<p>I am totally baffeled as to just HOW my husband thinks he and our son are going to be able to visit (and tour ) the following schools in 4 days Feb20th-24th</p>
<p>U Chicago
U of Michigan
Oberlin
Carnage Melon</p>
<p>For starters we live in Manhattan and dont have experience driving . This is so overwhelming to me that Ive decided pass. My son is simply taking the lead of my husband who seems to feel that he will be able to manage the 4 visits
I feel that 2 schools would be possible in 4 days but there is no arguing with him .</p>
<p>Am I wrong to feell that visiting these schools in 4 days is somewhat impossible ?
Thanks very much
Marsha</p>
<p>I think this is doable; we live in Cleveland…it is probably about a 3 hour drive from Pittsburgh (where Cargneige Mellon is located) to Oberlin, OH (about an hour west of Cleveland)…then from Oberlin to Ann Arbor, MI (for U of M) will be another 2-3 hours at most. I don’t know about the commute between Ann Arbor and Chicago, but I would bet it would be no more than 4 hours (it is 5-6 hours to drive between Cleveland & Chicago). All the roads for these travels will largely be freeway or tolled interstate highways, so as long as the weather cooperates somewhat I think that this should work out fine…touring during the day, then driving in the later afternoon and evening hours. </p>
<p>Without much driving experience, seeing all of these schools are located in the Snow Belt and you are nearly 100% guaranteed to see snow during that time, I would be concerned. (for someone with plenty of experience in winter driving, assuming no blizzards, it’s totally doable - attend presentations in morning, stick around campus through lunch, then drive to next city).</p>
<p>The order of the schools would be as vandyeyes suggests: CM, Oberlin, Michigan & Chicago or reversed. You could rent a car one way in NYC, return it in Chicago and fly home.</p>
<p>Feb. 20 -24 gives you five days. Are they flying into (Chicago? is that the starting point?) on the 20th and flying back to NYC on the 24th? I agree it’s doable, provided the weather cooperates. My daughter and I visited four colleges (three in VA and Georgetown) over five days last summer. Even with relatively short driving distances between the schools, by the end of the trip, we were pretty tired and all the schools sort of blurred together.</p>
<p>Dont yet know the starting point but it will probaly be that they fly into Chicago.
Yikes Id totally forgotten about the possibility of snow !<br>
Thanks to all thus far for the VERY helpful feedback …</p>
<p>Do-able assuming no major weather issues, some night driving, and aggressive attention to schedule. Google maps says 4 hrs Chicago to Ann Arbor, 2.5 to Oberlin OH, and 3 hrs to Pittsburgh. S should plan on writing down notes & thoughts about each visit in car as the schools will run together by the 4th one. Assuming your husband is doing ALL the driving, S’s job is navigation & keeping his dad awake. </p>
<p>When D was looking, we did DC area (home) - CMU, Pitt, Penn State, Delaware, and Marlyand - home in I think 6 days. I think we did a drive-by/through of another school while we were at it. 1 day/school and we had children of friends attending CMU & Pitt take us around in addition to the official tours. Down day w family in NJ between Penn St & UD, drove back to NJ after UD (where I proved “dad’s shortcut” was not!), hit UMD on way home. Our weather issues were a spring storm that went from rain to sleet & snow crossing the ridgelines between Pittsburgh & Penn State (~15 minutes of “I am so glad this car has AWD!”), and torrential rain the day we visited UD. Tiring but very worth it. </p>
<p>It might be worth reserving a rental car with AWD depending on the extended forecast that week.</p>
<p>You could also schedule a few ‘drive bys’ that are along the way. Notre Dame is the first one that comes to mind, as you can see the golden dome from the Indiana Turnpike.</p>
<p>^Yikes!! MORE colleges? I agree, barring weather, that it CAN be done from a geography standpoint, but by the end, your son’s and hubbie’s brains are likely to be mush. Take a camera (or use camera phone if you feel like you’d be too “touristy”) and take pictures of each school. EVERY NIGHT, write down what you did/did not like about each place…take all the literature and put each in a separate folder (as school A’s study abroad program may forget the logo…) and try to take a minute on each campus to do something fun – get a coffee at UMich, pop into the art museum at Oberlin, etc…</p>
<p>Good luck and safe travels! May you keep each school straight in your minds!!</p>
<p>Also…since you aren’t heavy drivers…get a GPS with the rental car – that way if you miss a turn, it will help you find your way!!!</p>
<p>OP … this looks quite doable to me. With my two oldest I’ve done over 40 visits and most were done with at least 2 visits a day. Most schools have morning and afternoon tours … with planning two formal tours can be squeezed into a day … and then commute to the next town and sleep near the first tour of the next day. A lot of folks on CC think visiting 2 schools a day is too much and spending less than a full day at a school is short changing a school. For my kids this advice did not work for a couple reasons … first, and most importantly, we had limited time and bucks to visit schools so if we has a day in the DC/Baltimore area (for example) we tried to get a look at all the schools of interest in the area … second, for A LOT of schools (probably over 1/2) my kids pretty quickly knew they did not want to attend the schools so having a full day allocated would have been a huge waste.</p>
<p>Personally I found driving to visits very helpful … we had a plan however we also had other schools of interest already identified in case we decided to change plans or cut a visit short or add some drive-by visits on the way to our next days visit. If you do drive be sure to have a GPS; they are a HUGE help driving to unknown places.</p>
<p>It’s only four schools, and all entirely distinctive. The only question is the weather (oh, and driving in Chicago is, um, interesting for the inexperienced driver).</p>
<p>If you fly into Chicago, just reverse it - you’ll take I-94 straight from Chicago to Ann Arbor - then do Oberlin, then Pitt. Then you’re closer to hope at the end when you’re all tuckered out. </p>
<p>Also keep in mind the individual schools - for instance, Oberlin is smallish - you can tour it in a couple hours. Michigan on the other hand - large and very spread out - I would want the better part of a day for UM. </p>
I agree with the advice to jot down some notes or to take some pictures at each school … and I think only enough to jog the memory is needed. Personally, I have not found the schools to “run together” among any of the schools my kids were interested in after the visits … it’s been 4 years since I went with FirstToGo and I believe, even now, I could write a solid one paragraph summary of the schools we visited and toured (the drive bys would be tougher)</p>
<p>-- I am VERRRRRY appreciative of peoples kindness and generosity with their feedback
And it has been SO very helpful - Im so thrillled to have found CC- seems like a very unique place with sincere , kind and caring adults. Obviously we all want the best for our kids. Many many many thanks again .<br>
Marsha</p>
<p>Make sure you come back and let us know how the trip goes. Make sure they have change for the toll roads, unless you have some sort of e z pass.</p>
<p>I think this is very doable esp when they are flying into Chicago. Shouldn’t be a problem. Besides you have to fit in school visits when you can.</p>
<p>A couple of pointers. Try to fly into Midway, it’s closer to UChicago. My S flys through O’Hare and it can be a pain, it seems to be the airport where he has the most delays but if they can’t just know that they will have to drive across town and it can be hard depending on the time of day.</p>
<p>Taking I-94 to Ann Arbor is the closest way but you can encounter lake effect there. Hard to say how much lake effect there will be in Feb but at that point the closer to the lake you are the more lake effect you can have. It’s very confusing and this winter has been warm and we are just starting to get lake effect which has messed up our timetable. Anyways lol! If there is any chance of lake effect, take the IN turnpike to Toledo and I-23 north to Ann Arbor. You will miss any lake effect that way.</p>
<p>You shouldn’t encounter any lake effect going from AA to Oberlin, you may encounter a storm which can’t be predicted but avoiding lake effect will cut out some of your weather worries. Then it’s an easy drive on the turnpike to Pittsburgh and CMU.</p>
<p>And yes, there will be tolls on the turnpikes. I know EZ Pass works for the Ohio and PA turnpike, I can’t remember about IN and Chicago but in Chicago there seems to be a tollboth every 10 mins. EZ Pass does cost some (I think 10%, which I find ridiculous) but it might save time and will be convenient not looking for change.</p>
<p>I think that it is important for the student to attend a class at the school, if at all possible. If you do an info session, tour, and class, one school per day is the max. </p>
<p>This trip is doable, but I fear they will be short-changing the bigger schools…</p>