<p>The family (wife, 2 daughters in early teens, and I) will be road-tripping through the Northeast in early summer. We'll briefly visit relatives, and make quick visits to Boston and NYC. Along the route we're taking, there are 20-25 colleges that I think we might visit in the 7-day trip.</p>
<p>We won't be doing any formal tours or attending any info sessions...just quick walk/drive arounds that will last anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour, just to get a feel for what's out there (daughters have spent almost every summer in Europe with grandmother, so have seen very little of the U.S.).</p>
<p>So my question is...is it quite possible that all the colleges will blur together in the kids' minds? Would taking a few photos on each campus ensure they will remember which school was which? I'm sure some of you have done this before. Any advice would be appreciated.</p>
<p>why are you college visiting when your kids sound like they’re like freshmen in high school or not even? i suspect they won’t remember a thing about the 20 colleges.</p>
<p>and pictures will only capture looks, not feel</p>
<p>Yes to both. Even if you take the tour and spend the whole day at the school, they tend to blur together. I would suggest doing a couple of longer visits so that they can get a sense of what the schools are like beyond geography and architecture, if they are old enough to be thinking of college that is. The first trip , IMO, is to get a sense of what type of school they might be interested in–LAC, University, single sex, Urban, rural. Spending 15 minutes at 20 schools sounds pretty useless, not to mention car sickness inducing. By all means, if your family likes this sort of activity, go for it, but if we tried it, we’d have a revolution on our hands. We found one school per day was ideal, two at most. Your mileage will undoubtedly vary.</p>
<p>I would weed it down to 6-8 colleges or else they will “blur together” in your kid’s minds as well as yours. Since this is not a big info gathering mission, make it a point to visit campuses with the most visual appeal.</p>
<p>We did several vacations of 7 day duration when our kids were “college viewing age”. At NO TIME did we ever visit more than 7 schools on a trip…and in retrospect even THAT ws too many. Yes…blurred and the kids will be sick of it.</p>
<p>I would try to narrow the field. Just because there are 25 schools along the vacation path doesn’t mean you need to see them ALL…in the northeast, I’ll bet there are even MORE than that. You mention the greater Boston area…heavens…there are probably 25 colleges or more JUST in greater Boston. </p>
<p>I would suggest you narrow the field a LOT. On our first trips, we just wanted our kids to see big school vs small school, suburban vs. urban, public vs. private. Just a sampling so they could get a feel for the types of schools out there. You don’t need to see 25 to do that.</p>
<p>"why are you college visiting when your kids sound like they’re like freshmen in high school or not even? "</p>
<p>Like I said, the kids have seen very very little of the US. Due to job constraints and school sports, one week-long trip per year is all that’s possible. So this summer it’s the Northeast; next summer the Southest; the following summer the South. The college visits aren’t the main reason for the trip…just something to do along the way (I’m burned out on museums, battlefields, monuments, and nature…I’m a Reganesque “seen one redwood, you seen them all” sort of guy).</p>
<p>Are you kids and spouse in agreement on spending most of the time at colleges on this trip? You will get almost nothing out that quick hit sort of visit. The architecture of a campus is really a small part of the experience. You sure aren’t “showing them the US” if they spend the whole vacation on campuses, either. And if they hate college visits after this… you will have trouble getting them to do them in depth in the future. Seems to me you are going WAY to hard & fast at this process.</p>
<p>You haven’t mentioned their ages. But my D2 is a sophomore in HS this year (2nd kid, 1st one is a junior at an LAC). So we have PSATS (and actually SATs from previous talent search testing), which gives us some idea of what is reasonable for her academically.</p>
<p>We just came back from a spring break trip to the DC area (where her sister is on an internship). We took 2 of the 7 days we were there, and visited 2 nearby colleges. In depth – took the tour, info session, she sat in on a class, ate lunch there. At one we met with a prof in her area of interest who is a friend of a family member. Purposely picked 2 very different types of college – one high intensity in a city, one lower key LAC-like and rural. This was a very clarifying experience for D. She VASTLY preferred the lower key LAC-rural school, which will help us with further refining her visit list. And I am sure that she has a very solid memory of each campus and what she liked/disliked (we did take notes, helps with the “why X” essay, and also made sure all of our questions were asked in the course of the day).</p>
<p>You really are running a risk of alienating them early in the search process, and getting no benefit except satisfying your own curiousity about the appearance of the campus.</p>
<p>OP, definitely weed it down to a few with particular focus points: your (or other relative’s) alma mater, to visit a friend who is attending, cool architecture, a great museum, a performance venue. That should get the girls some feeling of the type of schools out there without the pressure of trying to compare.</p>
<p>Early teens?? Unless your daughters are college obsessed, thinking finding the exact right college that will make their lives (which I really doubt at that age), it is an absolute waste of time. They will be amazingly bored and annoyed. They will forget most everything they see. Do a little research on your own, and take them to just a few of the ones you think they might like. Visit a small school, large school, private and a public. Don’t waste your vacation doing something so ridiculous.</p>
<p>To spend that time driving through endless campuses, when you could be going to plays in NYC and actually seeing some exciting historical landmarks along the way? What a waste!</p>
<p>I agree with others that you should choose carefully and limit the visits. You really can’t get a feel of the school just with a quick walk around. You can say “no” to some like that, but not “yes” or “likely” on that quick visit.</p>
<p>We found that one visit a day was enough, but that was doing the official tour. Take lots of notes, even if just walking around. Pics will help, but notes will be better. Keep all pics/notes together. Then when it comes time to re-look, go back and read notes. It will help. You won’t remember everything, so make sure your notes are good! Then perhaps the notes will help you zero in on what is important to each daughter.</p>
<p>It will be difficult as others have said. Expect them to get tired of it pretty quickly. We found it better to narrow choices thru online information (college websites, etc) then visit the most likely to fit. Never visited them all, but the ones we didn’t visit weren’t at the top of the list anyway.</p>
<p>I think some of you are overestimating the amount of time involved with some of these visits, and the payoff we hope to get. </p>
<p>For example, I know the Boston University, NYU, and MIT visits will just be drive-bys while visiting those cities. They aren’t considering any of them, but they are schools which help flesh out the profile of the higher education options. Some of the schools are LACs with tiny campuses you can grasp in a few minutes (I have already been to many of the colleges on the list of possible places to visit).</p>
<p>I don’t honestly see any “payoff” to the kind of visits you are describing, which aren’t really visits at all. Looking at the exterior of some building will not give your children any sense of the personality or feel of these institutions. And I totally agree that until they have some test scores–at least a PSAT–you really have no direction. If they aren’t going to apply to MIT, what is the point of driving by to look at it?</p>
<p>Schmaltz…if you are just going to “drive by” and say things like "Look…her’s BU (while driving down Commonwealth Ave) or “Let’s drive through Wellesley to see the beautiful campus”…that’s one thing. BUT even with that, I wouldn’t make driving through college campuses the focus of a trip. You mentioned doing this with 25 schools. To be honest, that’s too many. If you just want your kiddo to have a sense of an “urban” campus, a driveby EITHER MIT, BU or NYU will do the trick…no need to do all three.</p>
<p>“when you could be going to plays in NYC and actually seeing some exciting historical landmarks along the way?”</p>
<p>Boy, do you NOT know me. You just described my worst nightmare. The thought of some Broadway phony getting some of my hard-earned cash for prancing around in a cat suit or a big hat makes me want to barf. The kids want to see a Red Sox game.</p>
<p>"If they aren’t going to apply to MIT, what is the point of driving by to look at it? "</p>
<p>So I guess the only people who should take a glance at the White House are those who plan on being President? The only people who should look at the moon are astronauts? Wha?</p>
<p>Red Sox game sounds good. You could possibly see a quirky museum that happens to be on a campus - like Harvard’s glass flowers exhibit for example. Some of the New England LACs have some great collections (Smith and I think Colby). My younger son was in 8th grade when he tagged along on older brother’s college visits. He was a trooper about it, but three years later about all he remembered was how good the pizza was at Caltech.</p>
<p>“And colleges may end up being another version of redwoods to your kids.” </p>
<p>I appreciate the feedback here…especially regarding my main concern, which was the various colleges blurring in their minds. I am definitely forewarned (and hopefully forearmed) about overload. I am certainly taking Altoona Community College off the itinerary.</p>
<p>A unintended benefit of this thread is that it has highlighted the variety of reasons people take trips in general and see colleges in particular. Being a veteran of many family roadtrips as a kid, I have come to the conclusion that people tend to lump everyting together (historical sites, artsy entertainment, nature, museums, etc.) without really analyzing the benefit of experiencing each, and how the law of diminishing returns plays into it.</p>
<p>For example, I don’t know what I’m supposed to learn about George Washington by looking at the Washington Monument. I don’t know that I’m a better person for spending two hours in an art museum rather than one hour. I completely identified with Chevy Chase in National Lampoon’s American Vacation when he looked into the Grand Canyon for 5 seconds and said “Ok, that’s enough, let’s go.”</p>
<p>A primary reason for including the colleges on the trip (even the drive-bys) was just so that the kids would be able to grasp the vast array of variables that are at play in college selection (size, urban/rural. surrounding area, architecture, etc.). I don’t think a 15-minute walk-around is a perfect source of information, but neither is making a $150,000 decision based on how ONE tourguide or one admissions rep. or one professor interacted with your applicant.</p>
<p>There’s an <em>awful</em> lot of information online–pictures, virtual tours, visit reports (here on CC and elsewhere). You can find videos on youtube for about any school. Seems like a much more efficient use of your time if you just want to see what the place looks like. I’d start with the schools’ own web sites, then have a look around here: [CampusTours</a> - Virtual College and University Tours & Interactive Campus Maps](<a href=“CampusTours - Interactive Virtual Tours and Campus Maps”>http://campustours.com/) or here: [Over</a> 1300 360 degree college virtual tours - admissions and financial aid tips - eCampusTours](<a href=“http://www.ecampustours.com/]Over”>http://www.ecampustours.com/) .</p>