<p>Hello all!
I've read quite a few posts about visiting colleges over the summer, but I wanted to make sure if I knew everything I should and get prepared to the max with this intensive one week tour of Cornell, MIT, Princeton, UPenn, and CMU (I wanted to visit CIT, Duke, Stanford, Berkeley, Northwestern, UChicago, but perhaps later). I'm a rising senior, and sadly I have not visited any colleges yet. Frosh year my family went on a vacation/college tour to the East coast, but I really really wasn't prepared/interested then...so that one doesn't count.
My prospective major is Engineering. I live in WI and the schedule is the following:
7/9: from Milwaukee, head to Sandusky OH
7/10 (sun): Enjoy/family time @ Ceder Point (!!)
7/11: Move to Cornell
7/12: Cornell Tour. Move to Boston
7/13: MIT Tour. Move to NJ
7/14: Princeton tour. Move to Philadelphia
7/15: UPenn tour. Head for CMU. Possibly tour
7/16: Tour or head home</p>
<p>After the Princeton tour, we will hang out in NY b/c UPenn is so close by.<br>
Questions: It seemed like CMU didn't have a tour or something like it (at least from its website. Only virtual tours?) If so...what/where/who should I visit?
Any other tips on what/how to tour? ALso, are there recommended places to visit outside of the campus? I know it's not the most opportune time to visit (shoulda gone during spring break or somewhere in there when students were there... TT) but what could I do more to get the 'feeling'?
Thanks!!</p>
<p>Looks do-able but lots of driving. Summer visits can at least give you a sense of the campus and surrounding community. It is surprising how much information you can pick up just from that sometimes. You can always go back for a second visit after you're admitted. Enjoy! (By the way it's a good two hour drive from Philadelphia to NYC --- longer if you hit rush hour traffic at any point along the way, so I wouldn't count on much time hanging out in NYC. It might be wiser to just hit NYC on the way south to Princeton.) The only suggestion I might add would be a stop at Case Western Reserve when you're going through Ohio.</p>
<p>I am going to second Carolyn's suggestion that you stop at Case Western as you are passing through that way. Also, if you change your itinerary a bit you can get to Cornell via Rochester and look at U of R & RIT. You'll probably add only 2 hours of driving if you get to Ithaca via NY Thruway. I hope you are considering match/safeties, as the schools listed may be "top heavy". As you are from Wisconsin, I'll assume you are using U. of Wisconsin as a safety. It's a great school.
Have fun with the trip.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the replies!
I'll see what we can do about visiting more schools. (We already got hotel tickets and things like that)
I do realize that it's top heavy, and yes, UW-Madison will be my ultra-safety. My parents are saying that the college I go to will either be those top schools or UWMadison (because it'll be SO much cheaper, and it's not a bad engineering school).</p>
<p>daniels-
Which cities are you flying into/out of and when? That would help with suggestions on schools if we could estimate the timing. And don't forget, some people choose to visit some schools after they are admitted. So, you don't have to fret just yet about not having cisite campuses yet.
BTW, my h. is a UW Madison graduate. He loved it! Can't get brats of equal caliber down here.</p>
<p>I would change your itnery slightly: On 7/11 drive to Cornell first thing in the morning so that you can tour in the afternoon. This leaves the 12th for the longer drive from Ithaca to Cambridge. You can still spend a little bit of the morning of the 12th looking around Cornell if you wish.</p>
<p>you have some pretty long driving stretches in there - have you figured out just how long each of these stretches will take to drive? and then add some for traffic, especially around NYC.
The biggest surprise we had in college visits was just how physically tiring the process was - those campus tours seem designed to make the campuses seem four times bigger than they are. Combining that with long stretches of driving each day, can be exhausting - doable, but exhausting.</p>
<p>What kind of engineering are you intersted in studying? For the caliber of schools you are considering, Yale also has some excellent engineering programs.</p>
<p>I'm not exactly sure what kind of engineering I'll be getting into. I might mix it up with economics or the sort (!) but I'm not sure at all right now.
The schedule right now seems quite constrained with having to move some places very quickly. I think it'll work out/be fun though.<br>
As for the driving (for now):<br>
WI--> Sandusky (390mi)
Sandusky--> Cornell (400mi)
Cornell--> MIT (350mi)
MIT--> Princeton (380mi)
Princeton--> UPenn (50mi)
UPenn-->CMU (310mi)
CMU-->home (560mi)</p>
<p>If you are doing all of this by car, you will be doing a lot of driving. Hotel reservations can easily be changed. That shouldn't be your worry at all. I'd drive through NYC on your way to Princeton (though the drive from MIT to Princeton will take you a good 6-7 hrs with the traffic, I'd suspect, so you might nothave much time to visit The City).
Good luck.</p>
<p>About the driving, yes, it'll be a LOT of driving, but we hope to manage by rotating (me, mom, dad). The hotels can't be easily changed b/c we used priceline.com and their bidding style to get reservations... Very cheap, but not flexible.</p>
<p>
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we used priceline.com and their bidding style to get reservations... Very cheap, but not flexible.
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Ohh, bummer. I am sure it will all work out ok, but just to put it in perspective, we are leaving tomorrow morning to take our younger s. to Duke. Its 380 mi. , all highway. The AAA website says its about 6 hrs 15 min, but I've done the drive 4x with my older s. With traffic, speedtraps and brief pit stops, its more like 8 hrs. I am not counting longer stops for obligatory activities like meals, stopping for a basket of fresh peaches or shopping for fireworks. I was hoping to do a drive-by at UNC Chapel Hill (we're staying right in between Duke and UNC, about 5 miles equidistant), but it may be late by the time we get there. </p>
<p>Sounds like you'll be doing a lot of late night or early morning driving, to fit in the drives and the tours. Whew. Good luck.</p>
<p>CMU does have a virtual tour. Ask for their CD or see most of it online. www cmc.edu . The cmu's surrounding area is probably more interesting than cmu's campus. Likewise for MIT which our son says that MIT has too much concrete but Boston itself is terrific. </p>
<p>You may find that after the third visitation that the schools are a bunch of buildings with classrooms and laboratories. One will look much like another. I'd use the notion of "visitation" as an excuse to see America that you would not otherwise see. </p>
<p>Our's never did a visitation. He knew what he wanted and got on the plane to Pittsburgh. We live on the West Coast and doing a college tour was logistically not feasible, although affordable.</p>
<p>daniel-
Here's some good news. We just returned from dropping off the boys at Duke. The 380 mi. drive (each way), even with the 2 stops, took about 6 1/2 hrs. They've made some road improvements since the last time we did the drive. (Please do not ask how fast we were driving).</p>
<p>You might want to watch the weather closely because a couple of those days might be rain soaked due to remnants of Dennis and this might slow things up a bit.</p>
<p>FYI, I believe Cornell offers engineering tours Mon, Wed, Friday and they ask that you register for these. The office open Monday morning if you would like to sign up then.</p>