<p>Tumper1 -- You're right about a long weekend not being enjoyable. My spring break is such that I could take the Thursday before Easter off of school to fly to Boston, hang around Cambridge through Sunday, spend a few days in New Haven, then go down to NYC for the remaining part of the trip and be back in San Jose by the time school resumes (11 days total if you count traveling days).</p>
<p>That sounds like a reasonable trip....but you'll be tired at the end. My only advice is to check with the admissions offices. Some are closed the weekend of Easter (including Good Friday). Some are open. I'm sure the websites will tell you when these places are even having tours. In my opinion, you should really schedule tours and attend the info sessions if you travel this far. I don't think I would recommend a trip to just walk around the campuses. Good luck. I will say that I do agree with others who posted here that this trip might not be necessary. Do these schools do alumni interviewing near your home? That would be worth taking some time to look into.</p>
<p>Avalon, a point to consider: seeing colleges on a weekend is generally the worst time to see them, particularly the more urban ones where all the students diffuse out into the city for entertainment. My suggestion is to use the weekends for travel & touristy stuff, the week for the actual visits. However, rather than hanging around one school so much, I would suggest adding some schools along the route without making the trip frantic. If you're going Boston/New Haven/NYC, either Providence (Brown) or Northampton (Amherst, Smith) are easily in range.</p>
<p>Side note: the idea that one parent could forbid another to make such a trip is appalling.</p>
<p>TheDad, obviously a weekend includes Saturday/Sunday, but for college kids does it tend to include Friday as well? (in the sense that it wouldn't be worth it to visit Harvard, say, on a Friday-Saturday-Sunday sequence (and on Good Friday and Easter of all times -- spring break begins for Harvard the day after Good Friday)).</p>
<p>My dad would by no means FORBID my mom and me to go, but I do recognize your point. Let's just say that my dad is extremely...detail-oriented. Organized and thinking of everything that could possibly happen on a trip? YES. Always pleasant to be around while traveling, even on day trips up to the City? Not exactly. It isn't uncommon for me (and I assume the rest of my family) to be relaxed at the beach or whatever (as if we do the beach more than once a year) but for my dad to be stressing himself (and pretty soon everyone else) because he thinks he may have not closed the little bathroom window on the second floor on the back of the house where no one could possibly break in. Or even worse (esp. for longer trips) is when he doesn't unplug every single appliance or turn off all the toilets. (trust me, I doubt he has OCD) This attention to detail makes him a little overprotective at times if just me and/or my brother and/or my mom are doing any sort of day trip or (as the SD trip was) longer visit. I recall when my mom was making plans for us (OK, not my dad -- he had to work) to visit SD a few years ago, and she was working out the flight arrangements and such. My dad was getting uber-involved, like, "Now make sure you do such and such at the airport, etc." My mom had to gently remind him that SHE made the trip to SD ALONE when she was 16. I also suspect that my dad doesn't really trust a lot of people that he doesn't know, whether they be absolute strangers or friends/family members he doesn't know extremely well. You should've heard the lecture I got before going to SD about making sure not to be alone with the majority of my older male relatives! Good intentions (wonderful, actually), just a rather obsessive approach. Needless to say, he's pretty intent on making sure nothing goes wrong (and not just for travel -- everything else).</p>
<p>Sorry this has turned into a long venting session -- it's just kind of hard (read: impossible) to mention this stuff to people I (and esp. my parents) know without them wondering what in the world g</p>
<p>Avalon, for an info session, tour, and hanging around campus, I would think that at least Friday mornings would be viable. You can read Princeton Review's BEST 3XX COLLEGES to get an idea of which colleges you might be most likely to run afoul of a campus inclined towards a Monday-Thursday mentality for classes & academics. Hmmm...with Good Friday/Easter, you might want to check out the college Spring Breaks and choreograph around them...we did our tours during D's hs Spring breaks and had pretty good luck but that may not always be the case.</p>
<p>I have a shred of sympathy for your father's pov...there are times that I'm told that I should have been in the German army as far as detail and planning goes. However, I also finally have it burned into my soul that no plan survives contact with reality and that flexibility is a great adaptive mechanism. Plus one of my mantras is "Murphy is powerful."</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>Whoops, the line 2 posts above got cut off. It should read, "...what in the world goes on in my family." ;)</p>
<p>Thanks, everyone.</p>
<p>Hi Avalon, I sent you a PM -- we live in the Bay Area, and went last spring break to visit schools between Boston and Baltimore in less than a week and spent <em>far</em> less than $3K! (And there were four of us.) It can be done, with some creative planning... I'll also say that before visiting the schools, my son's priority list was very VERY different -- after visiting, quite a lot changed in his mind, and he ended up not applying to one of the schools we visited and being accepted EA to another, although it hadn't initially been his top choice. We could instead have waited and sent him to the candidate weekends at schools where he is accepted this spring, but I'm sure it would have changed the whole tenor of his application process this fall. For him, and for us, it was good to visit beforehand.</p>
<p>The key point will be whether your family would <em>TRULY</em> agree to your attending an east coast school. I can't imagine insisting my son go to a CA school... but that's probably because I grew up in NJ and my parents gave me only two firm requirements when I was looking at schools in the early '70s: (1) I could not look west of the Mississippi, and (2) I could not go to Hampshire. :-)</p>
<p>--Diane.</p>
<p>Hi Diane, I just sent YOU a PM.</p>
<p>I definitely agree that spring break is the optimum time to visit schools; however, if you find that you need to use a weekend as well, it can also be advantageous. We've visited a couple of schools (Oxy and Swarthmore) on off-days and found those experiences to be more illuminating than the traditional info session and tour. We had downloaded campus maps so we could tour the campuses on our own. Also, pick up the student newspapers so you can get some additional student viewpoints.</p>
<p>At Oxy, we met three students from three difference class years and geographical areas (including Concord, MA) who were staffing a club activity. They were more than happy to talk about their experiences and why they chose Oxy--one was a transfer. We found all of them articulate and enthusiastic. At Swarthmore, we conversed with two students at the art gallery there--one was staffing the gallery and the other was visiting her. Again, they provided much personal insight into the kinds of students who attend Swat. All of the students gave our D their e-mail addresses for follow-up.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>