What's the best route to visit these 5 colleges: UVA, Richmond, W&M, Wake Forest, UNC-Chapel Hill?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't mind the routing, but that seems extremely ambitious. I'd be cranky AF by the time I got to Wake Forest.

Oh, for sure (I'm the OP) - but we really are having a hard time finding a gap of more than 3 days when you try to coordinate the schedules of two adults and two teens and don't include a Sunday. (I think visiting campuses on a Sunday is a waste of time). Would starting with WF and doing it all in reverse make a difference? I'm guessing probably not.

I think your schedule is way too ambitious.

Is there a reason that everyone needs to go? We did a few college tours as a family when we tacked them onto family trips, but most of our visits were with one parent, especially ones where we traveled specifically to see a particular college
It was a fun way to travel and was a nice parent-child experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't mind the routing, but that seems extremely ambitious. I'd be cranky AF by the time I got to Wake Forest.

Oh, for sure (I'm the OP) - but we really are having a hard time finding a gap of more than 3 days when you try to coordinate the schedules of two adults and two teens and don't include a Sunday. (I think visiting campuses on a Sunday is a waste of time). Would starting with WF and doing it all in reverse make a difference? I'm guessing probably not.

I think your schedule is way too ambitious.

Is there a reason that everyone needs to go? We did a few college tours as a family when we tacked them onto family trips, but most of our visits were with one parent, especially ones where we traveled specifically to see a particular college
It was a fun way to travel and was a nice parent-child experience.

Good point, assuming your in VA so why not just pop down to Chartlottesville and/or Richmond for a day trip with the kid who needs to see it and one parent ? It doesn't need to be a troop movement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't mind the routing, but that seems extremely ambitious. I'd be cranky AF by the time I got to Wake Forest.

Oh, for sure (I'm the OP) - but we really are having a hard time finding a gap of more than 3 days when you try to coordinate the schedules of two adults and two teens and don't include a Sunday. (I think visiting campuses on a Sunday is a waste of time). Would starting with WF and doing it all in reverse make a difference? I'm guessing probably not.

I think your schedule is way too ambitious.

Is there a reason that everyone needs to go? We did a few college tours as a family when we tacked them onto family trips, but most of our visits were with one parent, especially ones where we traveled specifically to see a particular college
It was a fun way to travel and was a nice parent-child experience.

Good point, assuming your in VA so why not just pop down to Chartlottesville and/or Richmond for a day trip with the kid who needs to see it and one parent ? It doesn't need to be a troop movement.

Two separate families - two moms, two kids going together. We don't have to do it that way, but that's what we've been kicking around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Starting from DC. Does this make sense? I am trying to do it in the fewest number of days possible.

Day 1 - AM: Leave DC early, AM tour of UVA, PM tour of Richmond
Day 2 - AM: Wm & Mary (as early as possible), PM: UNC-Chapel Hill - spend the night as close to Wake Forest as possible. Not sure if there's enough time between the end of the earliest W&M tour and the start of the latest UNC tour to make this work.
Day 3 - Wake Forest, then back to DC

Too ambitious?

Any tips for seeing these 5, please let me know. Thanks!

Skip W&M

[Anonymous]

We did day trip to W&M and UVA. Then we did Wake and Davidson. UNC might be a tough admit OOS.

[Anonymous]

Do not do three tours in one day. You'll be exhausted by the end and it won't matter how great the third tour guide is, you're not going to be into it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't mind the routing, but that seems extremely ambitious. I'd be cranky AF by the time I got to Wake Forest.

Oh, for sure (I'm the OP) - but we really are having a hard time finding a gap of more than 3 days when you try to coordinate the schedules of two adults and two teens and don't include a Sunday. (I think visiting campuses on a Sunday is a waste of time). Would starting with WF and doing it all in reverse make a difference? I'm guessing probably not.

I think your schedule is way too ambitious.

Is there a reason that everyone needs to go? We did a few college tours as a family when we tacked them onto family trips, but most of our visits were with one parent, especially ones where we traveled specifically to see a particular college
It was a fun way to travel and was a nice parent-child experience.

Good point, assuming your in VA so why not just pop down to Chartlottesville and/or Richmond for a day trip with the kid who needs to see it and one parent ? It doesn't need to be a troop movement.

ah that is tough. I still think it's too aggressive and the last thing you want is to create a negative impression just because you were rushed or your DC was tired and cranky. This sounds like two trips to me.

Two separate families - two moms, two kids going together. We don't have to do it that way, but that's what we've been kicking around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Starting from DC. Does this make sense? I am trying to do it in the fewest number of days possible.

Day 1 - AM: Leave DC early, AM tour of UVA, PM tour of Richmond
Day 2 - AM: Wm & Mary (as early as possible), PM: UNC-Chapel Hill - spend the night as close to Wake Forest as possible. Not sure if there's enough time between the end of the earliest W&M tour and the start of the latest UNC tour to make this work.
Day 3 - Wake Forest, then back to DC

Too ambitious?

Any tips for seeing these 5, please let me know. Thanks!

Skip W&M

+1 skip WM

Day 1: AM: Richmond PM: drive to UNC stay there overnight
Day 2: AM: UNC PM: Wake Forest stay there overnight
DAY 3: AM: drive to UVA, lunch at UVA, PM: UVA tour, drive home

[Anonymous]

What's everyone's reason for skipping W&M?

[Anonymous]

I’d visit the three Virginia schools in one trip and make North Carolina a separate trip

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’d visit the three Virginia schools in one trip and make North Carolina a separate trip

I would not primarily because you are halfway to NC and out of the terrible DMV traffic by the time you get to Richmond.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do not do three tours in one day. You'll be exhausted by the end and it won't matter how great the third tour guide is, you're not going to be into it.

I was going to say this too. Especially in summer! The heat will wear you out. We did UNC and Duke in one day in August and we crawled back to the hotel covered in sweat.
This was our route, which was dictated by what tours we could get on:
Sunday night: stay in Charlottesville
Monday am: UVA tour
Monday afternoon: drive to Winston-Salem, walk around Wake that afternoon/evening (no tour)
Tuesday am: tour UNC and Duke
Weds am: drive to Richmond, afternoon tour
Weds pm: drive home

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We tried to do W&M and Richmond on the same day and missed our tour time. It’s very aggressive to do two on one day.

We did a tour of Richmond in the morning and W&M in the afternoon and it was fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What's everyone's reason for skipping W&M?

Don't skip W&M. My DD much preferred it to Richmond. It has a beautiful and unique campus that you need to see in person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We tried to do W&M and Richmond on the same day and missed our tour time. It’s very aggressive to do two on one day.

We did a tour of Richmond in the morning and W&M in the afternoon and it was fine.

and it wasn't for us so... what's your point? Sure you can physically do it but my kids wanted to get a sense of the community and not rush around. We did W&M tour in the morning and just ran out of time and didn't make the Richmond tour. We drove through and walked around but thats all we could do. If you are purely, park, tour, leave, sure you an do it but it was important to my kids to understand what is around W&M as far as the town so we stopped and ate lunch etc. Unfortunately, they did decide the W&M community was way too limited so I am glad we took the time to look around. We actually came Sunday, did Colonial Williamsburg, had a nice dinner and then did the first tour in the morning, so really did get to immerse a bit.