Saturday, November 14, 2015

#1545 campus visit

This morning T and I went to the University of Utah for a campus visit for prospective incoming freshman. It was an unbelievably gorgeous fall day. The Admissions office could not have picked a more beautiful day to show prospective students and their parents around the campus. The campus has lots of trees and they were showing off their remaining leaves in vibrant autumn colors. The weather was cool, but not cold and there wasn't even a breeze.


The day started off at the Eccles School of Business building. We were directed up to the 7th floor to a large meeting room where there was a table loaded with breakfast sweet breads, coffee, tea, hot chocolate and water. The views from up there are very nice.

View of the library and the city in the background


View to the west with the football stadium


We watched a video and listened to a few people speak. We flashed the "U" sign several times. There were several options that we could do. We chose to take a tour of the campus first. It was an hour-long walk around the campus from the new student gym building (damn nice!) down to President's Circle to the oldest buildings on campus (1912). The guide was a sophomore student who told us about his first year at the U and what he was doing this year. We also went into the library which is huge and dang nice, too. Here's a view of the outside.
the library has the University's slogan "Imagine U" on the windows

Both T and I kind of fell in love with the place during that walk, I think it's safe to say. I know I did. 

After the campus tour, we went into a session about financial aid and scholarships. Unfortunately, during that session is when my body decided to have a coughing attack. I left the room and tried to get myself under control. So awful. The good thing is that the presentation is available online so I can go back through what I missed and T took good notes. 

The last session we went to was about a program for freshman called Block U. It sounds pretty interesting because it gives freshman a chance to complete most of their general education requirements in their first year while building relationships with a group of students with similar interests and faculty that stay with them the whole year so the student can build relationships with professors as well. 

At the end we went for a tour of the residence halls. We went to the dining/student life building and into one of the dorms and checked out a room. Looked pretty nice. I think T liked it too. We have always talked about him living at home, but I think he would enjoy living on campus and would get a lot out of the experience, too. We'll see how the financial aid shakes out. 

T will be filling out college apps at school this week. There's a college prep department that will help him with the process. The financial aid applications open up on Jan. 1. T tells me that he'll be filling out applications at a couple of other colleges, too, so we'll see, but I have to say, I'm hoping he chooses the U, and that they choose him, too! :)

Speaking of Utah, I'm watching the Utah/Arizona football game right now. It's almost halftime and the Utes are down 10 - 20, but looks like they may be able to score before the end of the half. 

Go Utes!

PS The Utes just scored a touchdown!!

1 comment:

Kteach said...

I'm glad you both enjoyed the visit. Now he has more information, and it be easier for him to choose where he wants to go. Both you and Lizzie chose where to go and stayed in the dorms, let him choose too.
Hopefully he can get a scholarship, he has the grades :)