@merc81 thanks for the suggestion. Film and Media is one of her subject interests, though probably as a minor, so I’m sure she’ll be up for a watch!
Yes - you can park in Secaucus and get a train into Penn Station. Its about a 10 minute ride and they leave very often during the day!
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Anyone who’s visited Bates or Mt. Holyoke have any dining suggestions?
The NYC driving/parking/traffic doomerism is funny to me. Trust me - if you can navigate applying to college, you can drive in NYC.
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We drove to DC on Sunday (we live about 10 miles from NYC). The usual route is through one of the tunnels in Baltimore (95 or 895) so no issue with the Key bridge.
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For Mt. Holyoke, we had a good lunch right across the street from campus at IYA Sushi and Noodle Kitchen and then walked over to get coffee at Thirsty Mind. You can also head to Northampton (near Smith) if you have time.
For Bates, we had lunch at Forage. Dinner was great at Boba, but it looks like it has permanently closed, unfortunately.
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@M_Fun - Forage is great for bagels/lunch - when will you be there and where are you staying? We’re spending the night in Portland before the accepted students day event -
If you do take the train you can get one at New Carrolton station which is close to UMD and further north than Union Station.
If you pop over to Northampton while visiting Mt. Holyoke you will find a ton of good places to eat. I particularly love Woodstar Cafe for coffee, breakfast, sandwiches, pastries.
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For more context, the film, which depicts students from Harrisonville and Winslow colleges, seems additionally relevant for its collegiate theme.
The Black Sheep in Amherst is great for lunch. I forget what town but Flayvors of Cook Farm has good ice cream.
Yes! We had great sandwiches at Black Sheep! Great lunch spot.
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I mean, I can understand that this is what people in the NYC area consider “close airports”, but those of us in flyover country are used to getting around a little easier than that.
As I understand it, you are sketching out a post-flight transfer from the airport to Vassar that will probably take you 3+ hours airport to college. In contrast, WUSTL is like a 15 minute ride from STL, and Carleton is like 40 minutes from MSP.
In fact, when you factor in the original transfer to our airport, plus the total time for the flight including waiting times and such, for us you are actually getting to around the same time it would take just to drive straight to Vassar! In this case we are going from St Louis to Vassar, but from home it is in that zone where flying versus driving is a close call.
Of course that is a pro as well as a con–pro if you are willing to drive, con if you are not. Which leads me to . . .
Exactly. Mom and Dad are probably not so interested in frequent road trips anymore. Heck, Mom and Dad are already eyeballing doing the whole thing by train. Costs a day each way basically, but we like to call those “land cruises”, including because the trains have bars . . . .
But I am thinking these crazy kids are looking at it being drivable and thinking that is something they would be willing to do with some frequency. I actually did that myself a lot as a grad student, similar length road trips to see family or friends that sort of distance away for just a weekend, and I suspect they might feel that is reasonable.
Call me crazy, but I actually like driving in NYC. You have to be confident and aggressive, but in a way that makes things more predictable than in places where you never know what local norms they might use.
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Oh, I forgot to ask about Hamilton!
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Thanks for the food suggestions thus far. Taking notes!
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Yes, the traffic implications of the Key Bridge collapse, to the extent that they exist, are much more likely to be felt during rush hour because of diversions. The average weekend trip up/down 95 should not be affected.
You can, but do you want to? 
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For cheap eats, my kid and I enjoyed the falafel at Pita Pocket in the middle of Northampton’s drag. We liked it so much we ate there twice in two days.
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Fair, though I didn’t want to go through the college applications process either 
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In Clinton you mostly just need to make sure you get a half moon cookie…when we visited several years ago, the college gave us coupons for free ones 
My mother grew up in Clinton; my uncle ordered half moons from the bakery there (or maybe Utica—not sure) for our family Christmas get together (in Georgia) this past year, so strong is the nostalgia!
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