Alec's Accepted Student Day at JWU

Last spring when Alec started his college planning I was pretty surprised that he only wanted to visit 2 colleges out of state (he visited a few in-state with his high school culinary class).  He ultimately decided to apply to just the 2 colleges we visited-- Johnson and Wales University (JWU) and the Culinary Institute of America (CIA). Both ranked as the #1 & #2 schools in the U.S for culinary and baking/pastry arts. Funny enough out of his 2 culinary teachers he's had in high school one attended each of those schools! 

Photo of harborside campus from last spring

JWU Future wildcat photo also from last spring

Visiting the CIA over the summer

We were lucky that both schools are easily visited in a day and we had a great time touring them both. Alec made sure to ask lots and lots of questions. The two schools were so comparable to one another that we had quite the pro/con list going.  He LOVED the CIA's campus and that it was along a river and rather rural and quiet... but he really, really wanted to have the option to study abroad and JWU had a fantastic program for that. I convinced him to keep his options open and just apply and see. 

He submitted his applications early to both schools and knew by Thanksgiving that he had been accepted to both and even better they offered him very comparable and generous merit scholarships as well. He knew by then that JWU was his top choice.  We're so excited for our future Wildcat! 

We spent last Friday at one of JWU's accepted students days.

The day started at the Omni hotel with complimentary valet service and we were ushered into their event room. Each of the families had assigned seating and we sat with other bakery/pastry students. Each table was assigned one faculty member to answer any questions we had. 

I think they said they had about 600 people in attendance that day. There were a few opening speakers talking about life at JWU and then we were served a really delicious lunch. 

We had a field green salad and some fresh bread to start then Alec and I got the roasted veggies with risotto while the rest of the table had chicken with green beans and mashed potatoes. 

They topped off our meal with a delicious chocolate cake. There were also little individually wrapped bonbons at each seat that had been made by the baking/pastry/culinary students at JWU. 

Once the meal was over they dismissed tables a few at a time and we loaded onto JWU buses to head to their downcity campus for a few seminars before we could head off touring. 

Our first seminar was about resident life and they went over the different dorm options, the meal plans, the dining options, etc. 

JWU has a few programs that are pretty unique! Students can bring their pets with them to live in the dorms if they so choose; they can also live in gender inclusive dorm rooms.  All of Alec's friends tend to be female or were assigned female at birth and are transitioning so we had been joking that he wouldn't be able to bunk with friends anyway; but maybe he can. 

From there we went to a financial aid appointment; sadly, that's where our day ended. These financial aid offices were swamped and running behind on all appointments-- mostly because colleges are left trying to fill the gap this year.  The government is in the process of re-doing their financial aid system and are lagging so far behind this year. They basically gave us a best guess estimate but it was great to go through all of Alec's merit based scholarships and learn more about them and how they'll be used over the next 4 years. 

Luckily we had done the campus tour last spring and Alec has since been back on campus 2 more times so he didn't feel like he was missing out on much.  We also missed a seminar called freshman orientation... BUT there is a mandatory overnight freshmen orientation over the summer that he'll attend and I'm sure he'll get plenty of information then! 

The more we visit the more I can just see him loving campus life and all the opportunities this campus offers. 

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