<p>I think it’s important to visit schools before committing to them, but cramming too many into one trip is exhausting. We visited BU and NE but not on the same day because of the way the tours were scheduled. BU offered lunch with a student and my daughter would not have been able to do that had both schools been scheduled on the same day. The BU tour was great; NE not so great. It was packed and impossible to hear the tour guide. We took a walk over to Harvard where my daughter announced that she was not impressed with the campus. Meanwhile we thought Cornell was gorgeous while my friend’s daughter hated it. To each his own!</p>
<p>But it’s easy to be “interested” in Harvard and Princeton and other bright shiny names. I mean, I like Buckingham Palace a lot, too, but I have to be realistic about my chances about ever getting to live there.</p>
<p>Harvard and Princeton seem hugely different to me, though I think you can figure out some of those differences without visiting. The most obvious one being the urban vs suburban locations. The second being how housing is organized. I think Yale are more similar, though my younger son dislikes Harvard and loves Yale. I think they are the most similar of all the Ivies. (Didn’t get into H and didn’t apply to Y.) I do think the Ivies are sufficiently different from each other that there a decent argument to be made for visiting them.</p>
<p>I got tired just looking at that plan. My younger son visited two schools in one day once - they were 45 minutes apart. Otherwise we never tried to visit more than one a day. I agree with trying to spend the night in the town where you are going to visit college first thing in the morning.</p>
<p>First off, thank you so much for all the replies. They have been very helpful. My parents do not have CC accounts, but I will pass this thread along to them to read. I’m sure they will appreciate all the help as well.</p>
<p>I will be sure to take lots of notes and pictures at each school. Also, the focus will be on student life, academics, campus feel, fit, etc. since everything else can be found online. I think I will cut out all the info sessions since the information seems to be all repeated at these.</p>
<p>I have visited some schools near-by. The reason there aren’t any LACs on my list is because I have visited both LACs and national universities near-by, and prefer the universities (not applying to any LACs). </p>
<p>sylvan8798: We will be flying out of LaGuardia. On Day 10, we will drive from Philly to LaGuardia in the morning. </p>
<p>JRCLMom: I am visiting schools on the northeast because I think I would like the are, it would be nice to experience something new, etc. I am also applying to schools in CA. I am not opposed to staying in CA, but the northeast seems more appealing to me. Also, they are way more strong private schools in the northeast and they are much more concentrated so it is easier to visit many in one trip. The reason we chose these schools is because my family would like to visit these cities, and the schools listed are close enough to travel to out of the schools I am interested in.</p>
<p>twogirls: URochester is a good suggestion. I will see if it would be possible to add that into the mix (after eliminating a few of the reach schools).</p>
<p>It seems like we have underestimated traffic and travel times.</p>
<p>3togo: Definitely some great advice. 20 schools in a week is insane! I thought my schedule was overly ambitious, haha. I may PM you with some questions since you probably have lots of info on how to fit in tours. Thanks.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl: Arrogant? I dont see how a list of schools I am visiting could be arrogant. As I pointed it out, this is just how the visits ended up due to their proximity to NYC/Boston/Philly.</p>
<p>sally305: You have to be kidding me. Thats not my intention at all. All I would tell my friends is that I am visiting the east coast and touring some schools. I am not doing this for bragging rights at all. Plus, most of my friends are not interested in the same schools so they wouldnt even care much. LOL, I dont even know what to say to this.</p>
<p>ariesathena: I threw Harvard in because I figure if we were in Boston it is worth a visit. Now looking at it all, it seems like I should maybe eliminate it.</p>
<p>cptofthehouse: Exactly. Most of my matches and safeties are in CA.</p>
<p>Hunt: Thank you! This definitely looks like a good option. I think I will cut out Harvard and Brown and/or Yale. I really want to see both BU and NEU. Im considering even dropping MIT.</p>
<p>My attempt at revising our schedule:
Day 1: Fly to Buffalo, NY. Drive to Ithaca to spend the night.
Day 2: Tour Cornell in the morning, then drive to Boston to spend the night.
Day 3: Visit Northeastern and Boston University in the morning/afternoon. Spend the rest of the day sightseeing in Boston.
Day 4: Spend the entire day sightseeing in Boston.
Day 5: Drive to New York City in the morning. Spend the night in NYC.
Day 6: Visit Columbia in the morning. Spend the rest of the day sightseeing in NYC.
Day 7: Spend the entire day sightseeing in NYC.
Day 8: Drive to Philadelphia. Along the way, stop to visit Princeton (no guided tour). Spend the night in Philly.
Day 9: Tour UPenn. Spend the rest of the day sightseeing in Philly.
Day 10: Fly home in the morning. </p>
<p>I dropped Harvard, MIT, Brown, and Yale. So now I would be visiting Cornell, BU, NEU, Columbia, UPenn, and Princeton. I think I will also try to stop by Drexel if it fit into our schedule since it is so close to UPenn. Also interested in URochester and Lehigh, but I think they would be too far out of the way.</p>
<p>If we have more time and energy, we could always add the schools I dropped. MIT and Brown or Yale, maybe? Does this schedule seem much more manageable and enjoyable?</p>
<p>If you are at all interested in Lehigh, visit! Interest in VERY important. Harvard, Cornell, MIT, Princeton and most of the schools on your list do not care if you visit or not. If you want to visit Lehigh on your way to Philadelphia you might want to drive by Lafayette. But be sure to visit the admissions offices and sign in at least.</p>
<p>You could add Binghamton (State U. of NY) pretty easily. It’s an hour from Ithaca and kind of-sort-of on the way to Boston.</p>
<p>If you are flying home from LaGuardia, I would skip Philadelphia! I would enjoy my time in New York and Boston. That way you will have a fun trip, not a trip where everyone gets on everyone else’s nerves. And you could even hit Providence. There is so much to see and do. Much better than spending extra hours in the car stuck in traffic. I may be wrong but it sounds like some of these schools you just want to see, you aren’t serious about? Make a list of schools that are good matches and visit them in earnest. You can pop in to Harvard, etc. for fun if you feel like it.</p>
<p>You could spend the night in Princeton instead of in Philly–dropping Penn. Perhaps restore Brown or Yale instead. I think driving down to Philly and then back to NY will be a pain.</p>
<p>What time is your morning flight from LGA? You have to figure at least a 3 hour drive from Philly to LGA depending on day of the week for traffic. If you are returning a rent a car, figure at least an extra 30 minutes and TSA lines can be brutal during the summer. You should plan on arriving at the airport at least 2 1/2 hours prior to departure to return the car, take the shuttle and clear TSA.</p>
<p>Because you want to look and compare, if you want to see Harvard, now is the time to give it a looky see. You are there and in college touring mode. Might as well stick to the them. Would you truly go to Drexel, URoch, BU, NEU, Lehig if accepted over a UC or Cal State which would cost you less than half of what those schools would cost? If you are in consideration to be a NMF, NEU would be free tuition, and Rochester has some nice merit money, but I doubt that it,or the others are going to be a better deal than your Public universities in price. My son had a safety, fianancial and admissions wise, in place that he really liked, and for him to apply to any other school, it had to cost a lot less and he had to like it a lot more for him to even consider anything else. That eliminated a lot of schools from his list. If you are pretty danged sure that Cal Poly, for instance, would take you, and you know the sticker price for it, know you are likely to get a few thou in merit as well, BU, Lehigh, with their $60K+ are not going to be in the running and applying to them is a waste of time, effort and money.</p>
<p>Lehigh and BU give merit, but I don’t know how easy it is to get it. BU and Lehigh both track interest so if you are thinking of those schools you should absolutely visit. They are both very pricey so unless my daughter gets some $$ they will both be crossed off our list.</p>
<p>You could easily see U of Rochester on your way to Ithaca. It’s pretty much on the way. Then you have a nice drive down to Ithaca through the Finger Lakes.</p>
<p>Actually Rochester is another school where demonstrated interest is important. They encourage interviews, either at the school or locally.</p>
<p>Half a day at any school you are seriously interested in seems unrealistic. I personally dedicated a full day to all my college visits, and not just because it takes that long to take a tour/info session. If I liked what I saw in the info session, I wandered around, talked to students, grabbed a coffee, visited libraries, looked at posters in the halls (oh, MIT…). If you find a school that you love out of that list, you’ll want to do the same. Two hours is not enough time to decide if you want to spend four years there.</p>
<p>And I will also agree that this is a topheavy list of schools. Visit some “lower-tier” schools that interest you – if you don’t have any in mind, FIND SOME – because it will be very disappointing if you get rejected from these schools and end up attending somewhere that you didn’t even visit. Too many kids do their “college tours” of the Ivies and then sadly shuffle off to their state U or some other safety because they didn’t pick out great lower-level/match schools to visit and fall in love with. Play it safe and find some school to love where you know you’ll get in! :)</p>
<p>I think your second itinerary sounds a little more do-able. I would try to get back to spend a little more time, somewhere down the road, when you winnow your list. I can understand wanting to get a “feel” for northeastern colleges, even if you ultimately decide to stay closer to home.</p>
<p>FTR, my oldest is going to BU this fall–she just loved the gritty, urban feel of the school and loves Boston–a perfect fit for her. We went to an Open House last month, walked a LOT–we were wiped when we left, and we didn’t see 1/4 of what they had. We got to drive by Harvard, coming from the west–it looked more suburban, compared to BU which is 100% urban. But, Harvard, NU, and BU are within a couple of miles of each other (MIT, too, but we didn’t pass it, so I’m not sure how close).</p>
<p>I also didn’t find the drive from Philly-NYC to be all that bad. It was straight up the NJ Turnpike–we did it 7/3/12, it was very easy.</p>
<p>Is the trip doable? Yes.
Feasible? Probably
Enjoyable? Probably not</p>
<p>In addition to all the traveling, you’ll hear the same type of speeches at each school, so it will get monotonous.</p>
<p>We went through this whole process with S1, and we’re gearing up to start over for S2. Two things we decided from experience. First, summer visits are not totally worthless, but close. The most important thing we got from tours was interacting with students, feeling the vibe, asking real questions, etc. Everything else could be seen or learned online. The second thing we decided is that visiting the Ivies is largely pointless. It’s a big expense, in money and time, with little value. You can learn everything about the Ivies online, including virtual tours. With over 90% chance of being rejected, better to wait until you’re admitted before visiting in person. Use that valuable time to visit other realistic schools, ones that actually care about your visit.</p>
<p>Your schedule does seem more manageable now. I would not consider reading Brown since it is out of your way, whereas MIT is in Boston. A detour to Providence would slow you down. DS was accepted to U of Chicago, sight unseen. There was plenty of time for a visit then.</p>
<p>I really hope you enjoy your trip.</p>
<p>Henry’s is our favorite restaurant near Columbia. It’s on Broadway about ten blocks south.</p>
<p>JRCLMom: I live in Philadelphia, and I have many relatives in Manhattan and Brooklyn. At a traffic-free time – late at night, a weekend morning – I can drive from my house to one of theirs in about 100 minutes. The last time I drove on a weekday afternoon, however, it took me over four hours to make the same drive, and two hours of that was the last 20 miles. Now, obviously you don’t have to drive through Manhattan to get to LaGuardia, but the routes from the Jersey Turnpike to LaGuardia can get as clogged as the routes into Manhattan, and LaGuardia is meaningfully farther away, too, if you are only driving 10 mph.</p>
<p>Providence isn’t really out of the way between Boston and New York. While I, like mathmom, would probably take the route through Hartford, if you don’t live in northern Westchester the route through Providence isn’t really any longer, just sometimes more traffic-y.</p>