<p>Hi all, I am mom to a sophmore at an arts school in Los Angeles. She is very serious about MT and I have no doubt in 2 years I will be biting my nails as we wait for her audition results. We are planning a trip over spring break (1st week in April) and currently our plan was 2 days in Boston (Boco and Emerson visit) and then 3 nights in NYC (Pace, Wagner, NYU visits) -- but the more I think about it I am beginning to second guess our trip and would love advice. Should we skip Boston and focus on perhaps upstate, Ithaca, Penn state or Philly and see UArts? Any advice appreciated.<br>
Laura</p>
<p>Luckily you are starting early. We live in AZ so I understand your desire to try to fit in as many schools as possible into a week–it can be very expensive and time-consuming making multiple trips. However, I’m not sure anybody can give you the answer but you. Or maybe you can help us give better advice. </p>
<p>My first question is, does your daughter know what kind of school she’s looking for (big/small university? Stand-alone conservatory (BoCo) vs. conservatory within a liberal arts school (Penn State)? </p>
<p>For us, we had to visit a number of schools before D figured out what her preferences were. We did three trips over the course of a year. Chicago area and UMich in 3 days, NYC in 3, and Pittsburgh to Boston road trip over a week (including Penn State) to pick up the schools we missed on other trips. We also saw Syracuse and Ithaca when we dropped off our daughter at Syracuse for their summer intensive. </p>
<p>In retrospect, I don’t think it was the most efficient planning, but we visited areas as we discovered schools (this was before I found CC to help sort things out). If I were to plan it again, I’d rearrange the way we did things. I’m sure others more organized than me will have better advice!</p>
<p>Thanks for your input!! She currrently attends a performing arts school in LA (think artsy, 1 sky scraper, and not a traditional high school) which she LOVES, however I think (although she is not 100 percent sure) she wants more a traditional “big campus” feel rather than a conservatory. With that said she would not turn down boco 
New york is a definite, I am just debating whether to tie boston into it as well or save that for another trip. </p>
<p>pd – we have 5 nights total</p>
<p>If I were in your shoes, I’d cut short the NYC stay (you probably know what the city’s like, for one thing) and rent a car so you can get out to those upstate schools, which you have to see to “get,” I think. One idea might be to drive up to Ithaca–do a walk-around and see the spaces–then drive the additional hour to Syracuse, so you can see what the city and school are like. It’s also less expensive to spend the night in Syracuse–the Hotel Skyler is really cool and not overpriced (and right near the campus). From Syracuse, it’s not a bad drive to Boston, so you could see those schools and fly home from there. Just one idea, and of course you could reverse the order. Depends on your daughter, of course, but all of those places have very different-feeling campus styles, and it would be crucial to see them in person at some point. If you take her now, you can save a trip (or an unnecessary audition!) later on. I would save the Pennsylvania swing for a different trip. </p>
<p>Disclaimer: I’m a visit-early-visit-often enthusiast, and I’m sure you’ll hear from many other people who feel completely the opposite! My son and I did an epic college tour, driving from Virginia to Boston by way of Ohio, Indiana, Chicago, and Syracuse–it was GREAT and he was able to compare places well enough to help narrow down his choices. Also, we had a blast!</p>
<p>BoCo and Emerson, while extremely different from each other, are both city schools, and Emerson particularly is more vertical than horizontal (though the beautiful Boston Commons is only steps away). Those two schools are also near each other – we walked from one to the other a few times in our Boston visit. One nice thing to consider is that you can get a direct flight in and out of Boston from LA. So that saves precious hours and is often cheaper, whereas if you eventually decide to visit Ithaca/Syracuse, you’ll have connections, and in that case it’ll take nearly as long to get to those places if you drive from NYC. </p>
<p>Ithaca and Syracuse are more traditional campuses, and even though Syracuse’s has a bit of a funky layout with the theatre being a little ways from campus, it has such beautiful old buildings, which is really appealing when you live in the southwest/west – we don’t have buildings like that out here. And Ithaca’s campus is quite stunning. I believe Ithaca is a good 4+ hour drive from NYC. </p>
<p>If you’re going to look at Carnegie Mellon or Point Park in Pittsburgh and/or some of the Ohio schools eventually, you might want to group Penn State with them. Penn State is sort of in the middle of the state, about 2.5 hours outside of Pittsburgh. And if she wants a campus feel, maybe group Ithaca (and Syracuse) into the NYC trip. </p>
<p>I haven’t been to UArts but Philly is just a train ride from NYC, so that could work nicely too.</p>
<p>My advice would be that with only five nights, not to spread yourselves so thin that you don’t see everything you’d like to at any one particular school.</p>
<p>I agree not to rush your visits. If you can possibly get a tour thru admissions AND a tour of the department, that is the best way to get a true sense of things. Maybe do those three in NYC and add Rider and/or Montclair which are easy drives from NYC. That way you don’t need to change hotels. You can actually take a train from NYC directly to Montclair’s campus and would’t need to rent a car. Trying to do too much in one visit just makes kids tired of the process. Make sure to take notes. You think you are going to remember everything, but it is impossible. And if you meet with anyone in the department, have your daughter write a thank-you/nice-to-meet-you email.</p>
<p>If at one point you wanted to hit U of M you could incorporate Baldwin Wallace,and a portion of the Pennsylvania schools like CMU, Point Park and Penn State. Pittsburg is only 4 1/2hrs from metro Detroit. From Detroit we went to Penn State (about 6hrs) then headed to Seton Hill, CMU, Point Park then Baldwin Wallace on our way back to Detroit</p>
<p>Be sure to check the school calendars. We have tried for two years to do visits at spring break, only to find out that several of the schools had the same break as us and were entirely shut down.</p>
<p>I’d recommend you start a master plan of places to visit between now and when she begins auditions, and organize from that. You mentioned in another post that she will be doing OCU summer program this year. The summer programs are probably the best way to really see the schools, but you can often combine those with visits to other schools in the area. This summer you could combine the OCU program with visits to OU, and some Dallas area schools (only 4-5 hours away) Next summer if she does a program at BW or Michigan, you could visit CMU, CCM, Otterbein, Point Park, etc. Or, she might want to plan a summer program at BoCo or at a NYC area school. Anyway, I would try to do summer college programs each summer, combined with trips to visit nearby schools. Summer visits aren’t as good as during the regular school year, but at least you can get an idea.</p>
<p>If you can afford it, have the time, and can get accepted, I think summer college programs give them the best idea of what they like and don’t like. I would do as many of these as you can fit in.</p>
<p>This is so helpful – and also making me realize how much more visiting we have to do!</p>
<p>As a fellow west coaster who did a very similar tour with the same amount of time and who knows that you lose a day going east I’d suggest thinking about it in vertical slices.</p>
<p>It is very easy and efficient to hit Boston and NYC area schools in the same trip. There are a ton of direct flights to and from LA to both cities with no financial penalty to fly into one and home from the other. Transportation between NYC and Boston is also easy and cheap.</p>
<p>But you can also easily throw CMU into the mix too if you have a day for it because you can fly there from either NY or Boston for around $50. (Check Jet blue fares). We flew there from Boston, saw the school and the program and then flew that evening to NYC and didnt overnight in Pittsburgh though if you are also hitting Point Park you might want to. </p>
<p>I would do a different vertical trip another time where you do more driving and hit Syracuse, Ithaca, Otterbein, Penn State etc. They are different journeys. One is planes, busses and trains, the other is a.plane and a lot of driving. You are better off grouping by transportation method. To keep it real, ithaca and Syracuse are both in New York but you can fly home to LA faster than you can drive there from downtown Manhattan or Boston.</p>
<p>Vertical slices are more efficient and cheaper for us west coast folks to plan it that way and you have another spring break to catch the other. Have fun!</p>
<p>We hit the NY and Boston schools in one trip, and you can definitely get a lot covered and also have some down time to relax. The most tiring college visits were the ones where we drove and drove and drove. If we were to do it over, we would save those driving trips for the audition or even for a post-acceptance trip. </p>
<p>We, too, are from the left coast. We planned our college tours around my D’s summer program at Interlochen. Last summer, we did Northwestern, Indiana, CCM, Ball State and UM. This summer, hoping she is able to do BW’s one week program after Interlochen, we are planning on CMU, Point Park, Penn State, Ithaca, Syracuse, and Hartt. We drive in the late afternoon to the next spot and get settled in the hotel and then get up and tour the next morning. Make sure to have department meetings and tours. I try to keep the driving each day to 4 hours or less. We had a blast last summer and really learned what she liked and didn’t like. I think she will have toured all but two on her list by the time she applies s – the last two, Elon and Oklahoma, require on campus auditions anyway.</p>
<p>Thanks Diva but can I ask how helpful it is to go during the summer? Can you get a feel for the campus during that time?</p>
<p>That’s the only time we have – probably not optimal, but still helpful. For instance, we discovered that UM’s MT program was on the North Campus which is quite a schlep from the main campus. If you can do spring break , that is great. We are trying to get double duty out of the airfare for her summer program. It gives us enough to have a vibe for the place. I imagine we will visit and attend classes when and if she is accepted. I am in the visit early and often camp as well.</p>
<p>We did information sessions, campus tours and department meetings at each campus . It was enough for us to be a taste of each campus.</p>
<p>We did almost all of our visits during the summer or when the college was not in session. It was the only time we could go. I too figured that we could go back after acceptances if my D felt she needed to learn more about the “feel” of a school when students were there. (We may be doing that next month, actually, depending on what happens over the next 2 weeks.)
We did, however, always spend time in the theatre department, as the general admission tours generally know very little about theatre.
Does your D care much about other aspects of her college experience? Location, other things to do, size, sports, etc. My D does not; she is only concerned about the theatre department. So we were able to focus on that during our visits and just get a general feel for the campus, looking around on our own. It did save some time.
Good luck with your plans!</p>
<p>After doing a campus and information tour with a theatre tour we found we no longer needed the campus information session. Going around campus and the actual theatre tour was enough for us. My D actually took a school off the list because the tour guides were seniors and did not know a single thing about the theatre and had never been to a show, coupled with the fact that the information session barely touched on performing arts. It was all about sports and football. It was a real turn off. Although I guess knowing that helped in the long run. </p>
<p>You do have to be careful if you leave visits until acceptances if you are far away from the campus. Although everyone hopes to hear early, with the numbers involved now, so many kids are waitlisted, and sometimes the dominoes for waitlists don’t start falling until late April, early May, with some kids hearing all the way through June that they have been accepted at a school off the waitlist that was high on their list but that they had never seen. I know of a nmber that have had to scramble and make last minute weekend trips to confirm they wanted to attend! Of course, they already had a deposit down somewhere else by May 1, which is essential, but ended up attending elsewhere after those final, rushed visits.</p>