I think your daughter will get into many of these schools. Some, however, are reaches for everyone. My younger daughter had a 4.0, was one of the top three students (by unofficial class ranking) in her class of 500, had a 35 on her ACT, and still didn’t get into some schools to which she applied, because, well, because there are a lot of students like her throughout the United States. Just be prepared.
Speaking of safeties, since you are going to tour the PNW, you might want to also visit U Puget Sound - a good, solid LAC with a high acceptance rate.
@MamaBear16 Thanks, I’ve looked at UPS. That may have be an application without a visit if it looks interesting to her on paper.
My D and I did a 7-day NE school tour over her spring break.
Day 1: fly into Boston in the AM, drive to Wesleyan AM, Yale PM, drive to Amherst area in evening
Day 2: Amherst, U Mass (walk-through), Smith, drive to Williams area
Day 3: Williams AM, skiing PM, drive to Middlebury area
Day 4: Middlebury AM, skiing PM, drive to Dartmouth area
Day 5: Dartmouth, drive to Boston
Day 6: Wellesley AM, Tufts (walk-through) PM
Day 7: fly out
Each visit (unless it says ‘walk-through’), we did a guided tour and info session. For the AM tours, we ate lunch at the cafeteria. For the PM schools, we went to someplace recommended by the tour guide to study for 1-2 hrs (D was studying for the SAT and I caught up on work stuff). At 2 schools, D sat in on a class. She didn’t do any interviews, because I didn’t actually set stuff up ahead of time (that includes hotels). The purpose of the trip was for D to figure out if she really wanted a LAC or bigger school like Tufts and see a bunch of schools to get an idea of what she liked. I set up the first two days, and had a plan for the rest, but I was ready to change all that if she said, ‘you know what, 2000 students is way too small’. At the end of every visit, I video-taped (nothing special just an iPad) D talking about her impressions. She never looked at these again as it turned out, but I think the process of doing that helped her.
For D and I, visiting 2 schools in one day was fine. Actually it was fun. It didn’t tire us out, but we didn’t do that every day—that would have gotten old. We both like architecture and history and I’d ask the tour guide what the interesting or historical buildings were and we go check that out. Yale and Wellesley were esp fascinating and it was great to have an excuse to wander about.
Things I wished I’d done differently or wish I’d known:
- Some schools give your comp tickets for the cafeteria! I had no idea.
- Though D’s stats were in the middle for these schools, really at <10-20% admit rates, they are all reaches. We should have toured some matches rather than only ‘name recognition’ schools.
This was the only out of state touring that we could do. D only applied to 2 schools on the tour, but she firgured out what she liked and that helped her focus her list of LACs to apply to. We live in a city, so there were many options for her to go to info sessions, alumni interviews, and small ‘get to know you’ events held by the LACs she ended up applying to.
Oh, you’ll be relying on navigation via your phone most likely and that eats up battery fast. Don’t assume your rental will have a USB that works for your phone. I brought 2 battery packs and charged those every night. Invariably, I’d forget to plug my phone into the car and drain the battery. If I didn’t have the battery pack I’d be stuck when we trying to navigate the campus quickly. Btw, our rental didn’t have a USB but I’d brought a thing that plugs into the lighter.
@liska21 Oh - thanks! That’s a great itinerary! It’s nice to see one that incorporates Middlebury. And excellent tip on the battery pack and lighter charger. The video interview is also a great tip. I had a crazy idea of making a movie/slide show of photos or video clips the night after each visit and uploading them to youtube, so she can review/refresh her memory later – in addition to having her journal right after each visit. I’ll try out my idea on the PNW trip. Also great to know about the comp meal tickets!
Wow, I’m impressed that you saw two schools on the same day you flew into Boston. You must not have flown from the west coast 
Aside from Clark, I don’t know what else would be a true safety in this area. St Lawrence is just too remote to go back and forth to CA for breaks, as is Bennington, which is also too small! Maybe we’ll do a drive through of Tufts, to see a bigger school (with an even lower acceptance rate!!)
Like you, we also live in a city where it will be easy to find adcom or alumni interviews in the fall, once she finalizes her list.
Did your D do any class visits, or you just did tours, info sessions & lunch? (that’s what I was thinking of doing)
I wish there was a school between Middlebury and Skidmore that could be visited on the same day as either of them.
I know a little about Macalester, having grown up very close by. It is in a nice part of St. Paul. There is lots to do. You can take courses at nearby colleges if Mac doesn’t have a course you want. Students typically move off campus after sophomore year. The are lots of decent apartments nearby and lots of restaurants and other stores for food, etc. It is easy to get to and from the airport. Mac is on two bus lines that have frequent service. My son applied there. He was waitlisted. He was not keen on it, though, because they stated theirs is a “writing intensive curriculum.” He is attending Skidmore and is very happy there.
In the Boston area, Wheaton College might be a good safety to look into. Could be combined with a visit to Brown, though that’s not on your list.
@LBowie Macalester is one of D’s favs right now. I would love to fit it into this trip. What does the campus look like? Would you say it’s a pretty campus? Are there shops & cafes walking distance from campus?
Since you also know Skidmore, can your son walk to shops, etc from Skidmore?
I’ll check out Wheaton, thanks.
Clark is a college where you don’t just drive b. The surrounding area (Main South) is pretty dismal (inner city) The city has worked to improve conditions. The campus itself is great and it’s a good school. (I worked in development/advancement for 3 years). I think that this is one school you really need to visit the campus. Some kids will be turned off by the surrounding area; others are fine with it.
Clark has an accelerated BA/MA prigram for some majors where the fifth year is tuition free. Friend’s D did it and got a great job at a biotech company.
OP, we live in the northeast, so our visits were over a span of months becasue we were close enough to do that. However, we spent the feb break visiting colleges. We visited a total of 9 in four days. We weren’t burnt out. It had to be done so we did it. We made some time to do a few interesting non-college things. For instance, we visited Gettysburg in the afternoon one day, which was cool, and the next day was a three college marathon. No regrets. I will do the same again with my son, but different colleges. I can’t justify hotel and dining expenses without some kind of reward:-)
Your plan to drive from Sikdmore to Middlebury in a day seems exhausting. It seems Skidmore is the only one up for consideration in that area. I suggest visiting if accepted, as it seems you definitely have a few colleges you want to see in the vicinity of Maine/Vermont. You can’t visit every where. My D applied to Kenyon and only visited once accepted. Colleges understand that visiting isn’t always possible. We also did a few drive bys. If we were near a college, we would have a quick drive around campus, and sometimes we got out of and walked around.
I agree that it’s important to visit match and safety schools and minimize visits to schools that are reaches. Our earliest mistake was taking her to see a couple of dream schools early on, which made not-so-dream schools seem a bit lacking later on. My son will visit a couple of realistic reaches and no pie-in-the-sky colleges. It’s bad for morale.
The Mac campus is not the most gorgeous but not awful. It’s a mix of architectural styles. The newer buildings are very nice inside. It is surrounded by residential area (homes) and a shopping district. The are many, many restaurants nearby. I was just at one last weekend (French Meadow). (Just beware it gets very cold the in winter. )
Re Skidmore, downtown Saratoga Springs is very nice. It is about a mile from campus down a street with mansions (it was an attractive place for the curative waters, and there really are constanty running springs throughout town. Also the race track is a popular summer destination.). My son has a car so he is lazy and drives to town. You could also take the bus. (We decided last minute to let him have a car to make it easier to get back and forth from home near Boston.)
^please see I edited because I initially forgot to answer about the Mac campus. Wanted to make sure you saw.
Interesting now that I think about it, in some ways the architecture at Mac and Skidmore is similar vintage. Skidmore is largely 1960s. The campus is much more spacious and green than Macalester’s though. Mac is in a more densely populated area.
@Lindagaf Thanks - Google maps says Skidmore to Middlebury is 1 hour 45 min. If we did that, then we’d be flying in or out of Burlington. I wouldn’t drive up to Middlebury and back. I don’t have any desire to double back on my driving Does the drive actually take longer than an hour and 45 min?
@LBowie So it might be good to see Mac first, before the more “beautiful” campuses of Bryn Mawr, Wellesley, etc? That way Mac won’t be a let down compared to those? One can walk to the shopping area from the Mac campus? Or maybe don’t visit Mac at all until accepted? I kind of love the idea (and price and location) of Mac.
We’ve been watching the news and weather in Minn - OMG. Are there tunnels between the buildings? How do kids not get frostbite?
60’s architecture 
Just thinking between those two, Macalester would be much easier to travel back and forth to since Delta has a hub at MSP, and the school is not to far from the airport. For Skidmore you would fly to Albany where I am not sure anyone has a hub, then have to make your way north about 45 min. somehow. But it has plenty of students from far away places like California,so I know it’s doable.
The shopping area is practically on the Macalester campus, completely adjacent. Grand Avenue, the address of the college, is full of restaurants and shops along its length. It’s the go-to place in St. Paul fur eating out and shopping. Snelling Ave (the cross street) also has lots of stores.
I think there are some tunnels at Macalester, but am not sure. There are connected buildings. The campus is not that big, though, so you would not need to be outside long.
@LBowie Mac sounds terrific!! I know, there are lots of direct flights to MSP from where we live.
I’m guessing Skidmore would have a shuttle to an airport at break time? She’d have to really love it over her other options. Plus I ran the NPC on all of these schools and Skidmore comes out as one of the most expensive.
So, Skidmore’s location and cost isn’t terrific for us.
My younger daughter went to Carleton, where it gets pretty cold, too. The students survived, thanks to buildings being close together and dressing appropriately while outside.
@rosered55 That’s really good to know!
Now as for their parents… I’m feeling quite cranky about the below-zero temperature today!
@Bromfield2 It’s so great to hear from someone who really knows Clark. D’s current top choice for major is Psychology and I thought of Clark because of it’s Psych dept. And it’s on a list somewhere for having a good theater program too, and it also has a theater club, which I just found, that puts on fun musicals. But the 5 year Master’s doesn’t seem to apply for Psych, which is a real bummer. Unless you know differently?
I am surprised it’s less than two hours between Skidmore and Middlebury. Personally, if you are going all the way up,there and want to see the Maine colleges too, IMO it makes more sense to group it that way, but Mid, Bates, Bowdoin and Colby are all reaches, and Skidmore is probably more a match school, so maybe it will work. Btw, are you aware that usually dropping off rental cars in differnt states will add a very heavy drop off surcharge? Worth considering. I am talking hundreds, not tens of dollars. You might want to check that out if that could present a problem for you.