Hi @brindlegreyhound. What’s the fascination with Pacific Northwest? I’m from/in midwest, too, and looked at University of Washington for undergrad a long time ago. Beautiful area around there. What’s she want to study?
@brindlegreyhound I’d love a recap when you get back, we removed Portland State from our list over commuter concerns and would love your take on it. UW is gorgeous right now with the cherry trees in bloom in the quad, enjoy! Boundary Bay is a great lunch spot in Bellingham if you like good brew pub food (and if she wants Seattle/Portland she will find a lot of that). Voodoo Donuts in PDX and a trip to Powells (bookstore) are things that if you can fit in, are must do’s for us when we are there. Numerous good brew pub ish eats around Powells.
We had originally planned to hit Portland over spring break but once we took that one out, it made more sense to head to Colorado and Wyoming as it is more driving since we can hit the others as day trips or over nights if we aren’t trying to see a bunch at once.
That is a lot of schools to see in one trip but the proximity is good and not horrendous driving if you can miss the SEA/PDX rush hours. Hopefully you will have a little time to sightsee
@2muchquan
D wants to escape Midwest winters. We’ve never been to the Pacific Northwest, so we’ll see. Undecided on a major; public policy is a possibility.
@eandesmom I’ll definitely report back.
@brindlegreyhound have a great trip. We live here and I’m a UW alumn, Dad taught at Seattle U, my husband got his MBA there and my cousins daughter is at University of Portland now so pretty familiar with the schools on your list. Western is definitely on S17’s list (UW is too big for him). If you have any questions and I can help about the area, let me know.
I lived in Chicago for 10 years and do NOT miss those winters. Or the summers actually.
As you may recall, first criteria I got from my midwest D: “I don’t want to have to wear pants”
We are getting out of here once D2 heads to college, too.
I have been thinking about your trip. We have lived in or near all of the places on your list. I am not a person who thrives in crowds and traffic, so this suggestion may not be relevant for your particular circumstances, but if I were making your trip, I would do it in reverse.
For me, driving in DC is draining. Dealing with parking, subways, etc takes a lot of energy and I would have to make this leg of the trip at the beginning when I have the most energy to deal with it all. At the end of a majorly exhausting jaunt across the country, it would be too much for me to deal with.
So I would start in DC. If you have never been to DC before, make sure to give yourself a day for the Mall and the zoo.
Head south to Jamestown. (Any interest in W&M?). Jamestown is by far our favorite of the big 3 there. The Great Wolf Lodge is a lot of fun for overnight.
Leave Jamestown and head for Chapel Hill. That is an easy drive. (I grew up in NC and all my family is still in NC.)
Then go from Chapel Hill to Columbia. Again, a very easy drive.
Vanderbilt and Tulane are really out there in terms of the other schools. I would suggest going to Vanderbilt next (are you going to do any sightseeing on this trip? I would go through Asheville and maybe go to Biltmore House. The drive would be prettier than through Atlanta. )
I would the drive to Atlanta and fly out of there to NO. You could stop in Chattanooga for the TN Aquarium or some of the other sites. Love Chattanooga! If you are into hiking, a nice break with a stop at Fall Creek Falls might be a great way to stretch and see some beautiful country. Fwiw, I wouldn’t expect direct flights from Atlanta to NO to be very expensive.
If you don’t want to fly, I would pick some other schools to visit. Maybe Rhodes in Memphis? Rhodes has some sort of arrangement with American.
Fwiw, make sure you give yourself down days in between bc it is exhausting, especially in the heat of Southern summers. If you aren’t used to high humidity and heat, it can be pretty miserable.
Dd loves Lexington. We spent the day walking around campus and the area. Then we went for a long hike at River Run Santuary. If you visit, like to hike, and want to have some down time int the area, I highly recommend the park. It has beautiful flowing streams and small waterfalls in wooded trails. (We love to hike so this was a huge selling point for dd…a place to get away from school and nurture her love of nature.)
@2muchquan …how far down south are you guys looking for relocation? I’m a native Texan and I am done with the lack of seasons and the 95+ heat from May-October. We feel like prisoners in the summer unless we have access to a swimming pool. Ugh.
@carachel2 We are thinking northern Arizona, maybe in the mountains. I would prefer North Carolina, knowing almost nothing about it, but we have family in AZ.
We would summer up north, probably northern lower Michigan.
@2muchquan and any others interested in USC, I found this document detailing their awards. The Leiber award is the only one that can stack with other admissions scholarships (only 1tuition reduction, though). So if your student is NM and gets another admission award, it could bring the cost down to almost full-tuition.
Hope this helps someone. https://www.sc.edu/admissions/admissionspdfs/moneymatters2014.pdf
My Daughter is interested in doing Medicine eventually. She has a 2340 SAT and is preparing for ACT/SAT subject tests. We are looking for Merit based scholarship, so that will make a difference on which school she selects. She does not want to try a direct medical program. We are visiting
UNC
Duke
UVA
VCU
during Spring break
Already visited UPenn, Drexel. Drexel seems to be something she is considering
@hades321 - My S is also interested in doing Medicine. Please give your feedback on UNC and Duke. We are not relying on scholarships to decide colleges. Mainly interested in research opportunities and how difficult to get good GPA. Thx
@Hades321 – am curious. Why is she taking the ACT when she already has a 2340? Are there colleges that will award higher merit for a 36 on ACT?
@Hades321 Welcome! You will see when searching through lots of other threads on CC that people will recommend getting through undergrad with little or no debt if your plans are for med school. A lot will matter about your personal financial situation and where you live. UPenn you probably found out does not give any merit aid, and I don’t believe UNC or UVA are very generous if you are out of state. Duke is a private, and also very stingy. I believe Duke and UNC do have some large merit scholarships that are very competitive, not really sure about the others on your list. A 2340 is a great place to start. Hopefully she is in the running for National Merit, too. That will give you even more options.
So, @Mom2aphysicsgeek , it looks like we will be visiting UKy in April. D19 qualified today for our regional gymnastics championship in her state meet. The regional competition is in Lexington, so hopefully the timing will work out so we can get D17 down there for a tour. I’m assuming the park you mentioned is accessible from the campus? Can’t wait to check it out!
Thanks for the USC link, I will check it out…
@Hades321 my D is interested in some sort of medicine too and we are visiting Duke tomorrow and UNC Wednesday. I hope to get some info that I can pass along, @srk2017 if there is anything you want me to ask, let me know!
@2muchquan great news about your D qualifying. I used to compete in gymnastics (too long ago) but my D17 is a cheerleader which is almost the same. I love the competitions! Let us know how she does! Good luck
@greeny8 - Thanks for your offer to get info. Can you please find out what changes they made to support new MCAT, research opportunities and average GPA and MCAT scores. I found this list few days back and according to it UNC is #1 for pre-med! I am not sure how good this website is.
http://www.collegemagazine.com/cms-top-10-universities-pre-med-students/
@srk2017 interesting article…I love greys anatomy (my D does too and I think watching it for years and then having a major medical incident 3 years ago propelled her interest in the field). I will hopefully get answers to yours as well as any other questions I can think of.
@CT1417 Yes she is trying for a 35 or 36 in ACT. Also our GC said that Va Tech will not be accepting old SAT scores. She wants to keep the ACT scores as a backup for any such universities. I am asking her to concentrate on SAT subject tests rather than ACT
@srk2017 Will definitely post here after the visit