<p>What is meant by the term “preferential packaging”?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I guess I’m used to the traffic in all of those areas. My kids went to school in Philadelphia and Washington, DC and we live in MA. If the OP didn’t rent a car and took Amtrak to each city, I think coordinating visits to the colleges by cab or public transportation would be as much of a challenge as the traffic.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Given your interest in engineering, Cornell may be a very good choice for you, and I think you might want to give it more than half a day. There may be an engineering-specific information session (you have to sign up in advance), and maybe the special tour for prospective freshmen might interest you. You also might want to see some of the area – this is a small community, and you need to get a feel for whether it’s a place where you could be comfortable.</p>
<p>So how about spending all of day 2 in Ithaca, spending the night in Ithaca, making Day 3 a travel day to Boston, and visiting the Boston campuses on Day 4? You lose your sightseeing day, but you gain a better perspective on the best engineering school on your list.</p>
<p>FYI The train station is extremely close to Yale’s campus via cab! The same for the train station in proximity to Browns campus.</p>
<p>I guess if you aren’t used to it, Bromfield, that kind of public transportation could be daunting, but for me it would be much easier and relaxing.</p>
<p>When I read this thread ealier today, I, too, though of ditching the car for the Philly/NY leg.While Penn Station can be a little harrowing, train travel itself is a very pleasant way to get around the mid-Atlantic/northeast.</p>
<p>Other schools we visited beside Cornell that had engineering-specific tours were Bucknell, Lafayette and Tufts. If you’re female, Smith is a terrific engineering option.</p>
<p>The revised trip seems better, but still very ambitious. Do make sure you have researched rental car fees - one way rentals can be surprisingly expensive. </p>
<p>I skimmed the thread and didn’t see details on your stats or finances (chasing need based aid or merit scholarships?). If you add that info or point to prior post#, we parents that have been around the block on engineering college research/visits can give better advise.</p>
<p>I think summer visits are better than nothing, but I think you have to be aware that factors that may not be that important may loom larger when there are no students around. For example, Harvard might look better than Yale or Princeton in the summer, because Cambridge will be more lively than the other two locations. During the school year, there will be less of a difference in this factor.</p>
<p>For one person, the train is a great option. But if we are talking about Mom, Dad, Rising Senior, and Younger Sibling(s), the train starts to look prohibitively expensive compared to rental car costs (including gas, tolls, parking), especially given that the OP will be renting a car for several days in any event. Taking the commuter trains (NJ Transit, Metro North, SEPTA) cuts the cost down a lot, but takes much longer, requires more sophistication, and is a lot less pleasant.</p>
<p>Hunt: I have visited Princeton several times in the summer, starting with the summer before my senior year in high school. As far as I can tell, nowhere, and certainly not Harvard or Yale, looks better than Princeton in the summer. If I had picked my college based on how great it looked, I would be singing Old Nassau with the best of them.</p>
<p>Have to agree with Hunt.</p>
<p>We have visited Princeton during the summer when kids were in middle school and college was not even on the radar. We happened to do a impromptu road trip from New England to NC and would book our hotel via Priceline the night before each day, and ended up in a 4* hotel in Princeton. Saw a nice school close by and decided to walk around to kill time. There was no one on campus so we didn’t even know that this was THE Princeton. It was literally dead. </p>
<p>It was a very hot day and the only things we saw were the black squirrels who were so hot they tried to cool down by spreading themselves flat on their tummy against the concrete or slate floor and laying still. It was the strangest thing we have ever seen and these squirrels wouldn’t even move as we got closer. We haven’t been back since but to this day we do refer to Princeton as “the school with the black squirrels”.</p>
<p>I can’t imagine any scenario where Princeton doesn’t “show” beautifully. You’ve got a gorgeous campus and a charming town! I was in Princeton for business a few weeks ago and spent a beautiful day just walking around campus for hours. I was wearing a Fitbit and logged 9 miles. “Deserted”? Who would care, when you see how gorgeous it is?</p>
<p>I’ve told this story before on CC, but it’s relevant here, and stands for the proposition that you have to take what you observe on visits with a grain of salt.</p>
<p>Years ago, when my kids were in middle school, or maybe early high school, we passed through Princeton during a vacation, and we thought we’d stop and let them see what a nice college was like. As we drove down Nassau Street, right in front of the campus, a carjacking occurred right in front of us! A lady tumbled out of her car screaming, and the car zoomed off, with other vehicles trying to block the getaway. Our kids’ eyes were like saucers. Later, after we had parked, we observed a passing car smashing into another parked car’s open door. For years, our kids thought Princeton was crime central.</p>
<p>OMG Hunt! All in one visit?! I could imagine the horror of your kids! </p>
<p>The only exception to the summer visit is the last 2 weeks of August. Most colleges start around Aug 24 (except for schools on quarter systems) and most high schools have not started yet. So I think that would be a good time for a summer visit.</p>
<p>We are actually planning to a similar road trip the last 2 weeks of August.</p>
<p>The whole purpose of visiting is also seeing and experiencing the student body, teachers, the vibe, smells, etc. and not just the buildings. As someone else mentioned before, you can get see the buildings and to see what the school is like from videos and youtube. Student testimonials may also be rehearsed, and sometimes even scripted.</p>
<p>
But maybe not on the day undergrads are moving in, although that might be exciting.</p>
<p>I do remember that story, Hunt, and I do think it’s pretty funny! “Crime central” - the only crime in Princeton is how expensive the Kate Spade bags are off Palmer Square.</p>
<p>I Googled it, and here’s proof it really happened, in 2003:
[Town</a> Topics 22 January 2003 ? Princeton Periodicals](<a href=“http://libserv23.princeton.edu/princetonperiodicals/cgi-bin/princetonperiodicals?a=d&d=TownTopics20030122-01.2.7&e=-------en-20--1--txt-IN-----]Town”>http://libserv23.princeton.edu/princetonperiodicals/cgi-bin/princetonperiodicals?a=d&d=TownTopics20030122-01.2.7&e=-------en-20--1--txt-IN-----)
We were there!</p>
<p>I went to Princeton in eight grade to see a production of Aristophanes with seven other hand-picked kids. We were so lucky. I fell madly in love and cried myself to sleep because at that time it was a men’s college only. Sniff sniff.</p>
<p>The play was THE BIRDS and it was way too racy for middle schoolers, but of course, that made us :), so no problem there. But what were they thinking?</p>
<p>Aristophanes?</p>
<p>Ridiculous.</p>
<p>If my kids had seen a carjacking in Princeton, they might have considered applying there. I took my daughter to see it in April 2004, and just as we were parking a family walked across the street towards campus, with a 40-something Dad wearing lime-green cords and a madras sports coat. No one was even college-age; the two kids were maybe in middle school. My daughter said, effectively, “That’s it. I’m not getting out of the car.” I finally got her out of the car, but only to check out the Princeton Record Exchange; she wouldn’t set foot on the campus.</p>
<p>I got my son to take the whole tour, but not to apply. In the end, they already lived in a neighborhood not so different from Princeton, and their image of what college should be was a little edgier. For me, the intellectual edginess should have counted for more, but it wasn’t anything like a tragedy if they didn’t apply to Princeton, so I didn’t push hard.</p>
<p>But pretty? I wind up going to Princeton for one or another reason maybe every other year, and it always astonishes me how gorgeous it is.</p>