@Cheeringsection To visit W&M, I’d suggest to fly into Richmond International Airport (RIC). RIC is a bigger airport with more direct/cheaper flights than Newport News and Norfolk. You can also visit Univ of Richmond during the same trip if there is an interest.
We’re planning on seeing Carnegie Mellon, U of Pitt, Case Western and University of Rochester in March. She has several southern schools on the list, not sure when we’ll be over to hit them - maybe last week of May.
Already visited, summer leading into junior year: Amherst, Smith, Wesleyan, Vassar, Hamilton.
Also knows the following campuses well: Dickinson, McDaniel.
President’s weekend+: Skidmore, Vassar (revisit), Bard.
Spring break (March): Sarah Lawrence. Then, an Ohio trip: Kenyon, Oberlin, and Denison.
wow you are all really busy. we have stretched it out a bit because kid and i lose focus if we see too much. more me than kid…
already visited, sophomore year or fall junior year: Pitt, Penn State, Penn, Temple, Drexel, Syracuse, SUNY Buffalo, Case Western, Kent State, Penn State Behrend
will visit this spring break: U Md, UMBC, Temple re visit for program
we’ll be driving and i am arranging that. Kid has arranged visits. don’t feel bad if you parents are arranging visits, there was quite a bit of parental assist involved in getting the kid-arranged format!
happy trails, fellow parents/kids
I know you have a lot of schools listed already OP, but if you are going to Bates you might consider visiting Colby and Bowdoin too, they are close to each other yet can be too far to go if you are not in the neighborhood anyway.
Thanks for the info @BelmontVA ! I have my fare watchers on now and we will see what works between Easter break and fall break senior year.
Thanks @Mwfan1921! After lots of time on school websites, Niche, and Unigo, Colby and Bowdoin fell of the list of Maine prospects. I’m frankly surprised Bates is still on, but I’m excited that we’re going to Maine in March!
Following @BookLvr’s helpful format for completeness:
Already visited late sophomore year through fall junior year: Bryn Mawr, *Barnard, Grinnell, St Olaf’s, Carleton, *Macalester, UWisconsin-Madison, Smith, *Mount Holyoke, Bennington, *Sarah Lawrence ( = planning to apply)
Remaining to visit: 6-7 of these, to add 2-3 to apply list: NYU, New College Lang, Bates, Wellesley, Middlebury, Skidmore, Bard, Vassar, Wesleyan, Brown, Conn College.
@Itisatruth , I know how it is once you have a list, but if I were a betting person, based on the rest of your list and seeing who made the cut from round 1 , I’d bet that you are going to say afterwards that Midd was a waste of time. I’d include Tufts instead (based solely on vibe.)
Anyone’s visiting Williams? We planned to visit it last spring break but was snowed out, it just does not seem to have an easy way to get there. Also plan to visit MIT and would it make sense to fly into Boston then drive to Williams?
@Cheeringsection we are planning to visit W&M in March or April, depending on when our Williams’ trip materialize or not.
DS does not want to do too many visits like what we did before (2 a day or flying from one city to another every night). I guess he is narrowing down his top choices so he wants to spend more time at each place.
@gardenstategal and @Itisatruth we’ve visited a couple of schools she won’t apply to. The biggest miss was Villanova. She did not like that campus at all. Too small. Street was too busy and industrial looking.
Fair enough - I like @BookLvr’s format too.
Already visited late sophomore year through fall junior year: Swarthmore, *Bates, *Haverford, ^Bowdoin ( = definitely applying or pondering applying)(^= NOPE)
Remaining to visit: all of these, most of which are very wish-list-y and some are possible genuinely-appealing-safeties but at any rate more realistic: Bard, Vassar, Amherst, Sarah Lawrence, Brown, Tufts, Oberlin, Kenyon.
Possible adds: Wesleyan, Conn
@makemesmart Yes, you can fly to Boston and drive to Williams. Or you could fly into Albany, which is probably closer. Williams is a super cute town.
^ = NOPE * = planning to apply
Already visited: ^Oklahoma State, ^Wichita State, ^University of Tulsa, ^Lawrence, *Mount Holyoke, *Smith
Remaining to visit: Wellesley, Bryn Mawr, Agnes Scott
@allyphoe maybe look at Hollins?
@makemesmart Williamstown is WAY closer to ALB than BOS, but totally makes sense to start in Boston if MIT is also on the visit itinerary.
@chb088 Potential major is physics. That eliminated Hollins and Mills. She decided she felt strongly about seasons, so no Scripps. Barnard was too urban. No more than nominal religious affiliation eliminated a bunch more.
Agnes Scott has guaranteed merit for her current grades and ACT, so I’m comfortable with that as a safety. She (and we) were head over heels with Mount Holyoke and her stats are in the top of their 25-75 range; if that’s the reachiest acceptance she gets, everyone will be thrilled.
@makemesmart, Yes flying into Boston works for Williams. It’s about a 2.5 to 3.0 hours drive. It’s a scenic area, but likely to get snow into March.
We were all set for a visit to FSU but just found out big robotics tournament is going to be held over spring break so I guess we won’t be doing any college tours. ;-(
@Cheeringsection William and Mary has very little to no merit. 1693 Scholars (of which they take eight kids) and the James Monroe Scholars (where they also take a handful of kids but I don’t have the numbers) offer no merit but special perks and $3000-$5000 a year to go towards research, not tuition. The only other merit is for URMs - the William and Mary Scholars who bring “diversity” to campus and those OOS kids get in state tuition.
That being said, we are from Chicago and visited W&M and loved it. We did it on the same trip as Davidson but it was a drive. Like those said above, if you just want to see W&M then you can fly into Richmond. I think it’s about an hour drive to the college. For us, since we are looking at paying full price for college, William and Mary is a little less expensive than the other schools S19 applied to which are mostly $70K/year. William and Mary OOS is more like $58k.
Thank you for that information @homerdog . You just saved me some research and confirmed what I already thought was the case. DD20 will have several more affordable options so I hope she loses interest in W&M. Good school but DD is not their target for scholarships. I would be more inclined to send her to a school more well known for her area of study if we decided to spend that much on UG—which is unlikely.