<p>Agreed about a winter trip to Boston…also will give you both a sense of what it’s like if flights get delayed or canceled due to weather.</p>
<p>One of our kids went the opposite way…to a west coast college from the east coast. We did a 6 college visit to CA in 10 days. USD, then a drive to the L.A. area…day one was Chapman and Claremont McKenna, Day two was morning drive and afternoon tour of Pepperdine. Drove back to San Diego. Kid and father flew to San Jose…toured Santa Clara and visited (just because it’s pretty) Stanford. </p>
<p>We combined this with a family vacation to see relatives in CA…as we did with all of our college trips (we had a criteria that our kids had to either go to college within a 3 hour drive of home…or within one hour of a relative or close friend…so colleges on their list afforded us visiting times too).</p>
<p>We also did a southeastern college trip.</p>
<p>U of Richmond, U of South Carolina, College of Charleston, Davidson, Elon, Wake Forest, UC Greensboro. </p>
<p>Should we avoid any college visits in the month of April? Based on some of the feedback, combined with the fact that the admitted seniors will have revisit days in April, I am starting to feel like that is the month to avoid . . . (although weather wise it is great).</p>
<p>We did Boston & 2 others in MA on Good Friday/Holy Saturday in 2009. Good Friday was one of BU’s admitted student days - it was busy, but fine. (another reason to take a cab or mass transit, there was no parking). They had plenty of guides and we weren’t going the same places as the admitted students. If you are going the week before or after Easter, it will be busy, but the colleges know this and are generally prepared. Make sure you register on-line in advance to reserve a spot.</p>
<p>Where you’re visiting, Dec-Feb can be postcard-charming; soft, wintry snow and lots of student culture around that. Hot chocolate, fresh mittens, mmm. The day of a major snowfall, however, can undo a tightly-planned schedule for that day. These events happen unpredictably and perhaps (rough estimate) every 3 weeks bad enough to change your timing slightly or completely for the day. When people plan tight trips in deep winter, I only suggest they add one day-of-grace extra, or a half-day, just to juggle and reaarange.</p>
<p>Unless you manufacture maple syrup, March is downright ugly in New England and upstate NY~! No tree leaves, muddy, cold and rainy with chance of freak ice storm. Everyone’s sick of winter by then, too. I find even storekeepers are cranky by then! Lots of people like me who don’t mind (or embrace) winter say it’s just too long here, and March is the culprit.</p>
<p>I hope you can come in April - the later, the better that month. It’s much nicer. And if you come in March, just keep in mind that every other month will be prettier than that! </p>
<p>Indoors, campus life is equally active March and April; all I’ve said here concerns how it feels to walk around the campus and towns/cities outdoors.</p>
<p>I totally agree with P3T. March is a hideous month in most of New England. That being said…if your kid goes to college in New England…they are going to see FOUR of those nasty March times (well…minus a spring break week probably).</p>
<p>Check the colleges schedules. If possible, I think visits are better when school is in session (even if the hs student doesn’t attend any classes - you get the vibe better with collegestudents around). Most colleges post the Academic Schedule online. </p>
<p>We took our first college tour during DS’s spring break (late March) junior year. It was low key, with plenty of vacation time. First we spent 3 days in San Diego doing the vacation thing - we’d never vacationed in CA. Then we did one college per day - CalTech, Pamona, Harvey Mudd (his favorite). At each school we did info session, tour, and walking around on our own. Then one more day of vacation fun including the beach and Griffith Observatory. </p>
<p>For us, the limited trip worked best. It was the point that DS gravitated more strongly to wanting Engineering offered (and math and physics). That ruled out Pomona. We had lots of time to talk too.</p>
<p>Fun story - We took son, a musician, to Jim Croce restaurant. He’d never heard of him. Doesn’t even remember me singing “Time in a Bottle” to the kids. (I stopped singing to them at a young age, “Mom - that’s not the right tune” ).</p>
<p>April is the way to go…if it snows 4-5 inches and you are anywhere off the beaten path (ie., not in Boston), it will likely cost you more than half a day. Especially if you are not a fan of white-knuckle driving.</p>
<p>I would caution against April because of days blocked out for admitted students days, however if you do choose April you’ll need to wait for the schools to list those days.</p>
<p>If you are planning 2 schools in 1 day, I would suggest scheduling your top pick of the pair for the morning in the event you run late getting to #2. </p>
<p>Don’t base total travel time on the GPS or Google maps, as you need to allow time for parking and walking to the right building, etc.</p>
<p>I think most admitted student days are on the weekends, so you should be OK during the week for standard tour. Also, a school would be crazy to block out a weekend day in April for interested Juniors.</p>
This depends on the school. I’ve seen it both ways. Check with the lists above for the schools you are interested in visiting so you can get an idea of when they might schedule for 2012.</p>
<p>“I think most admitted student days are on the weekends, so you should be OK during the week for standard tour.”
When DS was accepted at Brown and Dartmouth their admitted students programs started on Thur.</p>
<p>Hanging around campus on admitted student days and getting a look at the kids might be quite interesting. Not sure of its effect on the admissions office.</p>
<p>I’ve been stranded enough times, slid off icy country roads too, that it would put me off to schedule a major flight plus driving itinerary like that over winter holidays…no way…but YMMV.</p>
<p>Middlebury doesn’t work, it’s just too far north. </p>
<p>This sounds brutal, but since you asked, here’s what I would do: </p>
<p>Fly to Boston on Friday night
Sat: Visit Northeastern and BU, enjoy Sat night in Boston.
Sun: Drive to Cornell. It’s about 6 hours and not much to see on Sunday anyway. Baseball hall of fame is on the way if you want to break it up.
Mon: Visit Cornell, drive to Colgate
Tues: Visit Colgate/Hamilton, drive to 3 hrs to Williamstown
Wed: Very short visit to Williams drive 2 hours to Amherst, very short visit, drive to Hartford area to sleep.
Thursday: Trinity and Wesleyan, drive and sleep in Boston.
Friday: Tufts, then BC, then drive to 45 minutes to Providence to sleep.
Sat: Visit Brown, drive back to Boston (1hr) for your return flight or get a return flight from Providence.</p>
<p>if you take CRD’s advice, don’t pick up the rental car until Sunday. You will save on parking & the rental (possbibly not the latter if you get a weekly rate).</p>