Planning college visits: please critique our schedule

Parents Forum
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<p>Hi all, I'm new to this forum. S is a jr in HS and we are planning to visit a few colleges this summer. I made airline reservations to fly to Washington DC so we can visit University of Maryland - College Park, and drive to Ohio University - Athens in the same trip. Our particular constraints are: we arrive on a Saturday evening, and we go home the following Friday morning. </p>

<p>I'm trying to plan a schedule for visiting schools, while still allowing sightseeing time. I haven't been to Washington DC since I was a teen, and my kids have never been there before.</p>

<p>Saturday night: Arrive and check in at hotel #1 in DC
Sunday: Sightsee in Washington
Monday: Sightsee in Washington
Tuesday: Visit University of Maryland
Wednesday: A little more sightseeing, perhaps Arlington National Cemetary. In early afternoon, drive to Ohio (6 hours), arrive at hotel #2 in Athens
Thursday: Visit Ohio U for tour in a.m. In the mid-afternoon, drive to DC, check into hotel #3 at aiport
Friday morning: Jet back home</p>

<p>Is that enough time to get a feel for each school? Anyone have other helpful information for us? Thanks!</p>

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<p>You have to register for the information sessions and tours at the University of Maryland. You can do it online.</p>

<p>To get from DC to UM, you can take the Metro and then a University shuttle bus. But it takes a while. Allow plenty of time. And bring plenty of water. It's HOT in the DC area in the summer.</p>

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<p>you should also plan to see George Washington University while you are in the DC area</p>

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<p>In your driving to OH from DC and in returning to DC, I recommend trying to avoid the Beltway or I-270 during rush hour - which is roughly 3:30 to 6:30, depending on which part and which direction you're traveling.</p>

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<p>I don't know if you can get a real feel for universities when they are not in session.</p>

<p>I agree that if you are in the DC area, you should also check out GWU; also American University and perhaps Towson. Is Johns Hokins (Baltimore) on your list?</p>

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<p>Far be it from me to keep people from sightseeing in our nation's capital, and you are absolutely right not to try to see 10 colleges in 5 days, but if I were flying all the way from Oregon I would want to check out more than two pretty dissimilar colleges. You could clearly fit another one in there and still have some time to sightsee in Washington.</p>

<p>I don't know why you picked UMD and Ohio University, so it's hard to recommend among the many schools you could add near Washington, in southern Ohio, or in between the two.</p>

<p>I think doubling up on colleges in a day is tough, unless they're very close. But 5-6 hours is plenty of time for this type of prospecting visit.</p>

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<p>also I have found that visiting schools during the summer is not the best time,unless you plan your visit for late summer around the time when all the students are back on campus. If you really want to get the feel of the campus it is important to see the student body.</p>

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<p>I agree with the other suggested schools. The DC area is very hot during the summer with temps near or over 100 degrees!</p>

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<p>Try Hogates Restaurant in DC. I may be in correct but I think it is on Maine Avenue right on the Potomac. I have eaten there several times it is casual, reasonable, and very good. Try to make reservations in DC especially during the summer when the place is packed.</p>

<p>Also you must have an unusual set of circumstances to drive 6 hours back to DC to catch a plane?</p>

<p>George Mason I believe is close by in Vienna if you wanted to catch another school.</p>

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<p>Thanks for all your suggestions. I think we will also check out American University. His major is journalism and while I understand that GW has an excellent program, it is beyond our financial means. We might do a drive-by, but I don't want to spend a lot of time on it. </p>

<p>As for the trip, unfortunately we have no choice but to go during the summer this year, but next year we can revisit after acceptance letters come out in the spring.</p>

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<p>GW is insanely expensive, but i applied there several years ago (for journalism) and got some good merit aid. I think they also have a program where if you get a GPA above a certain level in your first year, you get a big scholarship for your second one. As you sightsee in DC, you'll only be a few blocks from campus, so it probably wouldn't hurt to walk around.</p>

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<p>There are only two decent hotels in Athens and they are both brand new (one isn't even open yet, but looked like it would be by summer). The open one is a Hampton Inn and the under construction one is a Holiday Inn Express.</p>

<p>Actually I think there is some kind of conference center on campus (?) but I didn't see it, and it got mixed reviews on tripadvisor for the price.</p>

<p>Your plan of revisiting after acceptances is not bad, but sort of a pain (and expensive).</p>

<p>Hope that helps. If you need info on OU scholarships PM me.</p>

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<p>You will not need a car in DC. Public transit will take you where you need to go. The Metro, unlike some city subway systems, goes WAY out into the suburbs. As I mentioned above, you can take it to College Park, where the Metro station is about a mile from the UM campus (the university has shuttle buses from the Metro to the campus and back, although you might want to inquire about their availability during the summer). You can also get to Reagan National Airport on the Metro.</p>

<p>Therefore, it might make sense not to rent a car in DC at all, and to fly to Ohio rather than driving. You could then fly home from Ohio rather than returning to DC.</p>

<p>Personally (and you have to understand that I'm a University of Maryland parent), I don't really see the point in visiting American or GW if money is an issue. Maryland is at least as good a school as either of those two, and it's way cheaper, even if you're out of state.</p>

<p>One thing you need to know about Maryland, though: It is not geared toward students from extremely far away. At least half of the students come from either the Baltimore suburbs or DC suburbs, meaning that they are no more than an hour from home. Most of the out-of-staters are from New York or New Jersey; many of them are Jewish kids who are attracted to UM because of its large and thriving Jewish community. These kids are within driving distance of home. </p>

<p>Because Maryland kind of assumes that its students come from nearby, some of its ways of doing things might be very inconvenient for your son. </p>

<p>For example, the required freshman orientation sessions are held throughout the summer (my son went to one in June), not in the days just before the fall term starts. This means that you would have to pay for an extra round-trip airline fare for just that occasion (two fares, if one of the parents wants to attend the optional parent orientation). </p>

<p>Also, many of the dorms, including the entire North Campus dorm neighborhood, where most of the freshmen live and where many of the underclass special programs, such as College Park Scholars, are housed, close for EVERY break, even Thanksgiving. The kids MUST leave, which is awkward for those who really don't want to spend the money to fly home.</p>

<p>I'm not trying to discourage you; I just wanted to point out that these are issues you and your son may want to discuss with the admissions officers when you visit Maryland. </p>

<p>One other things about Maryland: The SAT averages have gone way, way up in recent years. It's getting to the point where few applicants with scores of less than 1300 (critical reading + math) get in. This is kind of bizarre for a state school, but it reflects supply and demand.</p>

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<p>^ I think some of those problems are sort of typical to state schools. </p>

<p>Obviously, most of the kids don't come from that far away. But on the other hand, it also means that an out of state kid is likely to have friends who live close by - and that can be very handy too. </p>

<p>Kids get remarkable resourceful on campus. They manage to get where they really want to go - and if that's home, they'll figure out how to get to the airport. (But maybe not without a worried mom, I know that! :) ).</p>

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<p>Getting to the airport from the University of Maryland is easy. Get on the Metro near campus, get off at Reagan Airport. Piece of cake.</p>

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<p>The reason we're driving to/from Ohio is that Ohio University is not close to an airport. By the time we did the whole airport thing in DC, arrived in Columbus Ohio and then drove a couple hours to the campus, we could have just driven it for about the same amount of time. Plus our whole family is going and we're dealing with frequent flyer miles for one of us and matching flights for the others. Somehow I managed to get us all on the same flights and sitting near each other, so it's a done deal :-) </p>

<p>BIL lives near DC, so that would give S a place to go for Thanksgiving. Thanks for the info on U of MD, Marian. Weenie, I will probably have lots of questions about OU. Has your S decided to go there? I booked us at the Hampton Inn in Athens.</p>

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<p>One of the advantages of AU is its location. A friend's son is there and found great internship opportunities first semester of freshman year. I second the idea of seeing a bit more since you're travelling so far. Visiting DC years ago we stayed at a Holiday Inn near the Air and Space Museum. It had really good rates and free food for kids.</p>

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<p>^ No, he has not chosen a college yet. We wait with 'bated breath. <em>sigh</em></p>

<p>By the way, digmedia is the "expert" on OU.</p>

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<p>I'm an OU alumni from many years ago. You might also check out Oberlin, Denison (good merit aid), College of Wooster and Ohio State. Athens is a lovely town. In general, the student body is not heavily academic at OU, but they do have a good journalism department. :)</p>

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<p>I would plan at least a day in Athens, if you're going to drive that far. I'm an '02 OU journalism alumna (and very proud of it :-). Your son might also want to check out OU's Honors Tutorial College (<a href="http://www.honors.ohio.edu%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.honors.ohio.edu&lt;/a&gt;) journalism program. I did that, and I 100% recommend it (very individualized attention, one-on-one core classes with professors). OU is a very unique and fun college town with a beautiful campus. It has a great party scene, but there's plenty of other stuff to do if you're not into that. My favorite thing about OU is that when you meet complete strangers of all different ages who are fellow alumni, you can blather on for hours about the programs, restaurants, classes, bars, marching band, etc. UMD and OU are VERY different schools, but I think your son will know where he wants to go as soon as he steps foot on campus. Good luck!</p>

<p>P.S. I did an internship in DC during undergrad, so it's possible to have the best of both worlds. :-)</p>