Potential February break college trip for S26

College Search & Lists
1

We are starting to plan a February break college road trip for my S26. He would like to go to college in a “place with weather” — the snowier, rainier and gloomier, the better. I’m thinking we may want to head somewhere like this in February, so he can see it for himself (he was raised in the Bay Area so I think is a bit romanced by what he hasn’t experienced).

S26 doesn’t know what he wants to study but has gravitated toward physics, chemistry, math. He is also a prolific, award-winning illustrator, and a minor in studio art could be a possibility. He has taken 3 years of Japanese, several honors and AP classes. His GPA is around a 3.75 so far (unweighted) and 4.1 weighted. He’s an arty kid, pretty social, not sporty. He also has ADHD, takes medication.

Here is an itinerary we are thinking about:

Flying into Rochester on Sunday, Feb 16 out of NYC on Sunday, Feb 23

University of Rochester (Monday am tour)
Ithaca College (Monday afternoon tour)
Hamilton College (Tuesday morning tour)
Skidmore College (Tuesday afternoon tour)
Bard College (Wednesday am tour)
Vassar College (Wednesday afternoon tour)
Wesleyan College (Thursday tour)
NYU (Friday tour)

Geez, writing this out makes it seem pretty intense … is it doable? Would you drop any?

2

I think this is really optimistic. Maybe you could do Bard and Vassar in a day but I think your Monday and Tuesday is too much. What I found when I did the same thing with my older kid was that she would like the first school and be exhausted by the second and neither one would get the attention that they really needed. You won’t be able to have a meal in the cafeteria (most likely) and he won’t be able to sit in on a class or anything like that.

I do think a trip in February is a good idea though! Although you may hit some weather in upstate New York. Maybe extend it and take a few days off of school?

6 Likes
3

Hey! We did something similar last February (except ours was hitting Minnesota/Ohio/Pennsylvania schools). My son has in some ways similar profile and I think you’ll get a bunch of feedback about being sure to visit enough safety schools yadda yadda…but to me this is an interesting list of matches (Rochester, Skidmore, maybe Bard), reaches (Hamilton, Vassar, Wesleyan, NYU), and a compelling likely option (Ithaca).

Does he have any preferences within this set? are there schools you’re leaning heavily towards? I’d try to organize the trip around staying in those places. You won’t have much of an impression of a place by just spending a morning there, especially if you’re on a tour.

In my experience, the transition from morning to afternoon doesn’t always neatly dovetail with the timing of the tours. Throw in something like the opportunity to have lunch in a cafeteria and observe students in the wild, or a weather event or spontaneous traffic, and you have very little margin for error. I think you can do two schools a day but it’s not comfortable.

You’ll be dragging by the time you get to NYU. If there’s a chance to, say, space these out a hair (e.g. does NYU do Saturday tours?) you might appreciate it.

I will add a gratuitous plug for schools in the midwest. We visited Macalester, St. Olaf, Carleton, Denison, Kenyon, Oberlin, College of Wooster, and Dickinson (and did drop-in check-outs of U Minn and Lehigh). Of those, I recommend checking out at least Macalester and Oberlin. Both of those would probably be matches for your son and they fall into the same cultural sphere as Wesleyan/Bard/Vassar. Mac is an easy direct flight from SFO (10 minutes from the airport) and you’ll get all the winter you can handle.

5 Likes
4

We saw a few of these schools (along with some others) on a spring break trip a few years ago. We did Connecticut College and Vassar in the same day. The next day we did Bard and Skidmore. We did Hamilton by itself the following day before we headed away from the Northeast. It is exhausting to see so many schools in a few days but I think it’s doable if u go into it with the right attitude and some flexibility (for example, we left the Bard tour half way through because we just weren’t feeling it and didn’t want to waste our time).

2 Likes
5

Okay, another thought: I am wondering if there’s a way to sneak in a visit to Connecticut College, which would be a a more likely acceptance than some of these others (Vassar, Wesleyan, Hamilton). And to me, culturally, I wonder if Hamilton would be as much of a fit. Maybe? We never visited. It was on and off our list and then I was so completely pooped after OUR February trip that I couldn’t muster the energy for the big Northeastern fandango (which would have hit a very similar list of schools).

2 Likes
6

I have found that two campuses in a day is very hard. one needs to be the 9am and the other one needs to be a 3pm/4pm tour. And they can’t be very far from each other. It will always take you longer to navigate campus and find your designated parking. And don’t forget that you do need to eat during the day! Even the most motivated of students will be generally exhausted with two campuses in a single day.

(We did tour Ithaca with my D23. It was on her list until the end. She ultimately chose another mountain town campus.) I do think Ithaca checks your boxes and I have heard they have good supports for ADHD students.

5 Likes
7

As a form of geographical perspective, if you were to take a train from Rochester to New York City, you would pass very near Hamilton, Bard and Vassar. Skidmore would be somewhat offset from this route, and Ithaca and Wesleyan University would be relative outliers. Nonetheless, I’d suggest you avoid the streetlight effect in deciding which colleges to include in your itinerary.

4 Likes
8

I think Rochester and Ithaca in one day is going to be hard. It’s a nearly two hour drive and that’s in good weather. That’s a very snowy part of the country in February.

7 Likes
9

My two cents is I would make this at least two, maybe more, trips.

Personally, based on your description, I would maybe focus on just doing an Upstate New York tour. Maybe keep Rochester, Ithaca, and Hamilton, and maybe add some out of, say, RIT (art + tech is a big deal there), Hobart and William Smith, Colgate, and Syracuse.

4 Likes
10

It’s aggressive and my fear is even if you pull it off, you won’t get a sense beyond the tour and it’s beyond the tour that is critical.

5 Likes
11

We did a tour like this but through MA, CT and RI. Much less ground to cover and it was stressful as all get out.

Break this into two trips if at all possible or take some schools off the list. I’d take Hamilton off the list (there’s little to do around the area and might feel very isolated sans vehicle), as well as Bard College (again isolated and doesn’t really fit the vibes of the remaining schools).

1 Like
12

There are too many reaches, in my opinion.

I would keep Vassar because it’s about 45 minutes from Bard. (And I would keep Bard – I think of Vassar - Bard - Skidmore as being on the same continuum).

Have you considered Union? Agree Hobart is another to consider. Not for a visit, but what about considering St. Lawrence?

1 Like
13

When we were doing this at the beginning of our tours, we did Colgate, Hamilton, Union , and Bard in 2 days. It’s doable if you have reservations for tours and nearby hotels, keep your eye on the clock, don’t hit bad weather, and have a driver and navigator who work well together :wink:.

Two a day can be tough, but honestly, it can also be hard to fill a full day at a LAC. Many will allow you to do interviews after May 1 of junior year but not before. You may be able to shadow a student or sit in on a class, but in most cases, after a tour and info session, your options may be limited.

This is all to say that if you have it scheduled so it works, yeah, it may be nuts but it can work. Just make sure you wake up each morning where you have your morning tour.

2 Likes
14

Thank you for some great advice and feedback. I agree we’ve got to scale it back.

For some additional context, there are a few schools that I want him to see and that he is curious about, and the goal is to end up in NYC for a couple of days of fun. I think we can keep him out of school for a couple of days, too.

Wdyt about these revisions:

Fly into Rochester from SFO on Sunday. We plan to rent a car in Rochester and return it in NYC.

University of Rochester (Monday)
This one is a keeper because of its size, open curriculum/clusters, in a city with things to do. And my son thinks that having tunnels because of the weather is pretty cool.

Ithaca College (Tuesday)
I want him to tour a “likely” school that ticks a few of his boxes… medium size, strong arts community, fun college town

Then, either:

Skidmore College (Wednesday)
A hard target with a strong arts program, smaller school

Or

Union College (Wednesday)
A target that seems cool but haven’t researched much

Bard College (Thursday)
I feel like this might be a good culture fit even though it is isolated.

Vassar (Friday)
A potential ED if he decides to do ED. Open curriculum, good size, arty vibe, on the train line to NYC. Also, may e a slight advantage in admissions up since he’s male.

Wesleyan (Saturday)
Another potential ED. Same reasons as Vassar but somewhat less convenient to nyc.

Saturday evening-Tuesday, fun in NYC. Maybe an NYU tour but tbh, I’m not wild about this choice for him… it’s a reach, living in NYC super pricey and the distractions would probably do him in :slight_smile:

10 Likes
15

You can do Bard and Union in one day – they are an hour apart. Bard and Skidmore are 90 minutes apart. If you are interested in all 3, you can D o it by doubling up on one day.

Skidmore seems more aligned with the vibe you’re looking for and Saratoga is a great little town. Union (probably the least similar in terms of vibe) has easy access to NYC and a different academic calendar (which imho is worth thinking about, if only to add intentionality to how content is delivered.) Bard is a very interesting place. I can see the value of looking at all 3 of these. They are also all somewhat easier admits than some of the others on your list, and I’m a fan of a strategy that has a good probability of ending with some nice options, no matter what.

3 Likes
16

And as a sidebar, we do plan to visit a few options in OR, WA and CO over the next year. Likely Lewis & Clark, Reed, Whitman, University of Denver, Colorado College (reach). Probably UDub, Western Washington and UOregon, too. Lots of rain in those parts!

I’m not sure we will make it to the Midwest before but I agree that he might like Oberlin and Macalester.

1 Like
17

Regarding Hamilton, it may be worth mentioning that its surrounding area of 10,000 residents experienced literally zero violent crime in a recent year, according to official statistics. This attribute may be especially important to parents. If the college itself has lost interest for your son, its village of Clinton would be worth a visit for its charm.

5 Likes
18

Any interest in RIT? So close to University of Rochester, and a different type/vibe of school for comparison.

3 Likes
19

That sounds more manageable. My free advice…drive to your next college tour destination the night before…so you don’t need to scurry around in the morning.

I will add…we did two college tours with DD that were 7 colleges in 10 days…close proximity to each other except for one where DH and DD flew up for the day (and that was her matriculation choice in the end). I will say…my kid wasn’t interested in any of the colleges she saw as the second ones on any day. Maybe she wouldn’t have been interested anyway…but she just might have been worn out by the afternoon.

And our kid actually chose all but one of the colleges we visited on these two trips.

4 Likes
20

University of Puget Sound may be of interest based on location,weather, and Asian Studies program.

Might be a mistake as your son would love Chicago area weather and the easy commute to either coast.

Based on interest in gloomy overcast weather, Boston area schools should be considered, but nothing is likely to beat out Syracuse University for gloomy weather.

2 Likes