<p>Milwaukee is the only major WI city with Amtrak service- why they put the route 20 some miles north of Madison and don't go to any other cities is beyond me.</p>
<p>Ooops, sorry. I don't know why I thought Kalamazoo was larger.</p>
<p>I agree that trains in the Midwest are great until you look at some details. For example, the route that ran to Chicago from our area stopped in Cleveland at 2 a.m. However, with a fine toothed comb there could be ways to solve things.</p>
<p>Speaking of unusual solutions, Oberlin is a college that can be seen fully without a car. Its l9th century layout long pre-dates the automobile, and it's called the Town of 10,000 Bikes (something like that). If you fly in to Cleveland, and take a cab or see if there's an airport shuttle directly to the OBerlin Inn, you are situated right on the central village green (Tappan Square). All departments, the main street stores, dorms, EVERYTHING is then in easy walking distance of the Inn. For example, immediately next to the Inn is the largest concert hall (not the Conservatory, but used by the Con for its biggest concerts), then the Allen Art Museum, turn the corner and yo9u're at
Asia House and the Admissions Office...</p>
<p>So if it helps your planning to skip the car rental for Oberlin, you actually can.
In this pattern, you might see Case (in downtown Cleveland) and Oberlin (20 miles or 40 min. away) but not Kenyon, for whcih you do need the car.</p>
<p>If you already have a car before Oberlin, that's fine, it'll be easier, although you might even just end up parking it at the Oberlin Inn and walking anyway.</p>
<p>I'm wondering if their Bicycle Coop {cooperative] would rent you 3 bikes for your visit? Hm.</p>
<p>PS: If you drive into OBerlin, check their Admissions sites for Bed and Breakfast option in the town. They miight be more enjoyable than the Inn. Nothing wrong with the Inn, particularly, and its location right within the campus is superb. But alternatives are always worth considering, too. Just try not to motel over in Elyria or Lorain l0 miles out of town, It's extremely depressing there, not worth the small difference in prices, and irrelevant to understanding the Oberlin campus. If choosing between an out-of-town hotel versus the OBerlin Inn, stay with the Inn or else see if there are B&B's in the town of Oberlin for you. </p>
<p>Repeating: Good luck everywhere.</p>
<p>Kalamazoo, as noted above, is about 1300 - 1400 students. K College, however, is located just a few blocks from Western Michigan University, a 20,000 student public university. The result is that there are many more students (and amenities) around town than is typical for most LAC environments, as most tend to be located in small, one college towns. (A notable exception to one college towns is that both Carleton and St. Olaf are located in the same small Minnesota town of Northfield.) Kalamazoo itself is also significantly larger than the small towns where most midwestern and eastern LACs are typically found. (The most notable exception being Macalester, in the heart of St. Paul.)</p>
<p>The comment above about K College students being very friendly has certainly been borne out in my son's experience. I give the administration credit for fostering such an environment, and I think there's also a lot of self-selection going on.</p>
<p>Hey, thanks, everyone, for such wonderful information and suggestions. This will make all the difference in our planning. Does anyone know if all these colleges would be completely deserted and therefore useless to visit in the summer?</p>
<p>^^of Oberlin, that's true. The tour guide will give you insight and you'll see the interesting architecture, but with no classes in session, meals (cooperative or regular), concerts, and dialogue at the tables, you can't figure out the life of the campus. </p>
<p>Speaking more generally, I think a lot of people worry that the Midwest is "too isolated" or "remote" So the key is to visit while in session because you come to realize how the kids' perceive it as a life created BY the students. The student-generated activities account for a lot of the atmosphere. Educationally, students count on dialogue with one another, at meals especially, to explore their education and enlarge it. Sitting in on classes can be helpful; we never did that anywhere in our searches, but others swear by it, to measure the calibre of student interest.</p>
<p>My concern is that in the summer, you'd see an empty shell and might have insufficient data to help decide.</p>
<p>Interested if that corresponds with others who know other Midwest LAC's very well.</p>
<p>Musical comedy reference: If you know the show "Brigadoon" it's about a village that comes to life one day every 100 years. It's a "bubble" so it helps a lot to see it when everyone's there. Not much else will impress you (surrounding small towns, etc.) either...</p>
<p>We did our Midwest visits in late April when students were on campus and felt we got an excellent sense of each community. The schools we visited in the summer (except for St. John's because they were having a summer session) we got much more limited info from. By seeing the campus and surroundings and meeting the students who were working for admissions, my son felt he got enough of a clue to decide whether or not to apply, but wanted to re-visit before deciding where to attend. In fact, we re-visited all of his finalists so he could do overnights and attend more classes.</p>
<p>If he had only seen Grinnell in the summer, I'm not sure he would have applied there, much less chosen to attend. Though the campus is lovely and the facilities incredible, it is the students who create that community of excited learners.</p>
<p>So, while we didn't feel our summer visits were wasted, they were less than ideal.</p>
<p>I'll have to look up all the start, end and vacation dates for all the colleges DS is interested in, to see if we can sneak a few visits in while the colleges are in session but his high school is not. He is carrying a heavy workload in his junior year, and has even more planned for next year, so I'm worried that he won't have time to fit in these visits. But from all I'm hearing, they are extremely worthwhile, so we will just have to make them happen.</p>
<p>My son and I did a trip in November - but went East from Wisconsin. Flew in, rented a car in Boston, drove to Chicago, dropped car off, Amtrak home (about 3/4 way to Minneapolis). Amtrak was VERY enjoyable . . . would recommend it. A non Amtrak option - fly into Ohio, rent a car and drive West, Ohio Colleges - Chicago - Grinnell - Macalester - dropping car in Minneapolis/St Paul. Shopped around to find a decent deal on a one way rental - $500 for a week.</p>
<p>We flew from San Diego to Des Moines last year. Visited Grinnell the next day, then drove up to Carleton. Visited there the second day, then drove to Minneapolis. Saw Grinnell the morning of the third day, flew home that night. It was pretty easy driving. For a variety of family and school related reasons, visiting over spring break wasn't an option for my son, so this visit was done in late summer. Check with Grinnell - they have a special summer visit day where they have presentations by students and some faculty. That gave us a pretty good taste for what Grinnell was all about. Carleton and Macalester may have something similar. My son figured if he ended up getting in and those schools made his final list, he'd visit again in the spring. (He got in ED somewhere else, so 'tis not to be).</p>
<p>When my daughter was looking at colleges, we flew to Dayton, visited Earlham (just over the Ohio border), then it was a very long and boring schlep over to Knox, which is close to the Iowa border. Grinnell is a good schlep from there. </p>
<p>So, my advice would be to try to break it down into two shorter trips, if at all possible. Or, at least bring some good music, and maybe plan a few stops between Ohio and Iowa. :)</p>
<p>(PS You might also check out fares on Air Tran or Southwest. They fly between quite a few midwestern cities, and are inexpensive. You could start in Ohio, take the plane to Minneapolis, and head south to Grinnell).</p>
<p>Ah, the ones that got away. The schools are so wonderful it is sometimes hard to pick just one, but what a lucky problem to have!</p>
<p>These schools are all so beautiful--how to choose? Not a problem, I guess because the Midwest schools are admissions bargains. Grinnell, Oberlin, Carleton, Mac, Beloit, etc. Just enjoy.</p>
<p>You may also want to consider Case. We visited when our son was a hs senior and were all suprisingly impressed. And it is my impression that they have made a major improvement in on campus housing since our visit 4 years ago.</p>
<p>Kalamazoo has 1300+ students but they are not all on campus. My understanding is up to a 1/4 can be missing at any one time as a result of the K-Plan (study abroad) and internships. </p>
<p>Kzoo is an awesome school but Wooster was a better fit for my child.</p>