Decision Time Coming

Our trip to Cincinnati was good.

We drove down with one of M’s long-time friends, A, who was planning on confirming her enrollment at UC on our visit. At check-in we ran into one of their CHS classmates and her mom. When the parents were comparing notes on the college search process, I mentioned that M was waiting to hear from Michigan. She butted in and said, ‘Yeah, that’s not happening, we don’t need to factor that in anymore.”

Probably the smart move and the timeline just got a lot easier.

We began with a large general session for all the kids that were there – there were hundreds – then broke into smaller groups to meet with academic counselors. M was admitted as an exploratory student simply because she isn’t 100% sure what she wants to study and wanted the freedom to be able to adjust if needed.

Between the two sessions we got a solid overview of the enrollment process, housing, advising, and what to expect from freshman year.

Although it was a school holiday for M, it was a normal academic day at UC. It was nice to be on campus while there were some things going on, there were students eating in the food court, etc. A much better view of campus life than we got last summer.

The girls had two lunches. First the four of us wolfed down some Chick-Fil-A in the food court. Then M and A met a couple girls that M had been messaging about possibly living together. They went to a little restaurant for about an hour while A’s dad and I sat in Starbucks. Apparently their meeting went well and M is excited about the possibility of living with these two new friends and another girl.[1]

After that we toured a few of the dorms. They have some weird combos at UC. There is one eight-person option which was very odd. It’s two three-person room-lets and a double that share bathrooms. Very strange and seems rife for things to go sideways easily. At least when I lived with eight guys we all had our own rooms and were spread across the levels of a four-story house. A’s dad is a couple years older than me and went to both Purdue and IU, so we kept boring the girls with stories from our old-school dorms. A couple of the buildings at UC are not much better than my rooms in McCollum Hall.

It was also really strange to be touring rooms with kids actually in them. The RA guides would lead us into a room and there’d be students sitting there, staring at their laptops or reading at their desks. We wondered what these kids get for there to be constant streams of visitors on admitted student session days.

We tried to stop at the Study Abroad office to ask a few questions, but despite the website saying there were drop-in hours on Mondays no one was available to answer questions. M very much wants to do Semester at Sea and wanted to clarify if/how UC accepts those credits.

Finally, we made the obligatory stop at the bookstore. M got another sweatshirt. I eyed some shirts that I might be interested in if she decides to enroll at UC. We ran into one of their good friends from middle school who is also thinking about going to UC. And while we were on campus they saw another kid from their CHS class and two kids who graduated from CHS last year. Weird that on a campus of 45,000+ students they would have so many brushes with Indy people.

Checkout was in the enclosed dining area behind the suites at the football stadium. While A and her dad knocked out their paperwork and put down her deposit, M and I stepped outside and sat in the good seats, watching the football team go through their spring practice workouts below. It was a beautiful day and perfect for watching some football for about 10 minutes.

At one point M told me she didn’t think we needed to revisit IU. I told her that was fine, but not to rule it out unless she was sure it wasn’t going to be worth her time. CHS gives students five days spread over their junior and senior years to miss school for visiting colleges and she hasn’t taken advantage of any. Might as well use it, although I guess if she’s not as interested in IU it’s kind of a waste.

She’s obviously a strong UC lean at the moment. I think she was excited about the prospect of living with those girls she met.[2] We asked about requesting roommates and were told you can only request one with no guarantee of joining with other groups. That could be a snag, as the two M met with are probably tied together and M would have to gamble by living with the fourth girl who she hasn’t met face-to-face. Housing at UC is kind of a mess at the moment, as with apparently most schools. I think she has some concerns about not being able to live with these girls, or close to either them or A and her future roommate(s) if her lottery draw goes poorly. One of those girls she met with Monday is going to call and get a clearer answer on requests. If they found out today those four girls are guaranteed to live together, I think we’d be signing M up tonight so we can get her on the housing list.

But we shall see.

It was a long-ass day – 12 hours door-to-door – but I think it was productive. No hat ceremony yet, but we’re getting close.