Visitting Schools in New England - Please Help!

College Search & Selection
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<p>chocoholic -</p>

<p>Will going in October really be that bad if I feel I can handle it in terms of my schedule? I plan to have all my standardized testing done by this June, and I would only be missing a week or so. If I visit before June, it would be sort of stressful and not very convenient, and I wouldn't even be able to do the on-campus interviews.</p>

<p>Also, when you mentioned "early apps," where you talking about early like early decision or early like just getting them out of the way early?</p>

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<p>You might want to visit Bowdoin and Middlebury during the academic year because it would be hard to go back to visit. If you make sure that you have enough time for the farther schools, you will be able to do an overnight, attend a class or two, and take a tour.</p>

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<p>
[quote]
In terms distances from Boston, how far away are most of the New England schools (Amherst, Bowdoin, Brown, Middlebury, Tufts, Wesleyan, Williams, and Yale)?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Boston-Tufts: 15-40minutes depending on where you are in Boston
Boston-Amherst/Williams: 1 hour(?) rough est.
Boston-Brown: 40 minutes-1.5 hours depending on where you are in Boston
Boston-Bowdoin: 2.5-3 hours
Boston-Middlebury: 5 hours guesstimate (Bowdoin -Middlebury is approx. 5 hrs)</p>

<p>Remember to allow lots of getting lost/bad traffic padding to these times when you are trying to make a scheduled tour/info session/interview.</p>

<p>Once you get past the 1-1.5 hour mark, I think you and your family will be much happier changing hotels so you can spend time soaking up the college experience instead of the "road trip" experience.</p>

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<p>jmmom -</p>

<p>Thanks so much for the input! I am now actually considering going with my sister instead of my mother. Since it sounds like we will have to stop and stay at a bunch of places, my mother is really picky about where she stays (the hotel, condo, whatever), but my sister and I are pretty low-maintenance and would be fine staying in motels or something for a few nights.</p>

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<p>richard - I think I am like our mother ;) re the hotel biases.</p>

<p>You are right when you talked about seeing schools for different purposes </p>

<p>The posters who are suggesting not waiting until October are probably focused on helping you decide where to apply. Obviously, you can apply to some places you haven't seen if the travel to all is just too much to get done this academic year.</p>

<p>We took the approach that if we had to get on a plane, it was going to one time only and we'd better do as much as possible in the one visit. If it was a 5-hour drive or less, we could always go back. Sounds like your parents are more time-pressed, so doing some with your sister and going with parents to the most important/farthest or whatever might work.</p>

<p>One approach we used which might help you is to visit some nearby schools of urban/rural large/small to see if S would rule out certain "types." That might help you narrow down your more distant list a bit.</p>

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<p>jmmom, include Amherst in trip 2b. It's closer to Yale, I think.</p>

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<p>Richard</p>

<p>I was suggesting doing at least a few schools now, in the Spring, to give you a feel for different campuses, time to digest the information, as well as not to have to do 12 schools in 1 week of October. These are major life decisions, and should not be done in one rushed trip.</p>

<p>When my daughter was in her Junior year, we visited 4 schools on one road trip, and then many weeks later saw 5 on another trip. She actually ended up applying to some of those schools, as well as a few that we have not seen. So more visits are coming up for us very soon.</p>

<p>It does not appear that you are considering Early Decision at this point, (which is a binding-decision if you are accepted). When I spoke of applying early, I was referring to Early Action, which quite a few schools offer, and the great thing about this is that if you apply EA, by their deadline (usually Nov.1 or Nov.15....), you could get an answer by Dec.20, and it's not binding to you, and feels amazing to have that in your back pocket!! Another positive is that at least some apps. get done in Nov., and you are not that stressed out in December.</p>

<p>Yale, which you are considering, offers Single Choice Early Action, SCEA, meaning you cannot apply EA anywhere else. </p>

<p>Make a list of your schools, deadlines, and whether they are RD, EA, SCEA, etc., to help you come up with a strategy in the early Fall.</p>

<p>As I said before, and jmmom reiterated, you do not have to visit every school before applying.</p>

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<p>By the way, I would leave the Boston area after i was done seeing Tufts, Williams and Amherst, and head down towards Brown (RI). See Brown, and then head to Connecticut for the night (for Yale and Wesleyan). You are on the right track, planning this far ahead.</p>

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<p>Yale is in New Haven, Ct. Amherst is in Mass., more toward the western portion of the state.</p>

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<p>I stand corrected jmmom, in fact now I remember that it's the reason we skipped Amherst on our Boston/RI trip last year. It's probably 2 hours from Boston, and 1.25 from Wesleyan??</p>

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<p>choco - I was just responding to zuma who said Amherst was near Yale. Not really sure how far it is from Wesleyan, as haven't been to that campus.</p>

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<p>Richard, I'm not from the NE area, but I did this trip with my daughter last summer, so this is my 2 cents. Go to Swat and Princeton first this spring, maybe one of the NYC schools, this spring, and assess how you feel about them, in terms of large (if you do NYU), medium and small. Think hard about rural pros and cons. If there was some way to get out to a rural school, that would be great - are any of those small Pennsylvania schools in reasonable driving distance?
The reason I would do this is if you have to go on a blitzkrieg trip, it is best to eliminate as many types of schools as you can at first - For example, if small LACs aren't for you, your trip will be very different, than if you loved Swarthmore, if you need to be in the city or on public trans, then don't bother going to Middlebury.</p>

<p>As an alternate route, to cover as many different types of colleges - how about driving to Yale, then heading north across CT - Yale, Wesleyan, Amherst, Williams - that would give you urban (but not NYC urban), small town and rural? Williams is sort of directly north of New Haven, just make a little curve over to pick up Wes and Amherst. Then a separate trip to Boston/Bowdoin</p>

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<p>Boston to Middlebury is 4 hours, not 5. Williams to Middlebury is 2.5 hours (in fact, the same road (Route 7) goes right through both campuses). Middlebury to Dartmouth is 1 hour and 45 minutes. I would do Williams, Amherst, Middlebury and Dartmouth in the same trip.</p>

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<p>There is a book called "Visiting College Campuses" that is very helpful. It has all the travel times between schools in a big grid, & it has hotel , restaurant tips. It also lists the vacation times of all the schools (so you don't wind up arriving at an empty campus.) </p>

<p>It is easier to start somewhere like Bowdoin, then work your way south, with different hotels. You might also consider staying on the campuses while your mom stays in a hotel.</p>

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<p>It is true that seeing a college when it is not in session will skew your perceptions...usually in a negative way due to the "vacant" look, but you really have no choice. Use your imagination, visualize, ask for formal interviews after studying the school website and course offerings thoroughly, and "see" the colleges ASAP because you need to be narrowing your focus if you are going to apply to highly selective colleges on this list. Interviews are crucial at some of these schools, so don't walk in cold like a tourist. Try not to let your parents do much of the speaking up. Try to arrive rested, groomed and with a few good questions ready. Formal tours are offered all summer on most campuses in groups. You may want to go ahead and do a formal interview when on campus if you feel oriented to a school's ethos and image. It is a lot to expect of you now, but believe me, senior year does not allow for tons of traveling before the applications are due, especially if you Early Decision. They are all looking for Yield and kids seriously interested in their specific school. Do not underestimate how time consuming the senior fall visits are, so you need to have a much shorter list before Fall. Overnights and class visits to 2-3 schools will assist you in writing specific, enthusiastic essays. But overnights take a lot of energy. You are a guest and students are doing you a favor to entertain you, and they appreciate it if you are serious before you arrive, and if you are aware of about their college's good points. After all, they chose this school, so you must be very polite to faculty and guest hosts, including follow up thank you letters etc. I recommend that you read Harvard Schmarvard. The author is a Harvard grad, but does a good common sense job of steering highly motivated students like yourself towards putting in applications to great schools where admission is not so extremely rare. Make sure to spread your applications to Reach and True Match and Safety Schools, as getting in to Ivy's can be sort of like "getting struck by lightening" (his words.) There truly are many superb universities in our country, and you could be happy at several of them, so keep your mind and heart open. Have a wonderful search, and best wishes.</p>

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<p>Ricard, I would seriously take a look at Dartmouth as well, its about 2-2.5 hours north of Boston, and it seems up your alley (Academic, community, half LAC, half Ivy University.) Its also situated nicely for your visits. I went there and loved it, but I think you might be very surprised at how much you will like it if you like the LACs.</p>

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<p>you should also check out the book "Getting In" by Jennifer Finney Boylan--a novel about a road trip to the elite New England colleges. </p>

<p><a href="http://www.colby.edu/personal/j/jfboylan/getin/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.colby.edu/personal/j/jfboylan/getin/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>Having done a similar expedition, I agree with cangel's post above. You'll kill a half day at each of these places, and the travel distances/ time is more than you think.</p>

<p>I strongly suggest you put in a great deal of upfront investigation time before you finalize your itinerary, and eliminate the schools that you can determine won't work for you so well. Then you can limit your stops to the schools that really matter.</p>

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<p>jmmom, takes me less time to drive from New Haven to Amherst than it does from Cambridge. From my actual driving experience, cangel has it about right.</p>

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<p>PS
The New England schools' waiting rooms for Admissions offer handy Travel Direction cards to many schools of high caliber since they are used to families who "blitz" the region and see all the schools at once. Nice courtesy.</p>