Please forgive my geographical challenges but I am writing for suggestions on how to plan a trip to 2-4 schools which my son has applied to in the mid- Atlantic/NE. This may be his only visit so I am contacting the schools to set up class visits and hopefully an overnight stay at each. We are from NO and having trouble gauging distances and travel time. Last year we toured schools in DC, Baltimore and Philadelphia by flying into DC and then taking the train which is my preferred way to travel. I am learning, however, that may not be easy to do for these specific schools.
We will be traveling during our Mardi Gras break(late February) and starting at an admitted students event at Rhodes in Memphis on Monday. We should be able to fly out of Memphis late afternoon/early evening on Monday. That gives us Tues-Fri. He has applied to and definitely wants to visit Wesleyan, Williams and maybe add Middlebury and/or U Richmond. Should we fly into Boston or NY and then hit Wes & Wms.? Looking for advice on what airport is best and in what order should we travel. Is there a way to do this without a rental car? I am not experienced at driving in snow and ice-makes me wonder if we should hold off on Middlebury until later in the spring and an affirmative admissions decision? Is there an easy way to add Richmond to if we skip Middlebury?
Lastly, he has also applied to Brown-is it close enough to Wms. & Wesleyan to add in for at least a tour? I have been told that their tour isn’t great so we could hold off and go there if he does get accepted (seems like such a tough admit).
Any advice and input is greatly appreciated!
Brown would be relatively easy to get to from Wesleyan. Less than 2 hours. I’d skip Richmond. Much further away than other schools.
If not cost prohibitive, look at flights into Hartford CT or Providence RI as well. I wouldn’t fly in to NY.
Williams will also likely be an issue id you are worried about driving in ice and snow. I would say that Wesleyan is likely the easiest of the NE LACs to visit, so if you can only visit one, choose that. Now, if there isn’t any new snow for a few days, both Williams and Middlebury will be accessible, since both areas are pretty good at clearing the roads. Neither are very close to a major highway, though.
You could easily do Wesleyan and Brown in one day. When the weather is better, Williams and Middlebury are a two hour drive apart. You could fly into Albany and drive to Williams (an hour away) and from there to Middlebury.
Congrats on the Rhodes admit! For the other schools, I assume your son has yet to receive admission decisions. I would wait until he is accepted to decide where else to visit. Maybe visit Richmond on your late February trip if that seems like a safe admit for him or if he is in. But Brown, Middlebury, and Wesleyan are extremely competitive in regular decision, rejecting many more than they accept (Brown’s RD acceptance rate, for example, is about 6%; Middlebury is under 15%; and Wesleyan is about 15%). So best to wait until admission decisions are out.
You could fly into Hartford. Drive to Williams for a day there. Then drive to Wesleyan. Day there. Drive to providence to see Brown and fly out of providence to get home.
I agree with the above poster. The schools you listed are quite competitive for admissions. Maybe wait for acceptances before visiting
Thanks to all of you for the advice. I am concerned that there won’t be much time to visit between admission decisions and when he has to commit but it makes a lot of sense to wait.
Your student may wish to spend more time researching the colleges on line.Williams and Wesleyan are quite different and I would expect students to have a strong preference towards one or the other.
Skip Brown for the reasons you cited. As @roycroftmom noted, choose between either Williams or Wes. If you choose Williams, you can fly into Albany and do Middlebury and Williams on consecutive days. If you choose Wes, fly into Hartford. If you really want to do Williams and Wes, fly into Albany, see Midd, then Williams then Wes and fly out of Hartford. Richmond is another flight from or a 12 hours drive from these schools.
You need Google Maps or your favorite other online map. And you need to very carefully check tour times. It’s not always possible to be on the first tour at one college, make the drive to the next, and still have tour choices open. Or your preference for a late tour may already be booked. Or, you like something at one school and want to spend a bit more time, but have to rush off to the next.
If you are doing Middlebury and Williams, then base that leg out of Albany with a rental car.
@Mom2246 , all those schools host events for admitted students which would, imo, be far more useful than a prospective applicant tour. Your son would get a chance to meet with lots of current students as well as have access to folks (profs, coaches, etc) that might matter in his decision. I understand the fear about time, but you could find yourself "wasting " time by visiting schools that aren’t an option and/or having a less complete visit than is possible.
The “feel” or “vibe” of those schools is quite different as well, so the visits will definitely help on that front.
I agree about waiting at this point. If it was during junior year, the visits prior to admission decision can be useful for two reasons: to help narrow down where to apply, and possibly to help admissions likelihood in the case of schools that care about demonstrated interest. At this point, you won’t get those benefits. So to me, it makes sense to wait. Even if he gets into all of the schools, I think with all of the online information, etc, he will be able to narrow it down to probably 3 top choices (maybe 4). We easily fit in 3 accepted students visits in April for my daughter, and could have done another one or two possibly. To me, that’s a better bang for your buck (and time). Plus, admissions are pretty unpredictable…he could get into Brown but not Wesleyan, or Middlebury but not Williams…at this point, no need to waste effort on schools he doesn’t get into. Plus the accepted student visits are pretty special. Good luck and congrats on Rhodes!
We visited in order to choose schools to apply to. We communicated with admissions at the one school we didn’t visit (due to illness) so they would know we were genuinely interested and had wanted to visit.
After acceptance, we did attend a few accepted students days but overall don’t feel those are the best times to see how the school really feels. Overnight visits and going to classes on a regular day is a better way to evaluate fit, and we also suggest hanging out on the green, if there is one, in the libary, dining room and visit the book store.
A quick trip that covers a lot of schools may not be that useful at this stage of things.
As others have said Wesleyan and Brown would go together, and Williams is almost in Vermont so that would go well with Middlebury. These are indeed very competitive schools.