I don’t know how it gets better than this!

A couple weeks ago I went to Pittsburgh for a Regional Admissions Presentation (RAP). Last weekend I got back on the road again and ended up in Washington D.C. and New York City!

For this trip, I flew out of the Orlando airport on a morning flight. That required me to get up a bit early, but I didn’t mind. D.C. and New York City were destinations that I really wanted to visit. I got into D.C. in the late morning, so that meant I had the day to explore. Of course, my first spot was the Udvar-Hazy Center, which is home to a Concorde, a SR-71, and Space Shuttle Discovery.

The Udvar-Hazy Center was amazing. It also had a tall air traffic control-like structure that looked over the runways at Dulles Airport. That spot also had a live stream of the air traffic control communications, so I could hear the pilots and tower talking as planes started to land. A lot of traffic came in during the short time I was there, including a couple of international flights. That was super cool to watch!

After I was done at the museum, I ended up going over to a friend’s house and got to meet his cats. He has two black cats and one orange cat, and all three of them were very sweet. I missed my cat at home, even though I had only left him that day, so it was nice to be able to see some other kitties.

After playing with the cats a bit, I headed over to my hotel. My friend dropped me off at the metro, which I was excited to take. I had all of my things with me, and I took the metro into the city to the hotel. I ended up walking a couple blocks to the hotel and checking in. I didn’t get much time to relax- having known I would be going to D.C., I planned out a few things that I’d want to do.

I walked back to the metro and met a friend at another metro stop, where we got dinner and then went to a movie theater. Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour movie was out this weekend, and we’d managed to get tickets! We spent the evening watching the three hour movie before I went back to my hotel.

Saturday was the first RAP in downtown D.C., and it was super fun! Since D.C. is a huge city, we had a great turnout. At the RAP, full-time personnel from admissions talk about the university and then at certain points, students (like myself!) are given the chance to speak. At these RAPs, I talked about my previous internships, experiences with professors, and student organizations at the Daytona Beach campus. The D.C. and NYC events were joint events, meaning that representatives from the Prescott campus were there too.

After the presentation, people are allowed to ask questions until the time scheduled is up. Once the scheduled time is up, the families are allowed to leave while we stay behind and answer individual questions. That’s where I get the more personalized questions about my experiences in the degree program, how I manage my time, and other student life-specific questions. I love it- it’s so much fun to meet new people!

Once everyone has left, then it’s time to pack up. I usually change into something that isn’t a business casual outfit, and since we had another RAP in NYC the next day, we went to the train station. Union Station in D.C. is huge- it also reminded me a lot of Grand Central Station in NYC. We took the Amtrak train to NYC’s Moynihan Train Hall at Penn Station. It was a three hour ride, and the train was much more spacious than a plane.

Following the train, we headed to our hotel and checked in. After that, I was able to do what I wanted! I met up with the other student and one of the full-time admissions people from Prescott, and we ended up exploring New York City together at night. It was very exciting. I got to try NYC pizza (it was amazing) and we stopped by Grand Central Station.

We got back pretty late, and I fell asleep super fast. The morning came, and I ended up venturing back out into downtown NYC to get another slice of pizza. Our hotel was right next to Times Square and as I found, shops that sell pizza by the slice are everywhere! So I had pizza for breakfast before I met the admissions personnel in the lobby and we walked to the RAP venue.

The NYC RAP went the same way the D.C. one did. All RAPs present the same information. It was hosted in a venue right next to Times Square and the Hamilton theater, which I thought was super cool. After the RAP, the entire admissions group walked across the street to an Italian restaurant for dinner before we parted ways. I, along with the other members of the Daytona team, were flying out of the LaGuardia airport that night.

My flight got back into Orlando at 12:18 AM, and once I got to my car, it was about a one-hour drive back to Daytona. I didn’t even bother to unpack that night (well, morning) and instead fell asleep ASAP since I had class the next day. The trip was definitely worth it, though. I had so much fun walking around in D.C. and NYC. Even though I’m from a small town, I’m definitely a big city person at heart. I really enjoyed my time here, and I can’t wait to see what’s next. Maybe I’ll see you at an event next semester, during Open House, on Preview Day… if not, I’ll see you in the next post!