@EconPop don’t want to derail, but what is VCU like? Debating a trip down there for D21 but afraid it may be too urban.
@NJWrestlingmom
VCU is in an urban environment, but it didn’t feel oppressively urban to me. Once we stepped away from the main thoroughfare (Broad St, I think,) it felt less busy. There was still a density of population, but the automobile traffic was not quite as thick. And with all the tree-lined streets, it felt calmer, even with a decent amount of foot traffic.
My son and I liked that the campus and private businesses/residences were interspersed with each other. We walked from buildings with dorms, to stores and restaurants, to administrative offices housed in two-hundred year old houses past a retirement center, and so on.
Prior to our visit, VCU was simply a “maybe”, as in my son felt like “maybe I might consider it.” After the visit, he said it is definitely on his list. We both liked the neighborhood the campus was mixed into/with. Some narrow streets, older houses that had been converted into apartments, and older buildings built to be apartments in the first place. It felt to me like a nice place to attend university. That we visited on move-in day helped us get a look at a lot of students and parents. It almost felt like we were moving in, after we helped a couple of single parents pull some heavier items from their vehicles.
If your daughter wants no urbanity whatsoever, she probably won’t like it. If she doesn’t mind some urbanity but wants to avoid something completely urban along the lines of being in Manhattan, VCU might not be too much for her tastes. It is certainly worth a visit.
I’d love to hear the opinion of a student who has attended VCU for a year or more.
Good luck.
If you or your daughter plan a second trip to the Northeast, consider Colgate University, Dartmouth College, Middlebury College, the University of Vermont & Bowdoin College.
Of course, Colgate is too far away from the others, but if a revisit is planned to either Cornell or to Hamilton College, then Colgate should be on your list, in my opinion.
If you plan a trip to the Mid-South, then UNC, Duke, Davidson, the University of Virginia & the College of William & Mary should receive consideration.
I think it’s a great plan. We did college visits around family visits, vacations, whatever - it helped D get a sense of what she liked and didn’t, and she was willing to do them.
Bryn Mawr strikes me as a bit out of your way from upstate NY to Newark. Barnard, maybe instead?
Barnard is an interesting option I hadn’t thought of @OHMomof2. I just punched it into google maps, and it does only cost me 45 minutes to do Bryn Mawr instead of Barnard. But I may do a bit of research and see which one sounds more likely to interest her. I am hoping she gives the women’s colleges a look, I think there is a lot to offer there. I’m guessing if the first women’s college we check out doesn’t appeal to her, they will all be eliminated, so I am hoping it is a good visit…
@Publisher thanks for the suggestions.
Barnard is pretty intertwined with Columbia, being part of the university but its own college, which makes it a womens college with a fair number of dudes in classes and generally around. Dependingon major she might also take classes at Columbia, they register as one, as I recall.
Being right in Manhattan is something she’d love or hate I suppose.
Even from Newark, Bryn Mawr is near a two hour drive each way, but maybe coming from upstate the difference is less, for avoiding the city. Time of day matters a lot, anywhere near NYC/Philly 
Note that the OP would be making a loop, so the trip to Bryn Mawr may add only about an hour and a half to the driving portion of the itinerary.