May sneak in one last visit in September, haven’t seen any of these schools. We live in Oregon so would connect through Seattle or Denver. How would you go about touring
UMass
UNH
Wheaton (ma)
And possibly BC
We can rent a car, and are fine flying in/out of different airports if need be. BC may be too much of a reach, the other three look like good options for my D 24 and we like what we see online.
Don’t know area at all so any feedback on airports, train etc would be great.
University of New Haven or University of New Hampshire? Both in New England but not near each other!
One possible itinerary, if you’re flying in/out of BOS:
You could also consider flying into/out of MHT (Manchester, NH - 45mins from UNH) and BDL (Hartford, CT - 50mins from UMass), but given that you have to triangulate a third leg to hit Wheaton and possibly BC, I’m not sure that’s going to save you much time or effort logistically.
Sorry, New Hampshire!
This is great thank you!
I understand if you’re coming from the West Coast you might have to try to pack things in, and different people have different energy levels. But to me that schedule sounds grueling (especially if you are doing a redeye flight where you land in Boston at 6 AM the same day you go to NH) & the timing is tight enough it would be stressful to me.
I would really struggle to do a morning tour at UMass Amherst, drive to Norton, and then tour Wheaton in the afternoon (the day after I had landed in Boston, driven to New Hampshire, and then driven on to Western Massachusetts). And I certainly would not be able to also do a self guided tour of BC the same day.
My recommendation is that if you build in any extra time, put that in your schedule anywhere except Norton. The Wheaton campus itself is very cute, but the area around it is relatively bland, pretty typical small town/suburban.
I might structure the trip flying into Logan and spending a day just touring Boston. Why go and be that close without enjoying the city somewhat?
Following day, I might take the train out to Wheaton College - gives great info on how easy it is to get to/from Boston from Wheaton College and allows you to avoid driving into and out of Boston more than once. If you do the morning tour - you could get back to Boston in time to head up to Durham, NH and stay overnight in that area before touring UNH on the 3rd day of your trip.
After touring UNH (again with a morning tour) - I would head over to UMass Amherst in the afternoon. Get dinner in Amherst or Northampton and a good night’s sleep before touring UMass Amherst on your last day of the trip.
At that point, I would also plan to fly out of Hartford airport. Only 45 mins from the Amherst area, smaller and easier to navigate than Logan and gives you more information about the transportation options if the Northeast ends up a real contender for your child.
So to sum up:
Day 1 - arrive in Boston, do some light tourist activities if desired
Day 2 - take commuter train from Boston to Wheaton College in Norton. Return to Boston that afternoon (maybe some more touring) and make your way up to Durham, NH that evening.
Day 3 - Tour UNH in the morning and drive over to Amherst, MA directly after. Take the time to explore the 5 college consortium area, get dinner in Northampton or Amherst that evening.
Day 4 - Tour UMass Amherst in the morning, fly out that afternoon/evening out of Hartford Airport.
Like this too and we haven’t been to Boston. Plus not having the rental car in Boston proper would be good. And trains are an adventure for us west coasters 
. Not sure we would do a full tour at BC since it’s a reach (and they don’t track DI as much as others). But we could walk campus. I will start to look at flights and see if open jaw works. Thank you all
I also think that I would fly to Boston, Logan airport. Then I would rent a car to get to UNH, U.Mass, and Wheaton College (assuming you want to visit the one in Massachusetts). Boston College would be relatively easy to visit while you are in the area.
I am assuming that you want to visit U.Mass Amherst rather than U.Mass Boston or Lowell.
By car U.Mass Amherst is about 2 hours from Logan airport. UNH is about 1 1/2 hours from Logan, in a different direction. Wheaton is just over an hour from Logan, again in a different direction. You will want to avoid rush hour for all of these.
One option would be to stay a bit west of Boston. This seems to save a bit less than I might have expected. For example staying in Waltham right off route 95 (which we usually call 128 for historical reasons) U.Mass is now about 1 hour 40 minutes, UNH is about 1 1/2 hours, and Wheaton is about 50 minutes.
How I would do this might depend upon how long I wanted to stay in the area. Visiting two schools in a day might be a stretch based on the distances, but is probably doable for most. If you have the time you might want to spend four or five days, visit one school each day, and spend another day visiting Boston. You could visit Boston College on the same day that you visit some sights in Boston.
Bradley is a small, easy to deal with airport. No traffic, no tolls. I would look at airfares, nonstop vs transfers, car rental rates at each site, and take that into account. Might make sense to fly into one airport, out of another. If you can do a 4 to 5 day trip to see 4 schools, that would be best, since theyre not close to each other. southwest flies out of bdl and boston. Has one way fares. Umass is only about 40 easy min drive north of bdl. So maybe do this one first or last, and fly in or out of bdl.
I’ve taken the train (MBTA commuter rail) from Boston to Wheaton so if you decide to go that way, feel free to pm me for info. But I also wanted to mention that in 2022, direct bus service from Logan to Mansfield (town next to Norton) was added which is maybe even more convenient if you’re going from the airport itself (and depending on time of day).
Both the train and the bus will take you to the Mansfield MBTA commuter rail station. So you end up in the same spot either way. Mansfield Station is about 10 to 15 minutes from Wheaton and you can easily take an Uber from there to campus. There is also a shuttle bus from there (GATRA) but I’ve never taken it. Usually my kid (at Wheaton) comes and picks me up at the station! The bus is called Blue Apple Bus and you should be able to easily find it online.
During the schoolyear, my son often flies out of Providence as it’s a bit closer than Boston (but fewer flights per day).
You could fly into and out of different airports depending on connections and your timing.
UNH has Logan in Boston with lots of direct flights from the West Coast. Manchester has good connections and is a smaller airport. Amtrak does stop on campus from Boston, but having a rental car lets you explore more…and at least drive over the bridge to Kittery, Maine to check off another state visited 
Portsmouth has lots of options for hotels and great local seafood.
Wheaton is convenient to the Providence Airport if you start or end there.
With UMass you could wrap things up there and head to Hartford or back to Manchester, Logan, or Providence.
Most colleges do not do Sunday tours, so that could be a good day to self tour BC or be a tourist in Boston.
Side note - If open to BC, Providence College is also a Catholic university and may be in the acceptance range you are looking at. Close to Wheaton and Providence airport.