Please forgive me if I have told this story before...
Houston in August is no fun, but one of my fondest memories of there is attending the reception for freshmen and their parents at the residence of the college master*.
We found the residence and rang the bell. The master (whom I had never met) and his wife came to the door and said something like:
"IndependentlyPoor, welcome to Rice, and these must be your parents. We are very pleased to meet you Mr. and Mrs. IP".
At that time each college had about 100 students per class. The master and his wife had taken the trouble to memorize our names and faces from the photos attached to our applications. It was the most flattering welcome imaginable, and a pretty accurate indication of how life at Rice was going to be.
The reception was super, and I think very reassuring for my blue-collar, high school only parents.
Anyhoo, unless daughter feels strongly about it I would go. Of course, things have probably changed in 30 some-odd years, but I hope not too much.
That said, Rice d@mned near killed me. I was in way over my head; some of the students there were just scary smart. I still have occasional nightmares about it.
*Rice has a "college" system. A college is dorm, but has a faculty member who lives there with his/her family. Colleges are a little like fraternities or sororities in that they are self-governing and have distinct personalities, but students are assigned randomly, so there is no social status associated with them. All in all, it is a great system.
We keep offering, she keeps smiling that "you guys, thanks anyway" smile and turning us down.
Rice has nine or ten college dorms now (they just built a new one) and not much more than 950 students. Maybe they're up over 1000 now. But I hear that colleges nationwide are starting to develop entire "parent indoc" 2-3 day programs for people who just wanted to ditch their kid and run. I don't think I'll learn anything I didn't already know, and I don't want to be herded into an auditorium or a dining facility with all the other clueless parents. So we're not sure there's any benefit to us or the college from showing up... only to the extent that our kid wants muscle help. And I'm not sure I want to encourage hauling extra stuff to a dorm room. We'll stay home and man the priority-mail packing room.
Rice has a roommate-matching questionnaire but assignments are still largely out of the student's control. Our kid says that two new members of Rice '14 have met on Facebook, realized they were from the same town, and already started dating. Talk about ruining the college experience before it's even begun!
Our kid has a sponsor in the NROTC unit, plus another hundred or so early-decision Facebook friends, and she'll probably be visiting the campus again for next month's "Owl Days". I could go along and spend a couple days in Houston but I doubt I'm wanted, let alone needed. Anyway spouse will already be elsewhere that week traveling with a shipmate and wouldn't be able to make the Houston trip. Besides I don't think our kid will have any trouble with the college transition and she's already flown cross-country on her own.
I have another reason for staying home next month. When kid & spouse are out of the house on travel, it will be the first time that I've lived alone in our personal residence in at least 18 years. As far as spouse can tell, anyway.
Despite the jokes about BlackHawk parenting, no college that our kid has considered has ever heard us parents communicate with them via phone or e-mail. We've funneled all of that through her and made her stick to her guns until she got answers. (I think the communication skills she's had to develop have been one of the biggest benefits of the college search.) If it wasn't for our tax data on the FAFSA, the colleges would think she was an orphan.*
We're pretty sure that Rice will be an academically- and socially-humbling experience. In fact we're counting on it! From our kid's comments on the high-school dating scene, I'm pretty sure she's counting on a considerable deepening of the gene pool too...
*Hmmm, I wonder if that would make her eligible for more financial assistance. Gonna have to think about that one. There's gotta be a catch.
And the weather is beautiful. Hopefully my partner and I will play well enough to avoid an early tee time tomorrow morning. 
