As others have stated, a detour to visit Smith and Amherst colleges might be a good idea if interested in LACs. Mount Holyoke is also nearby in the same area. Northampton and Amherst are lovely little NE towns to spend the day exploring.
In Providence, Providence College might be worth a look, similar academically to Marist and might be a nice match for your D.
“Also can be on the route from Albany to Williamstown, in fact.”
Um, no. There is nothing between Albany and Williamstown but wee villages and farms, unless your mean RPI - which I doubt OP’s daughter would be interested in.
Bennington is not too far away - maybe 45mins, if that, north of Williamstown and it’s a pretty artsy school.
Just from your brief description of your D and the other schools on your list, Union doesn’t seem to me it would be a fit at all. Skidmore, OTOH, would be and easier to get into from schools on your list besides Marist.
If you do decide to visit Skidmore don’t plan on staying overnight there. Nothing is available during the track meet.
^ You’re right sorry - only on the way from Williamstown to points south and east. Boston, Providence, New Haven etc I guess.
Vassar was the only LAC my younger son considered big enough and urban enough to look at, but if that’s not important to your kid, they should be looking at Bard. (It’s about 45 minutes from Vassar.) I consider it a more interesting school than Marist. I agree that Wesleyan is worth looking at.
The Berkshires (where Williams is located) are considered an summer arts and nature playground for city dwellers in Boston and New York. There are all sorts of arts related events going on in the area: The Williamstown Theater Festival, The Boston Symphony at Tanglewood, Dance at Jacob’s Pillow, Shakespeare in Lennox.
As mentioned, the Clark Museum in Williamstown is a don’t miss. I’d also recommend MassMoCA (Museum of Contemporary Art) in nearby North Adams. Williams own museum is worthwhile too.
This article gives more details:
http://nypost.com/2016/05/31/head-to-the-berkshires-for-a-culture-packed-summer/
I think the B&B we used to stay at in Williamstown has closed, but there are others within walking distance of campus and in the surrounding country side. The Williamstown Inn is a bit stodgy but it’s right on campus. Porches in North Adams attracts a hipper crowd.
http://commencement.williams.edu/articles/lodging_list/
Our favorite restaurant was Mezze (though I haven’t been to its new location).
I would agree that both Smith and Wesleyan would make great add-ons to your list (for art and science). I would also suggest Conn College as a match. They have a strong art program and pretty good sciences.
We stayed at the Saybrook Point Inn on the water in Connecticut and used that as our base for visiting Yale, Wesleyan, Conn College and Trinity. It was maybe 30 minutes from each and about an hour and a half to Providence.
A tour of one of the mansions in Newport (like the Breakers) is a highly recommended stop.
We liked the Old Court B&B in Providence, which is very close to Brown and RISD. There are a lot of good restaurants in the area. New Rivers was one we especially enjoyed, though it was several years back.
The night we spent in Providence turned out to be a WaterFire night. This is a festival that takes place on the river throughout the summer. It was festive, but if I’d known about it in advance, I would have chosen another time to be there.
http://waterfire.org/schedule/2016-waterfire-providence-event-schedule/
For fun? Well…while you are in New Haven, go for pizza at either Pepes, Sally’s or Modern Pizza.
It sounds like you are spending a couple of days in Boston. Have good clam chowder, walk the Freedom Trail, and go to Fanuiel Hall. If the BSO is playing on the esplanade…check it out.
You could come visit me!
I thought that Northeastern also had a program with the Museum of Fine Arts
For FUN in Boston if either of you is into photography, I highly recommend http://www.photowalks.com/PhotoTours.aspx
We took the waterfront photowalk tour a few years ago and we thoroughly enjoyed the tour and the photography tips. Look on Groupon and you may even be able to get a discount.
Enjoy!! Loved every minute of my college tour with D!
Ooo - lovin’ these suggestions!!! Thank you so much! I think that skipping Yale and looking at Conn College might be a good fit, and perhaps Skidmore as well. So, funny story. D1 also picked Boston/New York for her first college tour. She fell head over heels for Boston, and absolutely unequivocably HATED New York City. Pretty funny how fit is so hard to measure. One of the schools that she insisted that we visit of her 6 was Marymount Manhattan, which is a small school without a campus on the upper East Side of NYC that specializes in Fine Arts and is 80% women. We are all about allowing choice, so I went along with it, but was extremely puzzled given that our daughter had minimal interest in fine arts, wanted a campus, and is interested in boys. It took four years for her to admit that she wanted to go there because the East Side is where the tv show Gossip Girl was filmed. Mystery solved.
Since you will be in Providence visiting Brown, a side trip to Newport (mentioned above) or Little Compton would be fun. Sakkonet Vineyards in LC offers a tour of the vineyard ( wine snobs wont love the wine) but you can have lunch there and it is a gorgeous spot.
If you want to see more of Cape Cod–visit one of the islands (Martha’s Vineyard or Nantucket). Both have wonderful beaches with lots to do. I am a fan of Nantucket (if you go there PM me–I have a list of suggestions for things to see and do that I give to folks who rent our house.)
For a family interested in art, the Hudson Valley south of Poughkeepsie has 1-1/2 of the great unknown art museums of the world – a little hyperbole there, but warranted, I think. The Storm King Arts Center is a completely unique museum consisting of a 500-acre park of fields, streams, woodlands, and a charming old mansion, used as a setting for a permanent collection of about 120 mainly monumental contemporary sculptures, plus rotating special exhibits. Many of the sculptors are household names (Isamo Noguchi, Alexander Calder, Louise Nevelson, Richard Serra, Roy Lichtenstein), many not, but the quality of the collection is amazing and the beautiful setting, with Storm King mountain in the background, is beyond amazing. A number of the works are site-specific, including a whole field sculpted into waves by Maya Lin, and a playful, whimsical endless New England stone wall by Andrew Goldsworthy. It’s in Cornwall on the west side of the Hudson, between Newburgh and West Point. And just across the Newburgh-Beacon bridge, in Beacon, is the Dia-Beacon Museum, a lovely small museum with some (indoor) Serras of its own. Both are worth a stop; Storm King is really not to be missed.
(For reference, if you drive from Vassar to Yale, probably how you go is to drive down to I-84 and get on to go east 4-10 miles east of Beacon, depending on which route you take. So Beacon is 4 miles off your route, and Storm King about 11 more miles past Beacon.)
While you are at Yale (if you decide not to ditch Yale), the Yale Art Museum and the British Art Center are completely worth seeing. I think the British Art museum is currently closed for renovations, but the Yale Art Museum’s redesign was completed 5-6 years ago, and it’s sensational now.
The Vassar art museum is supposed to be great (was closed the day I visited with my daughter) and FDR’s home is very close and a great place to visit.
The RISD art museum (next to Brown) is a great museum - world class. Province has a sort of little Italy with lots of restaurants to choose from.
I also understand that Williams has a great art museum. Yale museum has also been mentioned.
Normally, a bunch of art museums might not be considered fun for a High School kid, but with your daughter’s interest in art I think she would like these.
If you do Skidmore - downtown Saratoga is a cute place with little stores and restaurants.
If Conn is being used as a semi safety, make sure to book an interview with the tour/info session.
Curious why you are now skipping Yale.
Brown is a great school but its admissions is more inscrutable than some other top schools!
This kind of trip is tiring. When I did it with my kids, we did a lot of drive throughs and even left some info sessions shortly after they began. The thought of trying all these museums makes me feel tired now, and I am a passionate museum goer (MassMOCA near Williams is a favorite).
Does your daughter want a small college, basically? Does she especially want urban, rural or suburban? Does she like an alternative vibe, an artsy kind of vibe, or something more conservative or traditional?
What motivated
I feel as if it’s hard to answer you without knowing more.
Off the top, Yale and Brown for top of the range
“Little Ivies” like Williams, Amherst (Tufts, Wesleyan)
artsy/intellectual Vassar, Bard, Skidmore, Bennington- I would add Sarah Lawrence
women’s schools: Smith, Wellesley
great LAC’s like Hamilton and Union
Brown and Tufts have programs with art schools, RISD and MFA respectively
Brown and Amherst don’t have gen eds (haven’t checked this on all the schools above)
Bennington and Sarah Lawrence have a lot of independent and interdisciplinary work- others might too
The above consists mainly of reaches and matches, maybe a few safeties, depending on what your daughter does in the next couple of years, and I don’t mean just academically.
Hobard William-Smith is an interesting school. We loved Clark University in Worcester. Marlboro is very small and artsy/alternative, in Vermont. So many more…Colleges that Change Lives website and book is a good resource.
This is just for the NY, CT, RI , VT and MA schools basically…are there other areas of the country she is considering. MacAlaster, Carleton, Oberlin, Lawrence, Kenyon, Grinnell, Pomona, Occidental, U. of Puget Sound, Lewis and Clark, Goucher, Davidson, Muhlenberg…so many!!!
I would keep the trip simple. Not too much sightseeing. Air bnb can work sometimes for lodging. If your daughter takes an immediate dislike to a place, leave, don’t waste time and energy.
You have done this before so you know all this already.
Second the suggestion for Storm King - it’s the only art thing my kids really enjoyed visiting. I’d recommend it even if you don’t think you like art, because it’s just a lovely place for a walk. I’ve been meaning to visit the Beacon for years.
Also if you are visiting Vassar, you might want to eat at the CIA cooking school in nearby Hyde Park. http://www.ciarestaurantgroup.com/new-york-restaurants/
Starting this fall, School of The Museum of Fine Arts will be part of Tufts. Tufts agreed to acquire it last winter creating one of the only art programs affiliated with a major museum.
http://tuftsdaily.com/news/2016/01/20/tufts-acquire-school-museum-fine-arts/
http://www.artspace.com/magazine/art_101/art_market/top_mfa_programs-52172
See some beautiful colleges when you travel:
“The 25 Most Beautiful College Campuses in America,” Thrillist
“The 30 Best, Most Beautiful Small in America,” Best Degree Programs
My son took a class at the MFA when he was at Tufts. It was a long commute to their campus and the grading was pretty harsh. Once was enough for him!
Yale is the obvious top choice as they are #1 ranked fine arts program in the country. # 2 is VCUarts tied with UCLA
. Which begs why not UCLA ? you get instate price and a top program, really no need to travel across the country.
Something to consider. #1 and #2 really are the best programs in the nation.
If she has any interest in Amherst, it would be worth a stop. It would not put you farther away from Providence, but would require slightly more time and driving on more “back roads”.
Also second the suggestion for Wesleyan when in Connecticut and for a school like Tufts or BC when in Boston. These may be a bit of a contrast to the others (more medium sized) and may be more in the high match category than Williams, Brown and Yale.