Thank you @gearmom. She’s very happy there, now third year.
I actually drive by Conn a couple of times a year - going to Mass from Long Island via the Orient Point/New London ferry (that’s me avoiding 95!).
@OHMomof2 Oh I’ve done that ferry many times. I really think there may be some extreme corruption or incompetence in the CT DOT. Because they never finish! NYC you can time. CT is always the hassle part though by the time you are east in New London, you’re nearly clear.
@meddy - If you are into donuts, then Union Square Donuts (near Tufts) has a national reputation. According to Zagat’s, Allies (in North Kingston) has the best donuts in Rhode Island. Both Brown and Tufts are situated on a hill. Some see this as a drawback, but it does help to fight off the “freshman 15”.
@Mastadon If you are going to Allies GET THE DONUT CAKE. Somehow that is even better than their donuts but you have to order ahead of time. A few weeks.
If you want a REALLY quick college tour trip, here is my recommendation.
It includes 7 top 40 universities, a top women’s college, a top business/entrepreneurship college, a top undergraduate engineering college and a top regional college.
11 colleges in total.
You can do it in about an hour and forty five minutes (on an early Sunday morning) as long as you don’t stop! 
Tufts
Harvard
MIT
Northeastern
BU
BC
Babson
Olin College of Engineering (abuts Babson)
Wellesley
Brandeis
Bentley
Not sure if this link will actually show the path, but it is possible
@Mastadon You must be one serious overachiever! ^:)^
Darn! The link reverts to the original path.
You can just delete the old colleges and type in the list I provided in order to reveal the path. (Don’t type in Olin because you can see it from Babson.) This actually gives you a good idea of the location of the major colleges closest to Boston.
@Mastadon Ah. The old drive while they’re in church or hung over from Saturday night strategy. As long as you chauffeur. 
No, not really, I just want to leave plenty of time for donuts and pizza! :">
Wow, y’all are making me hungry! I love Allie’s donuts. My older son, who is brown class of 2015, introduced his classmates to Allie’s, which he was introduced to as a child bc we spent summer vacations in Narragansett, RI. When I’m next in providence , I’ll have to try Knead. The cafe in the RISD museum has great coffee…a new providence brand called Bolt…and amazing donuts, like a matcha green tea and some sort of delicious, rich dark chocolate. I wonder if they get them from Knead?
There’s a cool boutique hotel in providence called the Dean, I think, that has the Bolt coffee shop right there.
So, both my boys had the same sensibility in colleges—one graduated from brown and the other is now a senior at tufts. Both also applied to Wesleyan. They preferred tufts/brown bc the campuses felt more alive. That’s probably bc the student bodies are bigger, plus there are grad students on campus (not all of them bc the medical schools for each of these uni are downtown).
The younger guy did a brief summer program at Amherst, and it felt way too small for him. It only has 1 cafeteria on campus, and he really wanted to be either in or near a city. Have to say, both my kids really took advantage of providence/boston, respectively.
They also applied to Brandeis but the campus has a different look, entirely. It wasn’t at the top of their lists.
The president of Connecticut College was a former Dean (or maybe she was the Provost…I don’t remember) at Brown while my son was a freshman. She gave a wonderful speech at the welcoming ceremony for freshman and my husband and I spoke to her the evening before at an event for parents. I loved everything she had to say. If she runs CT college the way she ran her position at brown, it’s probably a wonderful college experience. I think CT college probably has a vibe more like brown and tufts than trinity college does. So does Vassar.
I know your daughter isn’t interested in a woman’s college, but Barnard may be a good fit for her, and it’s easier to get into than brown, tufts or Amherst. It’s right across the street from Columbia and she can take as many classes as she’d like there, as it’s a college of Columbia University.
My daughter is a sophomore at Brown. We have stayed at the Biltmore which is nice because it has suites with two king beds and (at the time) wasn’t that much more than a regular non-suite hotel room. I also like the Hilton Garden Inn. You can get a harbor view and it’s within walking distance of Wickenden St (cute little shops and restaurants). Speaking of restaurants, Jahunger on Wickenden St. has the best Northern Chinese food-homemade noodles and everything. Also, Hemenways has great seafood, if a little pricey.
@Emsmom1 Is that the Hilton next to the airport? That one is very nice and clean. Probably half the price of Providence hotels? @Meddy It would be no big deal to stay at that Hilton in Warwick and drive twenty minutes to Brown. The hotels in Providence can be a bit… historic.
If you decide on staying overnight in the Town of Amherst, the charming but somewhat pricey Lord Jeffery Inn adjoins the Amherst campus. It would allow you both to explore the town and campus on foot. Nearby the more urban and bohemian Northampton is worth a visit since the free local bus system makes Northampton and the other Five College campuses very accessible to Amherst students. If your D is interested in STEM, Amherst is currently building an impressive 250,000 sq ft Science Center which will open next summer. https://www.amherst.edu/offices/facilities/depts/designconst/capital_project/current_projects/science-center
@gearmom no it’s not the Hilton Garden Inn at the airport- it’s closer to downtown Providence on India St. It’s very nice and clean and has a great bar overlooking the water.
This trip (to deal with daughter’s roommate-from-hell situation) I decided to save a little money and stay at the Hampton Inn in Pawtucket- about 3.3 miles from downtown Providence. But I wouldn’t recommend it if it’s your first trip to Providence- you actually want to be in Providence to get a feel for the city.
double post.
@Emsmom1 Oh. That is a good location. You’d only be a half mile from the Duck and Bunny on Wickendon . That’s my favorite mother/daughter breakfast spot. http://www.theduckandbunny.com/ And you’d have the India Point Linear Park. They actually have park rangers for this linear park.
Sorry you had to deal with a difficult roommate issue. You’d think if you spend so much this wouldn’t be required.
Wesleyan is another hilltop campus. Only a few blocks away from the traditional county seat of central Connecticut, it is a hybrid, in many ways, between a rural New England LAC and a small, urban university. The main campus consists of playing fields surrounded by academic buildings that run the gamut from the small and quaint to the modern and monolithic. A walk through the Kevin Roche designed Center for the Arts (generally considered one of his best works) is worth the trip alone.
Wesleyan and Brown have a lot in common, including the fact that they were both, for a time, the flagship educational institutions for two of the country’s fastest growing Protestant denominations during the 19th century (the Baptists and the Methodists.) But, the most important is a southern New England small city location. What that generally means is closer access to main highways, airports and more ethnic restaurants than you can shake a stick at. Main Street Middletown features a four-star hotel (The Inn at Middletown) for that last minute decision to sleep over before that drive to the airport and nearly a mile of coffee shops, bars and the aforementioned restaurants, all within walking distance. One of my favorite destinations is O’Rourke’s for breakfast: http://www.orourkesmiddletown.com/
That’s during the day. As mentioned upstream, 3,200 students (about 10% of which are grad students) spread over 300 generous acres of greenswards and wood-frame houses, don’t leave much of a footprint and Wesleyan can seem deceptively quiet at night. Brown has way more foot traffic (not so sure about Tufts; I hear different things about the campus culture there revolving around trips to Boston.) But, the sense of community is stronger; almost no one leaves campus on the weekends. Visitors would be well-advised to stop by Usdan Center (45 Wyllis Avenue) for event information and to see a critical mass of Wesleyan students gathered in one place.
@RenaissanceMom You have given me a couple schools to have her chew on-Tufts and Barnard ,even with the lack of boys. She’s our first and there are so many outstanding options (big & little!) in the east! The added incentive of Columbia courses could help. It’s not the romance factor, it’s the friend factor. She loves male friendships as she has said they offer a great balance.
@Emsmom1 I’m in a landlocked state and when I get on the coasts, I always get my fill of seafood 8-}
@Emsmom1 Oh yes, the roommate from heck. This has been the last year of life skills training we have been drilling into our girl. Please, Do. Not. Be That. Roomate. But the truth is, it starts way before then.