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Hey Im plannign on visiting the East Coast in the SUmmer. I'll fly there early Sunday morning and leave late wednesday night. Ill probably fly into Boston and Im planning on visiting HArvard, Amherst, BU, Princeton, Yale and Brown. I know this is quite a bit to squeeze into my tight schedule but does anyone have any recommendations on how I might be able to do it? Im from LA so i have no idea. Im thinking I want to spend more time at HArvard (dream school) and less at BU (safety).
THanks soo sooo much for any input!!!

By Thisistrue (Thisistrue) on Sunday, April 13, 2003 - 04:32 pm: Edit

lol. I remember good old times when I used to dream about going to Harvard....before they just SMASHED IT AND TORE IT TO PIECES.

It might not be such a great idea to visit these campuses before you get all the acceptance/rejection letters. It's just gonna make it harder to deal with rejections.

And remember!! admissinos office can be, rather ARE very random. apply to many safety schools, as well. All the universities that you have listed seem to be hard-to-get-into schools, except BU. I don't even know what BU is.

It is gonna be really hard to getinto Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Amherst and Brown. I myself have been rejected by the first three and admitted to Amherst and Brown. I guess my case isn't that bad...I've heard of someoen being rejected from all the universities he applied.

Anyway, my suggestion is don't visit those universities before you actually apply. It is gonna be much better to do so after you get in. Sometime in April, I guess. Good luck.

By Wadad (Wadad) on Sunday, April 13, 2003 - 04:57 pm: Edit

Rheady,
If your time is limited to Sunday AM to Wed night, I think you should think long & hard about dropping some schools from your list. Given the driving time between these schools you would not have much time to see them. When we visited schools last spring we often spent 6 hours per school, basically 1 per day. Also if you spend 10 hours a day visiting schools, the trip will begin to feel like a death-march for most kids. i know my daughter was pretty tired of the process by the end of each day.

In my view the spring Junior year trips are useful in helping your son/daughter decide what kind of school they want to apply to: big versus small, university versus Liberal Art College, in a city versus suburb versus rural. Many places we went didn't do interviews at that time, and I don't think my daughter was ready to make a good impression during an interview. She ended up doing alumni interviews at 80% of the schools to which she applied, and that worked out fine.

If your son/daughter is still trying to decide what kind of school to apply to I would stick with Harvard, BU and Amherst to give a cross section of top Ivy, major urban university and top LAC, then pick 1 other school from your list. Remember that on Sunday the best you might get is a campus tour, or more probably just be able to walk around the campus and eat in the cafeteria.

By Soozievt (Soozievt) on Monday, April 14, 2003 - 09:06 pm: Edit

My thoughts.....(btw I have a junior daughter and have done many college visits this year, plus some were to schools you mentioned, plus I know the area, having gone to college and graduate school in Boston).....

I disagree with the poster who advised against visiting schools til you get the acceptance/rejection letters. To me, the reason to visit now BEFORE applying is to figure out WHERE you want to apply and the best way to see how you like the school is to visit it. Otherwise, you are simply applying to schools by their name/reputation and stats in a book. The visits help you determine if the school feels right for YOU. Why bother applying to a school that is not right for you? After the decision is made regarding admissions, then you can go back to your top choice(s) to look more in depth and make the final decision.

I agree with the dad who posted that a solid college visit takes about 6 hours on campus. Much less is not that that informative other than in the looks department. To me, doing one school per day is about right. MAYBE if two schools are just a few miles apart, maybe you could squeeze two into a day. Also Sundays are not good days to visit as normally the tours and info. sessions are not running on Sundays, nor could you meet with professors...so keep that in mind. All that said....knowing the area as I do.....even IF you visit a school on Sunday.....I could see you doing either BU or Harvard on Sunday and the other one on Monday and then later in the day on Monday driving to Amherst. See Amherst on Tuesday. Tuesday night drive to Providence. Visit Brown on Wednesday and see if you can return to Boston to take a later flight back home that night. I cannot see how you could fit Yale or Princeton into that trip, unless you eliminated one of these schools like Amherst. If you did, then you could do Brown after Harvard and BU, and then finish up at Yale but still have to make it back to Boston to fly home. Princeton is way far away from these other schools. There are only so many hours in a day. For a reference...BU and Harvard are about 15 min. apart. Brown is about one hour from these two Boston schools. Amherst is about 2 1/2 hours from Boston. Not sure but Yale might be 3 hours from Boston. Princeton is far....in Central Jersey. You would need more days to add that school just to include the drive time alone.

Hope this is a bit informative.
Susan (from Vermont but grew up in NJ and went to college and grad school in Boston)