<p>We live in San Diego, but DS (a junior) is interested in visiting the following Midwest colleges:</p>
<p>Macalester
Kalamazoo
Oberlin
University of Chicago (I know its' not a LAC, but he's still interested)</p>
<p>and possibly:</p>
<p>Dennison
Grinnell
Kenyon</p>
<p>Can anyone suggest a preferred route to visit all these? I'm thinking we may not have enought time to do this in one trip -- maybe 2 long weekends? We're open to flying, driving, trains -- whatever will work. We will be visiting colleges in NY and Boston during Spring Break, so the midwest trip(s) will have to be in summer, next fall, or maybe a couple of long weekends sometime this spring. The midwest is a foreign country to us, so we would appreciate any guidance anyone can offer! Thanks. I have posted this question on the Parents forum, too.</p>
<p>SM, If you want to do it all in one trip you can but it will be a lot of driving. I would start at Dennison, go to Kenyon, then Oberlin, Kalamazoo, Chicago, Grinnell and finally Macalester. That's about 16 hours of driving (albeit over a number of days). It also might cause you to fly in and out of different airports which costs more. </p>
<p>It might be easier to tackle the first four (Dennison, Kenyon, Oberlin and K'zoo) on one trip and the last three on another. That would allow you to go in and out of one airport after a manageable round trip for each. We've done some of that route ourselves with DD1 (and will again with DD2 this summer).</p>
<p>Fly into Columbus. Denison and Kenyon you can do in one day, most likely. Follow that up w/ Oberlin the next day, and go right up to Kalamazoo.</p>
<p>Fly into Minneapolis. Do Macalester and go ahead and do Carleton while you're at it. Either go down to Grinnell and across to Chicago, or go through Wisconsin and eat lots of cheese while visiting Beloit. Do Uchicago next and fly home from Chicago</p>
<p>Ohio, Michigan, and Chicago are all close enough that driving between them wouldn't be too much of a hassle. I'd start in Ohio, then work my way westward.</p>
<p>Then I'd recommend flying into Minneapolis, perhaps on a separate trip. Minneapolis doesn't SOUND too far from Chicago, but it really is. Then you could just go down to Grinnell.</p>
<p>I've driven from Chicago to Minneapolis. It's not bad. You can do it in an afternoon. If you visit, say, Macalester in the morning, do the tour, have lunch, and then leave at 12:30ish, you'll be in Chicago around dinnertime, methinks.</p>
<p>You already have an ambitious plan but Carleton is only about 40 minutes by car from both Mac and the MSP airport. The school's arboretum and historic Northfield alone are well worth the trip. Carleton itself is a gem.</p>
<p>Barnes & Nobles, possibly Border's Books, sells a map of colleges for the continental U.S. It may help if you are able to see the college locations laid out on one large map. Some applicants wait until accepted to visit colleges; this is especially helpful if there is an accepted students day as one is then able to also meet likely classmates. Kenyon & Grinnell are stunning campuses, and Chicago has magnificent buildings and an urban location. Denison is beautiful. A visit to Oberlin wins over many prospective students, but be certain to visit while school is in session in order to appreciate the unusually creative campus culture.</p>
<p>I actually disagree with some of the others. The point of college visits are to give students a sense of what they want. Visiting too many schools can actually create more confusion and stress.</p>
<p>That happened to one of my friends. She visited 16 schools, and by the time she had seen them all, she was so confused about what to do, she couldn't sleep for weeks. My friends who visited a more moderate number of schools had a much easier time.</p>
<p>I visited American, GWU, Carnegie Mellon, and Lehigh in three days and LOVED it. I think doing college visits in clusters is best because it allows you to compare.</p>
<p>I'm planning on visiting roughly twenty schools before all is said and done. Next up is JHU, UMD, Georgetown, and UVa in one long weekend.</p>
<p>I never said anything against going in clusters. I actually recommended breaking it into clusters in an earlier post. </p>
<p>I'm talking about students who visit 15 to 20 schools in the span of a few weeks. That's just ridiculously stressful for the students. It may not be for you, but most students would find it overwhelming.</p>
<p>I am from Massachusetts and made a similar swing during an eight day trip with my son 3 years ago. We flew into Cleveland, rented a car, started at Oberlin, drove a lot through Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa and into Minnesota, ending up in Minneapolis where we returned the car and flew home. I second Carleton as a stop as well as Beloit.</p>
<p>We visited seven schools in eight days and had a great time. We both like to drive around listening to music and we did a lot on that trip. My son had never been to the Midwest and that was interesting for him as well. He ended up outside of NYC but applied to both Kenyon and Macalester.</p>
<p>Good luck and have fun in the heartland. Those midwest schools have merit aid for folks from the coasts!</p>
<p>I've visited (or arranged visits for my sons) to many of the school you've mentioned. I like the idea of doing two separate clusters, Minnesota and Grinnell, and the Ohio schools.</p>
<p>First of all, the realistic estimate of drive time between Northfield, MN and the University of Chicago should be 7 hours, allowing some time for Chicago's horrendous traffic. (It's easy to figure with the features on <a href="http://www.maps.google.com%5B/url%5D">www.maps.google.com</a>) You may want to fly, instead. You don't need a car in Chicago, (parking is at least $30 a day downtown) so figure that into your equation. You also need to figure in additional dropoff charges (can be over $100) when you rent a car at one site but return it to another.</p>
<p>Midway Airport is most convenient to the U of C, and has inexpensive flights throughout much of the midwest. It could be the midpoint of your trip, or the endpoint for either cluster.</p>
<p>Id agree with midwesterner. Its at least a 6-7 hour drive from Minneapolis to Hyde Park. </p>
<p>The Minneapolis-St. Paul airport is the Northwest hub and very accessible. There are direct flights from San Diego to MSP and direct flights from MSP to Midway (via both Northwest and Air Tran for as little as $60). While Midway offers no direct flights back to San Diego, you could consider San Diego -> MSP (Carleton and Macalester) -> Midway (U Chicago) then O'Hare -> San Diego (direct flights available). Would be a pretty easy long weekend with nights free to enjoy both Minneapolis and Chicago.</p>