Don’t want to stereotype, but that’s definitely a man’s cooler. Although I’d skip the muscle milk and beef jerky, I’m all over those Oreos and Ritz crackers! 
If you saw a picture of the two of us, it would not take long to figure out who was munching the double stuffs and who was eating oranges, I will say that!
exit 100= Wendy’s!!
I’ve made the long dull PA 80 drive many times!!
I can’t read through all the comments, so maybe someone has already suggested this. But if you either come in or go back on Route 86/17 via 90 east of Cleveland, you’ll drive by the exit to get to Cornell. It’s about 45 minutes north of the highway and would give you a feel for a more rural yet large Ivy. And it’s quite beautiful this time of year .
@mdcmom, nope we will be on Rte 80, not Rte 90. We are saving Cornell (and Colgate) for a different trip.
This. Also, if you don’t already have it, a copy of *[The Next Exit](https://www.thenextexit.com/)/i is a must-have for us whenever we do road trips of more than even a couple days in the lower 48, and especially when driving through areas with sparse services.
We didn’t do the cooler in the back of the minivan but we (rather I) did make a point of making dinner reservations or a list of good lunch places in each city. We found that sitting down over a good dinner and reviewing our notes from the various colleges worked well. My daughter took notes in a little notebook and my husband and I took notes on our phones. In New Haven, we opted for Modern Apizza but everyone has an opinion about New Haven pizza.
Push on the drama interest at Fordham. It is a big theatre school and it may be pretty tough for non-majors to get a part. Not as much of an issue at places like Yale with lots of student groups and Bucknell and Wesleyan where half the cast are bio or history majors. May be an issue at Vassar also. That is another school with a big theatre rep.
It’s your time, so be free to alter or call a visit short if it there is no fit. No reason to waste time on a school that your child has no interest in.
After ten minutes in our first college tour, my son and I walked out of the organized tour (the tour seemed boring and disorganized) and did our own thing. We knew what programs we wanted to see, so we went off-course and talked to the professors and kids in the Departments he was interested in. Best tour ever.
During the Georgetown acceptance weekend, my son stated right after lunch on the 1st day he had seen enough to make a decision and it was time to head home. He came, saw what he needed, and left.
Two of my kids went to info sesssions of a college and then, based on that, told us to leave. Right then. Without even going on the tour. These were places we drove a long way to go visit, in each case. Please let me know what Yale looks like, I never got to find out, beyond a passing glance, Yale was one of them. Don’t recall what the guy said, but he made it sound like the anti-D1, or that’s how she interpreted it.
^^ Yup! sounds familiar…
That happened with one of my kids at the UPenn info session. I got a nudge about halfway through that it was time to exit right. Good thing the room was so packed with intense parents doing obsessive note taking that I’m sure no one noticed our departure. We left and had a very nice, relaxing lunch at White Dog Cafe.
I am new to this thread but thought I would weigh in…
D14 had great stats but is a very fringe kid…wasn’t accepted by most of her peers in HS (too “smart” and “weird”, not “cool” enough), dances to the beat of a different drummer, is a “free spirit” non conformist (getting her to wear matching clothes is a losing proposition!) etc. etc. We are from the pacific northwest, but most schools applied to were midwest or back east. Visited 7 colleges she was accepted to in the Northeast/east/midwest (one was in south) and both she and I thought the smaller, LAC type schools would be the best fit (and 5 of the 7 schools were in that category). However, when we visited Cornell she found her “fit”… as surprised as both she and I were! The specific college she was interested shared great information about their program, she liked the campus vibe, students exuded love for their school, and she just felt at home! When she enrolled this past fall, she also joined a couple of clubs and extracurricular groups that were an additional “great fit” and she had a great first year. She loved it so much she stayed there for the summer to work (paid research - was easy to find!). Now I know the Ivies are not for everyone, and we certainly did not think it would be for my D, but Cornell is where she ended up and she is oh-so-happy!
So…I am not trying to sell folks on Cornell specifically, but just trying to point out that you can do all the research in the world and analyze the criteria for “fit”…and then sometimes the answer just comes from left field and bowls you over! Be open to many possibilities, and allow your child to come to their own conclusions!
Now S16 (4th and last) is getting ready to start the college application merry-go-round this fall…so still ready threads like this to gain insight into other’s experience and recommendations! Each kid is different, and I am not sure we have this process “down” yet!!!
Great thread, @Ohiodad51 - lots of super info and so positive. I have said it elsewhere, but sometimes we are so focused on the destination that we can overlook just how much the journey itself (literal and figurative) matters to both our kids and to us. I think that’s why all the advice to be open to change and different ideas is so important.
The college process is kind of like teaching them to ride a bike: you get them started, give them a push, run along side them for a little bit, then off they go, a bit wobbly, but thrilled to pieces with themselves.
Small point on theater at Vassar (somebody thought that it might be hard for non-majors)- it’s extremely open, lots of non-majors, but there are a couple of quirks. You didn’t say if your D is performing or tech, but you can’t work on shows on the main stage without doing a specific intro drama class. It’s actually a pretty good class (to the surprise of D2, who was not impressed at having to take it). Also, again on the tech side, they fill the senior roles a year out, so first years are shut out of (say) Stage Manager or ASM for the big productions. Even so, there are several stages, and many theatre groups, so she was involved with plays every term even first year. On the performing side, there is no ‘mercy casting’ for older students: first years can get the lead as much as final years (which happened this spring, in a play with a real-live NY director).
This is smart thinking.
0pportunities for nonmajors to participate in performing arts are often better at schools that do NOT have a highly regarded professional-level major in that field. This applies to music as well as theater.
I have a comment on the issue of being turned off by the info session and wanting to leave immediately. I went on visits to the same colleges with two different kids, and at several of them (most notably, Harvard, Brown, and Tufts), the info sessions were substantially different on the two visits. You might discuss with your kid before an info session and tour the importance of distinguishing between actual information and impressions that might be skewed by the personality or delivery of the particular info session leader or tour guide.
At Harvard, the first info session included a couple of students who looked miserable and were completely unsuccessful in selling Harvard. At the second info session, the students were lively and interesting. Also, for the first visit, school wasn’t in session. The difference in impression was huge. The two times we went to Columbia, we had radically different tour guides.
So my suggestion is, before entering each campus, remind yourself (and your kid) to apply critical thinking skills to what you’re about to experience. Emotion and gut reaction is important, too, of course, but it needs to be analyzed to see if it’s really accurate.
One more (old) anecdote along this line: years ago, when my kids were young, we passed through Princeton and decided to stop and take a look at the campus. While we were driving down Nassau Street, across from the campus, a carjacking took place right in front of us, and we saw it happen. A lady was pushed out of her car, she was screaming, and the car zoomed off. For years, this was my kids’ impression of Princeton.
If driving from Bucknell home could take you via rt 70, I’d also suggest a stop at Juniata College. This is one that would generate the conversation about lesser known gems. I dont know a lot about their theater program, but I do know that due to small size and culture, they help students accomplish amazing things across the board. Less competitive, highly successful, lots of willingness to support your ideas to try something new. They seem to attract very bright and capable students who appreciate faculty involvement and don’t care about ‘name brand’. They have excellent scholarship opportunities for which your daughter would probably be well qualified. Wasn’t a fit for my D, but I was impressed.
As others have said, the summer vibe is much different than during the school year. I think a group of summer school students can throw you off more than an empty campus if they give off an atmosphere that isn’t similar to the regular student population.
School newspapers - will give you some updates, but sometimes the group that publishes the paper is only one small subset of the school’s culture and doesn’t represent the overall feel of the school. Don’t weight any one thing to heavily.
Have fun, play a game - make a bet before each tour/info session. Each of you pick a word or cliche that you think will be mentioned. Makes you pay attention and then you have to stifle the giggles when those words come spewing out 2 mins into the session.
Also - there is a new ap for Broadway tickets called Today TIX. Similar to the TKTS booths in NY, but you dont have to wait in line. You can buy in advance. Some shows well discounted, others not as much. If you use code KOQXN at checkout you will save $20 off your first ticket order.
Enjoy your trip!
Maybe it is because I haven’t been through this process in quite this way before, but I really hope my daughter does not get turned off to a school just because of the tour guide. My expectation going in to this is that the tour is primarily for orientation purposes. How attractive is the campus to her, does the lay out seem to make sense, are things well maintained, is there enough lighting, etc. As far as vibe, and using schools I visited with my son, is the college integrated with the surrounding city (Yale) or set off on its own (Princeton), is it literally “in” the city (Columbia) or kind of “attached” (Penn) is it rural, but with a fair sized college town (Cornell), rural with a really small town (Colgate) or just way out in the middle of nowhere (Dartmouth), is it small (Amherst) or larger (Harvard)? That is what I at least am trying to get my daughter to think about when we tour the campuses. I would be very happy if my daughter gets a tour guide with whom she can connect and maybe get a student’s perspective on the campus, but at this point I would consider that gravy. I am hopeful that we get some decent information during the information sessions though, and it is not just stuff I can glean from the web sites. We will see soon.
and @saskatchewan, we won’t be on Rte 70 coming back. It is pretty much Rte 80 all the way.
If you read the lengthy thread on reasons kids were turned off by colleges, snap judgments about tour guides appear pretty often. I think talking about this possibility before you see the first tour guide might help.
@hunt, yeah, maybe it is just a blind spot because we haven’t done it this way before. Certainly my son formed impressions (good and bad) based on the current players he met and interacted with during his visits. I guess I just assumed that the tours would be a more formal and structured walk around campus and a less kind of get to know the tour guide. But as I said, it is an unknown to me. Just seems weird to get turned off because of one kid on a work study job.