Woke up in Chicago- went to bed in Chicago.  Here’s how the day went, and some thoughts:

  1. Chicago has traffic- though weekends not so bad
  2. Went to a restaurant with an 8pm reservation- they weren’t ready for us, but did offer us drinks and gave us a free dessert.  They were very gracious and the Hostess at the place was amazing!  She handled everything that came her way with grace and calm.  Nice job.
  3. We keep jumping from hotel to hotel- when I packed I should have made little packets of clothes- pawing through my suitcase is not fun
  4. When we were about to go to a college info session they told us that we would not be allowed to bring in drinks, so as we walked we needed to “Sip with purpose”.  Love that
  5. We were also not allowed to bring in food, which prompted the question: Is a mint considered food?
  6. When attending information sessions at I’ve noticed that at the “higher ranked”  schools, more kids crowd the front of the room
  7. Also, students tend to ask all the questions at the “higher ranked” schools.  Parents tend to ask the questions at the “lower ranked” schools
  8. When talking about cars at school- I don’t care if kids have cars.  What I do find troubling is that cars/driving was one of the first things discussed at some of the tours.  What about discussing education first.  I’m about to pay an obscene amount of money on a college education.  My daughter shouldn’t need to ask “What’s the student/faculty ration?” That should be told before anything is mentioned about cars. Unless you’re going to Skip Barber Racing School
  9. Univ Chicago offers a class on aesthetics of art in the era it was created vs the era you’re watching it.  If my daughter ends up there I am going to make her take the class
    University of Chicago- Talk about a beautiful campus
    Sunday in the Park with George…
    Deep Dish Pizza- Giordano’s
    Millenium Park
    I think they call this the bean…
    Garrett’s Popcorn- funny thing- we have a Garrett;s in NYC yet we never go there…but in Chicago we will gladly wait on line
    Bean
    Route 66- The Beginning
    A little smooth jazz
    Chicago Dog- Portillo’s

41 thoughts on “Day 7- The Trip”

  1. I like the thought of the “then vs now in art” class. More colleges should have it, especially for students involved in all the arts. Now that I think about it, though, it was something we talked about in art history, but that was just about paintings and the like.

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  2. If you liked a hostess,waitress,etc in a restaurant Please,Please,Please tell the manager. They listen. They tell said person about good/bad job. I lost jobs because people thought I was mad at them(didnt even know them)-actually I would be thinking about what I had to do,who to refresh,etc. A complement can make a weary servers day. The boss hearing lets her keep her job

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  3. Interesting notice of the kids asking more questions vs parents asking more questions. And another interesting notice if the car talks. Do they have comment cards to fill out about your tour? I have no idea about college tours because my oldest kid is in 8th grade! But she has said she wants to go to Univ of Chicago. It’s a beautiful campus.

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  4. Bravo on #9 in light of your recent post! Also, bravo for your involvement in the whole college tour thing. All my now adult children wanted to stay in-state and had fairly firm ideas about what college they wanted to attend. Only the last one was open to ideas, all still in-state though so my college tours were very limited to less than 5 and we got samples throughout high school of the perspective ones due to events related to classes they were already involved in (ie: band competitions, etc). It certainly helped that when senior year came and they started the application process they all got into, and were awarded nicely sized scholarships, at the schools they wanted.

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    1. It’s actually been sort of fun going through this whole college process. Now that being said, it’s a good thing I don’t have two kids because I would not do this a second time…..😉

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  5. I have been to the end of Route 66, my husband and I want to make tat road trip someday. A lot of times at schools where there is a fair amount of kids from a 2 hour drive they want to know if they can bring their car. Suburban kids are used to needing cars. Not having one would make it difficult if not impossible. I do agree that that type of info should be relagated to campus life discussions.

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  7. I think it is cool that you get to tour with your daughter and have an idea what are the available options. I wasn’t in the planning process when my oldest picked his choice. Lucky he was awarded a scholarship otherwise it could have ended much differently for him and his choice of schools or his financial situation after college. Unfortunately many of us parents don’t have the funds to send our children either to the schools of their choice or out of state. Here in The Netherlands it is not about a competition between Univerities it is about the education they will get. The extra crap that all US Universities talk about is just that crap they think is important to get your money.

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    1. U.S. universities cater to athletes first. Next its the A students. Too many idiotic hoops to jump thru to go to college. And people who need jobskills get the door slammed in their faces…unless they can throw a football

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  9. You are spending just as much money on college research as you will be spending on college! LOL Both worth it! We got lucky and our daughter picked (on her own) a college about 1-1/2 hours away from home. She went on a student/teacher field trip to several colleges down in the southern part of California and found a couple she liked but she only applied to Sonoma State and fortunately got in.

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  12. I love this post and the lovely homage to my hometown. Chicago has some amazing restaurants and reading about the hostess doesn’t surprise me. Not only is the food good at so many places, the service is excellent. I miss that where I live now.
    Regarding college tours – super interesting observation. The kids applying to top schools (I’m assuming you mean U of C, Northwestern, and Washington U) all sit in the front because they are focused at school and getting into a good college.
    Love # 9! Brilliant.

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    1. Thanks! Chicago is just wonderful!! Everything about it! It’s funny how the more you go to schools the more things you notice…you start to figure out the personalities of each school, and why certain people fit at different ones….

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  14. One thing I noticed when I visited Chicago is how much everyone uses their car horn! Of course maybe horns are used a lot in NY, in which case you wouldn’t notice that 🙂

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      1. My cities I want to re-visit or visit: NY, Boston and never been to before Chicago. (There are others but these are close enough to Toronto to do over a weekend or so)…

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  17. Enjoyed reading about your experiences in Chicago. Beautiful campus indeed!! And laughed at the Garrett’s popcorn comment. Why do we do that? Oh….and laughed about the question of whether or not a mint is considered food. Sounds like something I’d think or say. 😂

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    1. The mint thing came about because the rom had a no food or drink policy. As we ate a mint, the whole thought came into mind! We decided it wasn’t a good because we didn’t want to break the rule!!

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