College visits in NY state-xpost from chat board

[whitestavern]

DD wants to look at a bunch of colleges in upstate NY. Because there are so many we are thinking we will go during April vacation (she's in B&M high school). She's only a junior so no interviews or anything; she just wants to check out the campuses.  Any suggestions on where to stay or eat, anything fun to see on the route, etc. would be greatly appreciated Also, any direct experience with any of the colleges are welcome too. She is looking at a bio major, possibly premed, possibly an English minor, if that makes a difference. Some of these she's not super interested in yet, but they are more affordable, so that's why we are checking them out :)

 

Here's a very loose plan:

Leave CT

First stop Albany area. visit Siena, SUNY Albany, Union

Next stop visit Colgate and Hamilton (she likes these)

Next stop Syracuse area: visit Le Moyne and Syracuse U

Next stop Rochester area: visit RIT, SUNY Brockport, and U Rochester (she is very interested in this one)

Next stop Cornell and SUNY Oneonta

Last stop Poughkeepsie area to visit Vassar

 

Again, she is in the early stages of the college search. The feel of the campus is very important to her. She thinks she wants a smaller school in a large town or small city, but she isn't ruling anything out at this point, thus the wide variety of colleges listed above.

[anne1456]

For biology I'd add SUNY ESF in to your Syracuse visit. And maybe take out Le Moyne unless you have a specific reason for considering it. It doesn't seem to fit in with the rest of your list, a kid who would be competitive for Colgate, Hamilton and Cornell would be over qualified for Le Moyne, and it doesn't offer great merit aid that I have ever heard of.

[whitestavern]

For biology I'd add SUNY ESF in to your Syracuse visit. And maybe take out Le Moyne unless you have a specific reason for considering it. It doesn't seem to fit in with the rest of your list, a kid who would be competitive for Colgate, Hamilton and Cornell would be over qualified for Le Moyne, and it doesn't offer great merit aid that I have ever heard of.

 

Thanks! BIL went to ESF. It has a relationship with Syracuse, no? Le Moyne isn't as competitive, you're right, but it's Catholic. DD is at a Catholic high school, and I've heard they give some very nice merit to Catholic hs grads. They have bio and premed, so that's how it made it to her short (not, lol) list. But I honestly don't know anything about it. I would like to see her at a more competitive school because I'd like her to be around a more academically inclined student body, but maybe that's a fallacy.

[Arch at Home]

I don't have experience with any of those schools but I would caution against trying to do so many schools in one trip. That many schools would quickly run together and you wil have troubles remembering which was which. We did a Spring Break college tour and saw 5 in 5 days. For most of our visits, we had the typical admissions meeting, campus tour, eating in the cafeteria, and sitting in on a class. Maybe by April your DD can narrow fine the list or you can pick ones which represent characteristics she is interested in: for example, small college in big city, small college in smaller city, and so on. That would then also give a chance to check out the town also.

 

Good luck on your grand college tour!

[MarkT]

DD wants to look at a bunch of colleges in upstate NY. Because there are so many we are thinking we will go during April vacation (she's in B&M high school). She's only a junior so no interviews or anything; she just wants to check out the campuses.  Any suggestions on where to stay or eat, anything fun to see on the route, etc. would be greatly appreciated Also, any direct experience with any of the colleges are welcome too. She is looking at a bio major, possibly premed, possibly an English minor, if that makes a difference. Some of these she's not super interested in yet, but they are more affordable, so that's why we are checking them out :)

 

Here's a very loose plan:

Leave CT

First stop Albany area. visit Siena, SUNY Albany, Union

Next stop visit Colgate and Hamilton (she likes these)

Next stop Syracuse area: visit Le Moyne and Syracuse U

Next stop Rochester area: visit RIT, SUNY Brockport, and U Rochester (she is very interested in this one)

Next stop Cornell and SUNY Oneonta

Last stop Poughkeepsie area to visit Vassar

 

Again, she is in the early stages of the college search. The feel of the campus is very important to her. She thinks she wants a smaller school in a large town or small city, but she isn't ruling anything out at this point, thus the wide variety of colleges listed above.

If campus / environment is an important factor it is worth stopping at each school - you don't necessarily need the official tour to get a feel - hopefully the colleges won't be on break at the same time

You're routing is pretty good 

  SUNY Albany, up I-87 for Siena, then across route 7 to Schenectady for Union - you could easily do this in one day with an early start

It's been a while since I have been to the other areas 

  enjoy

[whitestavern]

If campus / environment is an important factor it is worth stopping at each school - you don't necessarily need the official tour to get a feel - hopefully the colleges won't be on break at the same time

You're routing is pretty good 

  SUNY Albany, up I-87 for Siena, then across route 7 to Schenectady for Union - you could easily do this in one day with an early start

It's been a while since I have been to the other areas 

  enjoy

 

That is exactly the plan, to just drive through some of these campuses. There are only about 5 she is very interested in. If she ends up liking the ones we don't do an actually tour at, we can always make another trip. She's a junior so we have time.

[Bootsie]

Will these visits occur on week days or over the weekend?  Remember that some campuses can have a much different feel on week days versus weekends.

 

I would try to do a few campus tours because I think it starts raising some questions the student may not have thought about considering.  Maybe one each day.  I think that it is also helpful to get the "feel" of a number of different campuses by just being on as many campuses as possible to see what types of patters start developing in what she likes.

[JanetC]

Thirteen schools is probably too many, even if you skip tours. How many days is your trip? Focus on the ones she is most interested in, and try not to do more than one campus per day. Leave time for fun, too. Also, before deciding to skip tours and admissions visits, check to see if the school rewards "demonstrated interest." If so, you want to sign in and get the admissions bump for visiting.