<p>This summer I would like to visit the colleges and was wondering what the best itinerary would be.</p>
<p>Yale
Brown
Boston U
Boston College
Amherst
Williams
Harvard
Dartmouth
Cornell
UPenn
Princeton
Columbia
NYU</p>
<p>BU will reject you if you use them as a safety.</p>
<p>Just start at the southern end with Princeton, up through NY and Conn into Mass and NH and back down through vermont, upstate and western NY over into Penn</p>
<p>Here is a WHIRLWIND tour, beginning in Boston. (The dates aren't realistic--unless you are a 'man possessed.')</p>
<p>Day 1: BC; BU; Harvard
Day 2: Dartmouth; Williams
Day 3: Cornell; (way out of the way.)
Day 4: Amherst; Brown
Day 5: Yale; NYU; Columbia
Day 6: Princeton; UPenn</p>
<p>i don't recommend visiting more than 3 schools in a trip--all colleges blend together after a while.</p>
<p>my friend did a 14 college visit in 5 days...cant imagine it</p>
<p>yeah, i'd say at least 10 days for a trip like this. I wouldn't visit more than 2 colleges a day in any circumstances. And take lots of pictures so you actually remember them all.</p>
<p>Some other fine Mass. schools are Holy Cross, Tufts and Brandeis.</p>
<p>Wheaton should definitely be on your northeast lest.</p>
<p>If you want my opinions about Wheaton College, my email is <a href="mailto:tjpmd@cox.net">tjpmd@cox.net</a>. My son will be going there next year. Wheaton is 20 minutes from Providence and 45 minutes from Boston and has an outstanding academic reputation, well deserved. The campus is quite lovely and it is inbetween Providence and Boston so a visit would be covenient if you plan on visiting Brown and Boston.</p>
<p>chr, I would try to group them geographically and spend one or two nights where you would have access to two to three schools. I wouldn't recommend trying to do more than two schools on one day. Even that is excessive as you'll want to take some time to do the tour, info session (possibly interview) and also just wander around and soak of the atmosphere.</p>
<p>I'd also recommend that you reconsider some of your choices before you set out on this journey. Although these are all fine schools the environment and personality of the schools on your list is all over the place. You might want to focus some more on fit.</p>
<p>I'd also reiterate that while you're traveling you should try to see some less selectives. You seem leaning toward small to medium so why not add some LACs in the safety/match category?</p>
<p>Philadelphia/NJ base: Penn, Princeton
NYC base: NYU, Columbia
Conn/RI base: Yale, Brown
Boston base: BU, BC, Harvard
New England base: Amherst, Williams, Dartmouth
No where near anything: Cornell</p>
<p>I would suggest your reconsider the marathon approach to visiting schools. If you try to visit 2 schools in one day, you will spend time driving, parking and waiting for information sessions and tours. You will form your opinions based on the architecture, the competency of the student tour guide and a few random observations. This forum is full of ridiculous observations such as "My D did not like ____. The tour guide did not seem to know anything about my D's intended major. The students did not seem friendly. We saw several students walking in a hurry. They did not make eye contact or stop to say hello."</p>
<p>If you really want to gain any value to the tours, you need to spend some time. I would recommend no less than one full day on campus. If you need to travel that might mean no more than two schools every 3 days. Call or email in advance and set up departmental tours and interviews with the faculty and with admissions. After a few tours, you will start to know what questions to ask, what to look for, and you will gain a good understanding of the different aspects of each college.</p>
<p>Agree with edad.
The only day my daughter visited two schools was on the first day, when she was fresh. One was Penn, a school that she felt beforehand might be too pre-professionally oriented for her. The other was Swarthmore, which was nearby and small.
She liked Swarthmore very much, but I wonder whether she would have liked it as much in the middle of a string of two-a-day visits.</p>
<p>We visited 6 schools in 10 days - 2 days for 2 schools, then a day off to do something fun/different, then 2 days for 2 schools, etc. Just last month, while deciding which school to go to, my d said, "You know, I might have applied to [last school we visited], but by then I was so tired of seeing schools that I couldn't really see it for itself." </p>
<p>If we had tried visiting 2 per day, I think she may have dropped the whole thing and gone to community college!</p>
<p>Momrath (post #11) has a great itinerary. The following are all fairly convenient to train stations, including Amtrak: </p>
<p>Philadelphia/NJ base: Penn, Princeton
NYC base: NYU, Columbia
Conn/RI base: Yale, Brown
Boston base: BU, BC, Harvard</p>
<p>Depending on where you live, I would suggest starting in Philly and taking the train north. I agree with edad that if you drive, you will spend a lot time worried about traffic and parking. By the way, Amtrak has a great promotion for college visits (but you have to reserve at least one week in advance):</p>
<p>"Amtrak is pleased to offer the Campus Visit Discount. This discount allows high school juniors and seniors visiting a college campus to take one parent or guardian along as a free companion."</p>
<p>If you want to see the other schools, you will probably need to rent a car in Boston and go from there. Another CCer may be able to provide a driving route (starting and ending in Boston) for the others grouped as follows by Momrath:</p>
<p>New England base: Amherst, Williams, Dartmouth
No where near anything: Cornell</p>
<p>Lastly, I agree with the other posters about allotting sufficient time to visit each campus. You want to do more than see each campus. You want to learn as much as you can about the environment and atmosphere at each one.</p>
<p>Best of luck!</p>