The weekend college-visit trip went quite well, considering everything. The best best best thing of all is that when we arrived at our motel, we discovered they had a free shuttle that stopped at the college. This was not only awesome in itself (no city driving! no stressful very-limited-parking navigation at the college!), but also I had looked at a list of motels/hotels that the college website listed as having free shuttles, but all of those were at least twice the price of the motel I chose, and I’d been thinking that was sad but I was not paying hundreds extra for a free shuttle. AND THEN WE DID IN FACT HAVE A FREE SHUTTLE. Massive score.
Plus, the motel was far from downtown AND we didn’t have to drive downtown to get to it: the GPS took us off the highway, through two sketchy-but-empty alley-type roads and one confusing intersection I had to go through and then re-approach from a different direction before I got it right, but then we were THERE. We parked in their parking lot and then didn’t have to move the car until we were headed home.
Also, there was a pizza place a 5-minute walk away. Which also sold cheesecake.
On the day’s drive to this magical place, Rob prepared for his interview. It turned out it was the very first time he had even glanced at the information. And that he was expected to bring to the interview a copy of his transcript, a copy of his SAT scores, and a filled-in printout of their interview form. Listen, I don’t swear often, but things got a bit tense there for a few minutes. Luckily for him, Staples is a chain, and there was one a quarter-mile off the highway, and they could print from a laptop for 12 cents a page. Really, Rob did not deserve to be so lucky, but I am counting it as MY luck rather than his, because the stress of finding out we were spending two full days driving and two nights of expensive moteling for a child who totally blew the interview in a perfectly preventable way would have been years off my will to live.
Anyway we are home now, and back to the stress of the FAFSA/CSS and the Common App and senior pictures and so forth.
I’m glad that things went well!
Did he like the school?
Yes!
Well! That sounds only mildly stressful, so WIN!
OMG, I commend you for not COMPLETELY exploding all over the car at the discovery of what needed to be done for the interview! COME ON, ROB.
You can love someone with your whole heart, AND they can make you shake with rage. It’s an unpleasant discovery.
This is precisely and exactly where I am at with my beloved, delightful and adored son – it is quite literally mind-numbing.
I commend you for not running off the road into a ditch when he announced that he had not brought all that required stuff.
Other than that, I’m so glad it went well!
I think my head would have exploded, and I am very much admiring your ingenuity in thinking of printing at Staples. I will have to tuck that into my back pocket for emergencies.
Also: interviews?!?! Is that common now for colleges? I don’t remember them from when I applied.
I don’t think it’s common—or at least, none of the other colleges we’ve visited have suggested interviewing during the visiting stage of the process. This college was oddly adamant about it.
Thanks! I’m glad to know it isn’t the new normal, although I’ve got 10 years before I experience it with my oldest, so who knows what it’ll be by then!
I would have loved an update about what you liked about the school and didn’t! Also, I hope that was a learning moment for Rob- to look at the info ahead of time and PREPARE. THIS IS LIFE, KID. ;)
I laughed out loud at “would have been years off my will to live.”
Same here!
Way to go! And well done with the printing situation!
Count me in as a vote for an update on how the interview went, what he liked and didn’t like. My daughter’s only a sophomore, so we haven’t done any official tours. Just browsing on our own.
I’m also in the middle of college searches/visits/applications with my oldest, so I love reading your updates on the process. If you can share without feeling like you’re giving away too much info, I’d love to hear more about your experiences, how he felt about the different types of colleges, etc.
My daughter has found her dream college, so now we just wait to see if they offer our dream scholarship to go along with it. Small liberal arts colleges are amazing, but their price tags? Not so much.
UPS stores are also a good place to print in a crisis- they usually have a computer there that you can print off a thumb drive, or pull something up on your gmail and print from that :) They tend to have more limited hours than staples, though.