@OnTheBubble Thank you. I don’t have a complete itinerary at this point. My dad asked me to find what colleges to visit first so he could help figure out the transportation and stuff.
I think there are two potential ways: from north to south or from south to north. I don’t know which one is better or if there are other ideal routes.
Doesn’t matter just try to stay along the coast as much as possible.
You are renting a car? May I ask your parents age? This is an ambitious trip.
@OnTheBubble This is truly an ambitious trip indeed perhaps a little ridiculous too… We might rent a car, but we are trying to stick with trains and buses as much as possible. My dad is 50 and my mom is 44. I’m sure they will get pretty tired but it’s fine. It’s very possible that I will eliminate a few colleges to visit in the future.
My advice is rent a car for the whole trip. You will waste enormous amounts of time with trains and buses. Some colleges will prove inaccessible by train or bus.
Yes. East Coast LACs are going to look and feel a lot less hyperactive with less than half the number of students per square mile as The Claremonts.
@OnTheBubble So can you tell me which colleges on my list are inaccessible by train or bus?
Lehigh would be off the beaten path for public transit.
“Do they [Swarthmore, Haverford and Holy Cross] exemplify regular LACs?” (#97)
For reasons of enrollment size, I’d say Haverford (1,189 students) and Holy Cross (2904) do not. Schools closer in enrollment to a mid-NESCAC school (~1900 students) may be more typical.
Lehigh and Lafayette are about 20 minutes apart from each other and Lafayette is about 1.5 hours from Manhattan by car. If your dad thought Pomona was quiet he will be dissappointed with Haverford which was the quietest campus I have ever seen. It’s pretty though. If possible, please rent a car. It will make your lives so much easier.
All not inside the cities. My suggestion is fly into either Boston or Washington DC and rent a car once you see the schools in those cities. So, fly into Boston see those schools. Rent a car, drive to Worcester see Holy Cross and then drive into Connecticut, then NY, then NJ/PA, then head to DC.
What will happen if you rely on trains and buses is 1) the stress levels will be very high and 2) you will not see half the schools you want to see. You will have hours and hours of waisted time taking Mass transportation.
A car will allow you to do things on your schedule.
For a sampling of some notably (subjectively) aesthetic schools to include in your itinerary, this article may offer you suggestions: “The 25 Most Beautiful College Campuses in America,” Thrillist.
One of the questions that I have for the OP (and I’m sorry, I didn’t see it in the thread) is whether you need financial aid. If you do, then your list will be different than if you are full pay. If you need aid, you should be looking at schools that meet full need for internationals and where your stats are above the average - for example, Holy Cross, Hamilton and Lafayette.
Without a car, it will really be impossible to visit too many schools in a week, unless they are all in cities. A car will actually cost less than public transportation for 3 people and will save hours.
I don’t think I am going to apply for financial aid. I mean obviously who doesn’t want to but it unfortunately decreases the chance of us international students from getting accepted. And most schools don’t offer financial to international students. I can only hope for a small amount of merit scholarship I suppose.
Well, if your parents can afford 4 years at a private US college ($240,000 and up), then I would suggest the following:
DC Area -
GW
American (should be pretty safe)
U Richmond (if you have a car - pretty school outside of Richmond, VA; a “big” small school - over 3000 students)
Philly Area
U Penn - just to see an Ivy in a city
Villanova - mid-sized Catholic school that has early action, so you might get a reasonably early answer
Haverford - very small excellent LAC
Swarthmore
Lehigh Valley
Lehigh
Lafayette
NYC area
NYU
Fordham
Columbia (if you have time)
Boston area
Tufts
Northeastern - has EA
BC - has EA
BU
Outside Boston
Holy Cross
Brandeis
This type of trip would be a minimum of 10 days and it would be much better if you had a car
Outliers - schools you might enjoy, but which are off the path
Bowdoin
Bates
Colby
Johns Hopkins ( near DC; you could switch it out for Richmond if you wanted)
@midatlmom Thank you! Is it reasonable that I just go take a look at Harvard, Columbia, and UPenn so that I can save some time. I might not apply to any of those eventually. Also, Georgetown can be added to the DC area, right? I think it’s very close to GWU.
The OP may have to pare down their expectations to one college a day. Count me among those willing to pay a premium for every minute I don’t have to spend behind the wheel of an unfamiliar vehicle.
The problem with adding Georgetown or in fact anything additional is that you really can’t plan on officially visiting three schools in a day.
The way that the schedules work is that many schools only offer two info session/tours a day (and lots of schools don’t offer any tours on weekends). The tours/info sessions will generally be at the same or a similar time at different schools. Thus, trying to squeeze in a third tour would mean an additional day.
Even if you wanted to just drop by to see the school, it will add time. For example, NYU and Columbia are about 40 minutes apart by public transportation. If you wanted to just see Columbia, the best bet might be to stay in a hotel close to it and walk on campus. Then the next morning, go to the first tour at NYU and rush back up to Columbia to check out, grab your car and drive to the Bronx to see the main Fordham campus. You can see how several days of this would make you and your parents exhausted.
A random question: what colleges on my list require students to take a mandatory theology class every year? I know some of them are sorta affiliated to some churches. Do they all have that requirement? Thanks
It’s not every year. You probably have to take one to two semesters over 4 years, eight semesters. You have Boston College and Holy Cross on your list?
Do you know which colleges might have that requirement? I know Fordham is Jesuit and Holy Cross obviously is something Christian…