UArts - Unbelievable 1st Few Days....-

College Majors Musical Theater Major
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<p>Hey Everyone...
(I wanted to post this in a new post to help everyone keep an open mind when deciding on schools. Although my D had some nice choices she never imagined that she would decide on more of an "arts type" school (having had high academics in H.S., although that does help with intellect & scholarships ;)). While other cities may be similar they may be more overwhelming compared to Philly.) </p>

<p>Just wanted to report that my D is having a ball during orientation week. While the orientation itself is not so exciting it is very well organized i.e. registration, dorm move-in, dorm meetings, opening ceremonies, family & student socials, dept. ceremony & meetings, laptop distribution & training, etc. etc. The apt. style dorm areas are very "artsy". This year has the largest in coming freshmans (the new President, from Harvard referred to himself as a freshman as well)....no wonder......the list of alumni is so huge....so much to do/see, many many many theatres, colleges, museums, stadiums, parks, history, shopping, restaurants....a lot of culture......location, location, location! :)
P.S. Although the M/T's will be extremely busy...it is nice to know that they are happy and will never be bored. ;)<br>
Also, CONGRATS & GOOD LUCK to ALL 2007 Freshmans @ ALL the universities/colleges/conservatories!!!! :)</p>

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<p>My daughter is also thrilled about these first few days at UArts. The MT students she has met have been warm, open friendly and full of laughter, excitement and energy. (Mainstage, I think our daughters may have met each other. My daughter tells me she has met 2 other students whose parent posts on this Board and that the 3 of them have been commiserating about their parent's "obsession" with this Board!:) ) A load of them are getting together tonight for dinner at a local Italian eatery at 15th and Locust. (Depending on the numbers, they can even get a large table in the kitchen and watch the "behind the scenes" nuttiness that goes on in the restaurant business.) I thought the move in went incredibly smoothly particularly when you consider that it occurred on the streets of a major city during a typical business day!</p>

<p>This is an exciting time not only in our daughters' lives but for all the freshmen MT students. My daughter has been in communication with many of her friends from the summer programs she attended, who are spread out across the east coast as they are moving into their schools. The feeling of excitement and anticipation is palpable. After the last year of varying degrees of stress, anxiety and such hard work, it's just nice to see and hear about so many kids that just have big grins on their faces. And for the parents of the rising seniors, you (and your kids) will get through this next year! Try to enjoy the unique experience of this process without getting too stressed out about the "end game" because odds are, regardless of where your kid ultimately ends up, when this time rolls around next year, your kid too will have a big grin on his or her face.</p>

<p>Congratulations to all the freshmen students and parents and best wishes for a rewarding and enriching year.</p>

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<p>Freshman enthusiasm stories are contagious: we dropped our D off at Muhlenberg on Friday, and well, sort of cheated. The parents were supposed to say good-bye by 1PM when students began their orientation activities. When we arrived in the morning and D got her schedule, she noted she had 'free' time betwen 7-9PM when the students had the option of meeting the campus chaplains. As much as we tried to squeeze all the shopping/errand running in between move-in and 1PM, we just didn't get everything done, despite being in line by 7:15AM to move in.</p>

<p>Since we traveled 770 miles to move D in, we had hotel reservations for both pre-move in night, and post-move in night, and decided we would come back after dinner to deliver items we'd forgotten on our first shopping trip.</p>

<p>So we parked in the visitor's parking circle, and began the short trek across the campus to her dorm, where she was waiting for us. As H and I were walking along the sidewalk, Target bags in hand, realizing we could have easily been busted as not having said goodbye to our kid at 1PM when everyone else did, some kid looked at us and said, "Bringing more supplies to your student?" I thought, "Oh, this is it, we've been busted and whoever this person is - and they were probably some student advisor or something, are going to tell us we have to leave." So we kind of kept our heads down and answered quietly, "Yes."</p>

<p>This kid goes on, with much inflection in his voice, "You know, this is a great school. Your kid is going to be so happy here. It's got everything going for it."</p>

<p>Me, realizing I haven't been busted, and realizing I will be saying goodbye to my D within the hour said, "Thanks for saying that; that's what we thought, but it's good to hear it from another student. What do you like specifically about it?" He says, "Oh, I'm just a freshman too, but I've just got great vibes about this place. It's going to be awesome here." </p>

<p>So yea, the comment might have carried more weight had it come from someone who had been there more than 10 hours, but it also gave me hope that the afternoon activities had gone well, and D would be found having a great time... which is exactly what happened when we got to her dorm room. She had already met some awesome people (cute boys included), bragged endlessly about her RA (and the RA's room), and was hitting it off big with her roommate.</p>

<p>For those here who are thinking, uh oh, a hovering parent who couldn't leave when the school told them to, an update... after an hour in her room, and finishing up everything she needed us for, we left, and I haven't heard from her at all, nor have I called her!</p>

<p>There's a P.S. to this story. Those 3M Command strips that are a stroke of genius for college dorms, don't actually work on all surfaces. We've used them before on practically everything possible, and there was just something about the paint on these walls that would not allow the strips to stick. Grrrrr.....</p>