Our 1st Official College Visit

What a weekend. We made our 1st official college visit this weekend for DD. It is about 4 1/2 hours from home so we drove Friday night. We planned to drive until tired since we didn't leave until almost 7pm but ended up driving all the way. Now where this particular university is, there is NOTHING in the town but the college. There is only 1 "inn" and thankfully there were NO vacancies. Now I am usually a hotel snob and there were none to be found unless we drove a good hour or so back to the nearest city. So we went about 5-10 miles back to the town we had just come through and found another little "inn". (Not talking quaint or cute...just a roadside motel type of thing). It sat in between 2 streets with rooms on each side. There were vacancies and since we were only sleeping there and it was definitely clean, that is where we stayed. We spent from 11:30ish to 8 am there. Then we had breakfast at a little cafe...definitely a locals place and then to campus. Beautiful campus up in the mountains. I think the only reason DD was willing to check it out was because my daddy went to school there. She had about 5 or 6 colleges on her "check-out" list but after seeing the campus, meeting the vice chancellor, head of her major (interior design) department and speaking with a professor from the business school (minor), you could see a turn around. Then she met a sorority girl (not mentioning the sorority but it is DD's choice) at the Greek Life information area and spent quite a while talking with her. Afterwards we had lunch in the dining hall (that is being replaced by a gorgeous, brand new dining hall opening this August) and then we checked out the building where her interior design classes would be and the new student recreation center. We also saw where the new Honors College (including the HC dorm) is being built. Each visiting student received a tshirt so we went to student stores and picked that up. During lunch, DD and I discussed what she had seen and heard and what she now thought of the college. She decided to cross all off her list except this one and another one (ironically, both schools colors are purple and gold) for official visits. She was actually asked to participate in the "Chancellor's Admissions Program" and will apply this summer even though she would not matriculate until fall 2010. We headed back to our car, drove around the campus. Went to see "the village" which is all the sorority and fraternity houses together and actually are a part of residential housing. We also saw the original entrance to campus (what was used as the main entrance when daddy was there) and also visited a freshman dorm. Learned about dorm life, met a family from here, and saw one of the dorm rooms. I never realized how great my dorm room was in college until seeing these. They are not air-conditioned but that is okay as it really is only hot in Aug-Sept and the rooms have 3 windows side by side for a lot of air to come in. BUT they are so small and all furniture is BOLTED to the walls except for the beds but they are bunkable (and I can't imagine it any other way). However, the walls definitely needed painting and the way the room is laid out...1 person's desk is behind the door. Oh well. Despite the dorm room...this school now tops her list! We will still visit the other school but this is her top choice.