<p>No a 17 year old can’t rent a car. But many college visits can be done w/o a rental car. Obviously it would be easiest to hit just one, but in Boston there are plenty of schools near mass transit. Those schools have much easier travel logistics during the college years too. Example - when my son was at Northeastern, he had 4 T stops on campus (2 different lines). As an added bonus, it was more “campus-y” than many city schools.</p>
<p>Well Calmom may have a very traveled 17 year old but most, especially those say from Southern Calif where no one travels by train or subway, would have difficulty. The Bart system in SF is the same type of trains used as in DC. People do use the trains to go from SJ to SF. </p>
<p>And only in certain states can someone rent a car at the age of 18. NY state is one and I think Georgia is another.</p>
<p>I was traveling to Africa and back alone at 15. Changing planes in London. Dealing with missing connections. Subways aren’t that tricky. City colleges are easy. We coddle our kids too much. That said, if you are trying to visit colleges where public transportation isn’t available that’s considerably more difficult. Luckily I was set on urban campuses!</p>
<p>calmom’s daughter stayed with a friend in NYC, who most likely told her exactly how to get to and from Barnard/Columbia, which isn’t brain surgery as long as you knew what you were doing. </p>
<p>How many people know where is 15 E 42nd St vs 15 W 42 St? As someone who hs lived in NYC for many years before moving out, it made perfect sense to me, so I was completely floored when my friends from NJ had no clue.</p>
<p>Your plan of waiting for offers seems excellent. Good luck!</p>
<p>My son will be applying to colleges that he (and we) haven’t seen. Some have rolling admissions so we may visit if he is accepted, but there simply isn’t enough time to visit before acceptance.</p>
<p>I visited schools by myself all those years ago. However, those were one at a time visits, though most required a plane ride and some other transportation (shuttle, taxi, etc). I eliminated two of those schools for really solid reasons. I clearly think a visit is important.</p>
<p>Tough situation … lots of complicating restraints.</p>
<p>One suggestion … an expensive one. While Dad and daughter visit schools and stay in Motel 6s … at the same time Mom and jealous daughter go on a Mom/daughter get-away. This would work for visits either before applications or after acceptances.</p>
<p>I did visit my school before attending, but not until after the decision was made. Nothing I saw on that trip would have changed my mind, I’d done my research and nothing at my visit was a surprise. I don’t believe visits are necessary in every case. I did visit one school because it was in a climate id never quite experienced, so I planned a visit during the most extreme part of the year to see if I could tolerate it. If I really liked that school on paper, I could have gone there without visiting too and it still would have been fine.</p>
<p>I went on a great college tour when I was in the 10th grade. We visited 17 schools and I found my dream school on that trip. I also got a sense of what I like and don’t like and the part of the country where I want to go to school. It was over spring break so it was perfect. Google college tour companies in your area. It will be great for your daughter and the best thing for you.</p>
<p>3Togo wrote: “One suggestion … an expensive one. While Dad and daughter visit schools and stay in Motel 6s … at the same time Mom and jealous daughter go on a Mom/daughter get-away. This would work for visits either before applications or after acceptances.”</p>
<p>Funny you said that. After I took DD1 with me on the business trip to DC, DW took DD2 (SD) to LA for the weekend and toured UCLA to show her what was possible if she goes to CC and does well. Of course SD loved it and came back wearing a UCLA sweatshirt. If that helped motivate her, I’m all for it.</p>
<p>" (she doesn’t think sitting through college info sessions and taking campus tours is a vacation)"</p>
<p>“DW took DD2 (SD) to LA for the weekend and toured UCLA to show her what was possible if she goes to CC and does well.”</p>
<p>Umm… This sounds like it depends on which D it is.:(</p>
<p>That’s unfair, MichGA. Think from the perspective of the mother whose daughter doesn’t perform as well as the “star” in the household. It’s possible that she has some jealousy that her stepd (the OP’s d) has opportunities her daughter doesn’t. I think the OP should encourage that kind of thinking and enthusiasm.</p>
<p>Not to mention that not thinking a college tour is a “vacation” doesn’t mean you aren’t willing to tour colleges.</p>
<p>OP - I’m sorry. The way I interpreted your posts it was wrong. It is good to encourage DD2.</p>
<p>MG: It’s ok. No offense taken. They did a self tour and spent maybe 1/2 hour on campus. The rest of the time they spent sight-seeing in Santa Monica. It’s all good. SD came back with some enthusiasm about college. We’ll see if that enthusiasm translates into more effort her sr year.</p>
<p>^ I am sorry that you are going through this. It must be very difficult- hopefully your SD continues to show enthusiasm and sees that hard work pays off. Good luck to your family.</p>
<p>As for traveling in NYC for high school seniors who have never used public transportation, Googlemaps has GPS for walking and taking public transportation, available via cell phone. It’s a lot easier than it used to be. The city is packed, and there are always people on the street willing to help.</p>
<p>
I don’t think she needed to ask any friend. There’s a subway map. The college web site says what line to take. It’s not rocket science. </p>
<p>My daughter did a homestay in St. Petersburg (Russia) for 3 weeks at age 16 -she was with a school group, but they were scattered all over in pairs for their homestays, and she had to figure out the transit system to get the the university each day and also the kids had to keep track of the bridge hours – the bridges to the various islands close at certain times in the late evening, and after that there’s no transit. I remember she was staying on Vasilevsky Island at the time.</p>
<p>Anyway, I can see why a kid who has never taken public transit anywhere might be a little bit uncertain – but beyond that, it’s pretty much all the same wherever you go. Different systems, different route maps, different ways of collecting fares – but not all that complicated to figure out a new system. </p>
<p>
NYC is easy. It is a narrow strip of land, east vs. west runs straight up the middle, and all the streets are laid out in a grid. </p>
<p>Seattle is the place that really drives me nuts. It could be 42nd Ave NE or 42nd St. NE or 42nd St NW, or maybe 42nd Ave S, or maybe 42nd Ave SW.</p>
<p>The difference between when my daughter traveled to visit colleges and now is that back in the day for my daughter, her cell phone didn’t have GPS. If she got lost while traveling she might have had to actually phone me to ask for help. You know, because I had the internet and Google maps — and yes, I did sometimes get calls from her while in college doing exactly that – but now my kids have smartphones and I never hear from them. (It used to be a running joke for me because my kids would call me from all over the country asking me for directions.)</p>
<p>The days, I’m the one puzzling over the NY subway system when I go out to visit my daughter in Brooklyn, but there’s an app for that. The MTA App even has this cool “augmented reality” mode which works something like Google glasses - you hold up the phone in front of you and turn on the camera and you should be able to see markers for the stations & subway lines.</p>
<p>There’s also hopstop.com which is useful for several major cities. It’s very good for NYC and good for Boston too.</p>
<p>Hopstop is fine, but GPS in NYC for walking and taking the subway is another thing altogether. Just like GPS in the car–turn left or right on the corner; in 15 feet; now.</p>
<p>And the NYC transit system has excellent directions a la Googlemaps via mta.info, that take into account all the subway detours and diversions for maintenance and construction. You type exactly when and where you want to go and it gives you several ways to get there with exact times.</p>
<p>More and more subway platforms (but not the trains which would be a nightmare!) have WIFI and cell phone service.</p>