<p>Glad you are coming up here! 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, let alone a place to park lol…</p>
<p>If you are here all day, I’d suggest at least a driveby to RIT…</p>
<p>I have nothing to contribute to the discussion on driving, but if the OP’s son is interested in theoretical physics, I’d include Chicago, Cornell and Princeton in the list of schools to consider.</p>
<p>This video gives additional info about MIT. It includes the speeches of the president and the head of physics department.</p>
<p>[MIT</a> TechTV – Freshman Convocation 2009](<a href=“http://techtv.mit.edu/videos/3812-freshman-convocation-2009]MIT”>http://techtv.mit.edu/videos/3812-freshman-convocation-2009)</p>
<p>Some of my tips:</p>
<p>Take pics everywhere. You will forget and everything will begin to blend together.
Pictures really helped our family to review what we saw and jogged memories.</p>
<p>Have your child write down what they liked or did not care for as soon as you get back into your car. Taking notes in the car right after you leave will help you to remember the schools. Parents can do the same thing.</p>
<p>If you discover a school is not a good fit after a few minutes on campus (it happened to us once), you might not want to waste time and continue with your visit there. My son toured at one school. He felt very uncomfortable there, and I could see that this was not the school for him. The school wanted us to stay for lunch and eat with a student, etc. We just politely declined because our son knew that he was not going to apply.</p>
<p>Another school had their main dining hall under construction. It was the summer, and the regular menu was not being served. The school was very kind in offering meal vouchers for a restaurant nearby. We did not want to spend the time to eat at a restaurant that had nothing to do with the school’s food. My son is applying to that school, but there was no point in wasting valuable time eating in a sit down restaurant when we wanted to grab something and go.</p>
<p>I agree that finding a hotel that is nearby so you can all rest a bit longer would be wonderful! </p>
<p>Hope you have will have a GPS in your car rental. It is so handy to find restaurants, find your way around without wasting time getting lost. We could not have done it without a GPS!</p>
<p>Some great suggestions that we will try and incorporate. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, tickets are already out of LGA. When we got the tickets, we thought we’d have some schools in NYC area to look at, but it didn’t work out that way.
Will definitely get out of NYC at night while we still can.
Yes, we are interviewing at U of R. They have Saturday morning interviews!!
Harvard not a good fit for kid but we might stroll through the Yard. Doubt it’ll tempt him enough to inspire him to take the 3rd SATII.<br>
Been to U of Chgo and Cornell as I have connections to both: did not jive. Just can’t see him at Princeton.
DS is better in mornings than I am actually, but we’ll try to get more driving done at night as that’s better for my biorhythm.
May try a quick walk through Pitt. That day is going to be the toughest to pull off as we have to be at U of R the next morning sharp.
Will try to attend classes if schedule works. We also have some coach meetings/club visits to arrange/fit in.
NEmom: great idea about blowing out of there if appropriate. I might have been too timid to do that ;)</p>
<p>I feel much better. It seemed rather ambitious on Googlemap.</p>
<p>Some great suggestions that we will try and incorporate. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, tickets are already out of LGA. When we got the tickets, we thought we’d have some schools in NYC area to look at, but it didn’t work out that way.
Will definitely get out of NYC at night while we still can.
Yes, we are interviewing at U of R. They have Saturday morning interviews!!
Harvard not a good fit for kid but we might stroll through the Yard. Doubt it’ll tempt him enough to inspire him to take the 3rd SATII.<br>
Been to U of Chgo and Cornell as I have connections to both: did not jive. Just can’t see him at Princeton.
DS is better in mornings than I am actually, but we’ll try to get more driving done at night as that’s better for my biorhythm.
May try a quick walk through Pitt. That day is going to be the toughest to pull off as we have to be at U of R the next morning sharp.
Will try to attend classes if schedule works. We also have some coach meetings/club visits to arrange/fit in.
NEmom: great idea about blowing out of there if appropriate. I might have been too timid to do that ;)</p>
<p>I feel much better. It seemed rather ambitious on Googlemap.</p>
<p>I was timid. It was my son and DH who had to quietly coax me to leave! I was so glad that I listened to them. My son had a tour and an interview at another school that afternoon. He loved the second school! I am so glad that we had that little bit of extra time spend at that second school. There was just no point in wasting time at a school that just did not feel like a good fit.</p>
<p>(Why are things posting twice on this thread?)</p>
<p>Good luck, ihs76. Please let us know how the trip goes, and what your son thinks of what he sees.</p>
<p>Good luck and have a good time. You’ve gotten some really sensible advice. (And I didn’t mean my earlier post to mean I disagreed with mathmom–I meant that on the basis of our family’s experience I disagreed with the earlier poster who had said all classrooms were the same and a video visit was enough.)</p>
<p>skip boston, since harvard is not on the list, and MIT is his dream school anyway. </p>
<p>We just never saw the value of visitations. DS chose the school that 1) gave him an acceptance, 2) That met his needs 3)met our his and our’s financial requirements.</p>
<p>But if you must visit, then spend longer time at the secondary schools and some quality time together.</p>
<p>My friend who did something similar with two kids (years apart) remembers those trips fondly as a very special parent-child bonding experience. To me, the only thing that would be “nuts” would be trying to see more than one school each day. I second the advice about writing things down. You’d be surprised at how fast things blend together.</p>
<p>Let us know how it went!</p>
<p>About seeing more than one school in a day–it can work if (a) the schools are very close together, preferably in the same town, (b) the tour schedules allow a reasonable interval for lunch, travel and parking between visit A and visit B, and (c) you don’t have a long drive ahead of you when you’re done. We saw Ithaca and Cornell in the same day and definitely got a good, memorable experience of both. We were only going onward to Rochester, about a 2 hour trip, so it was a pretty workable day.</p>
<p>OP’s plan is reasonable. NightChef’s comments about seeing more than one school in a day (preceding post) are bang on.</p>
<p>LP, if you don’t see the value of visitations, then it’s perverse to offer advice to those who do. I can say that for my D the visits—some 15 or so schools split over four years—were life-changing in a positive way. </p>
<p>Btw, I totally get the OP’s son having gut feels about schools and websites not doing it for him.</p>
<p>What’s the speed limit on I-70/90 in PA and NY? What do people actually drive? I-95 in the Corridor? Y’all sure have a lot of interstates for such little land :)</p>
<p>Back in the day, I drove my CO bred husband through NE, and he was just amazed that you could drive thru 6 states in one day.</p>
<p>I thought the freeways in the NE were pretty slow compared to the 70+ that I’m used to. I’m glad I mapquested because you couldn’t tell the driving times simply by the total miles. Mostly 55 to 65 mph if I remember and I frequently found myself “speeding” on some of the long open stretches and had to notch it back. It was handy to have a rental car with a toll pass box so you didn’t have to keep slowing down to pay tolls and could just fly through.</p>
<p>^If you don’t have EZPass or the equivalent, it would be WELL worth getting it for this trip. You can waste a lot of time at tolls. Most of the roads I drive on regularly (95 from DC to Boston), 84 to Mass., Mass Turnpike, PA turnpike, NJ Turnpike) will have stretches of alternating 55 and 65. Everyone speeds, but there are a lot of police out looking for speeders.</p>
<p>Trip sounds reasonable to me and the advice here is great. I agree about driving all the way to the next morning’s college. Get the EZ pass and the GPS. Also take a box of quarters for parking meters, and a cellphone charger that works off of your cigarette lighter, and don’t speed (too much).</p>
<p>^^momofthreeboys, that doesn’t sound like the NE I know. Outside of the major urban areas, limits are 65 mph and cruising speeds are typically 65-75 mph, even on I-95, except at peak traffic times or in a few chronically congested stretches. We just go with the flow in most places and I usually find myself in the low 70s unless the weather or terrain dictate otherwise.</p>
<p>Let me suggest a slight modification to your plan. Ditch the car when you get to Cambridge and instead fly from Boston to LGA the next afternoon. More time in the Boston area, less time in the car. US Airways runs an hourly shuttle, I believe. </p>
<p>Also, if you want to use the extra time to fit in another school, WPI is right in between RPI and Boston. It would probably qualify as a safety for your son, and they give merit aid (don’t know how good it is). Olin would be different possibility, although it’s another reach. Don’t try to fit in both! </p>
<p>If you fit in one of those schools you would probably arrive in Cambridge too late for an MIT tour, but you could do it the next morning. Another possibility - MIT has an overnight program for prospective applicants. He could spend the night there and visit a class or two the next morning while you stay in a nearby hotel (I like the Kendall Hotel). My d and I did that when she was applying, and I used the evening by myself to jump on the T and go to a movie. Very relaxing.</p>
<p>Night Chef it must have been you that passed me LOL. Anyway, I had my newly minted driver/kid with me so I really didn’t want to be stopped and there were many policepersons noted so I backed it down unless S was napping.</p>