Epic East Coast College Road Trip: Am I nuts?

Parents Forum
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<p>We live in the mountain west and are planning a week long trip east in October to visit schools:</p>

<p>Salient points: Science nerd son, wants to study theoretical physics. Has had strong visceral reaction to schools we have visited, so really wants to see the schools before he decides to apply. Websites just don't do it for him. Numbers/stats are competitive for top schools. We're used to a lot of driving out here. I grew up/lived Northeast and have driven in all these areas before.</p>

<p>Our school list arrived at with helpful input from CC: </p>

<p>Reaches: Caltech/MIT/Harvey Mudd
Matches: CMU (school of science), Hopkins, U Rochester, RPI, Case Western
Safety: State U (not very good but has Honors college)</p>

<p>Our trip which I am contemplating:</p>

<p>Wed: fly into NYC 9 pm (tickets bought already), drive out of NYC and stay in southern NJ
Thurs: Drive to Baltimore in AM (200 mi), see Hopkins in afternoon, get close to Pittsburgh
Fri: finish drive to Pitt (250 mi), see CMU, leave mid afternoon, drive to Rochester (280mi)
Sat: U of R (9 am start to tour), have stuff in Rochester in evening, go east
Sun: Arrive Albany (225 mi), see RPI (have friend, can get shown around), go east
Mon: Arrive Boston (170 mi), see MIT in afternoon, drink heavily in eve
Tues: leisurely breakfast in Boston, drive to NYC (210 mi), fly out 6 pm</p>

<p>1,300 miles total. 5 schools/5 days, all 2-300 miles apart.</p>

<p>Options to reduce: we could skip CMU/pittsburgh, but that only takes under 200 miles out of the trip. Must sees are MIT and U of Rochester.</p>

<p>Am I nuts to be thinking about doing this? Am I missing some critical link? We're skipping Cleveland at least :)</p>

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<p>I’ve had longer driving distances on my family trips. as in, 10+ hour car trips every second day for 2 weeks, so no you’re not that crazy</p>

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<p>Y’know, it’s not the total distance itself, which could easily be done in 2 days, but the logistics of getting to each place on schedule etc. that has me spooked a bit. Not much room for error, and maybe a recipe for a boilover between mom and son.</p>

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<p>This is not crazy. I did a college trip with my parents and we had an itinerary much like this, except we saw 8 school in 5 days! It helped me SO much in putting my list together. You would be surprised how extreme a reaction you can have to a school. Somehow, being on campus, you just know if it’s right for you. Don’t worry, you’re definitely not crazy. Just make sure you have good shoes, a GPS so you don’t get lost, addresses for every school, and plenty of bottled water. College touring is surprisingly tiring, but it’s really fun!</p>

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<p>One recommendation though: don’t stop driving part-way to your morning location. Get hotels near the colleges you plan to see the next day, so that you don’t have to do much driving early in the morning (KILLER for teenagers). The extra long driving at night is worth it because then you can explore the college town before or after your tour. For us, we sometimes got into our hotel early and went to go walk around and “preview” the campus the night before. Plus, if you’re five minutes away from your intended visit of the day, it pretty much makes the plan foolproof.</p>

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<p>Agree with raelah. Drive all the way to the college and stay in nearby hotel. Attend all the 9am or 1pm guided tours possible. Self guided tours, if you cranky from driving or tired from lack of sleep are useless. Guided tours are more informative than strolling around. At least double the allotted drive time in the NYC and Boston, get to NYC airport by 3pm so you won’t miss outbound flight. Security check can take longer, flight times change.</p>

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<p>Just my opinion: You could fly between these cities, too, and rent a car in each airport for the day.</p>

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<p>Rochester gives on campus interviews (at least they did a few years ago) which may put your son in the running for merit money. Definitely check into that and try to schedule one. Pitt is right next door to CMU so if you have time (!) you may want to stop in to look at it as another safety.<br>
We also arrived at our destinations the night before and found this to be a fruitful approach.<br>
Also, is there a reason that you are not looking at Harvard while you’re in Cambridge looking at MIT?
Best of luck.</p>

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<p>Do-able but I think its very ambitious. Distance is one thing - New England highways are another. It’s nearing the end of construction season and all states are trying to spend their stimulus dollars. The drive from NYC to southern NJ alone may take many hours - gotta love the Turnpike. Plus arriving at night is not my favorite way to see a city for the first time.</p>

<p>If you can manage to add even one day it would be worth it (if for nothing else to enjoy the fall colors.)</p>

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<p>Well, I think it sounds like a lot of fun, actually! I had a ton of fun on the visits with my D. I guess it could have had boil-over potential if I’d been overly focused on “making it” in time, which CAN happen with me. But, I just decidd to enjoy it and to end up where we ended up when we ended up there–planes are not always on time! Traffic happens. “We’ll get there.” This was more my laid back D’s philosophy. So, you COULD really have a lot of fun.</p>

<p>Also, this time next year, he’ll be gone. So, try to have some quality time together. I know this time period feels very stressful. Did to me. And I know, too, that he’ll know the right school when he gets there. Good luck to you. It’s great to have a kid who is so bright! No?</p>

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<p>Sounds doable to me and not too far fetched. I made a similar trip (different schools) last year. I found that Mapquest is a good indicator of actual driving times. Through the years I found we nevere exceeded the Mapquest times and sometimes made faster time, but it’s a good way to ensure that you’ve allowed enough time between stops. If you haven’t mapped out the trip in terms of time (not miles) I would recommend doing that. I also did a similar trip around California with S#1. I thoroughly enjoyed both trips. Most of my boys could not get any kind of feeling from websites and brochures and really needed to “see” the colleges so for us it was well worth the time and effort.</p>

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<p>Trip sounds doable to me too; this is one of those trips where Interstate highways come in very handy. No point flying the short hops rather than driving between destinations, because between having to be at airport two hours early and possibly flight delays due to weather and general East Coast airport congestion you won’t save any time. Sounds like a challenging trip but worth it. </p>

<p>The only part I rally wonder about is that 9 pm NY arrival to be followed by a drive to central or southern NJ. I know Baltimore is about three hours from Newark airport, so if that is where you are flying to your are okay, even allowing for time needed to pick up the rental car. But if you are flying in to LaGuardia or JFK it will be 11 p.m. or so by the time you are even on the Turnpike and I’d suggest not trying to drive much beyond the Newark area that night. You will still get to Baltimore in time to see Hopkins the next afternoon. Get a decent night’s sleep, check in to your NJ hotel by midnight at the latest, and then head out to Baltimore by 9 a.m. and you’ll be there by noon.</p>

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<p>I would second looking at Pitt as a safety. They also have Honors college, and I am pretty sure that Pitt students can take CMU classes. If your son has MIT-caliber stats, he is a good candidate for some MAJOR merit aid from Pitt.</p>

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<p>DH has done a 5-7 schools in five days trip…twice, 2000 miles the first time, 2500 the second. (We admit to being nuts.) We also found that cutting through Canada is a good way to reduce the drive between Ann Arbor/Cornell and Chicago/Boston. (Like I said, we are road warrior crazies.)</p>

<p>Couple of comments:

  1. Which airport are you flying into in the NY area? If you are heading immediately south, flying into Newark will make your life easier. Also avoid checking baggage. Will save you time and aggravation. Have a Plan B in case your flight is delayed/canceled. Non-stop is your friend. You will also have the advantage of having your body clocks till on Mountain Time, so 9 pm Eastern will be 7 to you.</p>

<p><em>It is NOT 200 miles from southern NJ to Baltimore.</em> Personally, I would get the heck out of the immediate NYC area the night you arrive to avoid traffic in the AM. If you drive as far as the Princeton area (central NJ) the night you arrive, you’ll have a 140 mile drive the next morning. We would push it and get down to ~ Exit 4 on the NJ Turnpike (suburban Phiilly) and make it an easy two hours to Baltimore. We also like I-295 as an alternate route. </p>

<p>There is no point in visiting URoch without an interview. Make sure it happens. They want the love. CMU also has admissions folks who do interviews. MIT interviews are conducted through alums only, though if you live in a rural area, check with admissions and see if they can arrange something. Interviews at MIT improve one’s odds. We tried to spend a minimum of six hours on each campus. DH also pushed to get to the destination the night before the visit. </p>

<p>Is your S hoping to sit in on classes? What worked for us is that the parent does the info session, we all do the tour, kid goes to sit in on classes/interview/■■■■■ the dept. hallways looking at bulletin boards, possibly talking to a prof or student, etc. Dorms and checking out the food were not a big deal to my kids – your S may feel differently. One of my kids also spoke to coaches (arrange this in advance).</p>

<p>DH also took naps in the car after the info session/tour while each son was exploring campus. :)</p>

<p>Edit: Ditto dropping in on Pitt. Rolling admissions, merit $$ opportunities, good engineering. Has your S considered Olin in the Boston area?</p>

<p>P.S.S. ENJOY. I have enjoyed the college process trmendously – lots of time to talk and hear about what my kids’ hopes and dreams are. Roll with the traffic, get sleep, eat healthfully.</p>

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<p>Just a little warning - if you are planning the U of R on a Saturday, make sure it is not Meliora Weekend (I think it is the 8th to the 11th this year). The University combines Homecomings, Reunions and other alumni events, and it would be a total zoo, you would not get near the attention you would get any other weekend…</p>

<p>If you are here all day, I’d suggest at least a driveby to RIT…</p>

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<p>It’s doable but you will be exhausted at the end. I agree with others…as much as possible get to your next destination the night before and sleep in there…have a leisurely breakfast and be off. Driving in the morning means getting up at the crack of dawn. I don’t know about you…but my high school teens were MUCH better at staying up late and getting up later…than they were at getting up early (they STILL stayed up late).</p>

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<p>What’s the point?</p>

<p>Reads that you want to make the visits. See one school, you’ve seen then all. See one classroom, you will discover that they are no different. Do the google walking tour. Your DS will attend the school that he is accepted to and that you can afford. Save your money and have a prolonged visit to just a couple of schools, tour the environs with DS as a family because it will be the last time. </p>

<p>If you must visit, then visit after an acceptance choice between two schools.</p>

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<p>Strongly disagree with the previous poster; having seen two children though the college selection process I really think that although the book part of education itself may not vary a great deal among a number of very good schools, the ambience is also really important; some schools will feel right in ways that others do not, and the eexperience overall is much more than a classroom.</p>

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<p>I don’t like Friday, but basically okay. I’m familiar with the NYC to CMU drive - it was easy going in August on 78 and the Penn. Turnpike. I agree that I’d be inclined to try to be in the town the night before if you can, and Pitt might make a decent safety and RIT also a safer school than Rochester.</p>

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<p>One more vote for getting as close as possible the night before and then doing the morning sessions. We did a 5-schools-in-4-days trip around NY state a couple of weeks ago, including a couple of legs of about the same distance as your first two. The distances were no problem. But it really makes a difference to be able to tumble out of bed, grab a coffee and danish, and be 15 minutes from the info session. </p>

<p>LongPrime–I can’t disagree strongly enough. Nearly every college has a pronounced vibe and ‘sense of place,’ and these things do not readily emerge from a web visit. Even the classrooms are in fact quite different from school to school, in ways that reflect the personality of each college. If anything, I have worried that our visits have exaggerated the differences between colleges.</p>