For LA - USC UCLA LMU and Pomona CMC or Pepperdine could be done in a few days

As some have suggested, we visited drivable locations to get a sense for size and where a school is located (urban, suburban, rural) and used that as a jumping off point to help DC sort their preferences. After that we traveled by train/plane to visit specific schools that aligned with their academic profile, interests, and preferred environment.

I would start with first building a preliminary list that takes into account your student’s stats, interests, preferences, etc. For example, my 3.5 kid was never getting into UVA or W&M so a tour of those schools wouldn’t have been time well spent. A couple options we looked at early on that were within a close drive included Loyola MD and UDel. UMW and VCU can also easily be done in succession.

Wofford-Furman-Davidson-Clemson.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You have to figure out what kind of school your child wants first. City school, flagship or SLAC? So, initially pick schools to visit to rule things out.

A general geographic area is also helpful.

A lot of people find that touring some local schools can help their kid figure out what they want in terms of size, campus, and neighborhood.

+1 VA actually has a wealth of school types fairly close together. We took a few days in the summer after 10th, when DC was ready to think about schools but had zero frame of reference of ideas about preference yet, and visited VCU (large, urban-integrated, public), U Richmond (small, suburban with campus, private), CNU (small, public), and W&M (mid-size public). DC had already seen a fair amount of GMU for the large suburban campus public, and was enrolled in Mary Wash’s week-long summer program, so we didn’t need to add those (which are obvious choices, being so close to us).

It was extremely helpful for DC in starting to narrow down preferences for size and campus type. We were then able to focus the few days DC has during the school year to do visits and open houses at schools that would actually be of interest.

anyplace where you can stay in one hotel and swing out from that point.

we did this several times. fly in Friday night. two tours Saturday. some fun saturday night. one Sunday morning. fly out Sunday afternoon.

chicago we say Northwestern and UChicago. That's a long uber but okay. Self toured loyola. (I find self touring kind of a waste. you dont know what you're missing).

Philly you need a car to see swat, Haverford, and Villanova. Drexel and Penn you dont. you can stay in one hotel though.

Boston so many

Anonymous wrote:Know that there are not a lot of weekend tours. You need to look for dates when your school is closed for professional development or minor holidays and book tours for those dates. Try touring schools within driving distance even if your kid isn't interested. You can still get a feel for large vs small, urban vs rural, etc.

we did weekend tours in Philly, chicago, Boston, DC