<p>So thinking about heading up to Vt. and will have a 4 days to look at colleges. Will be staying near White River Junction. Will look at Dartmouth. Thinking about Middlebury, UVM, UMass. Any other suggestions? Thank you.</p>
<p>Colby, Bowdoin, (maine) UNH</p>
<p>Not aside from the obvious observation that UMass is not in VT or NH, and if you’re going to visit UMass, you may want to take a look at Hampshire or the other 5 colleges.</p>
<p>Marlboro College (Marlboro, VT), Franklin Pierce (Rindge, NH)</p>
<p>It doesn’t quite fit in with your list, but if you’re passing nearby you should visit Bennington. The campus should be gorgeous this time of year.</p>
<p>Do you want us to just name schools that are near the ones you’ve mentioned or do you have something in particular you are interested in - size, cost, rural, particular major, etc? My son is in college in Vermont but we would not have visited any on that list besides UVM.</p>
<p>UVM, might be a good safety - smaller than UMass.</p>
<p>Champlain College in Burlington…just off of the UVM campus.</p>
<p>It’s very hard to go east (to Maine) from White River Junction. Lots of mountains in the way.</p>
<p>Thank you for your replies. Sorry I didn’t mention that we’ll be driving from CT, so Amherst will be on the way to White River Junction. Looking to show D what a big school would be like (UMass) vs a smaller liberal art schools. Reach schools are fine to check out along with safety or just right. This is first trip looking and want it to be fun. Does anyone have an opinion of seeing Middlebury or Williams? Not sure if we’ll have time to see both. We won’t be able to go to Maine on this trip. Looking for a 2 hour drive radius from WRJ to a school or schools each day. Thanks again.</p>
<p>I would suggest that if this is her first trip out not to spend 4+ hours/day for 4 days driving to various campuses. I would pick 2 to hit going up, maybe one around where you are staying, take a day off and just enjoy the area and maybe 2 more on the way home. I wouldn’t do more than one tour each day though-drive through/walk around the second campus. That is a long 4 days if you are touring that many schools.</p>
<p>Williams is only 1 mile from Vermont border and a beautiful campus.</p>
<p>Interestingly, the same road runs straight through Williamstown and Middlebury, so it’s impossible to get lost. On the other hand, you’ll be on Route 7 for nearly 3 hours. Both are well worth the effort…</p>
<p>
UMass and Amherst are about 1/2 mile apart … doing both tours in one day is very easy … and they are VERY different schools. </p>
<p>Where in CT are you starting from?</p>
<p>When you go to UMass, don’t just drive around the perimeter road, get out and walk around, especially the area around the pond. UMass has a rather random collection of buildings, but there is a remarkable amount of open space. The campus is nicer than it looks at first glance.</p>
<p>Just make the trip make driving sense. If you’re driving up Rt 91, Williams can be a 1.5-2 hour drive west from Amherst- and if I remember correctly, parts of the road (the more direct route) are local? (Steve?) And then Williams is a 2+ hour drive to WRJ, through the mtns. I’d do UM/A and A, head for D and M-- and then see if you have the energy to come back past Williams. Agree with Steve not to make this trip a blur- and to have some fun.</p>
<p>Also, many kids like St Michael’s College. I don’t know more than that.</p>
<p>For a first trip I think I would do consortium (all five schools – women’s college, alternate college, traditional LAC and big public) and get the flavor of many different types of schools. Then I’d add Williams and maybe Middlebury.</p>
<p>On a second trip I’d do Colby, Bates, Bowdoin and Dartmouth and maybe MIddlebury.</p>
<p>We are on LI, and took the ferry and drove to Maine, did the three Maine schools, saw Dartmouth, Middlebury, Williams and then did Amherst. (UMass and Hampshire were not considerations for my S. Nor were the women’s colleges, obviously.)</p>
<p>We found this manageable.</p>
<p>He remembered details about each and every school.</p>
<p>The only school he really noticed was Williams. He was one of the seven second kids with the “this is it” experience.</p>
<p>However, any one of those schools could produce this in your D.</p>
<p>It’s about 2 hours from Dart to Midd and 2 hours to Williams and 1 and 1/2 to Amherst, if that helps.</p>
<p>I am writing from Middlebury right now. We just like an inn here and came up for a few days.</p>
<p>We often come here and make all those trips.</p>
<p>
I asked this question because it might be easy for you to catch Yale (and Wesleyan) also which would add a school in an urban environment (if you live in central CT) … or maybe Harvard/MIT/BU/BC/Brown if you live in eastern CT.</p>
<p>Also, if visiting Middlebury or Williams, it is not that far to visit schools across the border in NY such as Skidmore and Union.</p>
<p>We always started our college searches in Amherst, because of the possibility of looking at a large state school (UMass), small LAC (Amherst) and alternative school (Hampshire).</p>
<p>I want to second Bennington, which is very close to Williams, just over the Vermont border on Rte. 7.</p>