<p>We just drove from New Jersey to Pitt to University of Rochester to Dartmouth and back to New Jersey. Approx. 1500 miles of driving in four days and three nights.</p>
<p>Any other crazy college trip stories?</p>
<p>Over Easter weekend, we left Thursday afternoon, drove from North Central Illinois to Cleveland, saw Case Western on Friday. Then drove to Letchworth State Park in New York, camped in a cabin there three nights, then visited University of Rochester on Monday. Then drove 11 straight hours, arriving home about 2 a. m. Tuesday. </p>
<p>Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using CC App</p>
<p>Summer of 2010. We flew 6,204 miles. We drove 1,544 miles. We visited 11 colleges in 8 states. We experienced one celebrity sighting (Tim Matheson). Mom and Boychild alone. Got lost in the ghetto of Boston.</p>
<p>One of my favorite lifestories.</p>
<p>Oh, boy. Those were the days. 
Lots of miles with my kid. 3 driving trips over 3000 miles, plus at least 3 more over 1000, plus one fly-drive to New York and New England. (We started her sophomore year.) Lots of bonding. Lots of memories. The good ones are staying and the bad ones are fading away.</p>
<p>edit: lol How could I forget? That doesn’t even count senior year scholarship weekend trips.</p>
<p>Summer of 2009: 2350 miles in 6 days, one driver. Over the course of two years, 18 schools in 10 states. Ironically, DD is attending a school she didn’t actually get to visit before she was accepted. But her search was complicated by conservatories and auditions.</p>
<p>Gosh, Proudmom. After just 600 miles(rt) and just two schools in two days boychild and I were ready to kill each other. In our defense, boychild had just finished 5 schools in 3 days with DH and he was cranky and uninterested in both schools I took him to.</p>
<p>S took two this summer. </p>
<p>First trip at the end of June: five days, did tours at six colleges, states covered were Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia. Over 2500 miles.</p>
<p>Second trip was in August: MUCH crazier; H, S and S’s 2 friends went on the ultimate college mancation. Nine days, 17 schools, around 4000 miles! H did all the driving. States include Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.</p>
<p>All three boys are looking at schools that meet full financial need; they are all very good students with high test scores and pretty impressive ECs. The other two boys’ parents were unable to take them so helped chip in with $ for gas and hotel; they brought own $ for food. Stayed in budget hotels (1 room 2 beds). It was actually a pretty economical way to do it. </p>
<p>They also did some site-seeing, since most of the boys have never traveled much. Saw the Liberty bell, Independence Hall, Niagara Falls, and the Tennis Hall of Fame. Funny moment: from the highway they suddenly could see the NYC skyline and were very excited - then noticed one of the boys was sound asleep.</p>
<p>Golly, I feel like a piker in this crowd. Our record was 2200 miles in 5 days to see 5 colleges (Pitt, Vanderbilt, Duke, UNC-CH, W & M). One driver (me), who misread the map and thought it was 5 hours between Nashville and Durham, not 500 miles. Since I thought we’d be arriving early, I splurged on a 5-star hotel near Duke - we checked in after midnight and left before 8 AM, so we slept through most of the luxury hotel experience. </p>
<p>We went one 24-hour period on gummy worms, granola bars, and coffee; it took an hour to unclench my fingers once we got home. It’s fun to remember now, but I could NEVER do that again.</p>
<p>@EmilyBee…funny, he wound up at the 3rd one we visited. Guess we could have skipped the second and most expensive week. </p>
<p>And yes, it did get pretty intense that second week. I had a public meltdown on him in Providence RI~! We were both pretty sullen with each other for about 24 hours there. </p>
<p>I didn’t even mention driving across New York , sigh. But I will mention this–so glad its over~!!!</p>
<p>LOL Proudmom! Boychild ended up at none of the schools he saw that week (April vacation). He ended up at the last school we visited over a Sunday/Monday the following in October. </p>
<p>Did you drive the whole length of the NYS Thruway (NY to the PA border or just MA border to Pa?) The first one is a much longer trip and NYC-Albany part is equally as boring.</p>
<p>I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised (shocked?) but S has been incredibly well-behaved and an absolute delight. I was only on the first trip (5 days) but he was interested, engaged, had insightful comments, etc.</p>
<p>For the 2nd trip, H reported that all 3 boys were also well-behaved and got along great. Maybe having friends along raised the bar? S actually planned the trip - he worked with the other two boys to select a tentative list of schools; then S had to come up with a route and plan to fit in as many as possible, sign up for tours/interviews at those places requiring registration, etc.</p>
<p>Emilybee, we drove the entire New York State Thruway from PA to MA when we took D to college 2 years ago. It’s a lot less boring than some of the plains states or western states! Maybe it’s a matter of perspective?</p>
<p>H and D2 flew 2500 miles, visited Yale, Brown, and Williams. After they visited those schools, D2 decided Brown and Williams were off the list.</p>
<p>D2 and I flew back again to visit 2 schools in the NE, D2 decided 1 was a maybe.</p>
<p>In another 2 weeks, H, D2 and I are flying 2500 miles back again to make sure her ED school is indeed going to be her ED school. We are aslo visiting her ONE safety school.</p>
<p>We are just very happy D2 is not considering any midwest schools. We eliminated west coast schools last year after we visited my brother. She will be in Chicago for Model UN in Dec. I am wondering if she could vist NU and Chicago while she is up there.</p>
<p>Whoops, southerner that I am, I didn’t use the right northeast language! I didn’t go across the STATE of NY. I was talking about NYC, and the drive from Princeton to yale. Maybe to some of you thats not a big deal, but trust me–to a southerner who isn’t use to that much concentration of humanity on roads going in 79 different directions…STRESS~!!!</p>
<p>LOL Proud Mom. </p>
<p>Yes, that drive isn’t a big deal to most of us. We are use to it and know the roads and when we have to get into a specific lane to exit onto another highway/bridge/tunnel, etc., etc., etc. </p>
<p>College query - I went to school in Boulder and did 24 straight hour drives to NY and back lots of times. At least you can get off those roads and the truck stops were great even then. Imagine they are even more elaborate now then in my day. </p>
<p>Getting nothing but the farm report on he radio in the middle of the night did suck.</p>
<p>Our tale of woe is an airplane ride. Airline called during morning info session at Stanford about cancelled afternoon flight to Chicago. Ended up on a redeye through Cincinnati and right to the info session at Northwestern on just 3 hours of sleep!</p>
<p>^ Ah yes, the cancelled connecting flight. Flight from East Coast to Phoenix left late for no apparent reason. Assurances all through the flight that the pilots were “making up time” and that connecting flights would be held. Ha! Running through airport looking for ANY airline that would take us to SoCal that night. Southwest to the rescue! Running from the gate to Security with boarding passes for DD and friend … only to find out that they had sneaked through Security without them (how did they do that???). Arrived at the hotel in time to get five hours of sleep. The next day, pouring rain. In San Diego. Where it never rains that time of year.</p>