Thinking about making plans to see DC and PA schools. We would want to see GW, American, UVA, William and Mary, and U of Richmond in DC area. Still trying to decide about PA, but right now thinking we would see UPenn, Dickinson, Lafayette, Lehigh, and Bucknell.
Is this too much to do in one week? Is it better to take two separate trips? Maybe it’s a good thing to see so many schools in seven days…but maybe it just gets so overwhelming that the schools tend to blend together. Definitely need advice on that.
We’re in the Midwest so we would be flying and then driving. So, we could either fly to Philly, see schools, drive to DC to see schools there, and then head south to William and Mary and Richmond. Or make two separate trips.
Thoughts?
You have a wide array of school son that list - what area of study are you looking in and how married to that are you?
Our son is still young. Going to be a sophomore next year. I’m just asking for future reference. Thinking about visiting fall of junior year.
He’s a strong student and good test taker at a very competitive public high school. All of these schools look to at least be a match, except Penn of course which is a reach for even the best students.
He probably won’t be engineering major but loves pure science. He’s looking for a place with some diversity and a dedication to a liberal arts education. It would be ok for him to see familiar kinds of students (upper middle class, white kids) but our town is so homogeneous. He would like to broaden his horizons a bit.
As parents, we want him to go to a school with multiple strong programs in case he changes majors. I don’t think I could rule out that he wouldn’t be a history or econ major. Definitely not a business major. He’s not 100 percent sure about size yet but we will be very interested in class size and access to professors. We are interested in schools that offer merit or would be $50K or less per year.
Really just interested in understanding how many schools to see on one trip. Are visiting two metropolitan areas on one trip just too much?
You can easily tighten up the distance and see plenty of schools. Bucknell is 3 hours from Philly and W&M/Charlottesville are about 2.5/3 hours from DC.
You can turn it into a DC/Philly vacation with school visits on the side but see less schools. You can also decide if you want to drive through or have the Campus Tour and Information Session. So if you do IS/CT both at a school you’ll be able to see 2 a day that are close by.
People recommend using the Fiske guide to narrow down schools of interest and then target those.
So you could do American, GW, and Georgetown in DC, and UPenn, Haverford, Swarthmore in Philly area.
If that’s not enough schools you can add a Charlottesville - Richmond swing south and/or a Lehigh - Lafayette swing north of Philly.
Except that skips Dickinson…
One thing you have to think about is what you want to do on each campus. I admit, we are more “in depth” visitors. My kids sat in on classes and ate in the cafeteria (good for people watching) at almost every college, in addition to going on the tour. We were hit and miss on info sessions (went if there was time, not if there wasn’t). Doing that, my kids could usually do only one college per day. But I think they came away with a very solid sense of whether a school was a fit or not. We did a few “walking tours” of campus during off hours when we couldn’t fit something in (interestingly, many times you can find an online list of things to see on a campus if you can’t make the regular tour time). In the summer there were no classes to attend, so sometimes we did hit 2 colleges/day then if they were close together, and I think my kid managed Haverford and Bryn Mawr with classes at both in one day.
We are from the Midwest, and did two separate visits to the east coast (one to the DC area, one more PA/etc). I agree that using Fiske to narrow down your list is really a good idea. There is so much to see and do in DC – it can be a really nice combo vacation/college trip if you want it to be. Also, neither UVA nor W&M is going to fall within your cost constraints or give you OOS kid merit aid… nor, of course, will Penn. (Different story for Penn or UVA if your are eligible for need based aid, though). If cost is really part of your criteria, then don’t visit schools you don’t want to pay for – just leads to heartbreak down the road.
Thanks! I think you’re right, @intparent . If we’re going to make trips out east, it makes sense to focus and have him stay a whole day at each school. Maybe the only exception is GW and American. We’ve taken the kids twice to DC for short vacations and they’ve also both gone on class trips there. DC is familiar to them but always fun. Maybe a DC/Richmond trip is one trip.
I honestly just threw Penn on the list since we would probably spend a day in Philly seeing the sights. The other schools I mentioned in the area are much more likely matches for him. I will be curious to see how hard it is to get back and forth from O’Hare to Dickinson, Bucknell, Lehigh, and Lafayette. Not looking for ridiculous commute. That may be the case with Bucknell…
There are multiple airlines that fly Chicago to PHL so cheap tickets aren’t hard to find. Newark is also fine and possibly a better choice for Lehigh/Lafayette and maybe your other PA choices. Look at Haverford as it’s a great school and right beside Bryn Mawr (all girls) but you can take classes at both and I think a lot of the students do due to proximity and ease.
I missed the financial part earlier - so do the NPCs. I suppose Haverford might be nixed because it doesn’t have merit aid.
Also I’ve heard that GW protects it’s yield so if your son has high stats make sure you show interest by registering and doing the official tours and stuff. That probably is important for merit aid consideration at all the schools on your list.
University of Virginia is not a school known for giving much merit money
My kid almost always flew in and out of Harrisburg to Dickinson, OP. It always required a transfer, but she was fine with it. Once a snowstorm snarled things and she got to campus a day late (missed a day of classes after winter break). Her profs were cool about it, she just emailed with them.