Depending on the sequence in which you’re going to see the schools, one option is to see the city schools first and therefore avoid renting a car at the airport. There can be incredibly long lines for renting cars at the Boston airport. I have waited in line a solid hour and a half there more than once. That depends on which car rental agency you are using. If you’re paying the premium for Hertz, then you are less likely to face this. If you’re going with one of the cheaper rental agencies, it is quite likely you will deal with this.
There is a free bus called the SL1 (it’s part of the MBTA) which will take you out into the city from Logan. It costs a few dollars to use it to get back to the airport, but it is free when leaving the airport. You can use SL1 to get to South Station and then use the T or a taxi or Uber to get to your hotel. My guess is they are probably closing down one of the airport tunnels again this summer (??) for construction, and traffic near the airport will be bad if that is the case. I’d probably try to avoid renting a car at Logan this summer if it were me.
Then when you get to the point at which you need a car for the trips that are further out, rent somewhere (not at the airport) at that point.
We live in central New York. We plan to drive so we can see some of the 5 college consortium schools along the way and/or Connecticut College. There are just so many!
Just throwing in a school that would be a safety as your list is reach heavy for most kids. Endicot. She’d be “near-ish” Boston, but in a beautiful suburb. More pre-professional than LAC, but has it’s own beach. Worth a visit if you just want to decompress for a day on the Northshore.
You can do the central MA colleges on the way by getting on the Mass Pike, and then take 95 South towards Providence and see Conn College/New London on the way home?
If you haven’t already looked at Drew University, I would highly recommend it for a student looking for a SLAC with a charming town nearby. Lovely campus and Madison, NJ is a 10 min walk from the campus with boutiques, ice cream shops and restaurants as well as a train to NYC (45 mins to Penn Station).
If you want to stay in a suburb, and since BC is on your list, I’d recommend the AC Marriott in Cleveland Circle. It’s walkable to BC (and the walk is very pretty, going through the quarry). There’s a really good breakfast place (Cafe Landwer) that’s right next to the hotel, and it’s on the T.
If you want to stay in Boston, I would second the recommendation for Hotel Commonwealth - right next to a T station, walkable to the fun shops and restaurants on Newbury St. and the hotel itself is very nice.
You are getting very good advice here. I’m a long-term Bostonian and both of my kids attended undergrad in MA. Your first instinct is correct. Driving in Boston can be painful.
You can stay on the Green Line (various branches go to BU, BC and Tufts but not Brandeis). An alternative would be to stay near the Red Line. The Davis Square Inn (caveat: know nothing about it) is a short walk to the T and it looks like a 15-20 min walk to Tufts. I think you can take the Red LIne one stop to Porter Square and then Commuter rail from Porter Square to Brandeis (though I would tend to drive from Davis Square to Brandeis. There is a Porter Square Hotel (easy to get to Brandeis by commuter rail and one subway stop to Davis Square).
I have copied into posts the rankings of schools that have the highest percentage of alumni giving. I take that as something of a proxy for the strength of feeling that graduates have about their alma maters. With a couple of exceptions (Yale and Notre Dame), almost all of the schools that have the highest percentage of alumni giving are located in burbs or rural areas. Amherst, Williams and Bowdoin rank very high on this scale among smaller schools. Is your D looking at any of them? In the list I posted, Williams is the highest but on another list that I looked at, Amherst was higher. (Princeton and Dartmouth always lead the larger schools).
Slightly revised plan. I think we’ll plan a separate trip to the consortium colleges at another time. I’m thinking we will take Amtrak into Boston in late June (around June 24) and stay somewhere near the Green Line for 3-4 nights. I’m looking at the AC Marriott and the Beacon Inn. We’ll visit Tufts, BU, BC, and maybe Brandeis, Wellesley, or Emerson if there is time. Does this sound workable to those who know the area?
I think it can work…but those colleges are spread all over Boston! You will really get to see the greater Boston area if you go to all of them.
I think your plan to use public transport and not drive is a good one. It will take some planning to get from one place to another if you plan to do two colleges each day. But it’s doable…
That’s why I had her narrow to her top three, especially if we’re doing it in only three days. Maybe we could do BU and BC in the same day. And Tufts a different day. We won’t see all of the others. I figure we’ll get feel for the top three and then decide if she wants to try to get to one of the others, and if so, which one. It’s not much time, but I hope it helps her get a look at the Boston area. She’s only spent time in one real city. I worked in another country in a city of about 1.5 million for about four months. She loved it. Compared to our home, it was huge. Compared to Boston, not so much.
Just want to say that despite its reputation, Boston isn’t that hard to drive in and you could maybe save some time (and money). parking might be hard at BU but not any of the other schools.
Brandeis and Wellesley have compact, easy to navigate campuses. BU’s is sprawling, but most kids have a relatively instant reaction to the campus-- “I love being smack dab in the middle of a city” or “Wow, this is noisy and crowded”. So you don’t need to explore every nook and corner to figure out if it’s on the list or not. Emerson is small- but also smack dab in the middle of Boston, so easy to do a quick visit.
Was just in Boston last weekend, I didn’t find it hard to drive in with gps, but I’m comfortable driving in manhattan, Philadelphia, DC, Chicago… However, we mostly walked and ubered (it was not easy retrieving our car from the hotel valet - $75, and it was a very quick trip).
The AC Marriott in Brookline would be really easy and fun for you and your daughter for all the reasons listed above. If you like walking, you can walk to BC and BU from there (maybe BU is a bit farther of a walk but BC is basically right there), or take a quick Uber or the T. Brandeis is a 15 minute drive to Waltham (not city driving - I also don’t like driving in unfamiliar cities so I understand!), and then you can Uber to Emerson or take the T.
The other option would be to stay in Waltham near Brandeis. There are many hotel options there, but you won’t get a “feel” for the area as much as you would if you stay in Brookline.
If you decide to see Wellesley, it’s a 15/20 minute drive from Brookline - easy driving. Have fun!
This is good info to know, especially for anyone reading this who might be looking for info and is more comfortable driving than I. I have some experience driving in West coast cities, but the East coast ones have a whole different feel that I find too stressful. Plus I live in a very small city. It’s barely a city at about ~15,000 and surrounded by rural areas. I think we’ll have fun walking around too. My D and I love exploring cities by foot when we travel.
It would take over an hour to walk from the AC Marriott in Cleveland Circle to the BU Admissions office on Bay State Road, and with the Green Line right there, there would be no need to walk. Also, Cleveland Circle is an O.K. neighborhood, but it doesn’t beat, say, Back Bay, as a fun place to stay.