Spring break Boston college tour planning

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. We prefer east coast school, we have been to MD, VA, PA, and NC so far and plan to explore Boston next.
merit aid is nice to have, not a must.

OP, we did this exact trip last spring-- one parent, a junior, and a freshman sibling. Like you, we thought merit aid would be nice to have but was not absolutely necessary for us. DC didn't have test scores yet at that point, so we weren't sure how wide a net to cast. Schools were not doing official tours in spring of 2021 unless you were an accepted senior, so we made the trip to give both teens a sense of the city (neither had ever been to Boston) and the campuses and neighborhoods. We walked around (and, when possible, did self-guided tours from the schools' websites) BU, Northeastern, Tufts, and BC, and also eyeballed Suffolk and Emerson on Boston Common. Walked around Harvard just for the heck of it (DC never intended to apply). Thought about also taking a look at Brandeis and UMass Boston, but decided not to. (In retrospect, I wish we'd looked at Brandeis for the younger child, but hindsight is 20/20.) We stayed at an AirBnB in Back Bay. Parking was an expensive nightmare, but the apartment was great.

Based on that experience, we ruled out Tufts and BC. DC applied to BU and Northeastern and both are still high on their list; we are waiting on decisions now. Good luck to your child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. We prefer east coast school, we have been to MD, VA, PA, and NC so far and plan to explore Boston next.
merit aid is nice to have, not a must.

we are more selective about the collages we are willing to pay 80k, not all top 60

I still think 3 days is not enough for NE schools unless you have narrowed down where you want to tour. I don’t think Boston alone can be done easily in 3 days, let alone trying to see anywhere else. Even though NE is small it will still be over a 3 hour drive up to UVM for example.

[Anonymous]

What schools did he like/dislike of the ones you have visited so far? My DC loves going to college in the Boston area. Getting to and from is very easy with inexpensive flights nearly every hour from DCA. Driving there is a pain, roads are confusing and in terrible shape. Parking is not simple so I would avoid a rental car if possible. Stay somewhere fun and take the T around and/or Uber.

One thing to keep in mind is that housing is very expensive and old/poor condition. So ask a lot of questions about housing past the first year. We are looking at over $1100 per month for a nice safe place next year, on top of the pricey tuition.

[Anonymous]

OP here, No liberal arts, no premed, not too small (4000-5000+), not rural, not big city like NYC
No specific major in mind so won’t target schools like MIT, Georgia Tech etc
He likes Pittsburgh, Chapel hill, UPenn area
Not crazy about the HYP, no hooks so chance is slim to none anyway

[Anonymous]

So are you going to Boston for spring break and want to hit a few schools or are you specifically going to Boston to look at schools. Because your latest post narrows the college list a lot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, I disagree with all of these naysayers.. As long as the point of this trip is to get a sense of what your DC likes and doesn't like (as opposed to letting DS fall in love with any particular school), Boston is a great place to start a college search because of the density of colleges of different sizes/locations. I'd suggest looking at Brandeis and Tufts for mid-size suburban, Northeastern and BU for large urban (both of which give merit) and definitely look at MIT and Harvard because why not? We did these in 3 days last year (my DC did not want to look at any of the Northampton schools though if you have the ability to tack on an extra day, I'd encourage you to go out there or to Burlington to look at UVM or UMass just to see if he likes large public schools).

If you decide to stick with the Boston schools, I agree with the folks that said you don't need a car--Uber out to Brandeis and stick with walking/taking the T.

Good luck.

Because OP cannot pay for MIT or Harvard.

I don't go looking at Lamborghinis and mansions when I need a new car or house. It would be nonsensical.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I disagree with all of these naysayers.. As long as the point of this trip is to get a sense of what your DC likes and doesn't like (as opposed to letting DS fall in love with any particular school), Boston is a great place to start a college search because of the density of colleges of different sizes/locations. I'd suggest looking at Brandeis and Tufts for mid-size suburban, Northeastern and BU for large urban (both of which give merit) and definitely look at MIT and Harvard because why not? We did these in 3 days last year (my DC did not want to look at any of the Northampton schools though if you have the ability to tack on an extra day, I'd encourage you to go out there or to Burlington to look at UVM or UMass just to see if he likes large public schools).

If you decide to stick with the Boston schools, I agree with the folks that said you don't need a car--Uber out to Brandeis and stick with walking/taking the T.

Good luck.

Because OP cannot pay for MIT or Harvard.

I don't go looking at Lamborghinis and mansions when I need a new car or house. It would be nonsensical.

If OP can't pay for MIT or Harvard they likely can't pay for any Boston school. Why go at all?

[Anonymous]

BC is a liberal arts school. Each if you enter the business school you'll take 14 classes of liberal arts before you touch a business class. BU would be a better choice for stem

[Anonymous]

OP here, I did clarify merit aid is nice to have, not a must

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:BC is a liberal arts school. Each if you enter the business school you'll take 14 classes of liberal arts before you touch a business class. BU would be a better choice for stem

+1

If OP’s DC is undecided on his major, then liberal arts is the best (only?) path.

[Anonymous]

Realistic: BC, BU, tufts, Brandeis, maybe do a side trip to see bates/Colby

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Realistic: BC, BU, tufts, Brandeis, maybe do a side trip to see bates/Colby

I'd skip the ME schools since the kid isn't interested in liberal arts (by which I assume the OP means SLACS, not schools like BC). Maybe visit Brown instead. Or Holy Cross.

[Anonymous]

We flew to Boston and toured BC and Northeastern the same day. Then toured Tufts and visited Brandeis (didn't do official tour because my kid wasn't that interested). From Boston we drove to Providence to tour Brown and then flew home from there. I agree with a previous poster who recommended no more than two per day.