The first leg of the road trip went pretty smoothly. We saw Oberlin in the Ohio, and then CMU in Pittsburg. P’s reaction to Pittsburg, was the same one I had probably 30 years ago when I visited during my college days. During her college search, I ran across a school out in the countryside in Pennsylvania, Susquehanna University. What we found interesting after looking at the 3 different schools, is how each school approaches it’s perspective students. Two of the schools really cared and made an effort, the third didn’t make any effort, not even to look at us, when they sat us in a tiny office with no AC. The other two schools went above and beyond and both had amazing tour guides. The other school, cancelled our tour and just handed a map and make our own way across the campus. We are moving on!

As we moved north, we saw the same pattern with others school. It was 2 great schools then too 1 MEH! school. P. picked various size schools to look at, she picked various campus settings and even varying student community styles. After looking at 12 schools, she was able to narrow down what she really was looking for in a school. Honestly, after seeing her updated list of school she plans on applying to, we were right there with her on her gut reaction to the schools. The only downside of this college tour so far, was doing it during the summer. The absence of students makes for lack of feeling yourself in the community. That said. If your student has anxiety with large crowds, then maybe a summer tour is a better option.

She built her application list off the tours and she even added some schools we found after the tours. When she started to get acceptance letters, we flew out to the east coast again, and visited several schools that were new, as well a few we did. The trip also allowed her to do special tours on acceptence student days. Which allowed her to sit in classes and meet with admissions to dig deeper.

Our first trek of college tours, we broke up our trip with stays in New York City and Provincetown. While in NYC we looked at Columbia and ventured up to Vassar and Sarah Lawrence. After her CMU visit, the city schools were now under microscope and teetering on the edge of being chopped. Columbia cemented her feeling about the city landscape schools right away. We made it through the first 10 minutes of the tour, and while her family trailed from behind. We got the head shake no, this was not the school for her. Then we moved out to the country for a few days, looking at schools and then back up to the Berkshires to explore Amherst, Dartmouth and More. Planning out the trip is a task, but if you give yourself time, it will all fall in to place. I definitely recommend takings breaks. Weekends are perfect! The majority of schools do not offer tours or info session on the weekends. So it give people a break and those pour tour guides. On our second trek out, the trip moved a lot quicker, because we needed to move from location to location between, Massachusetts down to Pennsylvania.

Schools have also made planning even easier. All of them have online reservations systems that allows you to book tours and info sessions right away. Don’t wait, secure your spot early. If your plans change, don’t worry, cancelling your bookings are pretty simple and in real time. We had to make two changes on our trip when Paley crossed one of the school off her list after some additional research. One thing to keep in mind, skip doing extra tours or activities, to keep you and your student busy or on the go. Having free time before and after visits, allows you to explore your destination, walk around town and get a sense of the community. It also helps to use free time to download what you saw and heard, and have conversations about your students experience and answer questions that will pop up. No really, it’s great to have time to work out things that are questionable or push past the confusion. Overall, enjoy the experience with your student. Share stories about your experience in college. And then listen to what they have to share.

College Road Trip with P: Our Rising Freshman Path

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