@drewsmom17 Of course most of the people on here are traveling to exotic destinations and other states. Y’all are rich white folk who are even richer because of Trump’s tax cuts. And quit with your BS about diversity, we know most of you live in rich suburban towns and neighborhoods, and go to majority white public schools.
You want to experience diversity? Send your kids to a high school IN the city, not in the 'burbs, and to a public high school.
My wife and daughter hit the road last summer, visting (W-E) U Oregon and their honors college, U Montana and honors, U Denver, UC Boulder, Colorado College, Syracuse, Cornell, Colgate, Princeton, Lafayette, Williams, and Amherst,
Of those schools she applied to Williams, Colorado College, UMontana, Oregon and Princeton.
Wow! That was quite a trip.
From NJ… S16 toured some schools last August… VTech and JMU. Both were great tours and schools.
Spring driving tour will be University of South Carolina, University of South Florida and U of Tennessee (with a stop to see our D at her school - University of Florida for Easter).
Others schools already toured:
- U Delaware
- Clemson
- Towson
- Rutgers
- Elon
- U Maryland
- Penn State
In the summer we will hit up schools that align the most based on his SAT scores.
When we go on trips like this with the kids, I always look for a Whole Foods. There are a lot of lunch and dinner choices there…almost like a buffet…kids can choose from a wide variety of beverages, there’s seating for eating, bathrooms, and we never feel sick afterward. Weird tip, but has helped a lot.
P.S. At big schools, after a big presentation, tours are sometimes randomly divided (this side of the room go with Jack, this side go with Jane). Well, if you are assigned to Jack, but you know Jane is studying something that your child is interested in, be a rebel and go with Jane. 
P.S.S. If your child likes to workout and the workout facilities aren’t included in a tour (they often are not), GO TO THE WORKOUT FACILITIES and get a tour. This can be a huge part of your child’s daily life and is often left out.
Agree with COSpgsparent - don’t hesitate to switch tour groups if one of the guides seems a better fit. For example, my kid is an athlete, and if you tour with an athlete guide, you will almost surely get a good look at the workout and sports facilities (as well as the dining halls!).
We live overseas and, because we wanted to visit while schools were in session, we crammed nine schools into our son’s two-week Spring break last year - we went from California to Texas to North Carolina to Maine to Colorado. It got the job done but it was tiring, and it would probably be better to do just a few at a time if you are able. All sorts of stupid things can prejudice a child against a school - too little sleep, a bad hotel with a poor breakfast, a bad guide (especially) - so to the extent you can take the stress out of the trip (and pick the right guide), it will help your child gain a clearer view of things.
I especially recommend that you avoid trying to do two schools in one day. Maybe some kids who are highly-motivated about their search could handle that, but not ours. It would have been death to one school or the other, I am pretty sure.
In the years my daughters were in the college search mode, whenever we planned a vacation, we always asked: “Is there a school on the vacation route that you would like to see?” and then, if yes, we tried to incorporate it into the vacation. The best one was Colorado College. We were visiting Colorado, and our daughter wanted to look at that school, so we did the morning tour and information session and then drove up Pike’s Peak in the afternoon. It’s also a nice way to spread out the visits, instead of having to do a week-long college tour that can get tiring. And I agree with @tkoparent parent, that two schools in one day is too much.
As for seeing two schools on one day…if for any reason you want to dissuade your kid from attending a school, make that school the second visit of the day. We have done two two-in-ones, and both times the second school of the day turned my kid off. Not because the school itself was unfavorable in any way…she was just tired at that point and would have rather gone for ice cream.
We are trying to plan a spring break trip (first week of April 2019) with our high school Junior.
We are from the Bay Area and are thinking of Boston to visit:
BU
UMass Amherst
UConn (in same day as UMass?)
UVM
We will be all 5 of us in Boston and was hoping to stay in a VRBO the entire time to make things easier but that is a super long drive to UVM.
Are roads ok in April? We do not like to drive in snow.
We Ali want to do some day trips from Boston to maybe Portland or somewhere in MA. My kids have never been to New England.
Any advice appreciated!!
Early April can see sunny skies or snowstorms up north (I’m thinking of UVM in particular). I live in northern New England and it is not uncommon to have snow on the roads in April. You will probably be fine for BU, UConn, and UMass Amherst, though.
@JanieWalker
Thanks for that info.
It would certainly be easier to leave UVM out of this trip - but I really wanted him to see the campus also - so hard to plan these trips!
@ImASoccerPlayer I’d plan on visiting if you can. Burlington’s a great place. You might be just fine with the roads - fwiw, they do get plowed quickly up here since we are used to Snowmaggedons.
Wow. Lots of great places.
Are the packaged college visit trips worth it like the one offered by NHSSS?
@shflorida I haven’t heard anything about their trip offers but we chose not to buy into the NHSSS or the Who’s Who because we heard they weren’t really recognized/respected necessarily by colleges. Saved that money for admissions fees! That being said, I loved getting to take her to visit colleges and watch the wheels turn as she thought about her future. It was a fantastic Mother/Daughter bonding time and well worth taking off work to do on our own. We visited 10 schools in 6 days over spring break of her Jr year, had visited a few state schools prior to that trip and visited 2 other schools on breaks.
D16 is sophomore, we have just started the visits. (not sure if its to early). Looked at Drew University, Fairfield, heading to Fordham, Quinnipiac, Villanova, Marist, Sacred Heart, TCNJ and Monmouth in the coming weeks/months. Hoping to get a feel of what she likes/dislikes and narrow down search for re-visits junior year.
@BmacNJ I don’t think it’s too early! My D21 will start her formal college visits this summer so next summer will focus on an internship/service trip and preparing essays and finalizing her list.
@BmacNJ how did you like Monmouth? We have a friend whose kid is considering it…they’re from California…
With D we did two trips up to Northern California to look at schools…We did official tours at University of San Francisco, San Francisco State, UC Santa Cruz. And we toured Santa Clara and San Jose State on our own…the whole trip was about five days. Plus we drove by Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and UC Santa Barbara on the way home.
The next summer we toured St. Mary’s College (Moraga, CA), Dominican University (San Rafael, CA/Marin County), UC Davis. We toured University of the Pacific and UC Merced on our own. These trips were quite fun and we were able to intersperse sightseeing and visiting family. We also toured schools in the LA and San Diego areas on weekends on school breaks…this was easy because the schools in this area are mostly less than 2 hours drive from home.
Monmouth was beautiful. As a lifelong Northern NJ resident I had never seen the campus. We were pleasantly surprised. I put a full description under the CampusVibe section. I will cut and paste it here. Feel free to ask any specific questions:
Monmouth University was a pleasant surprise. The location is amazing as it is a half mile from the beach and has housing options oceanfront. The campus is well manicured with a nice mix of old world charm and newer modern buildings and facilities. The on campus arena is brand new and houses D1 basketball games, concerts, student gym, indoor track. Many newer academic buildings with state of the art equipment/labs. There are numerous dining options thruout campus. It’s a Dunkin’ Donuts campus, lol. Asked numerous students about social scene as it’s a dry campus. Was assured by all “we are college kids”, plenty of bars, restaurants, clubs in area. Many upperclassman live off campus as there are hundreds of options in area, thus a robust social scene. 85% of first year students live on campus. Sophs live in apt style on campus units. The upper classmen live in school housing in beachfront apartments. Amazing location to say the least. Cars are allowed on campus from freshman year on. Seemed like an abundance of parking. 20+ sports teams all play on campus, 80+ clubs,10% of student body in Greek life. PNC arts center is 15 minutes away. NYC is 1 hour by car, 90 minutes by train ($32 r/t) 57% female to 43% male
MU is $52,000 per year tuition,fees housing. Merit aid ranges from 8-25k, AP classes with scores of 3 or higher get accepted, seemed easy to transfer credits in from other schools/community colleges. Large selection of summer/winter classes available. Seemed easy to double major or major/minor as there’s a minimal core required. Study abroad available to 10+ countries, including shorter summer option. Internship fairs and job fairs on campus Fall/Spring. Career services very active. Bruce Springsteen archives are housed on campus, strong music program, strong nursing, business school was certified, Bloomberg terminals, real estate school.
Acceptance rate is 70%, bulk of student body is from NJ, upstate NY, Long Island but 30 states represented.
Bottom line, Monmouth University has a great location, beautiful campus, 4500 student body, D1 sports, 85% white student body. It deserves a good look from B students with 1000-1200 SATs, is a serious safety school that I’m sure wouldn’t be a disappointment. Only thing we couldn’t figure out is the rigors of academics.