College Road Trip

<p>We just did our Southern California Tour last week-end. What a blast! My twin DDs and me visiting a few schools, capped off with a rainy rainy day in Disneyland and missing an important merge...ending up in a "Buses Only" lane after crossing multiple lanes of traffic and then unintentionally driving through the city ACK! We played 20 questions, told stories and laughed ourselves silly. I felt like I was traveling with girl friends and I have to say it was a highlight of my life. I'm looking forward to the PNW trip in the spring!</p>

<p>My mom and I did our I-80 trip this summer and it was awesome. We went Chicago to Pittsburgh, with a dip into central Ohio for 2 nights.</p>

<p>Next up I think is a trip from Portland back to L.A. on Amtrak, with a stop in Davis, maybe, or Santa Barbara to at least squeeze in one or 2 UCs. Can't wait to see the scenery along the edge of the states!</p>

<p>And just because I happen to love road trips, I'm sure I'll find an excuse to drag her around the east coast, even though I'm not really considering any schools there.</p>

<p>Three generations of women in a car for three weeks - not the best idea. But it was a great trip, especially when we got off the interstates and really saw the country.</p>

<p>Now I'm planning college road trip, part deux, with my son for next summer.</p>

<p>Ok here's a dumb question - when do you do these road trips? Summer? Spring break? D's a sophomore, so I guess it's not too early to start planning. She has a few schools she's interested in, but hasn't really thought about where she wants to go yet. </p>

<p>The thoought of the road trip - especially since she'll be old enough to drive this summer -- is scary but exciting too. Did you do/ are you doing the road trips before senior year?</p>

<p>califa, We did our road trips (local schools and upto 6 hours away) during junior year. I wanted them done by the summer between junior and senior year. I encouraged my son to write his essays during the summer before senior year, so at that point he knew where he was applying. He really only saw a couple of schools that summer, which was good because he was also working then. Our trips junior year were on weekends for the fairly local schools (within 2 hours), and just about every break except for Christmas week, when the colleges were out on break as well. This included fall and spring breaks, and 3 day weekends like Good Friday. My son was not thrilled never being at home when he was off, but we did get through it. Also, we found that seeing too many at one stretch meant that they all started to blend together in our memory.</p>

<p>We did very few local schools - except for maybe 3 - and those were on junion invite days - my kiddos had not interest in staying local tho. </p>

<p>Our main trip was in early October of senior year (a long weekend + 3 days) - but only because of a family tragedy that post-poned our initial one - so we actually ended up doing a real whirling-durbush wham bam type of trip over 6 days - well planed and well organized by me - like a travel agent and party planner/organizer all rolled into one. </p>

<p>We left home with a notebook that had dividers for each school we had planned to visit - and a blank section for any we fell over along the way. Each section/school had all the info needed for that school - maps/questions/lists and notes - which we added to as we went along - also they were pre-ranked - but that quickly changed as we did the visits. But because we had to cram alot into a short time - it was important to jot down notes/thoughts as we did things so when we got home (added photos taken as well) - it was actually pretty easy to sort things out. My gal had pretty much made up her mind by the time we landed back home - and threw out a few as we traveled. Applications were started within a week or arriving home to the top choices - so it was all pretty organized in our case.</p>

<p>califa-
I planned my road trip in Freshman year! Well, mostly.
I went after my Sophomore year, though, during the summer after summer school got out.</p>

<p>It was a blast, but I wasn't a fan of the midwest July/August weather, and I wish I had gone when some students were actually on campus.</p>

<p>We had to fly to our starting point, and then back from our end point. In the whole big scheme of things, it was extravagant, brief, informative, and fun.</p>

<p>Oh that I-80 story made me recall my best trip with my son. PA residents...please don't take offense. We drove from CT to Pittsburgh. When we got onto the highway in Harrisburg, I told my son that he should look at the road and then go to sleep. ALL of the highways in PA look the same. He thought I was kidding. When leaving Pittsburgh, he asked "can we go home a different way?" Sure I said...we'll take the turnpike. "What's the difference? he asked. Tunnels. When we were crossing over the line back into CT at the end of the trip, DS said "mom, you were right...all of those PA highways looked the same." Yep.</p>

<p>califa</p>

<p>If you could start now or soon, even just browsing at local schools, it wouldn't hurt if your student is willing. We did a trip Feb vac of jr year and another during April break, but the rest were summer after jr year and summer visits are not ideal. He did figure out where to apply, but wanted to revisit several after acceptances. We fit it in April vac senior year, with one week added. It's tricky and expensive to arrange visits at that point, but it really helped him decide.</p>

<p>Also, some families like to take their sophomore to a few local schools. The reason for this is just to get an idea about what type of school the student might prefer. Would the student prefer a large university with 30,000+ students, a medium sized school of 5-10k, or a small school with 2,000 or less students? They all have their pros and cons, and the student can begin to explore the differences.</p>

<p>we started this last summer, before Jr. year. Combined soccer camp w/ a tour of the college where it was held and one other within an hour drive. This fall we attended a preview day at a school within 3 hours drive where both Ds are going to apply. Followed that up a month later w/ a two day "college day" trip attached to the front end of a weekend.</p>

<p>Over spring break we are doing a tour of several schools in Oregon and are trying to decide if we will make a trip to Denver and San Antonio before admission decision next year or after. We are not in an area within reasonable driving distance of many schools that our DDs find suitable so we had to start the summer after sophomore year in order to be able to see it all and pay for it all. </p>

<p>Truly, have fun with it. I have a younger S and a husband who may or may not accompany us on trips due to H coaching S's sports but it's a really a nice thing to spend that time one on one (or one on two in my case) with your upcoming grad.</p>

<p>The road trips were wonderful! However, I found that it was really important to visit when classes were in session - see the kids on campus, have a meal in a dining hall, read the "stuff" on the bulletin boards, posted in the hallways, etc, etc. Otherwise you might as well take the virtual tour on the website.</p>

<p>In our HS college visits are excused absences - spring of junior year and early fall of senior year were good times to go - there are always breaks and long weekends when the colleges are in sessions and the HSs are not.</p>

<p>As far as when to do college visits -- I'm more of the "whenever works" type. Everyone has a different opinion about the "best" time, but I'm not convinced it really matters. DD & I had heard over and over about how you shouldn't go during the summer because usually the campus is empty, but, for us, the summer between Jr. & Sr. year turned out to be when we saw most of the schools on her list due to scheduling constraints during the school year. It was fine -- she found out what she needed/wanted to know, and it didn't make any difference whatsoever that regular classes weren't in session.</p>

<p>Best advice? Do LOTS of research online to be sure you know the schedule & protocol for visiting each school, and make sure you download campus maps!</p>

<p>We did our trips during spring break of junior year, president's weekend of junior year and during the fall of senior year when seniors get 3 class days off for college visits. If your child is at all willing, you should try to arrange overnight stays; this really helped my d. She also attended classes at most of the schools--but this depends on the kid. When her older brother was looking, his philosophy was to go on a weekend and do an overnight. His rationale was that he knew that there would be good and bad professors everywhere, attending one class wouldn't be representative--and he wanted to see how the kids had fun, since that was, to him, the most important criterion. This didn't mean that he didn't plan to work hard--he did; for him that was a given. He just wanted to make sure he would have lots of fun when he wasn't working--and he certainly did.</p>

<p>My daughter decided not to apply to Tufts because they did NOT allow official overnights and she did not know anyone to ask about staying over.</p>

<p>Native NJ, is this a new policy of Tuft's ? My D was able to do an official overnight at Tuft's 2 years ago.
Tuft's arranged for a student to host my D, and the school also provided lists of potential classes that my D could sit in on.
She ended up not applying, but it wasn't because she wasn't able to overnight at the school.</p>