visits for Harvard, Princeton, Dartmouth, Williams, Amhers, Columbia, Univ. of Chicago from Yale?

College Search & Lists
1

Hello everyone! I am a brand new user to this site and forum. How this is the right place to ask this question:
My son and I like to plan visits to the following colleges STARTING from Yale (he will be there for two weeks in prior till 7/2/16):
Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Dartmouth, Williams, Amherst, Columbia, Univ. of Chicago

Would 7-9 days for this whole trip be sufficient? I will fly out of San Francisco to meet him at Yale or New York after he finishes on 7/2/16.

If making sense, we also want to visit Georgetown and Duke, but wonder how without being too outstretched.
We like to depart from New York to return to San Francisco (so we can fly nonstop). But if another city is a better option for departure (saving overall traveling time/days), we love to listen to as well.
If you have any good ideas or suggestions, please feel free to share with me. Thank you very much in advance! Have a delightful day!!

2

Chicago is the outlier. You should arrange your flights to stop in Chicago on your way from NY to SF.

Assuming “visit” entails the standard information session plus campus tour, or about 2 to 2.5 hours per campus, you should be able to do Harvard and MIT in the same day, since they are in the same city only a mile or two apart.

You probably could be able to do in the same day either Amherst and Williams, or Amherst and Dartmouth, or, possibly, Dartmouth and Williams.

It also might be possible to do Columbia and Princeton in the same day.

This assumes that the colleges will be running both morning and afternoon info sessions/tours on the days you will be visiting, and that the schedule leaves enough time between for you to make the trip from one school to the next in between.

It all depends on how much time you want to spend on each campus, or in each town/city, how much scurrying around you want to do between morning and afternoon visits, and how long overall you can tolerate to be driving each day.

3

7-9 days isn’t enough. everything has to line up to do two in a day and that’s for the easy schools, MIT/Harvard. It will happen for some but not all. I don’t think Princeton/Columbia is doable in a day. Sure you could get to the other location, walk around, get a fell for campus, but I don’t think you could comfortably leave a morning tour and get to the next school for the afternoon session. If you did, you would be frazzled. Agree or Chicago. DC should be another trip. Duke is another five hours (?) from DC without bad traffic.

4

There has been debate here about the necessityof going through the “official visit” protocols. Some people say yes, others no.

Personally, I think they waste valuable time. You’re going to sit in a room with some other visitors listening to fabulous tales of “caring faculty” and “state of the art facilities.” You will see a “brief” presentation showing stats that show their matchless financial aid and inclusive diversity. Then an excruciating tour which will possibly skip the one place you want to see .

This is 2016, not 1916. 99% of the info they will present and answers they will provide can be had via their web site or a quick phone call or email to the appropriate office.

I say if you have limited time, take a map,.walk around,.talk to some people, look in some buildings that are important to you, have a cafeteria meal, sit on a bench to absorb the local vibe, and move on to the next school.

5

Check the calendars for info sessions and tours for each school. Some schools have weekend tours and some do not.

6

You might also consider visiting some schools that have over a 10% or so acceptance rate. The schools on your list are big reaches for any unhooked applicant regardless of how wonderful his/her academic statistics, ECs, recommendations, essays etc. are. It is best to case a wide net. It is important to find affordable safety and match schools that you would be happy to attend.

7

Here’s how I’d do it, I think:
Day 1: Take an early train from New Haven to Princeton, visit Princeton. Take a train to New York and spend the night.
Day 2: Visit Columbia in the morning. Take a train to Boston and spend the night.
Day 3: Visit Harvard and MIT. Spend the night in Boston again.
Day 4: Rent a car, drive to Amherst. Tour Amherst. Drive to Williams and spend the night.
Day 5: Tour Williams, Drive to Dartmouth and spend the night.
Day 6: Tour Dartmouth, drive back to Boston. Spend the night in Boston.
Day 7: Fly to Chicago in the morning, tour U. of Chicago. Spend the night.
Day 8: Fly home.

You might be able to tour both Amherst and Williams in one day. They are about 90 minutes apart. That could cut a day off this schedule. Trying to do Georgetown and Duke on this trip is probably too much. Really, stopping in Chicago will probably be too much. Coming all the way back to New York to fly home would make a really long Day 6.

8

Or, here’s an alternative if you’d rather drive the whole trip:
Day 1: Rent a car. Drive from New Haven to Dartmouth. If you leave early enough, you should be able to tour Dartmouth in the afternoon. Spend the night in Hanover.
Day 2: Drive to Williams, tour Williams, drive to Amherst and spend the night.
Day 3: Tour Amherst, drive to Boston and spend the night.
Day 4: Tour Harvard and MIT; drive part of the way to Princeton.
Day 5: Drive the rest of the way to Princeton, tour Princeton, spend the night there.
Day 6: Drive to New York, get rid of the rental car, tour Columbia in the afternoon. Spend the night in New York.
Day 7: Fly to Chicago in the morning, tour U. of Chicago. Spend the night.
Day 8: Fly home.

This would probably be a bit cheaper, but you’d have to drive more.

9

WIth this trip starting Saturday, July 2, there aren’t going to be tours available at many schools on Sunday, July 3 or Monday, July 4.

10

That’s a good point, @siliconvalleymom. I didn’t notice that date. Maybe modify the trip to spend July 4 in New York or Boston, and then start the visits after that. Of course, it’s going to be summer session everywhere, so there won’t be that many students around. Some places may have info sessions, but no tours. I think the fact that it’s summer makes it more sensible to do Williams and Amherst in one day.

11

I am going to segue off of @happy1 for a moment.Since you are a new poster to CC, welcome, there is a wealth of information here.The universities you have listed are a whose who of extremely selective universities east off the Mississippi. Since I have no way of knowing how much you know about the college search and selection process I’ll make a couple of suggestions.

First, if you have heard of the terms “safety, match and reach” and are looking at schools that fit those categories, great, you’re on your way to having a good experience. If you haven’t heard those terms or need clarification look for threads concerning those topics. It can save a world of stress and potential heartache.

Second, do you understand the financing of extremely selective universities. If so, again great. If not then look up topics on that as well. Few highly selective universities offer merit aid (why would they, just getting in means you are among the best and the brightest). Therefore they usually only offer need based aid. Many families are surprised to realize that they will be expected to pay full COA for these universities. If you have this under control have a great trip and good luck in the whole process. If you have questions about these ,and any number of topics, CC can be a tremendous source of information.

12

I’m going to suggest an alternative approach that, admittedly, makes certain assumptions about your financial situation.

For several reasons, I don’t think the trip you are suggesting is likely to be as helpful as you want it to be. First, one of the most useful things you can do on a college visit to figure out if you like the place is to see it when school is in session so you can talk to students and get a feel for the atmosphere. You won’t be able to do that during this trip. To the extent there are kids there, it will likely mostly be high school students attending programs, many not even run by the college. I know of two on the Yale campus, right off the top of my head. Talking to those kids won’t tell your son anything about what it’s like to be a Yale student.

Second, I imagine that by the middle or end of the “If it’s Tuesday, it must be Belgium” whirlwind colleges tour, they’re all going to start to blend together and you’ll be left with only the most superficial of impressions, wondering whether that great view or big hill was at Amherst, Williams or Dartmouth.

Your son will see Yale because, apparently, he’ll be on campus, so if he’s never been on one before, he’ll get a bit of a sense of what being at a college is like.

If more leisurely trips to the east coast during the school year aren’t practical (and why would they be?), do lots of research on-line and using books. Use CC, The Fiske Guide and other resources to get a sense of the personality and atmosphere of the schools. If your son wants to apply ED to something on this list, narrow it down to a much smaller handful of schools and get him out here (I’m in NY, so here is the east coast) to do more extended visits at one or two schools. I wouldn’t let my kid apply ED to a school he hadn’t spent some real time at, preferably an overnight.

After the acceptances are in, if he’s choosing among some east coast schools, then he can come out and see just the schools in the running, when the school is in session and when he’ll have more than a minute and a half on each campus. Take the money you would spend on your airfare (if he’d otherwise fly home from Yale on his own), transportation, hotels, etc and use it to help fund the trip(s) that will be more useful for making informed decisions.

13

Thanks everyone for all the very valuable and insightful information and suggestions, especially those regarding the routes and means. Very helpful! It seems we ought to extend our time in the east coast to cover these places. Most of the match and safety schools we are considering locate in other parts of the country. We may visit those at different times. But very grateful for your kind comments/reminders. This visit mainly serves to decide which schools my son really wants to list as reach and some as match schools, as well as to open up our experiences of the surroundings, culture, lives and people in the east coast. We totally understand the accepting process of many, particularly the most selective schools, are beyond our rational thinking and totally out of our control. We could only pray and hope we have tried or will try what we can. We are grateful that my son will get to spend two weeks at Yale for the YYGS. Hopefully he will gain some good first hand experience about the campus, climate, people, life in general in New Haven and probably approximate(?) in the east coast.

Thanks again everyone! Welcome and appreciate you guys continuing offering your valuable ideas, suggestions and informations. This is my first time going through this college process. My older son is a Junior and my younger one is in 6G. So lots of exploration and adventure. Full of unknowns and learning curves. Have a lovely day to you all!:))

14

One additional point: these trips can be lots of fun, especially if you build in time to do fun stuff in the cities you visit. My kids and I had a lot of fun on two trips not so different from the one OP is suggesting.

15

We did 8 colleges over a spring break - 2 a day for 3 days in New England, fly home (Midwest), one day at home, then 2 in one day in Ohio via car. We were exhausted. It is a LOT. I would not include Chicago on the same trip as the East.

16

For what it’s worth, there will be students at Dartmouth because the D plan includes Sophomore Summer. I thought post #6 was a very good schedule. If you decide to skip Chicago in order to fly non-stop, you do so from Boston as easily as New York. Well, maybe not quite as easily (not as many flights), but certainly do-able.

17

Thanks again to you all for the really good suggestions and ideas. I wonder if we are able to use public transportations (train or bus or shuttle) instead of car where is indicated in post #6 or 7? The main reason is to avoid potential traffic jams and/or unfamiliar roads/signs/conditions. I imagine we will be very exhausted and stressed with all the walks, visits, planning along the trip, etc… What do you think? Thanks for helping us. Have a great rest of the day!:))

18

D and her mom hopped on planes and used trains for a similar trip back in … [?] 2008. I forget the exact itinerary but the Yale/Brown/Harvard cluster was very doable. Dartmouth and Amherst are better by car. If you were just gong to Dartmouth, there’s a nice coach [bus] from Boston (Logan or South Station) and New York, but that’s a back & forth trip and getting to Amherst would be a pain.

19

It would be possible to go from Yale to Amherst to Dartmouth (or between any two of those) via train on the Amtrak “Vermonter” – then you could do the bus to Boston.

You will pretty much need a car to get to Williams, though…

20

You could rent a car at Yale drive to Amherst, about an hour and a half then to Williams same distance then Dartmouth hit middlebury which is about 75 min then go to Burlington airport fly back to Boston and then to New York

Enjoy