We both went to oldest their first year. We will divide and conquer this year as they will overlap. We will go down frat family weekend instead and hit family weekend for youngest, who is a freshman at a small school.
We enjoyed it but don’t feel compelled to do it a second time especially as 2 DC are at schools that have great football teams, so really and fall weekend can be fun.

We visited the weekend before instead since it was a 3-day weekend. Our son stayed in an Airbnb with us (younger sib, parents, dog). We ate really well, watched Netflix, did a lot of stuff locally. This was Columbus Day weekend so he was glad to be out of the dorm and take a hot bath, have his own room. We also got to see his club sport tournament.

The 2nd year he was on study abroad so we missed parents weekend again.

Maybe this year- we will do it.

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone just skipped the official Family Weekend events and just spent the time with your DC instead during that weekend?
Did parents actually learn anything useful from those events? Or were they mostly generic stuff?
For those who did attend, which events felt the most meaningful or worth the time to you?

yes we skipped due to cost (time and money). we spend lots of time with our DC on other breaks and didn't feel it necessary to attend. we have no regrets.

We went freshman year and loved the game. We barely saw out kid at all, but it was early last year and they were still getting their footing. This year, it's much later and we plan on going, I think . I have the hotel room secured and we have tickets to the game. DC is in a greek org now, so I'm hoping there will be an event. We did go for the greek parent's weekend and the house didn't really do anything, but I'm hoping parent's weekend will be different.

Yes! The football games are a blast on family weekend. I loved meeting other parents too. Lots of fun.

We attended the first year, and all I remember is the great steak! They did not skimp on food. Maybe it's because sticker price is more than 90K a year.

We did not see any need to attend after that. BTDT, ate the steak

Meh. We went the first year for the day (drivable distance) and attended a super boring football game and went out to dinner. School didn’t offer much else. Second year planned same thing but it rained so we went to a museum and dinner. It was underwhelming but nice to see DC1. DC2 will be freshman at another school (also drivable) where there seem to be more planned activities. We will go to see how it’s going and hug DC but feeling meh about the actual planned event.

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone just skipped the official Family Weekend events and just spent the time with your DC instead during that weekend?
Did parents actually learn anything useful from those events? Or were they mostly generic stuff?
For those who did attend, which events felt the most meaningful or worth the time to you?

My kid is a rising senior and we've attended all three and plan to attend the final one in the fall. I found the first one most useful and informative obviously since we were all new to the experience. We enjoyed some of the events including dance performances and concerts, not so much one of the activities of my kid though which was their debating club meeting - lol. It was way too long and filled with people who obviously loved to hear themselves speak. Fortunately we were able to skip last year's debate meeting. If you are able to attend, I think it is nice to spend these moments and have these experiences with your kid. We also like to take out some of my kid's friends to lunch for those whose parents couldn't make it.

We went for our kid’s first year (Cornell). Skipped the football game. Went to presentation for her specific program which was really nice. We met a family that also lives in the DMV. Did the family lunch which meant we weren’t trying to find parking in town. We spent the rest of the time with her which was perfect because she was homesick.

We won’t be doing it again and will plan a different time to visit.