Planning a Road Trip

Parents Forum
1

<p>My mom has allowed a friend and I to go on an extended cross-country road trip to visit colleges/get drunk and pick up questionable looking hitchhikers. Fun times await. We're both homeschooled, and having worked through the traditional summer break, we get to spend "as long as is reasonable with constant contact through phone calls and Skype" on the road. I want to leave in mid-late September.</p>

<p>We don't have a specific time frame in mind, but we're both looking at schools all over the place -- over 20 of them.</p>

<p>Here's the list: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Wesleyan, Boston U, Georgetown, Vassar, Chicago, Rice, Carleton, Hendrix, William and Mary, UVA, USC, Notre Dame, Grinnell, Swarthmore, Case Western, Lewis and Clark, WUSTL, Kenyon, Oberlin, Reed, Brown, Dartmouth, Stanford, Occidental, and Penn. Plus UNC, Duke, and Davidson, but those are all within two hours from us.</p>

<p>I figured we would head to the Northeast first, then sling it on west and double back. I have no idea how long this would take, and am trying to make it as painless as possible for our very hesitant parents.</p>

<p>Combined, we have $5000 dollars we're able to spend.</p>

<p>Suggestions? Advice? Favorite brands of pepper spray?</p>

2

<p>OK…as a Mum…I will ignore the opening statement about getting drunk, etc…if you were home schooled, you already get the red flag that went up in my head!
So…options: The $5k is somewhat doable-figuring $3.25/gallon-and getting about 20 miles per gallon-roughly 6,000 miles-…costs that will come into play that you may have already considered: Tolls, housing, food. On the housing front-you may wish to consider joining Hostelling International USA. I used this format for my trip around the world w/a backpack-I met lots of people from everywhere, and they were mostly young people. The tolls-maybe sign up for a few auto-deduct systems-in California it is called “Fast Trak”. You will give your Mums a present by asking about a auto road service program should you get a flat. In California it is called: AAA, they will tow you to a mechanic that they deem responsible, or one you tell them to take you to-not to exceed a certain number of miles-depending on they type of program you sign up for. I will guess your home state offers one that can be used throughout the USA.
The more research you share with your parents, the more they will feel confident that you are ready for such an adventure. BTW…I was traveling around Central America at your age-trust me-you can do this! G’luck-and have fun!!!
APOL-a Mum</p>

3

<p>I second the idea of hostels for lodging. Many hotel chains won’t want to deal with teens. My kids have had good results with Hosteling International. (They have GREAT locations)
As far as your list goes, I see an outlier in Rice. It’s a great school, but perhaps it would be cheaper to get to say, Hendrix, and fly SW in and out of Houston. OTOH, you need to get to LA somehow, and I-10 is through Houston.<br>
OK, as long as you are going to LA and through Texas, maybe other folks have suggestions for colleges that are like the ones on your list that you might want to research before you go.
My addition to look at, although I’m not saying you have to stop there, but look at the website for Trinity U in San Antonio. Cool location, might give merit money.</p>

4

<p>Since you’re looking at USC and Occidental in LA area of CA, and because you have some top LACs on the list, I’d suggest you consider looking at the Claremont Consortium…in particular Pomona, and Claremont Mckenna.</p>

5

<p>Take a short trip to your close-in choices soon, and see if you can narrow down your list for the big trip. Right now, you are looking at more than 8000 miles driving NC to VA, DC, PA, NJ, RI, NH, MA, OH, IN, IL, IA, MO, (Look at the huge gap here!) OR, CA, TX, AR and back to NC. It’s over 25 days at 300-plus miles a day, which is a lot of driving. The section from the midwest to the west coast is not an easy drive.</p>

<p>You may want to do the east and midwest in one trip, going as far as Grinnell, then dropping to St. Louis and back to NC. Find another way to see the west coast, if you have any taste for it left. Believe me, college visits are fun but not that necessary.</p>

6

<p>WOW, that’s a lot of colleges! </p>

<p>Three pieces of advice:</p>

<p>First, burn some awesome CDs for the trip.</p>

<p>Second, don’t drink and drive. (Seriously, don’t.)</p>

<p>Third, bring a spare tire (and a jack) and know how to change it, just in case.</p>

7

<p>If you are seniors, the Admissions office may be able to arrange housing on-campus with a student host. That might help put a dent in the housing tab.</p>

8

<p>This looks like a 30+ day trip to me. I’d predict by about day 10 you’re going to decide to bag college and do a gap year.</p>

9

<p>I spent almost a year on the road with a friend between college and grad school. (We had a grant to photograph fire stations around the country.) Things I learned:Sharing 24 hours a day is even harder than having roommates. Driving more than six hours in a day for more than one day is no fun at all. Things will break on your car at the worst possible time. You can’t have too much music. Keep a journal. </p>

<p>We save money by staying in campsites a lot. We also stayed with friends and relatives and relatives of friends and friends of relatives. I agree you should be able to arrange some campus overnights too. Be sure to schedule time to see other sights besides the colleges. I’d leave TX and CA off your driving list. Texas is huge and not much to see between cities. FastTrak/Easy Pass etc are godsends. Pay attention to HOV rules, you may be able to use them. Make sure you join AAA. Make sure you are covered for health care and that you know what to do. Make sure you know the basics of car repair.</p>

10

<p>Get a GPS, but get lots of maps from AAA as well, because on the gps you can only really see a small amount at a time. Do some sightseeing along the way. America is a beautiful country with lots to see. Try not to be driving after dark. Six weeks for a trip this long would be reasonable, but that only leaves you with around $120 a day, so you have to conserve. Take a cooler and buy as much food as possible at grocery stores and fruit stands.</p>

11

<p>wow … and I thought my kids and I were nuts! This should be fun … I have done some mini-versions of your trip and have some suggestions.</p>

<ul>
<li><p>Visiting 2 schools a day is doable as long as they are close</p>

<ul>
<li>To make 2 schools fit in a day my oldest settled on skipping info sessions (which tended to have 5 useful minutes in the 60-90 minuter session) and instead hang out on campus some (in the quad, at a dining hall, in a class, etc)</li>
</ul></li>
<li><p>Plan where to spend your nights … I’d recommend in the immediate area of the preferred school of the two to be visited the next day (or just visited)</p></li>
<li><p>If you do not have one get a AAA membership (get the preferred? one; the one with unlimited towing). (I agree with the advice to both get a GPS and get AAA maps … our GPS gets confused sometimes in cities and also loses the satellite in bad weather sometimes … having maps helped!)</p></li>
<li><p>If both of you are home schooled I would consider breaking the trip up into pieces … in my experience after about 10 schools on one trip they start to blend together. Maybe do a mid-atlantic / new england trip one month … a midwest trip another month etc. This would probably keep you fresher for the schools.</p></li>
<li><p>Bring a camera and take pictures … not to document everything but just to remind you which place is which</p></li>
<li><p>Take advantage of the proximaty and do drive bys … for example, when we visted Amherst and UMass one day is was very easy to take a quick look at Smith, Hampshire College, and Mount Holyoke that same day and also drive to the city for the next day’s tours.</p></li>
<li><p>On the tours go to the front of the group so you can hear the tour guide … my kids both thought the tour guides were more interesting when they were walking along then when they were doing their practiced “pitch”.</p></li>
<li><p>Be flexible … it’s OK to get to a school and quickly punt it … move on and check out a different school not original on your list.</p></li>
</ul>

<p>Good luck and have fun!</p>

12

<p>I would put together a list of relatives and family friends who live along your planned path. The more nights you can stay for free, the better.
I agree that you need a reliable car, AAA, GPS, a credit card and maps.
We found this summer that a few schools were in such towering forests that the GPS didn’t work all that well!</p>

13

<p>If either one of you is planning on applying ED, you may want to make sure this trip is finished in time to get that application completed.</p>

14

<p>DO NOT PICK UP HITCHHIKERS, please! There are way too many random nutcases who can be violent or worse. It’s NOT worth it. If you decide to share a meal with someone, that’s one thing but having an unknown person come into your vehicle is really asking for trouble.</p>

<p>Also, no drinking, DRUGS and driving. The risks are way too real and much too great. Be sure to have the maximum tow package with AAA, just in case something goes amiss. Also, be sure to have a charged cell phone with roaming & lots of minutes & a phone charger. Also be sure to bring a reliable GPS with back up maps (AAA can provide a may with everything highlighted out).</p>

<p>Have fun, but our kids OD’d after just a few days of seeing colleges. I think the most we ever saw on any trip was under a handful. It does start to blur. You have to write & photograph your impressions after every visit. Also, keep in mind that initial impressions can be misleading for any place.</p>

15

<p>you really should consider two or more separate trips. </p>

<p>You have one cluster in the northeast. That would be a good trip. </p>

<p>Another cluster in Ohio, Illinois, Minnesota Iowa and Missouri. You could even with a bit of work, loop down from WAUSTL to Houston, although it will be a long boring drive. Then you drive home.</p>

<p>Your big problem is the west coast. I’ve made the drive between Chicago and California several times. Once you hit the rockies, the drive is magnificent. Problem is getting to the rockies. For example, St. Louis to Denver is 900 miles. And you still have 1100 miles to go to get to Stanford. Then you need to drive back. Lets do the math. Few drivers, even in teams, can make it more than 700 miles/day, and even that’s 12+hours behind the wheel. So you’re talking 3 days minimum each way. With no sightseeing, just driving.</p>

<p>If you do decide to drive to the west coast, there are ways to make the drive more interesting. Foremost is to get off the interstates when you can. West of the Appalachian mountains, much of the terrain is pretty flat, and the interstates often have US highways that roughly parallel them. For instance, I-70 in Kansas is paralleled by US 24 and US 36. Either are fascinating ways to see real life in that state, none of which you’d see from I-70. Interestingly, the US highways are not much slower than the Interstate, and far more interesting. For example, driving through a small town (and these places are small, not much time wasted in traffic) at lunchtime, you’ll see a cafe (not a chain) with a bunch of pickups in the parking lot. That is your lunch stop. It will be a great meal, and make the chains look expensive. Think 2 scoop ice cream cone for $.90 (Pennsylvania 4 years ago…). Hamburger for $2.00</p>

<p>On long travel legs through the heartland, lodging and police will be an issue. Folks are not used to seeing young women with out of state license plates traveling in pairs. Heck, they’re not that used to guys. The summer before I started college, I did a road trip with a friend from Indianapolis to LA. We were hauled into more than one police station because they could not believe we weren’t runaways. Thank goodness our parents were aware of and supported what we were doing, because the police called home to check things out.</p>

16

<p>

you’re not kidding … but at least you only have steer the car a couple times in that 1000 miles … drive that stretch and you’ll totally understand why the plains states fought the 55 mph speed limit!</p>

17

<p>Definitely break the trip up into smaller segments. One trip is the NE colleges of a week or two. Then a return home to reorganize and take a break to absorb what you have seen. Use the knowledge acquired- both about traveling and colleges- to plan your next trip. Then the Midwest trip. The distances are far too great to want to drive to the west coast. Your best bet would be to utilize the info you have gathered on other college visits plus the online info to determine colleges to apply to. Visit those you are accepted to in the spring.</p>

<p>We had unlimited time (and budget) to travel this summer. The distances out to Yellowstone, then Denver and back to WI are LONG. You get tired of being on the road, even with different scenery- and once you’ve seen the same thing for several hours it loses its novelty. I recommend staying on interstates as much as possible. They are the safest roads. Other 4 lane roads may not have limited access- accidents happen when someone tries to cross the highway and misjudges (recently happened here in good weather). </p>

<p>Keep in mind that hotels often have age limits of 21 for check in- are you both even 18? AAA is a must. Do you know how to drive in the mountains in the rain? Do you know how to drive in Boston and New York? All sorts of different driving skills required. The planning itself is an education.</p>

18

<p>Are you both just 15? You probably will need to check it out in advance to see if you can check into a motel. </p>

<p>Also, your parents might want to consider whether letting you go on this jaunt exposes them to possible action from CPS if something goes wrong.</p>

19

<p>Before you pack up for a month on the road…ck out a few local choices, one big state and one small LAC, one in a city and one in the sticks. No need to hit every good college in the book if you aren’t going to want to get out of the car when you see it. Also, take some sort of notes after each visit, one parent I know had a ck-list kind of form so you’d have something consistent to compare them. You don’t have to look like a geek and do it during the tour, but make sure you put your thoughts down that night. After about 4 visits, even with taking pics and hitting local restaurants, I found campuses to blur. That great wings place, was it Pitt or Michigan? If only I had taken notes…</p>

20

<p>Personally I think you have too many colleges AND too many different geographic areas on your list. AND not enough money to cover this all unless you are staying with relatives where you might get fed a meal or two frequently along the way. This sounds more like a “road trip” for fun, than a productive road trip for college looking purposes…just my opinion.</p>

<p>Keep in mind also, that many schools have homecoming weekends, parents weekends and fall breaks that might impact your ability to even get a tour or info session at some of these schools. MANY of them ask for advanced reservations for tours/info sessions to avoid overcrowding. You would need a very precise plan to fit all of these schools in AND schedule the tours/info sessions.</p>

<p>We did weeklong roadtrips with each of our kids…never visiting more than 6 colleges in a week. We never visited more than 2 in a day and even that was pushing it sometimes given the drives between places.</p>

<p>I think you need to carefully evaluate the real purpose of your trip. You might want to carefully consider the number of places, and the vast distances between the different geographic locations.</p>

<p>In addition, you might want to consider visiting some of these schools AFTER you get accepted. Many kiddos do that, and it works.</p>