<p>Well it's time to put away the books and get out to see some schools. I thought it might be helpful to others to post our itinerary which is still a few weeks away. Of course, I'd also welcome any comments as we are just now finalizing all the details.</p>
<p>Our daughter is a junior at one of the top private high schools in Atlanta. She is straight A's, all AP's or honors, yearbook editor, varsity swim, and community service team leader. She just took the ACT so don't have her scores back. Last year, she scored a 560 on the SAT2/Math1 subject test. She will be applying for engineering or math. She's smart and also very social.</p>
<p>Our goal was to create an itinerary that gave her a taste for different kinds of schools, but also allowed her to see some of her dream schools.</p>
<p>Monday: Princeton (class, info session, tour)
Tuesday: Lehigh (class, a&s plus engineering info sessions and tours)
Wednesday: Cornell (class, engineering info session, tour w/friend-current student); Syracuse, just to visit,
Thursday: Williams (math class, info session, tour)
Friday: Tufts (math class, tour w/friend-student), Harvard (info session/tour)</p>
<p>She seems to have accepted the logic behind not doing a 'tour of the ivy league,' and she had enough control over some of the stops that she feels connected to it. Now...praying for good weather and an open mind!</p>
<p>Again, hope this is of some help to others, and welcome any/all comments. Stay tuned...</p>
<p>She should take the Math II SAT II instead: Math I is known to have a bad curve. Is she in precalc now? If so, May or June would be the time to take it. A 560 isn’t going to help her at all at those schools, especially if she wants to be a math or engineering major. You probably already know that she ought to take at least one more SAT II also. This spring would be a good time, because it’s tough to take more than two per session, and if she doesn’t do well on one of them it leaves her time to take another in the fall. (I think Princeton still requires 3, and you don’t want one of them to be that 560…)</p>
<p>Sounds like a good tour. You might want to consider taking a look at Smith and/or Wellesley, or look at MIT instead of Harvard.</p>
<p>Consolidation: Thank you. I may have the score wrong. If it’s out of 800, she scored a 760. But I have heard that about the Math 1 curve; she is going to re-take, also take Math 2 and probably Bio in the spring.</p>
<p>Smith is the only women’s college with an engineering program and they are finishing construction on a new engineering building to open in the fall.</p>
<p>760/800 makes a lot more sense for an engineering student at those schools. SHe will be up against tough competition.</p>
<p>I have to ask, have you done a tour like this before? You need to be aware of distances and drive times -Cornell and Williams are remote! We found it best to see a school in the morning and early afternoon, then do the driving and have dinner on the road or at the next college town before checking into the hotel. This made the mornings much more pleasant, and gave us time to walk around and get our bearings at a relaxed pace in the evenings. </p>
<p>If you have any questions on Cornell, please feel free to PM me. Have a great trip!</p>
<p>That’s a lot of schools for one trip. Make sure she takes notes after each visit so she can keep them all straight. If you can bear the thought of adding any schools, you may want to take a look at Penn too.</p>
<p>The idea of meeting up with a friend is really, really smart. Not only does your D get a sense of what schools might match up well with her personality, but she’ll have a friend narrate the scene for her. </p>
<p>I agree with others that this is going to be an intense, exhausting trip. I would suggest trying to drive from Princeton to Binghamton, and then doing a SUNY Binghamton/Cornell/Rochester/Syracuse loop. More good colleges for the driving buck, but it would leave Lehigh out in the cold.</p>
<p>7 schools in 5 days? Will anyone be able to keep them straight or will the memories of one blur into another? Will you actually be able to appreciate a school after spending 4 hours there? If it were me, I would cut at least a couple from this list and send the kid to the school to stay with friends for a weekend. Best of luck.</p>
<p>Thanks. She has many friends at Penn, but I think they are on break. She did a summer program at Penn last year and got a pretty good feel for the campus. Me, I’m not crazy about Penn for her. Not that I have a say in this :)</p>
<p>Thanks for your comments and suggestions. I agree, the schedule seems aggressive. And, Williams is remote. We wanted to end in Boston, and wanted to be sure to hit at least one LAC…even though we’re all pretty sure that won’t be her thing. Amherst is more convenient, but Williams has the better math program from all that I have heard. We’re only doing the grand tour once, so we figured we might as well see all the schools we genuinely wanted to.</p>
<p>In general, I agree with you that doing a more concentrated loop makes good sense for those trying to get a taste of many types of schools. For us, we have a pretty well developed list already, so we seemed to be locked into hitting certain schools.</p>
<p>Mikey, I’d agree that Williams’ math program is worth the effort of getting there. I’ve never made the drive from Cornell or Syracuse to Williamstown so I can’t predict, but from Williams to Boston in about 3 hours. Less if you’re speedy; more if you want to meander on the scenic route.</p>
<p>Williamstown and the Berkshires in general are not so remote or isolated as you might think. The area has a vibrant and sophisticated arts and recreation culture and there’s lots to do. </p>
<p>If your daughter is seriously considering Williams, then I’d suggest that you spend the night, have dinner, visit one of the museums, attend a college event like a concert or lecture. I think it’s important to spend some unstructured time observing the students and visualizing what it would be like to be one. (This goes for all colleges on your visit list.)</p>
<p>Kids tend to react viscerally to Williams – they love it or hate it. Smart, social and physically active is a good fit with Williams. If she’s interested in swimming competitively she should set up a coach appointment as well.</p>
<p>It is a COMPLETE waste of her time to retake Math 1, especially if she got a 760. (I don’t think she should have bothered with it in the first place, frankly, but retaking with that score would really be foolish.) What she should do is take two other SATIIs, preferably a science and a humanities, because she will need three for Princeton. If she feels compelled to take math, she should take MathIIC, NOT Math I. Physics would be nice for a prospective engineer, if she has taken it. If not, chem or bio. Her humanities choice could be a language, if she’s good at it, or history, or lit.</p>
<p>BTW, there’s a decent but inexpensive motel on the top of the hill in Williamstown that is virtually adjacent to the campus. It’s a good place to stay the night before your day of tour/info session/class, because you can walk.</p>
<p>Mikey - I’m another Georgia parent with two daughters at Harvard. We’ve also done tours at Princeton and Tufts. PM me if you have questions about visiting those places.</p>
<p>Thank you for your thoughtful and thorough reply. Now that she’s completed her first ACT, we are turning our attention to the subject tests. She really wants to take the Math2 and aim for an 800. Bio is probable as is History. She took Physics freshman year so she may be too rusty. As for Syracuse…it’s our family school so we must at least stop by and she must apply. NOT attending there, however, has become a motivator for her :)</p>
<p>It is much more impressive to prestigious colleges to do extremely well (i.e. 750+) on Math I than Math II… people in admissions at Ivies know the truly talented math students when they see such a high score in the Math I test, so your daughter has obviously shown that she excels in math.</p>
<p>What I just said may be besides the point, but I am just throwing that out there for anyone looking to show the adcoms whether or not they are truly great at math. I think your daughter should take the Math II also, and if she gets 750+ (she should be able to get an 800 considering how well she did on Math I), that will just just how good of a fit she’ll be at a top math program.</p>
<p>Nothing fancy. Take a pocket digital camera and grab quick shots of the buildings, grounds, classrooms, dorm room (if it’s a “generic” one that they made up for the tour, or ask permission if it’s a real kid’s room) as you take the tour. You can do this very unobtrusively as you walk so as not to disturb or slow down the tour. Maybe even turn off the flash, if you can. The first shot at each school should be of a sign with the school name on it. Then you’ll know which shots were taken where. Make sure at least one of your shots includes the tour guide. That photo can be a big help in remembering the tour.</p>
<p>If you can afford the time try to squeeze in a non-school-tour activity once or twice during your trip. Go to a local tourist attraction, a movie, mini-golf, whatever; you get the idea. </p>
<p>I don’t know all of the schools you’re visiting so I don’t know how well they fit into this next idea, but here you go: Think of the trip as a “Goldilocks” tour. You know, “This one’s too big, this one’s too small, this one’s too city, this one’s too remote, this one’s just right.”</p>
<p>Is there a reason you aren’t visiting MIT? MIT is quite possibly the only school today that will give preference to female applicants. Furthermore, MIT is very generous with aid (if needed) and has incredible Engineering and Mathematics departments. </p>
<p>Also, do not neglect the midwest. I realize you cannot make it all the way out to the midwest on this trip, but do keep the top Midwest schools in mind. Northwestern is excellent in Engineering, the University of Chicago is excellent in Mathematics and the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor is excellent in both Engineering and Mathematics. I-75 connects Ann Arbor to Atlanta. Granted it is an 10 hour drive, but what the hoo! hehe!</p>