<p>Looking for some hotel advice from parents who have traveled to Vanderbilt. Many of the hotels state they are within walking distance of the campus. Trying to determine best place to stay for the PreVu event that begins at the Student Life Center. Any recommendations? ( I do have the list from Vandy’s website, just trying to determine closest for walking.) Thanks all!</p>
<p>Good morning, parents of 2014er! </p>
<p>I haven’t posted in a while due to choosing to spend some time in denial about how quickly college is approaching for the class of 2014. 
</p>
<p>So, our family appears to be a little late to lunch regarding touring schools but we are going to do some visits this summer. As I made out an itinerary, I have some questions about the feasibility of visiting more than one school in one day. Basically, is it feasible if the schools are relatively close in mileage to each other?</p>
<p>The schools clusters we will encounter are…</p>
<p>Middlebury and Dartmouth</p>
<p>Smith, Mount Holyoke, and Amherst</p>
<p>Wellesley(nothing paired with this at the moment but could there be?)</p>
<p>American, GWU, and Georgetown</p>
<p>***So many of these schools are reach schools and I really don’t think we need to sit through Q&A sessions on all of them. Have any of you ever just done an informal walking tour of a school on your own to offer your kid a visual on the place but really nothing more than that?</p>
<p>Thank you!</p>
<p>I know others here have been able to do more than 1 school in a day; I have never been able to (even if they were close together). Partly because it was hard to get a teenager to wake up early enough and have breakfast and be at the first school by 10. I also wanted to leave time so that if S seemed to like the place, we could wander around, have lunch, visit the gift shop vs watching the time and rushing off to make another info session. But if you’re organized and you have an obedient child it could work. Or you could combine a morning info session/tour with a drive by of another school – that could definitely work. </p>
<p>And yes, for D’11/'15, we only drove around Middlebury (at 7:30 am on a Sunday). No one was up. We saw buildings – that’s it. And she decided to apply there early decision.</p>
<p>When you visit Wellesley maybe you’d want to check out Northeastern or Emerson or BU?</p>
<p>I am quite surprised at how fast this year went by. I still have some summer courses to do (grad requirements and independent projects) but its time to put the apps together. Subject SATs will be in October.</p>
<p>I am relatively far behind but my parents have said I can go on visits, as long as I do all the planning for them. I will probably end up visiting a few schools in the West coast and do a longer trip to the East coast. Given how far I live, I think I will only be able to manage that. What is the better time to visit - July or August? </p>
<p>I am having a very difficult time with the essays. I have some sense of writing style now, and I like to read but I cannot write about myself freely. Sometimes, my very sincere and deep emotions (and I think this comes off in real life) sound flippant or shallow. Any tips?</p>
<p>Good luck to everyone else on them/their child’s apps! </p>
<p>PS: We do senior photos in Jan 2014! :-o</p>
<p>Hi ecouter! I found this site to have some good writing tips
[Common</a> App Essay Help](<a href=“http://www.commonapphelp.org%5DCommon”>http://www.commonapphelp.org)</p>
<p>it’s all oriented to writing the essay so I hope you find it helpful</p>
<p>Classof2015-me, too. One college a day is about all we can handle. Of course, we’re not looking at schools with volumes of apps, so there are no daily info sessions/tours. It’s usually just d and another student for the tour/lunch. D alone for the meeting with the prof/admissions counselor and coaches. </p>
<p>D actually took some preliminary senior pics last March. She’s one of the 2014 models for the studio this year, so the very early shots were for the advertising that went out to seniors in the spring. And she got her own session scheduled early. The studio can also use those in their advertising over the summer if they want. They turned out great. I tend to take blurry photos and pictures of my fingers (h can’t figure out how I manage to do that). No taking our own here.</p>
<p>Hi Friends</p>
<p>Can someone help me decipher something…</p>
<p>OK there is a general plethora of college brochures etc that they send–based on scores which means you are a target market</p>
<p>Then what does a priority app mean?</p>
<p>Are there several types? I know that there are some that only require scores and transcript and will waive the fee. Our GC calls them snap-apps.</p>
<p>Are there other types of “priority apps” ? </p>
<p>What is the value to the student, to the college? Can one assume with a snap-app its a likely admit?</p>
<p>college4many–we visit two schools each day as long as the schools are no more than say an hour away from each other. When scheduling a few days of tours back-to-back, we drove to the town of the AM school the night before so that we could walk around the college town, have dinner nearby and just see the surrounding area. After attending AM info session & tour, we departed immediately for afternoon school. We would linger at afternoon school after the tour/info session, perhaps eating a meal on campus, if possible, and certainly taking a look at the surrounding area.</p>
<p>This week we attended info session, took tour and had son interview at two schools on the same day, but they were less than half an hour apart. We were all tired after that one, especially given the heat this week. </p>
<p>As to schools near Wellesley…Tufts, BC, BU, Northeastern, with the first two being more of a reach and the second two being less of a reach. Your list includes a range of sizes and urban/rural so I don’t know which of the Boston schools would be the best match. Perhaps Tufts or BC. BU does not have a campus but instead has buildings spanning two miles of Comm Ave. Northeastern has a campus but the city surrounds it and intersects it. So, still urban, but much more of a campus than BU. BC is out in Chestnut Hill and has a true campus. The drive from Wellesley to any of the schools I listed would be under half an hour, barring the lovely Boston traffic.</p>
<p>We have not yet opted to skip the tour or info session as it has been useful for my son to hear what each school has to say. Unfortunately, the Ad Com or the tour guide can influence our assessment of a school more we should allow. While these info sessions & tours can become tedious, I figure that we have taken the trouble to drive to these schools so we may as well take advantage of the insight offered by tour or info session. Having said that, we have left tours before the end and once, skipped the tour after the info session. Beginner mistake in choosing that particular school.</p>
<p>Best of luck!</p>
<p>College4many… This past spring we completed tours with S2. He had already joined his brother for many college visits last year. His words: " info sessions always make dislike the place"… He says because "they are all the same . I agree to an extent… So our approach with him this year was we attended info sessions of places that we had never visited and allowed him to roam the campus to areas that were of interest to him, even attend a class. If he felt positive about the place in general terms, then as time permitted, we either went to a formal info session or walked a guided tour on our own. For him this worked very well</p>
<p>My son’s Senior pics were taken on June 18th, and they said it’ll be 2-3 weeks before the proofs are up online. They did tux and cap/gown, and then DS opted to do some casual shots in an outfit of his own, with his beloved guitar. Lol. Actually we hadn’t thought of that, but when we were looking through the online gallery for the portrait people we saw some shots like that and they looked pretty cool. </p>
<p>DS said he got to see a few of the shots they did afterward, and really liked them a lot. That is absolutely unheard of for my son – he ranges from apathy to angst when it comes to pics of himself – so now I really can’t wait to see them! :-p</p>
<p>Our senior portraits are booked for last week in July. Once the fall sport kicks in, there will be no time, so we are doing them this summer. All students at K2’s school must use the same studio for yearbook/school shots and can go elsewhere for private shots or buy packages for both. </p>
<p>College visits: we plan one/day due to adding sports and engineering tours/meetings on top of the regular visit pieces.</p>
<p>Son’s senior pictures were also scheduled for June 18. At least those with the “official” photographer for the yearbook pose. He went ahead and did some of the more “arty” poses, but I’m pretty unimpressed. We had a separate photographer do the more styled photos for my daughter and I’m guessing we will have him do a sitting at that photographer as well.</p>
<p>Love hearing everyone’s take on different schools. We won’t be looking at any more until the end of August and may do a loop of Southern schools during one of the long fall weekends. We did the midwest last summer and east coast over spring break–California here we come in August. </p>
<p>I would suggest one school a day – especially in the summertime. Swollen ankles from the heat and you will be saturated with enough info to head back to your hotel room and take a swim!</p>
<p>In our area, kids use a lot of independent photographers – some who even offer hair and makeup and styling advice. We haven’t decided yet what we’re doing. </p>
<p>Go2girl’s senior schedule was completely messed up because she’s in AP French 5. There was no room for the electives she so badly wanted. She had planned on taking one of her required classes online this summer but than she would give up senior privilege (an open period.) Fortunately they let me cancel the summer online course and she’s got senior privilege built in first semester which should be great. She’s got 4 AP’s plus a college-credit class and a required religion class and choir. She will most likely be co-captain of mock trial and doing the fall play so that open period at the end of the day will give her some extra time to get homework done. Not to mention those pesky early admission college apps! Like many of you, we want to see what the financial picture will look like before committing to a particular school. And at this point, Go2girl is not madly in love with just one school. Fortunately she can see herself in a lot of places. It means submitting a lot more apps but I think it will ultimately work out.</p>
<p>So bummed I missed the early morning scones but I just put out a nice cheese and salami platter. There’s a pitcher of ice cold mojitos at the ready…It’s happy hour!</p>
<p>On visits–
We did 2 a day max if they were close and worked out…info/tour-travel…
We did 6 schools in 5 days for K1s first trip. and 1 a day for the next (only 4 in 4)</p>
<p>For K2 we did only 4 in 4 days and the took a few days off for spring break.
The second trip was 7 schools (Sun pm through Fri am)…Pressed because of the Easter holidays</p>
<p>With K1 we did a last minute summer 2 school trip. Flew in–saw one school one day, saw another the next…flew out day 4.
Both were “show the love schools” and we knew there wouldn’t be time in fall. </p>
<p>With k2s school list–we have seen all on “the list” except 3…
One could be a day trip…and so maybe mid July we will do it.
And then the other 2 - one is a reach and one a match we may do. idk.
Before I plan- I am going to get some wise counsel. I think the reach is fabulous and think K2 would love it. I worry the reach is too reachy</p>
<p>PS thanks go2mom…loving the apps and cocktails!</p>
<p>PS 2 Please give your opinions re post 5887</p>
<p>Mojitos? You have my attention! Thanks for preparing. Please pass the pitcher. :)</p>
<p>We have found as stated above that if the schools are less than one hour apart and the morning session is at 10 AM or earlier with the afternoon session at 2 PM, it is feasible to visit two schools in one day. We did it in New England and also in North Carolina.</p>
<p>DD got an early offer for senior pictures that saved us 15 or 20%. She had the formal shots taken in April/May and the outside pictures were taken in June. She has the proofs online and is currently selecting the shots for her composite and for the yearbook.</p>
<p>Please pass that pitcher back this way again! :D</p>
<p>I don’t like doing two schools in one day. In addition to the standard tour/info session, we like to have lunch on campus, and have DS either attend a class or attend an engineering-specific session or tour, or meet with someone from the department. </p>
<p>However, we’re thinking of doing two schools in one day in Rochester (RIT and U of Rochester). But I think he needs to interview at UofR to be eligible for scholarships, so I’m not convinced that will work out so well. Still thinking about options there.</p>
<p>re: senior pictures.</p>
<p>We need to schedule them but trying to get rid of the acne first. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>Son has his senior pictures in the middle of July – about two weeks after his wisdom teeth come out. So the swelling should be gone. </p>
<p>mathmomvt is right about booking two tours in one day. It’s exhausting, especially in the summer and if it’s very hot. Everyone gets cranky. We did it once with the older son when he was a HS sophomore. Neither school made his final list.</p>
<p>Speaking of booking tours, I made arrangements for one tour in late July, because the school expressed interest in my son’s track and field ability. May need to change plans. The school is a nice LAC, but the dorms offer no AC. He would be very miserable if he did not have AC. So that school tour should be a point of conversation soon. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, more coffee is needed. It’s early.</p>
<p>Thank you for all of the thoughts on planning college tours. The information is helpful and greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>As for senior pictures, we have those scheduled and did manage to get it booked early enough to get in on a special offer. Yay!</p>
<p>We could never manage two in one day but that’s because we usually had a separate engineering session as well. </p>
<p>We’ve been up bright and early today. Nothing like a 745 warmup time for a swim meet! </p>
<p>We leave tomorrow afternoon for a sports camp for DS and will visit Dartmouth and WPI while we’re up there.</p>