We (Jeremy, me, Sylvia, and Carter) took a trip to Edwardsville today for Sylvia's first "official" college visit. I will just say that the college decision process (which is always difficult and stressful, really) has been extra tough for kids this year. Most schools are not hosting on-campus visits with Covid restrictions still being in place. This is more than likely the only college visit Sylvia will do in person.
We were excited for Carter to get to go with us! (He was goofing around here, wearing Sylvia's sunglasses.) Jeremy picked him up at 5:30am and we left our house at 6!
We arrived in Edwardsville at about 8:45.
Sylvia's appointment with the head of the Biology department was at 9am!
We went straight to the Science West building and found Dr. M's office while Jeremy figured out parking arrangements. As we passed an anatomy lab that was in use, Sylvia got giddy looking in! Dr. M met Sylvia and she was able to ask him questions about studying pre-med sciences at SIUe. While he walked her to a lab to see some of the facilities, he thanked her for being the most talkative prospective student he'd ever met with and said that he really appreciated all her great questions. He explained class/lab sizes for different years and lectures are always given by professors with Phd's and labs may be run by TA's in 100 level courses, but by 300 level everything is taught by profs. Sylvia asked about doing student research as an undergrad, and he was excited to hear she had that interest. He also advised living on campus and not having an off-campus job as a pre-med student, which Sylvia was relieved to hear.
It was a beautiful spring day on campus, and we enjoyed walking from building to building!
We stopped at Admissions and met Lindsey (both Annah's and Sylvia's admission counselor) in person and asked some questions about housing and how to get Sylvia's student ID. Jeremy and Sylvia stopped and talked with Financial Aid and got some questions answered about the rest of the process. We went to the Library and Sylvia got the rest of her student ID completed at IT so she can get things rolling with housing and registration. And, of course, we stopped at the Campus Center and bought some SIUe gear!
We left campus for a bit and headed toward St. Louis. We stopped at Sylvia's favorite for lunch--Cracker Barrel! Then we went into the city for one stop...
IKEA!
Where's Carter?
Sylvia got hampers for her dorm room!
You can almost see the arch...
When we got back to campus, we drove around more and went by The Gardens at SIUe.
Then we picked up Annah and went to see the apartments at Cougar Village, where she will live next school year.
The girls conceded to some pictures with the big red "e!"
Current SIUEe girl
Future SIUe girl
Fam e photo.
Ryan was getting his hair cut, so we didn't get him in the photos. But we did discuss that none of us would probably be standing in this place if it weren't for him!
Carter and Sylvia
All day while we were on campus Carter kept teasing Sylvia that he wanted a picture of her with a goose. (There are quite a few on campus, and they're not such nice animals. Also, Sylvia doesn't like any birds.) Then later we saw this Instagram post and realized it was probably made while we were inside the Cougar Store, and just thought it was funny!
It was a good visit to campus. The morning was stressful for Sylvia--especially the Financial Aid part, but after we checked everything off her to-do list, she was able to relax a bit. It is scary and confusing to see the numbers from Financial Aid, but we are very grateful Sylvia has earned The Provost's Scholarship for full tuition for 4 years at SIUe. This made her college decision for her, as she hopes to continue into medical school and doesn't want to accumulate college debt before then.
We are pretty proud of her, for sure!
We went to City Scoops for some frozen treats and Ryan met us there.
It is about 2.5+ hours from campus to home, and we dropped Carter off at his house on the way. We got home about 8pm, so it was a long but good day!
