College Roadtrip Advice

Applying to College
1

<p>Hello, College Confidential! Been a lurker on this fantastic community for quite a while. But now, I have a problem of my own:
I’m an international student with a US Citizenship and soon, I will be travelling to the West Coast of the United States primarily to visit some colleges. I will very most likely be applying to most of them. My family and I have looked at all of the information available at the sites, and have planned the trip accordingly. We were wondering if you could give some advice on the matter. Is it nicely balanced? Plausible? After these college visits, we will head inland to the Midwest to visit the friends and family we have there:
• Day 1 – Arrive at JFK Airport, Drive to Hartford CT, Get Lodging
• Day 2 – Relaxation from trip, leisure
• Day 3 – Visit relatives and friends in Hartford
• Day 4 – Drive to Brown University (City of Providence)
o Drive to Maine and get lodging
• Day 5 – Bates Tour at 9 AM
o Info Session at 10 AM (also possible interview)
o Explore town
o Drive to Brunswick (Bowdoin College’s city) , get lodging
• Day 6 – Bowdoin Tour at 9 AM
o Info Session at 10 AM (also possible interview)
o Explore Brunswick
o Drive to Boston, get lodging
• Day 7 – Tour Harvard at 10 AM
o Tour MIT at 2 PM
o Explore Boston
• Day 8 – Drive to Amherst , get lodging
o Explore Town
o Amherst Info Session at 3 PM
o Amherst Tour at 4 PM
o Explore Town, visit friends
• Day 9 – Drive to Williamstown (city of Williams College)
o Williams Info Session at 10:15 AM
o Williams Tour at 11:30 AM
o Drive to Amherst, get lodging
• Day 10 – Drive to Hartford, get lodging
o Explore town
• Day 11 – Drive to Yale, get lodging
o Yale Tour at 12:30 PM
o Info Session at 2 PM
• Day 12 – Drive to Princeton
o Princeton Tour at 11:15 AM
o Info Session at 1 PM
o Drive to Swarthmore, get lodging
• Day 13
o Swarthmore Tour at 10 AM
o Swarthmore Info Session at 11 AM</p>

<p>I have a nice list of questions to ask and things to do to make the most of the tour and information sessions. I have also created a two page (1 sheet) profile about my general academic information and my extracurriculars (I believe it’s actually very impressive :slight_smile: ) Any thing else I can do to show my interest?
Thank you very much for reading this far. Can you help?</p>

2

<p>First of all, that’s east coast. Second, it sounds doable but exhausting! Make sure all those schools are schools you’re actually truly interested in…not just for the name.</p>

3

<p>Also those schools are all reaches for almost everyone (except Bates, maybe Bowdoin). You should really substitute the schools you are less interested in for some matches/safeties if you can… Because even if you are 4.0/2400/varsity athlete/sci olympiad state winner, it’s plausible you could get waitlisted or rejected at all of those schools. (Not likely in that scenario, but its best to have backups)</p>

<p>EDIT: Also I would recommend exploring Providence. There are good restaurants.</p>