I’m currently a junior and this summer my family will be taking a trip out east. This is not exclusively a college road trip, so I’ll be limited to 3, maybe 4, schools. I’d really like to see schools which are rep representative of that type of institution (Ivys, LACs, Large, Small, etc.). So far I’ve thought about Princeton, MIT, and Williams.
As far as my preferences go, I plan to major in physics and would enjoy the full collegiate experience. I’m also a sucker for beautiful campuses.
Thanks!
bump
visiting during the summer will let you see pretty buildings, scenic landscaping, etc. Visiting when school is in session lets you get a sense of what its like to be a student there.
If you visit Boston you get MIT, Harvard and Wellesley(LAC) in one day.
MIT and Princeton are huge reaches. It doesn’t hurt to look at an Ivy though. If you’re going to hit up only three-four schools, you should have one uber-reach, a mild reach (like Williams), a match school (I don’t know what your PSAT is but maybe Wellesley, Northeastern or UMass) and a similar school that you really like (Mount Holyoke etc.)
I would check out Brown (close enough to Boston) & Penn too (close enough to Princeton). Both had campuses with instant appeal for me.
“I’m … a sucker for beautiful campuses.”
Thrillest has a site, “The 25 Most Beautiful College Campuses in America.” Seven are in the Northeast:
Brown
Columbia
Hamilton
Harvard
Mount Holyoke (You didn’t say.)
Princeton
Yale
Six of the seven are most selective, one is more selective (USNWR). Not sure, btw, how Colgate and Cornell did not make their list.
“I’d really like to see schools which are representative of that type of institution”
I gave a relative the same advice. Two of the main axes are exclusively undergraduate-focused versus university and rural/village/suburban versus urban. If by seeing a few representative schools you are able to solidly your preferences along these lines, then the next stage of your search will be greatly simplified.
Good luck.
From the Thrillist (sp. correction) group, seeing Hamilton, Princeton and either Columbia or Yale would give you a feel for colleges of various types. MIT, in setting and size, could serve as an initial substitute for Columbia/Yale.
I don’t know that I’d put MIT and Yale in the same boat aesthetically. Yale is all about the charming Collegiate Gothic and Georgian courtyards. MIT is massive and urban.
Hamilton’s physics department has produced both a Nobel Prize winner and an Apker Award winner, probably one of only a few small colleges to have done so.
^ I don’t disagree completely, @porcupine98. I mentioned MIT mostly because it’s in the OP’s brief initial list. The universities do strike me also as being different in architecture: Yale is classically gothic, and therefore aesthetic, but still urban. MIT has recently worked hard to design buildings tailored to community interaction (and is therefore appealing in a different way). So maybe they have some similarities.
But I absolutely second the recommendation to try out a variety. Rural vs. urban, large vs. small, private vs. state, tech centric vs. liberal arts – whatever applies within your intended range. I can also counsel visiting one or two early in the game that are at least a desirable match or better still a safety. Finding matches and safeties you can love will do wonders for everyone’s stress levels as the process continues.
^^ gothic > Gothic.
If the OP can only see three schools during the trip, maybe imagining Princeton in the setting of MIT approximates Yale’s environment.
MIT and Yale are definitely both worth a visit if they’re in your target zone, but I see them more as standing in contrast to one another (though both are schools nestled right in a city).
^^^^ For anyone paying attention, “aesthetic” as a stand-alone adjective/noun in my post is probably incorrect usage. “Classically aesthetic” would work in its place.
Make sure you visit a range of schools, not just the elites. You want a realistic chance of getting in somewhere, and the ivies are reaches for everyone. Just a thought.