Yesterday we hit the road before the sun even woke up, and headed into the sunrise to visit the 4th college on Eve’s list. Fourth in order of visiting, first in order of preference. It was in the top two, but after spending the day there I think it has jumped to #1 in all categories.
University of Maine at Farmington (NOT Framingham, as I keep accidentally saying) is a “premier teacher education and liberal arts college for the state of Maine.” (according to their website) It’s a very small college with a tight connection to the local town, Farmington. Eve loved everything about it.
The welcome ceremony is about to being.
The “quad” area. There were lots of kids out playing games, reading, and just hanging out in the beauitful weather.
A newer building.
An older building.
A sweetie and her shark.
Chompers and King Gerald
A sculpture of recycled materials. It’s supposed to be grass, I think it looks like wheat, but apparently they call it “the asparagus.”
A dorm hallway.
A dorm room.
A shark in a tree.
We were there for a “Junior Visit” day with a group of maybe 2-3 dozen other kids and their parents. They had a few sessions, lunch in the dining hall, a campus tour, and a resource fair (that was too crowded and loud so we went to the bookstore instead!). All of the student ambassadors were really friendly and outgoing. Eve brought King Gerald, who happens to be a great conversation starter! I’m trying hard not to take over that King Gerald Instagram account. I would have fun with it. LOL.
I have a few reservations about the size of the college and academic rigor, only because of the amount of time she spend complaining about the people and academic rigor at her high school. I think this college is only a small step up from high school. The graphic design program there is also very new, which could be good (she could be part of the cohort building the program) or bad (if they don’t really grow the program).
In a funny little trivia session I won a prize by knowing what the name of the mascot. Can you guess what I won?
We have one more college visit scheduled for next week. Then it’s time for a vacation from college campuses for a few weeks! (Unless I’m the one picking Lex up in early May, still TBD).
After 10 days in Peru, River was ready for a quick trip to RIT. He got home Friday evening, took a shower, then we headed to Rochester, arriving at 2am. After a quick sleep, we headed to RIT for their Accepted Students Day. We had a day of presentations, campus exploration, dining hall food, and a resource fair. There were lots of cheesy photo ops, but he wanted nothing to do with any of that. LOL. I took a few other random photos instead.
It was cold and rainy, but RIT did their best to make it a celebration.
This place was FULL by the time the welcome presentation started.
Because RIT has a large school for the deaf (2nd largest in the country, I think) everything was captioned and/or signed. It’s a neat environment to be in.
His incoming class is bigger than most of the colleges Eve is looking at, and RIT is almost 4x bigger than WPI. It almost feels like it’s own little city. Crazy, but definitely cool too. Now if we could just pick it up and move it a few hours closer… :)
Day three found us at SUNY New Paltz, “in the stunning Hudson River Valley.” (according to their website)
While Johnson & Wales* was very urban, and Purchase was very closed and artsy, New Paltz seemed a really nice in-between. The campus was large, but filled with tress, flowers, and lots of green space. The buildings were a mix of architecture and many were visually interesting. New Paltz has a fitness center and a pool, which Eve liked. We had a very nice tour guide and only one other family on the tour with us. The tour was pretty comprehensive, which was great. Eve likes the wide variety of academic options, perfect for her Liberal Arts heart. :) She thought the campus was too big, but was eager to do our own little walk after the tour for a King Gerald photoshoot. She found her way around campus with no trouble and seemed confident.
So far this is my favorite of the three we’ve seen so far. She is still very undecided, but feeling comfortable with the process so far. She’s eager to see the other two on deck. We’ll be vising University of Maine at Farmington on Wednesday and SUNY Plattsburg next week.
On our way home last night we stopped to visit Joyce at her new house. It’s a lovely little house, and will be even lovelier when the rain stops and (unrelated) when she’s fully unpacked and settled. We all went to the Olive Garden to celebrate the end of this trip. Then E and I drove home through awful rain, fog, and wind. We were both VERY ready to be out of the car by the time we got home at near midnight!
* Johnson & Wales University is abbreviated to JWU and pronounced “J-Woo.” Whenever E talked about J-Woo (and she says it smoothly, like it rolls right off her tongue), all I can think about is “woo girls” from How I Met Your Mother. Young, usually drunk, party girls who yell “woooo” about everything. Every time she said something about JWU, I had to stop myself from yelling “wooo!” 😂 I guess if she ends up going to JWU, that’s something I’ll have to work on! LOL.
Today we visited SUNY Purchase, a very artsy school in “Westchester County, one of the oldest and most well-established destinations in the scenic Hudson Valley.” (according to their website)
The area is beautiful and expensive, but the college is all Brutalist architecture and Eve didn’t love it. It is very much an art focused school and it seemed like you would need to declare a firm major (graphic design, sculpting, painting, etc) when you enroll. They say they have sciences as well, but it’s clearly an art school.
The library, from afar.
King Gerald came along for the ride.
Dorm room
E!
Design space
The graphic design area
Unrelated, but we got a sampler pack from Crumbl yesterday and have been working on it for days. 😂
It seemed like there was a lot to do on campus, but there was nothing within walking distance off campus. The tour guides said most people live on campus for all four years. They showed us all of the art studios and spaces, and a dorm room, but not the dining hall, underground tunnels (between dorms and the dining hall), or the library. We were struck by how few people were out on campus. It wasn’t as sunny and beautiful as the day before, but it was pretty nice for a spring day and we only saw dozen or so students out and about. I asked the tour guide about it and she said that people spend a lot of time in their studio spaces, working on their projects, especially now that it’s close to the end of the school year. She said they have regular events on campus and everyone comes out for those, but otherwise what we were seeing is pretty standard.
Eve loves art, as we know, but while we were discussing the visit over lunch (at a delicious pub!) she decided she didn’t want to be at an ALL art school. She wants some sciences and some variety. She also liked the area, but not the campus itself.
Big “small” school, right in the middle of the city. Cool dorms (pet friendly, AC, high ceilings), energetic tour guide, beautiful day (no thanks to JWU). We had a nice tour, but it’s definitely a city college. The green/quad is very small and surrounded by three buildings and a road. All of the other buildings are within a several block radius and many are old buildings with local “charm.” The building Eve’s classes would be in was the newest building, but it looked like a pretty small department. She liked the tour, but isn’t sold on the location. (I agree, but it’s not up to me. 😉)
Gerald came along for the ride. He’s not a very good driver.
The quad and our tour guide.
Some other buildings.
Gerald was very popular.
This looks like a very cool project to me. Each poster is about a different font.
I took Eve and Simon on a road trip yesterday down to WPI to watch a women’s basketball game. More accurately, E & S agreed to come with me to WPI to watch a pep band concert with a side of basketball. LOL. We have lots of fun. We took Lex out to lunch before the game, then took a little campus tour with him afterwards. The game was great, both teams played hard and kept the score very close throughout the whole game. WPI ended up losing in the last few seconds. The band played loud and often. I loved it!
Lunch at the OG (or course!)
Krazy Kids
Hanging with Gompei
The goat
<3
The church bells rang at 4pm and Lex pointed out that the “bells” are really just giant speakers in the bell tower. LOL.
Here’s a playlist with seven videos. Check your sound volume, click the play button, and settle in for the show!
After six long weeks I finally got to hug my boy again!! And hug him I did!! LOL. He was warned and graciously accepted my (not-so)surprise hugs all weekend! 🤗
Alan and I drove down Friday night and met Lex on campus for dinner. We ate at one of the cafe on campus, then we went to a show. The VOX (theater group) put on a show called Something Rotten that was hysterical. We laughed all the way through!
Not a great picture, but an awesome show!
Lex spends a lot of his time in the Spaulding recital hall these days
Happy momma!
After the show we brought Lex back to his dorm, then Alan and I drove to the sketchiest hotel EVER!! It was an Econolodge that seemed to also double as a homeless shelter and methadone clinic — best case scenario. It was AWFUL! The non-smoking room smelled like smoke, the beds felt like box springs, and I was pretty sure my Tesla would not survive the night in that parking lot. There was a big tent with some sketchy looking people in it, all lit up at 11pm. We didn’t even unpack the car! That was the night I discovered that I do, in fact, have standards in lodging. (Had I read the hotel reviews a little better I would have made a better choice. 🙄) We got back in the car and left! We drove down the road a bit and found a Hampton Inn. Turns out they are owned by Hilton and I have a Hilton membership, and we got a deal for night-of booking and it all worked out to be almost the same price as the skeezy drug hotel! Of course I can’t get my money back for the sketchy place, but at least I felt safe in the Hampton Inn. It was a pretty crazy experience, but we definitely made the right choice to switch hotels!
The next morning we met Lex on campus for brunch at his dining hall. Because it was Family Weekend they had dining tickets available for families. We got lucky though and there was a college kid standing by the line offering to use up his extra meal swipes on parents! He treated us to brunch so we didn’t have to pay! It was a pretty cool thing to do. Their meal swipes reset Saturday night and he had extras that would have just gotten wasted, so he treated 10 parents to a free meal. Pretty cool dude!
Only the fanciest water for WPI students!
Apparently this is their fight song. Lex chanted it, but would not repeat it again for a recording. Then him and Alan went into a long discussion about how wrong it is from a math standpoint. LOL.
We went to a physics demonstration and Alan raised his hand when they asked for a volunteer. He’s pretty much ready to enroll at WPI himself!
They had a whole bunch of random activities planned for Family Weekend, so we walked around and checked out some stuff. Nothing terribly exciting, but I loved just being there. We went to the bookstore and I bought him two shirts to hang in his closet and look at for a few months before maybe trying them on. I also got magnets for my car and the teen car, and some new hot cups since the lids for the ones I have broke last week!
Lex had some homework to do, so we left him for a few hours in the afternoon. Alan and I went to Lowes and Best Buy to get him a shelf and a webcam. Then we met back at his dorm to drop off the stuff and take him out to dinner. Dinner, of course, was at the Olive Garden! LOL. We video called with Eve while we were there. It was fun, but maybe not nice for her. I’m not sure. She said she was happy to talk with us and that she missed the Olive Garden.
After dinner we went back to campus to see a free movie, Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse. Friday night they had the movie on the quad on a giant inflatable screen, but on Saturday they moved it into an auditorium due to rain. It was a great movie! I would have prefered to see it on the quad (they have lots of cool Adirondack chairs on the quad!), but it was good in the lecture hall too. Apparently they do regular weekend movies on the quad or the lecture hall. They had free popcorn and candy available. It was fun.
Sunday morning Lex had marching band practice, so I slept in a bit then Alan and I got a great breakfast at little diner near campus After marching band, Lex had to prep for his Concert Band performance. They had three hours of band at Alden Hall. First an hour of Jazz Band, which Lex is in, but apparently there are three Jazz Band levels and level 1 (the freshman) didn’t perform this time, but will at future concerts. Then an hour of Concert Band, then an hour of Symphony. Lex is in Jazz Band and Concert Band. He said there are a lot of percussionists in Concert Band, so they didn’t all play in every song. Of the six songs they performed, he played in three. I might be a bit biased, but I think he was excellent in all three! :)
We chatted with him a little before Concert Band started and he said he wasn’t feeling too hot. It had been raining all morning and they did their marching practice in the rain. He thought that didn’t help with his overall well-being. He was feeling pretty ready to crash. After the concert, of course! He also has test on Monday that he was trying to prep for, in addition to homework due Monday. It was a busy weekend for him.
So handsome ❤
After the concert we checked in with him again. He said he was still feeling down (cough, sore throat, etc.) so Alan and I went to CVS and got him so meds. The campus health center is apparently closed on Sundays. Good to know for the future. I was texting with him a bit this evening and he said the meds were helping and he was looking forward to a Nyquil-assisted good night’s sleep.
I’m so, so happy we got to spend this weekend with him. I miss him (and he misses us!) and it filled my mommy hear to see him thriving in his new world. Now we begin the countdown to his week at home in October between terms! Then I’ll get to hug him all week!! <3
The one and only time I take just ONE photo, I get this “eyes closed” photo, but I’m going to share it anyway because we all look so happy. He wasn’t feeling great. We just brought him some meds and were saying goodbye before heading home. I think his eyes closed smile is fitting. 💗
My posts are now going to come in threes, apparently. You’re welcome.
Tonight I got to watch WPI beat WSU in football. They livestreamed the whole event. Do you care? No, me neither. HOWEVER, they have the “greatest band in the land” and THAT is why I tuned in! Lex had his first marching band performance tonight. His first week at WPI was for marching band camp. He auditioned for the drum line and was given cymbals. He was hoping for the snare drum, but he is just a freshman after all, so cymbals was a good place to start. Half way through the week he told me he was so glad he was on cymbals because the marching part was so complicated, he really appreciated having an easy instrument to play. Maybe the band director knew what they were doing. :)
So tonight was their first game. They livestreamed it and I loved it. WPI is a NCAA Division III school, so their football setup (and streaming setup) is only slightly better than high school, but they have a marching band and it was awesome. Apparently the football team is good too. Or at least better than WSU. :)
He sent me a selfie!! <3 (I might have suggested it a few days ago, but he did it and that's what counts!)
The band playing during the game.
The drumline
The cutest cymbal-er in the world. :)
I’m incredibly happy that he decided to join the marching band in college. He has made friends, learned new skills (marching!), and even put on a silly uniform that matches everyone else. He’s come such a long way. And the best part is, he’s loving it!! I’m so proud of him!
Holy moly we toured MIT yesterday! It was a lot of fun! We took the bus to Boston, met some friends, had some expensive pizza, and learned lots about MIT! It was a pretty cool day. MIT seems like a pretty cool place. They were working hard to present the college as a fun, relaxed place, not a high-stress toxic environment. Hopefully that’s true. River is interested in applying, which is why we were there. Simon was a little interested, which is why his family joined us, but not entirely sold. Eve said thanks but no thanks. LOL.
The bus ride down.
Screens for everyone. LOL.
Boston has some pretty crazy buildings..
I love this group of people. <3
MIT is right in the fancy, smart part of town, surrounded by Google and several big research firms. Lots of brainpower in a few city blocks! I can imagine it being a pretty cool place to spend a few years. We’ll see what the future holds.
Lex, Alan, and I went to WPI yesterday for their “First Year Welcome Experience” day. We had a fun time. We started together at the opening greeting, then the students went off to follow their schedule and the adults had an entirely different schedule. We didn’t see Lex again until the end of the day. There were lots of sessions about academics, financials, housing, and more. We had lunch in one of the dining halls. Lex got to visit some dorms. We met new people and got lots of questions answered. It was really nice.
I felt really assured that he made a good choice and would have a good experience at WPI. He signed up for the marching band (they perform at football games, among other things) and will get to move in a week early. He knows who is roommate will be, and will learn which dorm they will be in next month. The campus is a nice size, the dorms are good, the academics seem just right, and the overall energy of the place was really positive. He’s excited for this next step and I’m excited for him. 💗
I heard rumors that there is a ceremonial bridge students cross when they start at WPI and again when they graduate. We shall see.
When Lex and Alan visit last month they took an “evil genius” photo in these “evil genius” chairs. Not sure why, but it amused them.
Alan thought we should recreate the photo with me. Lex had no interest (it was the end of the day and he was tired) but he agreed to take the photo. :)
