<p>Oh, for heaven’s sake.<br>
The Mass turnpike ends at the Mass border. Technically, it goes west to NY State. I said people should be looking at a map,not just throwing out every school they can name. And that they should consider OP has one week, will start in NYC and originally said Wellesley and Amherst, en route to Montreal. Let’s be done with this.</p>
<p>I suggest you look at Dartmouth. Very strong in languages, excellent study abroad program, strong sciences, etc. The I-91/89 route described above takes you there. You could swing through Maine on the return trip and see Bowdoin, then Wellesley.</p>
<p>Yale, Amherst/Smith, Dartmouth, McGill, Bowdoin, Wellesley would be the order I’d suggest. You only have 7 days. If you wanted to, you could drive through Brown on the way back to NYC, if you have to return to NYC.</p>
<p>Re Rochester: fine safety for your D, but the kids I have known with similar stats and accomplishments (including mine) have consistently gotten merit awards in the range of $7-10K per year. There is a full tuition award, but I think you should look into the kind of student who gets it before counting on your D being a realistic candidate:</p>
<p><a href=“https://enrollment.rochester.edu/admissions/rens/profiles.shtm”>https://enrollment.rochester.edu/admissions/rens/profiles.shtm</a></p>
<p>Despite the fact that out income was in the “free or reduced lunch” bracket at the time, Rochester gave S the least aid overall of all schools that accepted him.</p>
<p>If the daughter is interested in Yale, Amherst, and Wellesley, I don’t see any reason not also to be interested in Wesleyan, Vassar, Smith, Mount Holyoke, Dartmouth, Barnard, Williams, Connecticut College, and Middlebury. Also, of course, Columbia, Brown, Harvard, MIT, Tufts, Brandeis. I wouldn’t necessarily visit all of them, but it would sure be easy to pick some. It sort of depends on what they are looking for. Possible merit money? Then it’s a whole other category of colleges to focus on. More safeties (McGill is a complete admissions safety for this kid)? Holyoke, Conn College, and Brandeis probably qualify as admissions safeties, but not necessarily as sources of merit aid (although I think all of them have some). Bard would, too, and it also has real investment in science facilities. Wesleyan, Smith, Vassar, Tufts are more in the match category.</p>
<p>I shall put the colleges she would like to visit on the map and plan our route accordingly. Yes, we are driving back to NYC, probably using a different route. I do not think it is wise to think that we can properly tour more than 2 schools in a day. Thanks to all for your suggestions!</p>
<p>I think it’s more important to see and fall in love with the matches/safeties, than it is to love the reaches. I know people who have made the mistake of seeing Harvard first (so much Ivy! So many Georgian buildings! So many museums! ) and then everywhere else they visit feels like a wannabee.</p>
<p>I think based on all these suggestions there are three big buckets of schools- colleges that are smack dab inside a city, colleges set in a pretty rural location, and colleges that are either somewhat urban or suburban but have a well defined campus. Within these buckets, you’ve got some differences in terms of size, focus on the sciences,campus culture, etc. but nothing so extreme that it’s worth killing yourself in order to see all in one week.</p>
<p>So if it were me, I’d keep it to one school a day to preserve some down time, and figure that a kid who loves Amherst is likely to love Williams (don’t flame me with stories about how your kid loved one but hated the other) or a kid who loves Wesleyan is likely to love Brown as well.</p>
<p>Blossom - I agree. I think DD already knows that. She looked at her older brother’s admission process and she knows it is a huge BS and lottery to a certain degree. She has already seen beautiful campuses (Stanford, Duke - I don’t think Harvard can top that 
I think that this trip will be really about differentiating small from big, rural from urban, co-ed from women only.
We are from the West, we are used to driving a lot 
I am looking forward to some uninterrupted mother - daughter time .
As for matches/safeties - it is so very difficult because you never know what kind of financial aid your are going to get. For her state flagship is a safety - a school where she is virtually guaranteed honors college admission and if not full, then very close to a full ride. But she wants adventure </p>
<p>Kelowna have you contacted various schools on the radar (for example you know you will be near X,Y,Z campuses on a specific day - so you can get a really good view on a campus that the school is interested in your student enough to line something up with your visit?) You might think X would be really nice, but Y and Z extend a visit plan and you have a great impression after visiting Y and not so great with Z.</p>
<p>Maybe after all is said and done, some of the financial picture total is very close for many schools, and maybe not.</p>
<p>If you have looked at everything on-line and campus video, you really want to try to narrow your time to only visit places where your DD would like plus where it is going to be a great place for her with reasonable out of pocket. I understand sometimes there is no rhyme or reason to some of these admission processes and merit awards.</p>
<p>Sounds like your DD can land somewhere without worrying about missing one or two school reviews. The adventure sounds like fun. Let us know what happens!</p>
<p>My kids visited Harvard first via reunions and liked everything else better, but they are weird. They also don’t like the Stanford campus which seemed too pristine to them. I hope you enjoy the drive. We only looked at two colleges in one day a couple of times, and had trouble with concentration even at the one a day rate. In any event if you get sick of college campuses you can always bail and do something else - there’s plenty of options all along your route!</p>
<p>Mathmom - my S absolutely hated Stanford. His comment - too much sun It was cloudy when we stopped by Caltech :D</p>
<p>Haha, other than where DH taught, following him around to a few local college libraries and trying to get into parties at the local Ivy, my kids’ first official visit/tour was Harvard (he was headed to the library there, too.) They hated the crush of eager beavers. </p>
<p>You can sometimes do two tours in a day, depending on timing. Especially if you skip info sessions (imo, they all start to sound alike.) Some days, eg, the last tour is at 2 or 3pm- and you can’t get there on time. </p>
<p>But the bigger threat, imo, is that too many schools in one week and you risk that they all turn to mush in the kid’s head.</p>
<p>OP, when you look at the maps, be sure to get driving times. Some routes are along smaller roads, maybe some stop and go traffic, depending. Some will have rush hours or other reasons for congestion. </p>
<p>I agree with not having to look at Harvard, but I happen to like the Harvard campus a lot more than Stanford or Duke. Harvard is my favorite urban campus, at least in theory. (In theory because I have much stronger personal history with several other urban campuses, so as a practical matter they mean more to me than Harvard. But I think Harvard gets the mix of “urban” and “campus” just right, and both are super exciting.) A reason not to visit Harvard is that you may be less excited about McGill if you do.</p>
<p>I completely agree with not touring more than two campuses per day, and with not touring two every day you are out there. But one advantage of this particular trip is that drive-bys are a real possibility – taking a 10 minute detour off the road, and stretching your legs a bit while you look at this or that college for half an hour. You won’t get the full marketing push, of course, but you’ll have a sense of the different looks and locations of these places.</p>
<p>Now, on the one hand I don’t think anyone should be picking a college based on how it looks. That’s really a secondary consideration, and will (should) get swamped by factors like price, reputation, departmental strength, social system that a visit is not likely to illuminate much. On the other hand, though, I learned in my own family that it’s hard for a kid to pick a college he has never even seen over one he has seen, and the kid in this case is going to see a bunch of schools.</p>
<p>LOL, blossom, my kid was one of those oddballs who disliked Amherst and liked Williams. (He said that Amherst looked “too new”! One of the most bizarre comments ever, IMHO, even though they were doing construction, but oh well.) But in general I completely agree with you. </p>
<p>I am in favor of one school per day, not two, but it would be easy to combine Amherst and Smith on the second day, if you visit Yale and then drive up to Amherst/Northampton and stay overnight there on the first day, leaving you time to get out to Smith or Amherst bright and early on the second day.</p>
<p>My tip: when you go to Yale, try to stay out of Branford College. She is almost certain to fall in love with it and want to go there. :D</p>
<p>Quick response on URoc (and keep in mind that my D is a frosh there). Probably too far out of the way anyway, and probably is only a very good safety for the OP’s kid. That said, Rochester is an under the radar gem among relatively elite schools, what I like to call “unpretentious excellence”) that does in OUR experience offer very good merit money. Our kid (of course outstanding in our view) got 12K per year and she isn’t in the same league as the OP’s kid (by description). Obviously there may be factors, like even geography, that come into play, but the OP’'s kid sounds pretty special. Just the languages by themselves are impressive. I would say 15K at an absolute minimum, and I would bet on at least a half-scholarship with a reasonable shot at more. There’s certainly no reason not to apply as it doesn’t require any extra work and they automatically consider you for the big ticket awards. Certainly URoc has the academic offerings desired, and some nice perks like free lessons for any instrument at Eastman and a potential 5th year to study as a post-grad FREE.</p>
<p>If you are going to be in Boston, it is worth at least visiting Harvard Square and just strolling through the campus. Most students who study in the Boston area regardless of which school will probably spend some time in Harvard Square.</p>
<p>Consolation, I think we were on the same tour: didn’t like Amherst, loved Williams, one a day worked best, Yale will steal your heart. </p>
<p>Kelowna, You’ll have fun driving around beautiful New England with your daughter. There are terrific places to stay and eat along the way. Try to overnight at your daughter’s top choices.</p>
<p>I’m in favor of the one-college, one-day approach. Personally, I liked the info sessions. For me, they offered good insight into the character of the school – how they were organized, who spoke, how they responded to questions.</p>
<p>Some schools will allow you to interview on campus, often with a current student or a member of the admissions committee (who was often a former student) which again is a good opportunity to gain personal perspective. </p>
<p>Basically. it’s good just to walk around the town, eat at the dining hall, attend a campus event, try to imagine what would be like to live there for four years.</p>
<p>Since you’ve been through all this before, some of this advice may be unnecessary, but LAC culture can be slippery and getting getting a good feel for the place may require a slower approach.</p>
<p>tk21769, my comment re. taking Vassar and Barnard off the list was based on our family’s NPC results but of course it will vary according to family income. Your post on page 2 with all the comparisons was interesting; I went to the IPEDS site but am having trouble navigating it. Can you point me to the page where I can find this type of data?</p>
<p>Kelowna, enjoy your trip! There are some wonderful landscapes, campuses and cities on your list. </p>