<p>Update, if anyone reads this . . .</p>
<p>We did the trip. Thanks for all your suggestions! </p>
<p>We didn’t take the dog, fortunately, but I have to pay a huge dog-walking fee. We didn’t take the ferry, but stopped at Chicago twice, which was great because we got to have Fat Elvis waffles at the Little Goat Diner twice, and experienced beautiful weather there for the 4th of July.</p>
<p>We did spend a day in Sheboygan, which was really nice, and I wouldn’t have known about it if people didn’t mention it here.</p>
<p>As for schools: I think it was a great trip and D learned a lot. Even though schools were out of session, it was well worth it to visit because we can’t take this trip any other time. Her favorite school by far was Lawrence. No surprise, we had a wonderful tour guide there. I also loved Beloit, with its two museums on campus, great freshman program, and great study abroad options (all the schools of course have these, but B’s looked special). The Kalamazoo tour guide was fantastic, also, but we didn’t like the school as much as we would have hoped, not that she is giving up on it. Juniata was also much lovelier than we were expecting, warm, cozy, and beautiful. </p>
<p>The school that left the least impression was Wooster–we had a terrible tour guide. It was a big open house day there, we got to eat at the cafeteria, listen to talks, etc., but that tour guide put a big damper on the experience.</p>
<p>Glad that you found some schools to love. Lawrence was such a great experience for us too. It made it all the way to the final list. If your D is interested at all in physics, they do a physics weekend for admitted students in the spring. It served as a great admitted student event.</p>
<p>Always nice to get a follow-up.</p>
<p>So happy to hear the report! I know two kids starting at Lawrence in the fall–both very bright, accomplished young men. I am glad the school is getting on the radar for more kids.</p>
<p>Lawrence was one of the first schools we visited and we enjoyed it, a lot. Glad your trip went well.</p>
<p>Glad it went well. I have one starting Lawrence this fall… he’s very excited. Too bad about Wooster… my oldest is there. It’s a great school. It just goes to show what impression on the whole school a good or bad tour guide can make.</p>
<p>Besides Sheboygan and Chicago…and other “side” trips that were worthwhile?</p>
<p>Lawrence, Beloit and Juniata are a good range of schools…</p>
<p>We didn’t have time for other side trips–there were so many mentioned that I wanted to do, but couldn’t. In Sheboygan we went to the Kohler Museum, which was recommended, and it was wonderful. We also spent time in the Kohler-Andrae State Park, which was great, and had some great food. It was a great way to take a break from the college tours. On our path in Wisconsin we were casually looking for cheese farms and cheese sampling, or special ice cream shops, but didn’t find much, except one nice store in Beloit. In Chicago we went to the Art Institute and wandered through the Lincoln Park Zoo. Typical but wonderful.</p>
<p>All the schools we saw this trip were small, known for having personalized education, and students forming great relationships with their professors. In some ways they started to look alike–all bragged about roughly the same thing. What made them distinguishable from each other aside from location were the little things, such as which schools had dorm options that were themed houses (writers house, environmental house, etc) vs. which schools had houses that a pre-formed group of friends had to compete for. We like the idea of the former (Lawrence, Beloit) much better than the latter (Wooster, Kalamazoo).</p>
<p>Of course there were bigger things that set the schools apart, and made a big impression: Lawrence with the music, Beloit with the Anthropology and Museum Studies. </p>
<p>It was great doing the trip this way–seeing similar schools–because were able to get down to the details, rather than just saying we liked x school because it has small classes . . . because they all had small classes.</p>