When the school was decided on, we added the travel costs to our budget. We set aside funds for the student to fly home for Thanksgiving, Winter Break, possibly spring break and also summer break. We budgeted for one parent to fly to parents' weekend and for drop-off per year. We look for Southwest sales (the WOW sale just ended but they have another deep discount in the fall). We reduced our vacations significantly - partially because we couldn't plan around the college student and partially because we shifted our vacation budget to the college travel budget. Only in the first year did a parent go with the student for drop-off; after that, they were self-sufficient. We have loyalty points with rental cars and hotels, and the reality is this is a short period of time - so we make the most of it. We have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know a new city, and only having one parent go per year to parents' weekend has actually been a wonderful way to have 1:1 time with our student.

I’ve never gone to family day and my kid is a rising senior. I’d also drive for drop off.

My college roommate (from West coast) at an east coast school only flew home twice a year - summer and Christmas break. All the other breaks (Thanksgiving, spring) she stayed with someone on the east coast. Her family came out once for move in and once for graduation.

My family was local and I don’t remember them ever coming for family weekend.

Flights have gotten super expensive lately. If it’s out of your budget, I would skip it. I agree with driving out for move in, which has the advantage of allowing you to bring more stuff.

We never attended family weekend for either kid.

I had kids in California. Sign up for new airlines. Get the points. Deplete it, cancel and start a new card with new airlines. I paid for maybe 2 tickets. The rest was on points and airline fees of 11$.

Southwest BWI to Midway usually has pretty good fares if you purchase far enough in advance. Cheaper than DCA

Anonymous wrote:DD will be attending college in Chicago this fall and I’ve been looking at flights.

I did not realize how expensive it will be to have her (and us) flying back and forth all the time. With drop off in September, family day in October, thanksgiving and then Christmas, I will be purchasing a round trip ticket every month.

I thought it would be fun to have her younger sister and both parents attend family day, but after looking at the cost of flights and hotels I’m thinking of having one parent fly out or maybe we won’t go at all.

This is truly going to cut into our vacation budget! Does anyone have any tips to manage the expense?

Troll post. No way you did not know this before you applied.

Anonymous wrote:Southwest flies from National Airport to Midway in Chicago for about $300 round trip. Look into flying into Midway. It can be more reasonable than O'Hare.

+1

Buy early. Chicago actually isn’t terrible to and from DC, my college kid is in a smaller city and flights are double the fares than what it costs to fly to MDW.

That said, my kid only came home for Thanksgiving and Winter Break.

My kid will be going to Northwestern this fall and I am going to go to family weekend by myself and leave sibling and husband at home. all of the hotels in Evanston jack up hotel costs for family weekend, so I will be staying about 5 miles away and will be renting a car (still way cheaper than paying $600+ per night for a Holiday Inn).

It looks like you might have to make arrangements for family vacations in the Chicago area for the next four years....

Who goes to kis school that much? We were MC and my mother came like once in 4 years.

We attend family weekend freshman year only, for both kids. The other 3 years, we attended a different fall weekend, but we always went

We never attended family day. We visit once a year if that.

We had a kid at Notre Dame and ended up driving most of the time. Flying into Chicago and driving 2 hours wasn't ideal either and frankly, the drive was pretty relaxing. And once DS had his car there, he would drive back and forth. We're in the DMV.