Graduation experience?

[Anonymous]

We had a morning slot of UMBC and the grads had to leave our house by 6:30 to get there, so it was a little exhausting. They were told they couldn't use the bathrooms between 7:30 and when it finished at noon, which I thought was ridiculous, but may not have been fully enforced (I did see 1-2 sneak out). It wasn't great and I agree that the crowd control coming out was not great, but I didn't see anyone getting body-checked. Agree it's a little bit of a bummer that there's not someplace nice to gather as we came out. The next HS was already coming in as we were leaving, so it really was crowded and no place to really gather/celebrate (small grassy area to the left of the entrance, but it was pretty crowded). File this all under "MCPS is an enormous system with HSs that are way too big so there are some issues that flow from that."

Also, do they have to let the BOE people speak? That was the worst part. No one wanted to hear her, and her speech was bad. I would say the high points for us were the orchestra, chorus and the principal's speech. The orchestra really did very well.

[Anonymous]

Agree. No multiple speeches. Principal. Maybe one more. Music saves the show honestly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agree. No multiple speeches. Principal. Maybe one more. Music saves the show honestly.

This. More music, please. Fewer and shorter speeches. Why do all the class officers need to speak? The various admins and board member?

[Anonymous]

It is a factory. Get in get out. They can't make it "special" unless they do it at the school where students have spent the last 4 years. Or hold two ceremonies for each school because of the size of the crowd - but that won't be done because $, and families will complain friends are being divided up friends from graduating same time/place.

[Anonymous]

No one cares about a BOEmember especially these days. Eliminate in future. Take notes, schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dear OP,
I understand being disappointed when you’ve envisioned a very special event and reality doesn’t match that vision. DD graduated college and due to our seating, we couldn’t make her out in the crowd. They didn’t even call the nearly 1000 students in alphabetical order so we had no idea when she would reach the stage. It was disappointing to not have the moment I pictured of watching her approach the stage with my camera at the ready and then watching her walk. But it was infinitely better than 2020 when there was no MCPS HS graduation. I was overcome with emotion to just know she was getting to experience what she had been denied. I didn’t care about anybody else in that arena or the traffic or the parking. We left grandpa at home because he was concerned about a long car ride. But initially our plan was to take 2 cars so everyone fit comfortably. I think instead of focusing on what went wrong at your child’s graduation, it would be helpful to focus on the positive. Your child reached a very special milestone. You were able to witness your child walk. Grandma was able to join you on the special day. None of the venues MCPS uses are convenient. None are without traffic. That’s just something every parent should expect. As for the non-AC hallway, I think it’s reasonable to mention that to administration so they can keep it in mind as they plan next year.

Thank-you for adding some sanity. My DD also graduated college this year. I hope the ceremony was recorded so you can see the moment even though it is after the fact. I sent the link the family saying start watching at 49:52 to see Larla walk..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wondering if others had a horrible experience with graduation?
Elderly relatives jammed in backseat, some feeling car sick for the 1 hour drive to get to our local hs graduation.
. It took an hour to get there since traffic was at a crawl beginning at the exit all the way to the parking lot.
Inside, certain groups of people spoke to each other or were on their phones throughout the entire ceremony. People brought their toddlers and babies and didn't get up and exit when those children were crying and or screaming.
The grads were made to sit in a hallway without a/c for nearly 2 hours.

The crowd all exited through the same door and people were literally body checking each other to get through the crowd. Not once or a couple. Alot.

There was no area for pics so we had 5 minutes to greet the other grads and take pics before the rain started pouring down.
We lucked out and were able to get right on the highway (and into rush hour traffic) but heard others took 45 minutes to get out of the parking lot.

It was such a miserable experience all around.

You should have read DCUM before you planned for this graduation. 🙄

From an experienced family:
Amount of time it takes is hours for pre-graduation ceremony prep-hair-gown-makeup-photos.
Factor 2-3 hours for drive to UMBC (depending on where you're coming from), traffic to get on exit ramp and off, getting student where they need to be, parking, bathroom, standing in line for snacks, finding seats.
THEN 2 hrs ceremony.
AFTER 2hrs to mingle, photos, bathroom, change clothes if needed, getting out to car, figure out where to go after leaving parking lot, finally get out of area for a celebratory meal/drinks.
THEN drive +1hr to that place.

Exhausting. 🎉

[Anonymous]

I guess this time the upcountry high schools got better options (normally not). The venue (Mount St Mary) was about 45 minutes by car and really nice place to have a graduation. Being in a “rural” area isn’t so bad!

[Anonymous]

If you want the quaint, idylic graduation ceremony on the 50 yard line like a 1980s California high school movie, move out to the sticks. You're in MoCo, the high schools are huge, they cannot accommodate everyone, that's why they're at larger venues. Get ready for a much worse experience at a collegiate graduation.

[Anonymous]

Why would you jam them all in the same car? take another car, rent a larger car, hire a car service.

This is what you get when you have entitled kids with the parents who entitled them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:WJ? The traffic at Umbc campus was horrible both coming and going. The rain had everyone trying to depart at once, too. At arrival, grads were jumping out of jammed up cars to walk because they were threatened they would not be allowed to enter after 12:30. But at 12:30 and later, the grads still hadn’t even been allowed in. They were left outside and then eventually let in to stand in hot hallways for a very long time without water. There were annoyances as parents, which we anticipated and accepted, but it was the treatment of the grads that needs improvement. At least access to water needs to be addressed.
But the venue itself inside was spacious and fine. I’d prefer DAR but WJ is large. Is UMD too expensive?

We were wj too. My grad mentioned that there wasn't water and they had said there would be snacks since they had to leave before 21:30 am and wouldn't be back until 6pm. Of course there were no snacks. We didn't need free snacks. We would have provided them if we knew there wouldn't be any. It was the lack of honesty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you want the quaint, idylic graduation ceremony on the 50 yard line like a 1980s California high school movie, move out to the sticks. You're in MoCo, the high schools are huge, they cannot accommodate everyone, that's why they're at larger venues. Get ready for a much worse experience at a collegiate graduation.

Our elementary school graduation was lovely. It was in the theater of our local high school and the speakers were relevant and funny. High school was horrible. College for dc1 was amazing. There are plenty of facilities within moco that could handle the requirements. They just don't want to pay. And if there aren't, that speaks to the leadership of the county planners.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you want the quaint, idylic graduation ceremony on the 50 yard line like a 1980s California high school movie, move out to the sticks. You're in MoCo, the high schools are huge, they cannot accommodate everyone, that's why they're at larger venues. Get ready for a much worse experience at a collegiate graduation.

Our elementary school graduation was lovely. It was in the theater of our local high school and the speakers were relevant and funny. High school was horrible. College for dc1 was amazing. There are plenty of facilities within moco that could handle the requirements. They just don't want to pay. And if there aren't, that speaks to the leadership of the county planners.

No, there aren't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had a morning slot of UMBC and the grads had to leave our house by 6:30 to get there, so it was a little exhausting. They were told they couldn't use the bathrooms between 7:30 and when it finished at noon, which I thought was ridiculous, but may not have been fully enforced (I did see 1-2 sneak out). It wasn't great and I agree that the crowd control coming out was not great, but I didn't see anyone getting body-checked. Agree it's a little bit of a bummer that there's not someplace nice to gather as we came out. The next HS was already coming in as we were leaving, so it really was crowded and no place to really gather/celebrate (small grassy area to the left of the entrance, but it was pretty crowded). File this all under "MCPS is an enormous system with HSs that are way too big so there are some issues that flow from that."

Also, do they have to let the BOE people speak? That was the worst part. No one wanted to hear her, and her speech was bad. I would say the high points for us were the orchestra, chorus and the principal's speech. The orchestra really did very well.

Ours was the board member with the short hair. Her speech was horrible and thinly vailed virtue signaling but I think she was also the one reading the names and was going way to fast and not pausing when people cheered so you couldn't hear the next name. If they had cut one of the other miserable speeches maybe they would have had time to allow a beat between the names. It was disgracefully rude to the graduates imo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WJ? The traffic at Umbc campus was horrible both coming and going. The rain had everyone trying to depart at once, too. At arrival, grads were jumping out of jammed up cars to walk because they were threatened they would not be allowed to enter after 12:30. But at 12:30 and later, the grads still hadn’t even been allowed in. They were left outside and then eventually let in to stand in hot hallways for a very long time without water. There were annoyances as parents, which we anticipated and accepted, but it was the treatment of the grads that needs improvement. At least access to water needs to be addressed.
But the venue itself inside was spacious and fine. I’d prefer DAR but WJ is large. Is UMD too expensive?

We were wj too. My grad mentioned that there wasn't water and they had said there would be snacks since they had to leave before 21:30 am and wouldn't be back until 6pm. Of course there were no snacks. We didn't need free snacks. We would have provided them if we knew there wouldn't be any. It was the lack of honesty.

Apparently they had stuff for staff but nothing for grads, who weren’t allowed to bring anything in. Someone needs to ensure this doesn’t happen again. My DC would have been okay without the food but was feeling ill from lack of water.