic, although some receptions are held in hotels that have bars and I have seen parents buy drinks at the bar and bring them into the reception). </p>
<p>The program will have a UA parent speaker, a current UA student speaker, a speaker to introduce the guest speaker (sometimes this is an alum, sometimes it’s a CC parent who is great at many things but not public speaking). The guest speaker varies but is usually a dean of something. If there are not technical difficulties, there will be a UA slideshow while the talks are going on or before.</p>
<p>After the talks you can mingle and/or wait in line to talk to the dean or the UA recruiter or whomever you like.</p>
<p>The student will receive a free t-shirt (they are white this year) and a lanyard after the presentation.</p>
<p>The receptions are worthwhile, but it’s your decision to attend or not. It is really more of a sales talk, but you may meet other parents/students from your area (good contacts for travelling partners and/or ride sharing).</p>
<p>Between 60 and 90 minutes, with maybe another half hour to 45 minutes afterwards when people are line to ask their questions. Of course, you can leave as soon as the talks are over if you like.</p>
<p>There also might be in attendance a regional rep (who the local rep reports to) and/or an honors college rep. Feel free to talk to anyone there in a name tag - even if they were not speakers. That’s what they are there for.</p>
<p>I would go if I were you. I’m guessing you would probably not hesitate with this decision if this were your first to go off to UA and you knew little about the experience. Your D deserves this moment to cement her decision to go to UA, just like your S has. Enjoy!</p>
<p>I think it depends on your D. Does she want to go/have time to go? I greatly enjoyed the reception I went to (and we travelled about 90 minutes in ugly Chicago rush hour traffic to get there), but my D was fairly neutral about it. She’s shy and not the type to engage with other prospective students she didn’t know or to go speak with the faculty/other UA reps there. She was undecided at the time, and the reception did not push her toward UA, even though I don’t think it could have been done much better. It just wasn’t the type of event that appealed to my kid.</p>
<p>We went to the Houston reception during her junior year before we visited the campus and went her senior year after she had already been accepted.</p>
<p>Both times we talked to faculty, our recruiter, and senior year, we met several women who kindly provided recommendations for sorority recruitment.</p>
<p>It was exciting. We love being part of the BAMA Nation and would willingly go every year.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone! My daugther had said if it is more a recruitment event, she isn’t interested in going, so I have already canceled our rsvp… but I will talk to her about this again. We definitely do not want to “short change her”. Right now she is a bit preoccupied with planning her huge shopping trip when we visit Bama next week for Thanksgiving. :)</p>
<p>Alrighty - We are going! ROLL TIDE! We might not speak to anyone, but just being around the Bama Nation (as TXArchitect said above) ought to be exciting.</p>
<p>^^^ Cuttlefish, we enjoyed the reception. It went as Class2012Mom said it would. Dr. Whitaker, from the engineering school, spoke. I don’t remember the names of the others who spoke, but they were all from our area and did a great job. As I listened to the parent speak, I kept nodding my head. I agreed with everything she said…I could have given that speech! :)</p>
<p>ProudBamaMama: Thanks for the update! So glad that you and your D enjoyed the reception. I have been to a total of 3 of them. Two receptions with D1 who is at Bama now and one with D2; she’s a junior. So I get to go to one more next year. I enjoy the speeches and the yummy food. The kids love the attention and the feeling of being wanted by Bama. I hope your D enjoys her senior year. :)</p>
<p>It’s a nice reception, but it’s more like a salespitch to prospective students than an information session. Since your daughter is already definitely planning on enrolling in UA, she really wouldn’t get anything out of attending.</p>
<p>Sunshine341 - I agree that it was more of a sales pitch, but my duaghter did enjoy herself there. Since we live so far away from UA, it was great to be among the UA family…feel the pride, spirit and love for the school. :)</p>
<p>Some people might think that these receptions are a “sales pitch” but I have been to more than a few and each time I welcome the chance to meet students and their parents. Every time and I do mean every time, I learn something new about UA. It is a great place to get the very latest news about the university.</p>
<p>robotbldmom - Trust me… We are very glad we went! I loved talking with the parent representative and several others who are parents of current students. We also enjoyed sharing what we already know about the university with parents and their children while we stood in line for refreshments. Our local recruiter joked that when she visited our HS, my daughter surprised her with all she knew…She said that in the future she could skip our HS and let my daughter do the recruiting! What fun!</p>
<p>^^^Sorry, reread my post, I didn’t mean to imply that you thought it was a sales pitch, just wanted to let others know that these events can be very informative and not just a “hard” sell.</p>
<p>Glad that you enjoy these events because I know that the reps and the university work really hard to make these special and to make the students feel wanted. :)</p>
Right now she is a bit preoccupied with planning her huge shopping trip when we visit Bama next week for Thanksgiving. :)</p>