Hi - Amherst MA is about a 6-1/2 hour drive without traffic. But count on traffic. Dartmouth, in my town of Hanover NH, is two hours further north of Amherst. with the other schools you want to visit, it seems a stretch to me.
I really like @shoshonte’s itinerary. Cut out the northern schools and save them for another trip. There really are tons of schools just in Pennsylvania alone. Add in Maryland, Delaware, DC and Virginia you have a pretty full plate for 9 days. If DS is interested in lacrosse schools only, then I would eliminate non-lacrosse schools.
Filling a few gaps…If you visit Penn, you can easily board the Septa line to Media at the University City stop and go to Swarthmore. We had done the opposite - while we were visiting Swarthmore, we made a quick decision to visit Penn. The admissions office directed us to the train station in front of campus; we detrained right by Penn’s University Museum.
Villanova, Haverford and Bryn Mawr are all along Lancaster Avenue or Montgomery Avenue in the suburbs. Villanova is about five minutes away from Haverford while Haverford and Bryn Mawr are about a mile or two apart.
At some point between Philly and Baltimore, you can visit U of Delaware; it’s halfway between the two cities.
There are a couple of aps that help you do this. Search “College road trip planner”. In addition to route planning they should be able to help you with registering for tours, and probably narrowing down schools with your sport, etc. We went old school and used a book many h.s. guidance offices have called College Atlas and Planner. Borrow it and make copies of the pages that cover the areas you might visit. Each page shows all colleges in a geographic area, without the distraction of too much else on the map. Highlight the ones you really want to see. Or you could just go to AAA and grab maps of the areas and do the same thing - write all over them. Have fun!
You can also make and save a customized map on Google maps. Fill in the college’s name, click on it, “save to map”, and continue. Name your map and retrieve it and add to it any time you want. It should help you navigate.
I agree with others that BWI is probably easier to fly in and out of, unless you are big on US Air. If you have to rent a car and return it to a different place, try Enterprise. They usually don’t charge extra.
Also, it’s a nice idea to visit two schools in the same day, but it rarely works out. Even if they are across the street from each other, they may offer tours at exactly the same time. You and your S have to do a lot of picky research and reserve all your tour times to get the overall schedule that suits your needs.
If you end up looking at the Baltimore area schools, there is a 14 college consortium that shares certain perks. For instance, my D went to MICA, an art school, and knew some boys there who played lacrosse on the JHU team since MICA didn’t have it’s own team. I believe there may be a college consortium with the schools on the “main line” outside Philly too.
You may want to take a look at UMD College Park. The Men’s LAX team is in the Final 4 again. The Women’s team is top rated also. There is D1 Football and Basketball (Both Big 10). Close to DC with lots of internship opportunities.
U-MD also has a terrific club lacrosse team.
I think you would have known by now if you had a shot at Maryland lax powerhouses like UMD, JHU etc. Or any east coast “name brand” lax team.
I know lax players at kings college in Wilkes Barre and St joes in philly who are happy but it was tough getting in those programs.
Even the smaller schools in Maryland have ‘powerhouse’ lax programs. Even getting on the club team is difficult.
OP, just ask a lot of questions about lacrosse and all the ways it can be played at any schools your S is interested in. I know my D1 wanted to play soccer at her school but didn’t like the abrasive style of the head coach and the fact that the teammates were known for getting into fights at off campus parties. She didn’t join.
saskatchewan do you know the name of the apps?