<p>You mentioned looking for other schools to visit.</p>
<p>If you do drive back from Madision to Minneapolis you can take I-90 back instead of I-94 and then take Hwy 52 from Rochester, MN to Minneapolis. From Hwy 52 it's just a short detour to visit Northfield if you wanted to check out Carleton or St. Olaf.</p>
<p>Ophiolite:</p>
<p>How was your trip to Madison? I known that you're at Chapel Hill so I'm interested in hearing your comparison. Yes, I know--colder and bigger, but besides.</p>
<p>Nwestmom--
Does your son go to Lawrence? Just curious because D has interest. We visited late last summer while their weren't too many kids around. She thought it was OK but didn't love it. By the way, flying into Appleton and then driving down to Chicago was just fantastic. Great little airport and then the drive was just a wonderful bonding experience for us.</p>
<p>We had planned to visit the Minneapolis/St. Paul schools the first day, drive up to Northfield the second day, then head to WI probably the third day. Is it somehow easier to instead visit Northfield schools on our way back to Minneapolis, after visiting WI? And, if we wanted to consider traveling to St. Peter, in which order would that make sense?</p>
<p>tsdad:</p>
<p>It was alright. Yes, colder and snowier and definately bigger than Chapel Hill. The department I'm looking at is MUCH bigger than the one I'm currently in (20 grad students v. 70 grad students). </p>
<p>As for the town itself, it's a much bigger town with much different offerings than CH. There are opportunities for sailing and other water activities that you would have to drive about a half an hour to have the same options in CH. Also, there are opportunities such as ice skating and bowling on or near campus. UW has a much different layout than CH. At UW the campus is sprawled with some non-University buildings interspersed. However, at CH the campus is more consolidated bounded by Franklin Street. Parking issues are about equivalent and the bus system is approximately equivalent (but much more expensive for non-students in Madison). Another difference is how accepted alcohol is on campus at UW. Beer is served at the student union and my prospective department had a 'Fluids Seminar' which is a late Friday afternoon department-supported gathering with beer and soda provided. At CH there is no alcohol on campus, not even at athletic events.</p>
<p>Those were my basic observations from my trip. Feel free to ask me any detailed questions and I can answer them if I can! :)</p>
<p>Calmac--Sorry, I've not been on the board much today. Yes, my son does go to Lawrence (overseas son, too). We visited in summer, & I didn't think that it was a very good visit either. The tour guide was fine, but much more conservative than my son and he didn't really feel a connection there. He was also a music student and my son was worried about the school being too much geared toward music (he is interested in math & physics). Also, some small schools made arrangements for him to meet with students who were on campus doing research for the summer and with professors, and Lawrence did not do that. However, science facilities were excellent & decided to apply anyway. Visited again in April by himself and had a much better visit--a physics prof gave him a tour of the department and info on the program. I would highly recommend that she try to visit again during classes if she still has interest.
Son is one of those kids that doesn't say alot about how he likes everything, but he does like most of his classes and he's most of the way through his sophmore year and still there. That's a big positive for a boy we weren't sure was going to make it through his senior year of high school!</p>
<p>Expedia claims that only Enterprise has cars at the airport, and the other companies require riding a shuttle to go get the car. The Minn/St. Paul airport website doesn't clearly say where the cars are, just that the rental counters are in the airport. Pointer from someone who has done this recently? :-) Thanks.</p>
<p>MSP car rental counters are a short tram ride and an escalator ride away. You're never outside. Easy out and back with the car. All cars are housed in a parking garage, so you're not subject to the weather conditions. We use Hertz at MSP every time. We've also returned the cars on occasion to the Madison airport without a drop off fee.</p>
<p>I love the Milwaukee airport. It's big enough to have the comforts and small enough to be extremely convenient. The Minneapolis airport is huge and grim. Allow a long enough layover there because it takes half an hour to get from one end to the other, and that's with the rolling sidewalks.</p>
<p>Not thrilled with the choice of food at MKE. Plus it's looking a little shabby. Lots of rips in the chairs. But otherwise it's a pretty good airport.</p>