keltic63
06-12-2007, 02:15 PM
this morning I took my son to his college campus for orientation, a mere 30-35 minute drive away. It was scheduled to last ALL Day. because of construction we arrived about 5 minutes late. They took the students out for foreign language and writing placement tests. They also took student ID photos today. Meanwhile, the parents sat and listened to a number of speakers from various offices in the college, and all of it seemed designed to make the parents feel comfortable with their child's college choice.
I was more uncomfortable with the choice by lunchtime.
It's an expensive, impressive, Catholic Liberal Arts College, run by the Benedictines. All I heard from the speakers was their own biographical info with some mildly amusing anecdotes, and then a roster of impressive names: new professors with incredible resumes coming to teach at the college this fall; Graduate schools that give nearly every student from this particular undergrad program a free ride, such as Harvard, George Mason, Dickinson, etc. and the starting salaries of students who graduated this spring, etc. etc, etc, Not being a parent who is interested in the status quo, and certainly not part of their normal demographics, well, I was bored to tears.
It turns out that my son was bored too. We met up at lunch, discussed how each of our mornings had gone, and decided that we could leave. So we did. It looks like they stretched the "necessary" parts of the day so that it parents who drove long distances would "feel" like there was some reason to be there all day.
My son said that the students who were there to help with the orientation admitted to him that the actual orientation, the one that benefits students the most, takes place when they arrive on campus 3 days before everyone else this August.
*sigh* I have things to do. Including getting ready for his grad party this friday!
I was more uncomfortable with the choice by lunchtime.
It's an expensive, impressive, Catholic Liberal Arts College, run by the Benedictines. All I heard from the speakers was their own biographical info with some mildly amusing anecdotes, and then a roster of impressive names: new professors with incredible resumes coming to teach at the college this fall; Graduate schools that give nearly every student from this particular undergrad program a free ride, such as Harvard, George Mason, Dickinson, etc. and the starting salaries of students who graduated this spring, etc. etc, etc, Not being a parent who is interested in the status quo, and certainly not part of their normal demographics, well, I was bored to tears.
It turns out that my son was bored too. We met up at lunch, discussed how each of our mornings had gone, and decided that we could leave. So we did. It looks like they stretched the "necessary" parts of the day so that it parents who drove long distances would "feel" like there was some reason to be there all day.
My son said that the students who were there to help with the orientation admitted to him that the actual orientation, the one that benefits students the most, takes place when they arrive on campus 3 days before everyone else this August.
*sigh* I have things to do. Including getting ready for his grad party this friday!