<p>Ambitious but not crazy. Like many have said, you are not going to have enough time to do detailed session and tour of schools that are not within a short drive of each other. It will be rush rush rush and let’s get to the next school. You might have to settle for simple walk around campus in some cases if there is not enough time to get from the end of one session to another session. For Boston, there is also traffic to consider. It is not an easy city to drive around for visitor, and parking could be tough on weekdays. I also would echo that for us, after 2-3 days, everything becomes a blur and for some kids, it could become a lot less interesting towards the end. Bring camera, take note of things you like or dislike or make a journal with pictures for later recall and review. Or should I say, make your kids do it.</p>
<p>If you have a AAA membership use the triptik feature on their web site. You can easily add and remove destinations to try to find the best routes to follow. It gives you the route and time between each destination. It will also show you all the hotels along your route and provide tripadvisor reviews. Best of all you can save the trip and keep editing it until you find the combination that works best.</p>
<p>The biggest thing to keep in mind is that there are no major highways that go east/west in northern NE. All of the major highways in VT, NH, and ME go north/south. Travelling from VT to ME can be a pretty trip, but it can be a pretty long trip.</p>
<p>D1 & I each had a notebook to record impressions after each school visits, as they do seem to blur together after a few days. (We did two 3-day trips from NJ to see many of the schools you mention). </p>
<p>Soxfan99 is correct, that there aren’t many East/West roads except I-90 in the region, so you need to plan your logistics quite well. If you are going to use a GPS, I would program all the addresses in before you leave home, so it’s one less thing to worry about. However, I would still bring a print out from each school of EXACTLY where the admissions office is located, plus a campus map, where they recommend to park and where the tours start. Often a GPS does not recognize campus roads.</p>
<p>As someone pointed out, Middlebury is the outlier and the killer to this schedule. Its 2.5 hours from Williams (if all the roads are repaired by then), and then another 3.5 hours to Boston. </p>
<p>My suggestion is that if your child likes Williams, have them apply to Middlebury and then go to the accepted student days if he/she gets in. </p>
<p>Or if you do go to Middlebury, I’d suggest dropping another school or two and adding Dartmouth on your way to Boston.</p>
<p>I also agree with doing Trinity/Wesleyan in one day. Very easy to do.</p>
<p>Not to add to the list, but have you looked at any of the schools in the Worchester area? That’s any easy drive from either Amherst, Hartford or Boston.</p>
<p>You mean Worcester (pronounce wooster) area?</p>
<p>Another idea for Boston, BU, NEU, Tufts and BC, depending where you stay and what kind of transportation you are planning on doing, one way of doing it would be to do BU and NEU together. You don’t need to bring car for this, you can take the T or public transportaion in. The two schools are very closed by, you can take taxi from one to another, it will cost you less than $10 and very quick saving a lot of time. If you take your car in, you will have to contend with traffic, parking and the time plus the cost to navigate those things. Tufts and BC on another day will be not too hard to do by car. They are about 30-40 minutes apart on normal mid day traffic.</p>
<p>Perhaps try to spread out your visits, instead of squeezing them all within one week, try taking the trip over the winter break if you can. You will have more time and your D will also get to experience the weather conditions during the winter period. Generally, most people from California are not used to the harsh cold weather of the East Coast. Keep in mind that your D will be attending the school for 4 years. I’ve heard of students who had attended East Coast schools, can’t get used to it and ended up transferring back to the West Coast. Weather is a big factor for a lot people, especially for those who are from California. When my family visited the schools, DS ranked weather as one of the top criteria for fitting. The weather in the East Coast is freezing cold in the winter, and for the most part for the rest of the year is humid with a lot of storms. Unless you’re from that region, it’d be rough to drive in it. So my advice is to go visit during winter break not spring break for East Coast schools.</p>
<p>If you decide to do this trip over the winter break, you will likely have difficulty scheduling tours at least at some places. Winter break for high schools is between Christmas and New Years this year, and many of the admissions offices run VERY limited tour schedules during that time. In addition, if you go in April (which is when many high schools have their spring break) you will see school in session which is VERY different than seeing it in the middle of winter with no students around.</p>
<p>Since both Christmas and New Years are on Sundays, the offices at the schools will likely be closed on the day after…those Mondays. You’d lose lots of days of action with the holiday break.</p>
<p>If you have a winter break in February (schools on the East Coast do…but my experience is schools in CA do not), that is another story.</p>
<p>Just a word of warning. Irene knocked out some of the roads in Vermont and the northern, Rte 2, approach to Williams. Rte 2 is still closed. Not sure what the schedule is for repairs but make sure your planned route is open for that long Williams Middlebury swing.</p>
<p>Being from the northeast I would not recommend trying it at winter break. The weather will be unpredictable and the likelihood of a storm laying careful plans to waste is high. Especially given OP is flying out here from CA. Not a good idea at all.</p>
<p>The OP said they are making plans fir one trip at spring break which is far more realistic if they can edit their choices.</p>
<p>In Boston, we found decent hotel deals at Midtown near Symphone Hall, walkable to Northeastern. Parking was $20/day (not $40+ like other places) and great access to the T. Not fancy, but the rooms are large and clean. Rates vary a lot by day/season - ask for college discount.</p>
<p>If you travel in the winter, it’s best to fly in. Depending on your school’s winter break schedule, I recommend you to make a list of the schools you want to see the most, and go visit them first. The school district in my area begins their winter break a week before the holidays. That was ideal for us. Keep in mind that most of the schools also offer a campus web tour online so you can get an idea if you’re unable to take a guided tour. Regardless if you’re going during spring break or winter break, there’s always a chance that the colleges will be on a break around the same time. Different schools have different schedule. When you’re there, you can a least get the feel of the neighborhood and the weather climate.</p>
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<p>We visited 8 of those school plus 6 more, but we allotted nearly 3 weeks. (My son ended up at Williams and is now in graduate school at Cornell).</p>
<p>There are two schools of college visiting. Yours – pack em in, see em all, even for a fly-by. And the opposite, choose a few, drill deep. </p>
<p>I prefer the latter because it allows you to take the tour, attend the information session and interview if offered, and most importantly spend some time soaking up the campus atmosphere. Walking around campus, eating in the dining hall, talking to students, visiting points of interest that are not on the tour.</p>
<p>Your daughter’s list is all over the place in ambiance. This is not a bad thing at this point, but she might want to use this trip to determine what TYPE of ambiance she wants, rural/small town/urban, large/medium/small. You could then plan to make another trip either in the summer or after she gets her acceptances. </p>
<p>So, I might suggest that you rethink the trip and choose representations of various TYPES rather than trying to visit several in each category. E.g., one or two small rural, one or two small town/urban, one large/medium rural, one large/medium urban. </p>
<p>The last thing you need are more colleges, but. . . I would think that Dartmouth would be a logical addition as would Bowdoin. What could be eliminated? Maybe save the upstate New York or Boston schools for another trip depending on how she feels about rural vs urban.</p>
<p>In any event I agree with the suggestion to group together Middlebury/Williams/Amherst and Trinity/Wesleyan/Brown. When we did the latter three (plus Yale) we stayed in a central location (Old Saybrook CT) and drove back and forth. This eliminated a lot of checking in and checking out and gave everyone some much needed space and relaxation.</p>
<p>Here’s a thought. Since it easy to fly into Boston (and sometimes fare deals) and easy to use public transportation to see BU, Northeastern, BC, others… save Boston for another followup trip. </p>
<p>It will save you a lot of money this trip if you can avoid one-way rental car. Maybe not possible, but plan ahead to avoid sticker shock.</p>
<p>just echoing a few thoughts…
Bring a camera. take lots of pictures including the college sign ie “these are the cornell pictures”</p>
<p>Try and narrow down type of school if at all possible. Cornell at almost 20K UG+G is a small city compared to Colgate where the 2700 students almost outnumber those in the town of Hamilton. Not to be confused with Hamilton College that is in Clinton. Both VERY rural.</p>
<p>Do be wary of winter storms especially if you arent used to driving in snow (I know. Not All of CA is sun filled all the time ;-)).</p>
<p>We have done both the drive by and revisit later, and the in-depth versions. I think it just depends on what you can manage at the time.</p>
<p>For S1 we actually did a college visit on a 1 1/2 hr layover during a ski vacation. He ended up applying, doing a true visit during admitted student days and LOVES it as a Sophmore. So, it can all work out.</p>
<p>The things we do for our kids 
Good luck.</p>
<p>I would take out Middlebury and keep in the NY schools. My reasoning is that Colgate and Hamilton seem much more likely schools for your D than Midd given the stats you seem to have posted. Unless she’s in the top 10% and has a very compelling EC (or socioecon / ethnic status) to offer a school like Midd (or Williams, etc.), it is really reachy IMO. Coming from California really isn’t a geographical advantage, either. Your state represents a very high proportion at schools across the country, and a growing one due to the funding issues at the UC system. (at my S’s school, Grinnell in Iowa, California is the second highest state represented in the class of '15, displacing other midwestern states!)</p>
<p>I like that you have those NY schools, and the other NE LACs that are a tad less competitive to get into. I’m not saying don’t go for reaches, but I would hate for you to spend so much time driving to schools that are going to be very very tough admits.</p>
<p>OP</p>
<p>The trip looks aggressive but doable … very similar to the trip I took with FirstToGo … essentially 2 schools a day and then drive to the next town that night. A few suggestions (most repeats) …</p>
<p>1) If possible travel at night and get to the town of the morning tour.</p>
<p>2) Doing 2 schools a day with both my kids we found the tour, hanging around on campus, and checking out the town near campus typically fit into a 1/2 day visit … and we typically skipped the info sessions which we found very low return for the amount of time they took.</p>
<p>3) As other mentioned takes some pictures or jot down some notes otherwise the schools will start to blend into each other … the pictures/notes do not need to extensive … just enough to jog memories.</p>
<p>4) A GPS will be your best friend … it was GREAT not having to worry about getting lost or driving while reading a map.</p>
<p>5) Let your child lead the trip … while the two schools sound like a lot it is likely at some schools in about 1/2 hour your child will decide that school is out … when this happened we either spent more time at the other planned school or improvised and added other schools. (There a ton of schools in the areas you will be visiting … and this is another place the GPS is a huge help)</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>While I planned the logistics of which school at which date/time (after she researched when info sessions & tours were offered), the driving route and hotels, I had her handle all the communication with the schools. Most were easy (online form), a few emails, but one school required a phone call, which freaked her out at first, but it was a good experience.</p>
<p>The suggestion to do Boston on a separate trip is a good one. You can generally find cheap flights from Calif to Boston in the winter, and it would be a good chance for your kid to see what a Boston winter is like. Find a hotel that’s close to a T stop, and you can take the Silver Line direct from the airport to the hotel. The money that you save in car expenses will probably pay for the plane tickets.</p>