<p>The hotels in Philadelphia are expensive- the ones near Penn are no exception. The suburbs aren’t a bargain, but better than in town. I grew up there and my kid goes to school there- trust me on this one.</p>
<p>The deal with Philly traffic is that it has the single worst expressway (the SureKill) in the country. It is completely unpredictable. King of Prussia to downtown can take 25 minutes or 2 hours. There are NOT good “work arounds” either.</p>
<p>Thanks PizzaGirl - HighlandDaughter and I are heading to KOP for a dance workshop on Thursday, and we fly into Philadelphia. I was getting concerned about all the remarks on the traffic!</p>
<p>Just wanted to echo the comments about giving each college enough time to catch its personality. HighlandDaughter’s #1 college (at the moment, always subject to change) is where we spent the most time so far. We did the tour in the morning, ate lunch, spent time in the bookstore, had an impromptu chat with the swim coach, walked around the campus a lot on our own… then did the info session in the afternoon. </p>
<p>I think it’s a good idea to have a skeleton of a schedule but to have flexibility in case your son wants to stay longer at one school or pull the plug on another one. And yes I agree that visiting colleges is exhausting - love Cindy’s comparison to Disney World! 
But honestly I love doing college tours -maybe because I just went to the local commuter university, so I’m making up for lost time :)</p>
<p>Highland Mom - timing is everything. MOWC is right. Rush hour on the SureKill is tempting fate.
The last time I flew into Philly my ride took two hours from KOP to get to the airport to pick me up. Yuk.</p>
<p>The average commute in Philadelphia, which is pretty sprawling geographically speaking is under 1/2 hour. It’s a actually considered one of the best for commuters for a city of its size. That’s not to say that it doesn’t get bad sometimes, but there are cities where traffic is worse - Atlanta, Detroit, Miami, Orlando, Houston, Dallas, Tampa, NY, Boston, DC and almost every city in California are all worse than Philly.</p>
<p>
I agree … I think it’s a lot easier as a parent than as the student. The overwhelming impression I had was … there are a TON of great schools … and that my daughter would be lucky to attend any one of lots of the schools.</p>
<p>Thanks JustAMom. We land at 3:40, won’t have to wait for checked luggage (fees have taught all of us how to pack light), and hopefully can get our rental car quickly. She’s a great navigator, we don’t have plans for that evening so if it takes us 2 hours to get to KOP, so be it (actually I’m glad for the heads up so we’re prepared mentally). We plan to visit the Amish country Friday before her workshop starts that evening.</p>
<p>Sorry DadII for hijacking your thread!</p>
<p>Dallas commute isn’t even in the same league with Philadelphia. I used to laugh when people would complain in Dallas. HOWEVER, what Philadelphia DOES have is public transportation, which Dallas still needs to develop. They did put in light rail while I lived there, but it didn’t help the suburban sprawl commuters much. </p>
<p>I think the Philadelphia commuting numbers appear better than the reality because public transportation is factored into many of the statistics. When you talk about DRIVING from the western suburbs or King of Prussia, which a lot of people do, it is a different deal.</p>
<p>“first male in our family to attend a 4 yr college in the US”
I couldn’t believe my eyes…</p>
<p>MOWC, I grew up there too and am frequently there for business (am leaving tomorrow as a matter of fact). I just haven’t found the traffic in Philly really any different from that of any other major city. The Schuylkill included. It’s certainly no worse than my new hometown of Chicago.</p>
<p>“Touring colleges is like going to Disneyland with a toddler.”</p>
<p>^^ LOL and so true. I found it was the kiss of death to a school to put it 2nd on the same day as another school. No matter how nice the campus – if student is looking at it through the ‘tired-and-cranky-glasses’ it just won’t seem appealing. Our experience, anyway.</p>
<p>^ I found this to be true also. So I changed tactics. I starved the crabby beasts during early afternoons and then made sure they got a good feed before tackling the “afternoon” campus. (Be prepared for some grumbling if you decide to try this.)</p>
<p>Our first college visit with our normally appreciative daughter is now family lore! H and I went through huge logistical gyrations to fly from Dallas to northern Michigan, collect D at Interlochen where she was a boarding student, reverse the flying process through Chicago to Green Bay to visit Lawrence in Appleton, WI. SHE had wanted to go on this visit, but you would have thought we were taking her to a medical appointment! She looked around the Green Bay airport like it was a public restroom. Lawrence (a lovely school) just didn’t do it for her, although she was gracious to her overnight hosts and the voice teacher with whom she had a lesson. What got me was the attitude that it was OUR personal fault that we forced her on this trip. The kicker was back at Chicago when H and I practically bolted for our flight to Dallas and her connection back to Michigan was 3 hours late. Not good. We all still talk about “the Lawrence trip”. The funny thing was, just a few months later we did a spring break driving trip (still from Michigan) to Oberlin, Case/CIM and Indiana, and she was lovely!</p>
<p>We turned the corner on college hunting “attitude” the day I left a UMass brochure at my dauhter’s placemat on the kitchen counter. She asked her mother what was up with that. Mom said, “Well, your dad is starting to think that you really don’t care. If so, then UMass would be a whole lot cheaper and it’s automatic acceptance, so we can just be done with this college stuff if you want. Or, maybe you should think about showing a little interest…”</p>
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<p>I live in the Boston area and commuted almost 40 miles to the city for years. I don’t think the level of traffic in Boston is anywhere near that in larger urban areas like Philadelphia, DC, NY. Mostly people from outside don’t like the way Bostonians drive (like when the light turns green and a guy making a left turn darts out in front of the thru traffic.) Outsiders also get confused by rotaries, which are really pretty efficient.</p>
<p>When I visit D2, I will stay either at the Wayne Hotel (which is a quaint old-fashioned hotel that’s just up the road from Bryn Mawr and Haverford) and near the freeway, which you take to go to Swarthmore. I’m married to hotel snob, who refuses to stay at the funky old place so when H and I are visiting D2 we stay at the Marriott in West Conshocken (which is just off the freeway too). We’ve also stayed in downtown Philly at the Rittenhouse and the Four Seasons (I’m way too cheap to stay at those places when I’m making the reservations–but they are really nice.)</p>
<p>Not to derail the thread further (maybe a new thread on whose city has the worst traffic would be interesting!) but to answer the challenge :</p>
<p>[Forbes:</a> Atlanta traffic the worst in America - Atlanta Business Chronicle:](<a href=“http://atlanta.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2008/04/28/daily97.html]Forbes:”>http://atlanta.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2008/04/28/daily97.html)</p>
<p>[Top</a> 10 Cities With The Worst Traffic : The Real Estate Bloggers](<a href=“http://www.therealestatebloggers.com/2008/04/15/top-10-cities-with-the-worst-traffic/]Top”>http://www.therealestatebloggers.com/2008/04/15/top-10-cities-with-the-worst-traffic/)</p>
<p>[The</a> Driving You Could Have Done . . . Had You Not Been Sitting in Traffic. - washingtonpost.com](<a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/graphic/2008/10/11/GR2008101100211.html]The”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/graphic/2008/10/11/GR2008101100211.html)</p>
<p>[url=<a href=“Urban Mobility Report - Mobility Division”>Urban Mobility Report - Mobility Division]TTI:</a> Urban Mobility Information: 2007 Annual Urban Mobility Report: National Congestion Tables<a href=“especially%20Table%204”>/url</a></p>
<p>Philly isn’t on top of any lists and average time spent in traffic per year is 38 hours, far less than other cities of its size. Where I think there is a particular issue is when an accident or a stalled car incident does occur, since in many cases there are no good break down lanes. It’s the inconsistency that is frustrating to some, although I’ve lived in many of the other cities on the worst traffic lists - it’s all relative to what you are used to. It’s true that rush hour congestion is getting worse as KOP and the Route 202 corridor has been built up - sometimes the reverse commute is what’s heavier. A lot may also have to do with the particular road or route that you take everyday. I don’t love the Schuykill either, although just got off of it and flew in and out in both directions.</p>
<p>It’s one day campus visit, not a daily commute to UPenn. The average Phil traffic condition against other city is not much issue.</p>
<p>All streets leading to/from I76, 676 and the hospital may give you a trouble on a particular moment. I don’t think you want to be in your car, moving slower than pedestrian, when you plan to visit 2 colleges in a day.</p>