<p>Downside of renting a car, your child won’t be able to share in the driving.</p>
<p>You guys are chock full of good advice, just as I knew you would be! </p>
<p>I will definitely plan to:</p>
<p>Buy an atlas</p>
<p>Be prepared to have good tunes (both hers and mine)</p>
<p>Limit her driving to large highway stretches and take over the helm otherwise (she should still be able to get in about 15 hours this way.)</p>
<p>Check on rules: I’ve been scouring the MD MVA site and can’t find any reference to other states rules re: permitted drivers. I’ll call my insurance company and see what they say.</p>
<p>Make every effort to keep her well fed and try to add some treats in (like ice cream, shopping, etc)</p>
<p>Try not to impose my opinions on her and give her time to express hers, on her own timeline.</p>
<p>Love the ideas of folders, notes etc for her to look at. She will have her first interview experiences during this trip as well. I would love suggestions for interviews as well!! Please!</p>
<p>==</p>
<p>You are all really wonderful! Thank you!</p>
<p>[Illinois</a> Permits](<a href=“http://w3.lphs.org/academics/dept/drivered/permits.htm]Illinois”>http://w3.lphs.org/academics/dept/drivered/permits.htm)</p>
<p>I found this site about where and for how long she can drive with a permit. There are only 5 states that don’t allow drivers on a permit from another state, AZ, HI, NH, SC, VT.</p>
<p>Steve, you are a lifesaver! Thank you so much for posting that. I had not been able to find the info on the MD site!</p>
<p>Okay, so wait. This is what it says for Pennsylvania:</p>
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<p>So a learner’s permit driver can NOT drive in PA? Am I reading that right? If so, there goes a buttload of her permit hours!</p>
<p>We did a lot of research on the schools before we went so if there were questions they were targeted (not about the meal plan!). Knowing more before you go allows the trip to be more about the feel of the campus and surrounding area (including its inhabitants). We would always ask a student the “hot spot” to eat and go there for lunch or dinner–it was always fun! We always got a lot more out of the official tours than just wandering around on our own.</p>
<p>Some great advice on here, I made up folders for my D as well. And the one thing I can’t stress enough is go the night before. It helps to get the lay of the land and find the building you are headed to the next morning… Makes it less stressful.
I had just one rule for D she had to ask at lease one question on each visit. It could be at the info session, student led tours or once it was a student working at the cafeteria(she asked about meal plans and the food choices) I found after our first visit she would ask quite a few questions.</p>
<p>Parent of senior boy here – what I learned.</p>
<p>Tour – let them decide where they are in the group. I tried to push him up to front, not a good idea, no one likes power struggles in front of other teenagers. I learned to slow down, stay towards the back. Some schools, he powered forward to the front to hear, others he trudged through in the middle, not so interested. </p>
<p>We’re done when he says we are done – first few visits, we had huge fights in the car driving away from campus because I wanted him to do one more thing, whether swing by the new athletic facility or go back to the bookstore or whatever. When he was ready to leave, we left.</p>
<p>Don’t rush the conversation – 30 minutes after leaving, when they are relaxing back into the car, if they haven’t brought anything up, can venture a “what did you think.” I had to bite my tongue alot to keep quiet and not jump in as soon as he started talking.</p>
<p>By the end of the year, we had a great routine down. He brought his laptop loaded with music and movies/tv shows that he would share on the ride (I listened to a lot of Psych and Sherlock Holmes episodes that he watched while I drove). I kept quiet at info sessions, with a whispered observation about the people around us or what we were hearing. Let him take the lead on tour and the whole day. </p>
<p>By the time we went to admitted students day a few weeks ago, the boy who had been a monster as a junior was now charming at the lunch table, asking the current student all kinds of interesting questions about her experiences, and being polite and delightful to the adults and other admitted students around us. </p>
<p>A special year that I will treasure, in spite of and perhaps because of how far we came together. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>I agree with Midwestmomofboys - my college trips with my son were really special. One thing I focused on was finding really good restaurants for dinner. He was a typical teenaged boy, and food made him happy!</p>
<p>One special part of our spring break trip was that we were both in the Easter choir that year, so we played the CD with the music, and practiced singing the songs over and over and over (our church uses contemporary music, and the songs are really cool). I still tear up thinking about that!</p>
<p>Vandy–I didn’t read each state that closely-just went by the red highlighted ones that said no…I read it that PA doesn’t allow them as well, not sure why that is not in red too.</p>
<p>I agree with everyone here. The only other two things we did were to let our boys hang around the front of the tour with the tour leader, while we hung toward the back and let them listen and ask questions. We were within hearing range, but encouraged them to go ahead, and take the lead. The other thing we told them was if they wanted to get a shirt or other momento from the school, we could go to the bookstore. We could always tell if they liked a school merely from the question “Do you want to check out the bookstore?”</p>
<p>We also learned to bring humor into everything. Info sessions were always made better by playing “Admission Bingo” in our heads. Points for comments about undergraduate research, close faculty relations, etc, study abroad, etc. It helped us not get get bored and to focus on listening for something that set the school apart. We also started to look closely at the other students in the crowd. DS didn’t want to be in a school of clones, but he didn’t want to feel like he was a fish out of water. </p>
<p>Our code for whether or not the school was on the list was whether or not he wanted to visit the gift store.</p>
<p>Such good advice here! </p>
<p>-I tried to make our big LA trip into the shopping trip with a few college visits on the side rather than the other way around. It helped a lot. Retail helps everything.
-ditto to leaving after the tour and not staying for the info session if you know it’s a no.
-ditto to not talking too much during the tour. We also hated parents who took over with either uninformed or look-at-me-I’m-so-into-this questions.
-“A Chipotle miraculously appeared”---- LOL
-a well-timed text would sometimes get my daughter out of her bored, rolling eyes funk. Once I texted (when I was at the back of the group and she was in the front) “I cannot wait to poop later.” She was smiley the rest of the tour. Hey whatever works, right?
-we did resort to the ultimate carrot/stick maneuver for two trips-- we brough Le Boyfriend.
-must. have. GPS.
-do not overschedule.</p>
<p>We usually knew if S was interested in a school as to where he stationed himself in the tour line–front or back.</p>
<p>LOL jalynn! Sounds like something I would text to my D too!!</p>
<p>Aside from all the great advice here I want to add something that has nothing to do with gathering information about the schools from the tours. Make sure you and your child are dressed comfortably and appropriately for the weather. And above all else, WEAR COMFORTABLE SHOES! There is nothing worse than walking a couple of miles in shoes that give you blisters, not to mention you will care less about the tour if you are in pain lol.</p>
<p>Good advice.</p>
<p>Rather than a folder for each school, I had a folder for each day, complete with driving directions, info on the schools, confirmation of our registrations, etc. I labeled all of it and put it in the folders in chronological order (first, we’d need directions from hotel to campus, then college visit itinerary, etc).</p>
<p>After the visit, I had ds write three pros, three cons and at least two sentences of narrative. Put it in the folder for future reference.</p>
<p>Food is a major incentive for ds, so I made sure that we had something yummy every day and maybe a treat.</p>
<p>I loved the college trips. Great memories.</p>
<p>ETA: And I made sure we had cold bottled waters in a cooler in the car. Nothing makes us crankier than being hot and dehydrated.</p>
<p>Oh, the GPS. D2 was very glad she did not have to navigate… that was a valuable addition since our college hunting days with D1, for sure.</p>
<p>Admissions Bingo – the best idea I have seen on CC! 
D2 hated info sessions, we only went to few. That might make them more bearable.</p>
<p>And comfy shoes are key. Also, I worried about what I wore for D1’s visits. That seems so silly now (I think I had been listening to my parents too much… they still dress up to fly on an airplane). Now I know we were just a speck among thousands of visitors, and that jeans and running shoes were just fine… no one would notice, for sure.</p>
<p>Our college road trip was one of the most memorable experiences I have had with my DS. We visited 7 schools in 4 locations in Southern California. I agree that arriving the night before is highly advisable. Also, visit only one school per day. If a you get a really good vibe about a particular school, try to eat a meal or take a drive through the surrounding area in the late afternoon or evening.</p>
<p>We planned down time and fun time. I indulged my DS and let him choose the music, the TV shows, and the restaurants. He was the principal driver… even in LA and got a lot of freeway practice! Take a GPS.</p>
<p>My DH and DS2 flew in and met us halfway through and we made a family trip out of the 2nd half. We only visited 2 schools at that point. Just having the two of us for schools he was most interested in helped him to focus on the purpose for the trip. It also helped to avoid too many opinions swaying his own. I really tried to let him take the lead during tours… he asked questions and decided how long to hang around campus after the official tour.</p>
<p>The school he fell in love with is the one he attends now. Have a wonderful time!</p>
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<p>My understanding is that you must follow the rules of each state for their permitted drivers with exceptions from states like PA, where out of state permit holders can NOT drive. For instance, in New Jersey kids cannot even get their permits until they are 17 so underage permit holders from other states cannot drive there. We looked into this when our kids were doing their college visits. I personally prefer my kids to drive on OUR backroads.</p>
<p>Regarding college visits - You’ve gotten great suggestions. One more I would add is that if you find an area that you absolutely love, see if there are any other suitable colleges in the same area. When we visited Burlington, VT our primary college was Champlain College (where my son ended up) but we also did official visits at UVM and St. Mike’s, and they made for very good compare and contrasts.</p>
<p>Sometimes you can have a terrible guide which can impact their impressions of the school. We agreed that if that happened we would try to talk to some one else at the school.</p>
<p>We also used CC to find good student hangouts in each college town with good food. That was a fun way to get a flavor for each campus. We also went into libraries to check out study areas. Last, my kids would try to talk to at least one student ( not on the tour) at campuses that interested them.</p>
<p>If they truly hated a school after 10 min on campus, we would leave and do something else.</p>
<p>I agree that having the parent take good notes can be helpful so that they can refer back to them later. </p>
<p>We also did the folders and I think it was good forth kids to get themselves checked in.</p>
<p>We brought thank you notes with us in case there someone especially helpful that we wanted to acknowledge., I.e. The engineering secretary at Lehigh who set up visits for my son with three professors with only 2 hours notice. They could write the thank you right then and mail it as we left campus.</p>