<p>Ask the colleges if they have on campus accommodations which are sometimes cheaper. I’ve done this with reservations at UCLA. I also managed to get a discount at a hotel near UCSB by mentioning that the purpose of my trip was to visit the campus (I think I got the hotel name from the UCSB website).</p>
<p>I would suggest ordering your campus visits such that you start off with the southern most one first then work your way north so that you have less of the socal area to cover on your return day. Just getting out of the area from orange county can literally take a few hours on a busy day or in rush hour.</p>
<p>I’d also like to hear what turned your D off to the CMC. I am planning on stopping off to visit HMC since my S is interested in science/math.</p>
<p>madbean post 11 has the right progression I think although she could go from OXY to LA and do LMU, and Pep then drive out to Orange Co and perhaps take more time for Disneyland. Definitely don’t do more than 2 a day and do take some time to get to know the neighborhoods.</p>
<p>We are heading to LA from the east coat in April to spend a week looking at colleges - USC, Claremont schools, Oxy and Loyola Marymount. We decided to take a little longer and space it out. We rented an apartment through Vacation Rental by Owner near the beach which turned out to be cheaper than a hotel. We will no doubt have to deal with lots of traffic issues but hopefully will not burn S out cramming too much into too short a time. Thanks for suggestions on places to eat or must sees at these schools.</p>
<p>We saw those same schools in 3 days, so I would say five days would be fine. Although CMC schools were closed and we only walked around campus for an hour. We stayed in Malibu after a late visit to Pepperdine which I don’t recommend because we were pretty far out to make it back the next morning.</p>
<p>While taking in the college visits be sure to allocate enough time to check out the adjacent areas since that’s where the student will be living for 4 years or so. Also, if possible, try to manage to do something fun in the middle of it to break it up so one doesn’t get ‘college visited out’. One can go to the beach, Disneyland, Universal Studios, etc. as a break in the middle.</p>