<p>Hi! I was just wondering if those students who have been accepted are planning to attend the Open House on April 16th? It looks like a great time to meet some people and learn about the school. You can take a tour of the dorms and learn about clubs and your department. It looks like a great way to get excited about starting in the Fall.</p>
<p>My son and I are planning to go. I hear parking is really hard. I’m not sure if we will go down really early Friday morning and then stay the night so we can be there for Saturday, or if we will go down Thursday afternoon and stay the night. Then we would leave Friday afternoon. I think we will need to secure a hotel room pretty early because it may be very popular!</p>
<p>I’d love to hear what other people are doing.</p>
<p>That sounds like fun! Where do you live (approx.) that you are taking a bus? How long will it take? That might be a good idea. I was thinking about doing the bus too because that may be how my son gets home once in a while. We live 3.5 hours away and that can be a long ride if we have to drive down to pick him up and then drive home.</p>
<p>Thursday will be fun because it’s Farmer’s Market that night. Have you been to that yet? It was great back in August and I bet it’s even nicer when all the students are around.</p>
<p>As for hotels filling up, when I asked the front desk at the Quality Suites where we stayed, she told us it gets CRAZY busy then AND the rates go up. Naturally! So, I would definitely book now. </p>
<p>Gee, I wish we were going! Too bad my daughter has to be down in San Diego with her Jazz and Concert Choirs then. She can’t miss that, so it looks like we’re out of luck for Open House. </p>
<p>Anyone who has been to it in the past, do you feel we’re really missing out on a lot by not being able to attend? </p>
<p>We’ll be there too. If you have not previously been to the farmers market in SLO, I would highly recommend you go to that on Thursday evening if at all possible. This is a great opportunity to see the popular hangouts off campus and in my opinion is a pretty big part of the Cal Poly SLO experience. </p>
<p>Ironically, I just learned that we won’t be staying for Saturday - prom night!</p>
<p>With the possible outside exception of a UC school, looks like my D has narrowed her choices down to Cal Poly and one other school. The other one we check out the week before this one, so April should prove to be pretty exciting.</p>
<p>My son and I went last year and are glad we did. Parking was not a problem - they were ready for the crowds. We did get hotel reservations early - probably about now. I would recommend getting there on thursday for the Farmer’s market, if you’ve never been there. A lot of the CP clubs have booths there with a lot of good information. </p>
<p>The department break-out session for accepted students was great. Got to meet most of the Profs in his major and a lot of the students were helping out. The lab tour was very good. They separated the parents and students for a lot of the time, and had fun activities for the students. The schedules kept you busy but there was time for exploring on your own as well. All went very well except maybe the lines at the BBQ were very long. We also saw some CP baseball and it’s the first time I’ve been to a tractor pull (my hearing will never be the same!) …</p>
<p>You all are making this sound so tempting. We’re OOS but my daughter is excited beyond belief to be going to Cal Poly next year. Just ordered her some CalPoly sweats which I doubt she will take off, once they arrive. Will have to look in to sending her for this event.</p>
<p>Good Morning everyone! thanks for the great responses. I think I will be checking out the Amtrak bus and booking a hotel room today. We live in the Bay Area (East Bay) and I think that would be a great way for my son and I to try out the bus trip. I have heard about Thursdays at the Farmer’s Market. Do you think it is more important to go to that and not activities on Satrurday. I only want to stay over for one night (Thursday or Friday). I am sure we will be staying over a night or two the weekend he moves in, so I don’t want to overdo it now. I guess it depends on the bus times.</p>
<p>Thanks again and it sounds like so much fun!!!
(Sorry that you can’t make it 2Leashes! there are several more orientation things to attend: SOAR and WOW)</p>
<p>Great post Riverrunner! I bought my son a t-shirt when we went down a week ago and he has worn it quite a few times since. Sweats are a great idea! Congrats to your daughter and I can see that it would be hard to be OOS with so many fun activities planned. You have to pick and choose. From what I can tell, SOAR does not sound as good as Open House. My son’s friend is in engineering this year and they just handed him a schedule. he didn’t pick anything, they did it for him. Plus, Soar is in August and it would be great fun to go in April because the kids will get excited and that will help them through the next few months of senior year. Maybe it will make senioritis worse though! Hmmm! I am sure you have to pick and choose the times you can come out. It is just too expensive and complicated to travel too often.</p>
<p>Good luck and It’s great how excited your daughter feels about CP!</p>
<p>Open House was well worth it (with both of my boys at CP). SOAR, on the other hand, may not be. We didn’t have any trouble with online registration even though we did not bother with SOAR.</p>
<p>Open House allows you to spend most of the day on Friday with your Department. You hear from many of the professors as well as current students in you major. We probably had more fun with the Materials Engineering department (oldest son) than with the Computer Science department (younger son), as there were cool hand on demonstrations related to Materials – even ice cream made with liquid nitrogen! Both departments were very informative and the enthusiam was contagious. Open House was definately what made the older DS decide on Cal Poly!!</p>
<p>Saturday is mainly a showcase for the MANY student clubs and organizations that are available. It’s pretty fun, but Friday is more important.</p>
<p>Darn! I guess that’s what happens when your kid takes part in extra-curriculars and nothing can tear her away! This San Diego Heritage Festival is a 3 day singing competition, so she really wants to be there.</p>
<p>Soooooo…I hope she’s not missing out by not going to Open House. Not to mention that I would have loved going, TOO! :)</p>
<p>No Invitations yet, but it is on the main Cal Poly website. Look for the Open House 2010 link. they will be sending invitiations, but like another person said, getting a hotel reservation now is a good idea. </p>
<p>if we go for Thursday evening (Farmer’s Market) and then do the activities all day Friday, would it be okay to leave Friday afternoon/evening or do you think staying until Saturday is important? Thanks!</p>
<p>^Ralph4 How does your older son like Materials Engineering? My son has been accepted for MATE. Any info. would surely help us. Thanks for the encouraging words about Open House!<br>
Also, it is great to hear of a parent who has 2 kids at SLO. That means it has been a good school!</p>
So, I would definitely book now. </p>