Help me figure out this Pennsylvania college tour!

[Anonymous]

This will be our first college tour trip. We have a Thursday and Friday in October - could definitely drive up on Wednesday night so we can start Thursday morning.

My son doesn't know what he wants yet. We are visiting a big university later in the fall, so I want him to see medium size and smaller size schools.

Villanova, Lehigh, Lafayette, Franklin & Marshall, and Dickinson are on the list. Definitely want to do Dickinson because there is a sports possibility there. And it's hard to imagine not doing Franklin & Marshall if we drive right by it. Likewise, doing just Lafayette or Lehigh is hard to imagine because they're so close.

What do you recommend if I'm trying to show him options, see what he's drawn to, and then can go see more of those types of schools. thanks!

[Anonymous]

Sounds like you have the start of a great plan! What help do you need from us?

[Anonymous]

If you are visiting Villanova…Swarthmore and Haverford are very close…Penn is also close.

If you visit Lafayette, then visit Lehigh and Muhlenberg which are all close.

Franklin & Marshall is not really on the way unless you start at Dickinson and then drive to the Villanova-area schools.

[Anonymous]

Id also considered looking at Drexel and St Joes

[Anonymous]

When we did the Philly tour we visited Villanova, Penn, Princeton, Lehigh and Lafayette. Depending on time/drivung you can add F&M, Dickinson, Bucknell. You can definitely see Lehigh and Lafayette the same day easily.

[Anonymous]

Don't do more than 2 a day. Also need to look at the actual tour options and the distance between the schools. I recall doing Gettysburg and Dickinson the same day, and probably 75% of the people did the same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like you have the start of a great plan! What help do you need from us?

Sorry. The problem is there's no way to do five college tours in two days. I find walking around campus not that helpful. I think talking to a student and getting an actual tour is critical.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like you have the start of a great plan! What help do you need from us?

Sorry. The problem is there's no way to do five college tours in two days. I find walking around campus not that helpful. I think talking to a student and getting an actual tour is critical.

OP again - so I think I need to cut it down to 3 so we can get actual tours everywhere. Seeing five in two days also will just completely blur together.

[Anonymous]

I would look to see what time they offer tours, if they offer Saturday tours and also if they count demonstrated interest. Villanova, Lafayette and Lehigh all cared about DI. If I remember correctly, they did have a way to scan a code and let them know you were there if you did the self guided tour.

[Anonymous]

I agree that two a day is the max. My kid is often pretty drained after the college tours, some last around two hours from start to finish, including the admissions info session. It’s a lot of walking and a lot to take in. Plus, if you want to check out the surrounding area/neighboring town (which I highly recommend) that adds some time as well.

It may be hard to map out an exact plan this far in advance because some schools don’t list their scheduled tours for the fall months yet (and timing of fitting in more than one in a day could be impacted by the precise schedule of tours).

Loved Dickinson by the way and it’s at the top of our list! Carlisle is cute too, with some really good restaurants. Had dinner at a cozy, yummy Asian noodle place in town.

[Anonymous]

We did one weekend of Lehigh Valley tours and then a separate weekend for Philly area schools.

[Anonymous]

I’d probably drop Villanova - Lehigh is midsize and you can go back to Philly schools once he narrows things down. Do Lehigh/lafayette one day (stay at the Hotel Bethelem) then it’s a 2 hr drive to Dickinson and perhaps add Gettysburg that day.

[Anonymous]

We went in the fall and Lafayette had an afternoon tour that worked really well timing-wise with the morning Lehigh tour. We saw several families doing the same thing.

[Anonymous]

Be sure to book the tours weeks ahead of time....

[Anonymous]

Some of y’all can’t read. SMH.

For tours, if there’s not a must see other than Dickinson, maybe prioritize any school that tracks interest?

While weekends don’t have tours, you can still visit the campus to vibe check if you really want at least a first look. You can time it to grab a meal at the dining hall after a walk around, just get a feel for the campus size, layout, food options.