Help with college visits New England - needed this weekend

<p>Re previous post, WMA on campus is interesting, but I’d say it is the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute on the edge of town (not affiliated with the college) that is terrific. Be that as it may, it’s good advice to try to get a sense of place as well as of the school proper. It helps keep visits memorable and makes the trips more vacation-y.</p>

<p>I agree with Momma J - do the tour (or the info session), not both. There is a ton of repetition between the two at most every college. The two visits a day plan may, as others have said, mean you can’t do either at the late-day college. </p>

<p>Think about how much your kid cares about the environs/town/city where the college is located. This was a pretty important factor for my S. If that is the case, spending the evening in that locale is important… which you won’t be able to do often. In our case, we only did two per day when the two schools were in the same city.</p>

<p>I have had very little success managing to tour two colleges in one day. The earliest info sessions tend to be around 10 or 11 am, followed by a tour, and the latest tend to start around 1 - 2 pm. There was no way to do the info session and tour at college A, drive 2 hours, and still arrive at college 2 in time for the next info session. I found it frustrating - it seemed like the colleges were intentionally trying to keep us from seeing any colleges other than theirs in one day.</p>

<p>About 2/3 of our visits with older son took in two colleges in one day. Geographically, the Northeast makes this fairly easy. The outliers were single schools remote from neighboring colleges of interest. We nearly always did info session and tour, tour being more valuable. But at a few info sessions the tone/ambience of the college was either a plus or a minus, so good information to have when decision time loomed.
My son took notes on the folder containing the file for each college, short words or phrases that helped him remember details about the particular college.
My wife and I loved the college tours, family time as well as fantasizing about attending these wonderful schools.</p>

<p>Of course, it’s easy to do more than one school in a day if your kid takes one look at the campus and then refuses to get out of the car. Been there, done that.</p>

<p>Very early on in the process, we did do some drive-bys (like the day we saw GWU in the morning and Bryn Mawr, Haverford and UPenn in the afternoon), but that was so my daughter could narrow down what she was looking for. Later on, she wanted to spend more time on each campus, sitting in on classes, eating in the cafeteria, browsing in the bookstore, etc., so she averaged one school a day.</p>

<p>Thanks to all the help from my original post. We just got back on this trip – got a ton of info and a great feel for the schools that we just couldn’t get from the web and paper. We did some adjustment and even caught Haverford and Swarthmore today. We did as many info sessions and tours as we could. Contrary to the advice of others, my son and I find them very helpful. We feel a little in the dark just wandering around on campus. I am glad to share any info with any of you about the trip. We visited Princeton (info session only), Vassar, Williams, Amherst, Holy Cross (only walk through), Harvard, Brown, Wesleyan, Yale, Haverford and Swarthmore.</p>

<p>By the way, we did two colleges each day sot his was a five day trip. I realized my son is a good trooper, though, and has a high tolerance for riding. Maybe other kids (or parents) would be more fidgety and need less time in the car.</p>

<p>Some of my favorite schools burry. What fun!!! Glad you fit everything in. That must be such a good feeling.</p>

<p>Burry, I’d love to hear the highlights/lowlights!</p>

<p>Hi – I’m glad to answer any specifics. The major highlight for us was that my son saw how much he would like a small LAC experience. In addition, besides one school, I can honestly say he would be happy at any of the schools we saw. The downside to this trip was DRIVING, especially in Boston. Wow! One should not be deterred, but we got lost so it was not so much fun. It was so useful for us to see these colleges in person.</p>

<p>If possible, could you post your day by day schedule…with the approx times you arrived at and left each campus? And where you were able to do the actual info. sessions/tours and where it was just a drive through?</p>

<p>It might help others planning this type of trip…</p>

<p>Driving in Boston is recommended for three-man crews: driver, navigator, tail-gunner.</p>

<p>I’m glad to give our schedule if it’s helpful. I know this might not be for everyone, but we had limited time, and my son preferred to work hard for five days and get back home.</p>

<p>So…Monday, we started from DC at 6 a.m. and got to Princeton for the 10 info session. We had to kick out before the tour because we were going all the way to Vassar and we know Princeton is beautiful. We had hoped to get to Vassar for the 1 or 1:30 info session (can’t remember which), but made it for the 2:30 tour which was highly informative. We then travelled to Williamstown, and, in fact, drove by it to stay at the Holiday Inn in North Adams. Note: we had to t-mobile cell service making it tricky to call for lodging. So far, Princeton was a no and Vassar was a yes.</p>

<p>We did the early info session and tour at Williams and then drove to Amherst over the curvy Berkshire mountains. I’d say that took 1 1/2 hours, but we made it for the info session and tour. We did not go to Hamilton as it doesn’t really have his major. At this point, we were planning to visit Holy Cross the next day, but it dropped down on his list. We also considered a visit to Dartmouth, but decided against that drive.So, since we were driving by Holy Cross, we stopped by to look at it – gorgeous. Holy Cross is right off the highway so easy to see. We contined our drive to Framingham (I think that’s the name) and stayed at the Motel 6 ($50 with AARP). The hotel is a bit old and not fancy, but had many visitors who were going into Boston.</p>

<p>Wednesday: We drove to Boston (easy enough), but managed to get lost around Harvard. We finally parked and ran to the info session and tour. We then drove out of Boston (which is a highway tunnel !) on our way to Brown. We got to Brown just in time for the info session and tour. By the way, I had all the specific directions for parking and admission offices written down in advance. We left Brown around 4-ish, and headed for Wesleyan in Middletown, CT. We got there, had some trouble finding a hotel (in the middle of nowhere), but finally did.</p>

<p>Thursday -We did the early info session and tour at Wesleyan and headed for Yale. Finally a close drive – maybe 45 minutes and free parking at Yale!! We did the info session and tour. Since we had actually skipped Holy Cross, I let my son decide whether to go home that night or stop in Philly the next day. He decided to stop. So we drove all the way from New Haven to right outside of Philly. I would have stopped earlier, but didn’t see a place. We stayed in a Days Inn at Horsham, off the PA Turnpike.</p>

<p>The next morning we were very close to the info session at Haverford. They didn’t offer tours last week, but you could do a self-guided tour. We had to hurry to the info session and tour at Swarthmore, though, so that is what we did. Then we came home!</p>

<p>All in all, a very informative trip, but a whirlwind of a drive. Believe it or not, we have a trip to Chicago planned for next week. I napped what I consider a good price ($76) for the Hyatt Regency in the Loop so we can see Chicago, NU and UC. After that we only need to see Hopkins, but that is actually a fairly close drive. </p>

<p>Feel free to ask any questions. I am so appreciative of the advice I got on this board. In fact, someone suggested the loop of our trip (Vassar to Williams) or I might not have thought of it.</p>

<p>^^I take my hat off. When it comes to plowing through a big college tour, you are tougher than me.</p>

<p>

Just curious, what is it?</p>

<p>Sorry, I meant Hampshire College.</p>

<p>Thanks for posting the details. It’s a loop many seem interested in…so…it’s great that you were able to post how someone did it in “real time.” </p>

<p>This kind of trip is a real case of YMMV – (literally and figuratively!) You and your son must have a very good relationship to have been able to do this kind of trip…with unknown hotel stops…and get in so many info sessions…in such a short time.</p>

<p>For my family, drive throughs have been fine…no interest in the detailed tours/info sessions until after being admitted. A real no-no for some on CC! One child had never seen 5 of the 6 schools applied to!</p>

<p>Hi –</p>

<p>What is YMMV? I think everyone has different goals on these trips. Also, this would not have worked with my husband and daughter along, too. They would need more breaks, etc. My son is a little prickly with me, but I think he was appreciative of the effort. I was appreciative of spending this time with him – probably the last we’ll have like this.</p>

<p>YMMV = Your Mileage May Vary</p>