Same thing here. Reaches, plane ticket, covid- the trifecta for staying home.
5 Likes
We are trying to plan a trip to NY to see one of S21s schools (they are giving in-person tours). We would like to drive and spend 1 night in a hotel. I just looked at NY travel rules and they want a negative COVID test within 3 days of arrival and then 3 days of quarantine followed by a negative COVID test on day 4. We canāt spend that many days! Not sure what to do. We could do 1 long day and not stay overnight but it would be a long day. Has anyone done a NY visit from a non-contiguous state?
Iād like to know this too. So far when weāve traveled, hotels have not asked to see paperwork re Covid even in Maine. Itās possible you could just take a test before you leave and thatās it. I donāt think hotels will make you quarantine or take a second test. I know thatās not the rule but Iām just sayingā¦
Might need the negative test at the airport though. I would like to know if then one has to fill out paperwork saying they will follow the rules. Thatās how it was in Maine. You just sign and if they find out you didnāt play by the rules itās a $500 fine. Pretty sure no one is checking.
2 Likes
Yes, in NY there are documents you fill out when flying or arriving at the airport.
Thank you so much for this, @bkhstips. Like your D, my S has loved everything heās learned about Rice so far. Iām glad your daughter is having such a great experience!
I will check out the link!
Is it required or suggested? My gut is if it is suggested they wonāt ask. When we traveled ( not NY) no one asked. I did have some hotels ask where we were coming from but didnāt ask about quarantining. They are not stopping people at the bridges or state borders if you are driving. Maybe try to call a hotel and ask the policy?
2 Likes
Iām a UNC parent (and alum) + D21 is an admitted student (still deciding).
Lack of communication/effort on the part of UNC admissions isnāt isolated to wait-listed. Thereās definitely room for improvement overall. A former employee used the phrase to describe the attitude as āWeāre so great we donāt even have to try.ā Iād say thatās fitting.
We havenāt been to campus since they restarted at least some in-person (mine has none in-person), but were there a couple months ago. It was pretty quiet, but bookstore is open and certainly walking campus gives some sense of the place. I know they have a self-guided tour pamphlet you can download and I believe a virtual tour option open to anyone.
My D was happy there pre-COVID (but not happy with how they handled COVID response). Almost all her professors have been great, but I will say sheās a heavy user of rate my professor and chooses accordingly.
This whole application/decision process this year is a mess. D21 doesnāt want to make final decision until she has all information from all options (because options are fairly close overall in her mind). She was supposed to find out merit amount from one in February, which they delayed to mid-March (only has full final FA back from half), and itās delaying her eventual declines. Meanwhile another one (provided everything by end of January) is starting registration appointments in March. Ugh.
1 Like
Same exact situation here with D21 and going to see Hamilton. LMK if you find out something!
2 Likes
So happy to hear she is having a good experience AND that she decided without a visit. My D has been able to talk to a current student several times and it really helped her get a better picture of the school and she really likes it. She is a humanities kid- languages and linguistics, so I donāt know if that will help or hurt her application. Weāll see.
1 Like
@SammoJ 7.5 hours sound long but to teenagers itās nothing. At least thatās how we felt back when I was in college, a 6.5 hour drive from home with no options for flying. At first I thought I would only go home on vacations, but after doing it a few times we got used to it and it seemed like nothing. We would even go home just for the weekend, rolling in to my parentās driveway at midnight Friday and getting back to campus midnight Sunday and stopping at the bar to say hi to people before heading back to the dorm. 
The joy of being young and having tons of energy!
5 Likes
I am hoping that with the increased availability of vaccines that proof of vaccination might soon be an acceptable substitute to test and quarantine. Things are changing so quickly, hopefully for the better!
I would continue to check rules in NY and neighboring states regarding travel restrictions.
4 Likes
āGeography is destiny.ā
It can be but when I look at D20 LA high school academic peers, many are going to college out of state. Colleges like Northwestern, Duke, Tulane, Rice, Vanderbilt, Michigan, BC, and yes UT.
It interesting, I was talking with my Dr. recently and he asked where my D was going to college. And when I said Duke, he immediately said āWhy would she go so far away for collegeā intimating that there are so many great colleges in CA, why leave. And I told him that I didnāt put any geographic limitations on my kids researching and applying to college and this particular college resonanced with D the minute she stepped foot on the campus.
For some kids, geography does not have to be destinyā¦
3 Likes
Congratulations for the acceptance to W and M.
1 Like
I asked my doctor this question yesterday so waiting to hear back. If youāre vaccinated, it means that exposure to the virus canāt harm you (of course there are odds), but can you actually carry it and pass it on to others? Maybe Iām thinking too much.
@AlmostThere2018 and @annegp, Goodluck to your kiddos 
Feel free to PM me if you need any other info. My younger daughter has applied too this year but Rice is not her top choice as she would prefer to stay on the east coast.
1 Like
Will do. We are planning it for end of March so itās possible the restrictions will lift a bit. I just saw that CT went from a required quarantine to recommended.
Iām not vaccinated yet ā in the last group in my state 
ā but the way I think of it is that if youāre vaccinated you need to keep wearing your mask and keep distance for now but you can go out with less fear! Thatās a big win!
2 Likes
Regarding covid travel to closed campuses.
For D21 we did two separate college visit road trips. The first one we did in summer 2019 pre-Covid and visited most (but not all) of the schools of interest in WA State and did the official campus tours at UW, WWU, Reed, Lewis & Clark, and WSU.
The second we did in August 2020 to CA (by car) visiting about 10 different covid-closed campuses completely on our own. We visited USF, SCU, Stanford, Oxy, LMU, USC, and the Claremont Colleges. Did not meet a single soul at any campus except USC which had gated security checks and the students manning the checkpoint were happy to give us visitors passes to wander the campus on our own. The August wildfires were a bigger complication than Covid.
Did we learn more on the guided tour than the self-guided tours of closed campuses? Honestly probably not. Every walking tour of a campus with a group of 15 parents and students starts feeling exactly the same. As do all the tours of dorms where you poke your head into a model dorm room made up all pretty for tours. And frankly, all the dining halls start looking pretty much the same, and many use the same concessionaires anyway.
What we were able to do on the DIY tours was pull up campus maps on our phones and tablets and actually walk around and look at the science buildings that we were interested in. One or two let us in to walk the halls, the others were locked. But we actually saw more of the parts of campus we were interested in doing DIY tours rather than following a tour guide. Not one single guided tour we ever took actually entered a science building.
What we picked up in person doing DIY tours of Covid-closed campuses is the general setting of the campus and the surrounding neighborhoods. Which you canāt really get from carefully curated virtual tours. Is the surrounding neighborhood seedy? bland suburbia? or an interesting and vibrant neighborhood? Occidental went way up in D21ās estimation because she really liked the campus and the surrounding north LA neighborhoods which she found much more interesting than say the bland car-centric suburbia that surrounds Pomona.
You donāt really meet students and get the complete vibe of a place by visiting a closed campus. But honestly, you didnāt get that visiting campuses during the summer pre-Covid anyway.
Right now we are still waiting to hear from the last school on D21ās list, which is probably her top choice. And then we will do one last batch of visits to her 3 or 4 finalists before pulling the trigger. They are all between 30 min and 3.5 hours away so that is going to be easy day-trip stuff. A few are offering guided tours for admitted students which we will do. The others are still closed to official tours but the campuses are open for you to explore.
3 Likes
As the parent of a student attending a NY school from a non-contiguous state, who was required to quarantine on campus per NYS guidelines when he arrived, I find it very disheartening to see that people here are encouraging others to be dishonest in order to do campus visits/tours. My sonās school has strict protocols in place in order to provide an environment as safe as possible for students and staff. His school does allow campus tours but you are required to go thru a prescreening whereby you are specifically asked if you are violating any of NYS mandates.
Considering so many parents are wanting their kids to have their campuses return to ānormalā as soon as possible, it is infuriating that parents here would consider lying or being dishonest for their own benefit. Instead, please follow the rules a campus has decided are necessary to ensure the safety of their students and staff.
Edited to fix a typo
11 Likes