DC Experts: Seeking Hotel & Trans Advice

Been there, done that! It would be helpful to know which schools, on which days.

Most schools in DC are handy to various Metro stops, though American uses a shuttle from the Tenleytown station. If you rent the car, get it only for the days you go to the schools in VA.

The Omni and Marriott Wardman Park are right near the Woodley Park Metro station, on the Metro's red line, and a short cab ride to Georgetown. The Marriott has absolutely gorgeous landscaping in the spring; if you stay there as for a room in the older wing, which is nicer and closer to the Metro station.

Thanks, Anon! Those are some excellent tips! I like staying at Marriott partners for the "points!" (But also love to use Priceline for great prices.)

Well, our initial research indicates it's going to be a little tricky.

We're hoping we can visit 3 schools on Saturday: Info Session at American at 9:30, Tour of Georgtown at 10:45, and Info and Tour at The GW U at 1:00 pm. Geesh!

The problem is nothing is scheduled anywhere for Sunday.

Monday we would do a morning Info and Tour at UVA and the afternoon sessions at W&M.

Tuesday morning we can relax or return to visit something in DC, but our flight leaves Tues afternoon.

Any other ideas for our "free" Sunday?!

That schedule for Saturday is completely unworkable, even if you had a personal teleporter. The session at American won't even be ended when G'town is starting, across town!

My own personal opinion is that if you have limited time on a campus, there are better ways to spend it than on formal info sessions and tours. When we attended the info sessions at American and GW, we learned nothing that wasn't already available online or in print, except the home states of the other kids attending the info sessions, and some of their parents' weird questions.

We learned a lot more by just talking to students. Even if your student is shy, he can force himself to walk up to somebody and say, "Hi, I'm thinking of applying for admission here. What should I know?" or "What are the biggest issues on campus right now?" Most students are eager to talk, for better or worse. Remind him that the worst that can happen is being snubbed by somebody he'll never see again anyway.

We learned a lot by visiting the various student unions/centers, but the absolutely most useful thing my daughter did was to visit the offices and classrooms of the department she planned to major in, to see what it "felt like". You don't learn much from those arm-waving tours that mostly tell you who every building was named after; they all blur together pretty quickly. Especially the GW tour, much of which would be along city streets.

I would recommend that you forget the formal Georgetown visit on Saturday, and instead spend Sunday wandering around the campus (print out a map that shows which building is which) and the Georgetown section of DC. If your son is thinking of attending school in DC, give him a chance to get to know what that would be like.

When I stayed at the Marriott Wardman Park in April 2004, it was actually a Priceline win; so was the Omni, the following October.

You may be intending to do this and you may already know this, but UVA and William & Mary are not near DC. It is unclear whether you are planning these as a day trip from DC on Monday.

Charlottesville, the home of UVA is a good 2 1/2 to 3 hour drive from DC. Then, Williamsburg is probably about 2 hours--maybe longer--from Charlottesville. Then, driving back to DC from Williamsburg is a good 2-3 hours depending on traffic.

Seems to me that you should spend Sunday night in Charlottesville and see UVA on Monday. Then drive to Williamsburg and stay there Monday night and see William & Mary on Tuesday. Or maybe see W&M on Monday afternoon if you see UVA first thing on Monday morning. Then, drive back to DC on Tuesday morning.

I agree with the other poster that your AU and Georgetown visits are much, much too close together.

Thank you both. Excellent advice. We'll just walk around one of the DC campuses Sunday and talk to some students.

Yes, I realized that the Virginia schools are a couple hours from DC, but I did not realize that they are a couple hours from each other. I was planning on staying in Charlottesville Sun night, seeing UVA in the am, W&M in the afternoon, and going back to DC area (maybe closer to the airport) for Monday night.

Phew - it's going to be exhausting for sure. But it's our only opportunity to visit while classes are in session before he applies. I want him to see what he likes/doesn't before he decides where to apply. And don't schools consider the fact that you've visited when reviewing the applications? A couple of the schools would be extreme "reach" schools, but always worth a try if you are passionate about it.

Anon, where did your child end up going?

Thanks again to both of you for your valuable input!

Yes, the schools all keep very detailed records of every contact made with every applicant, from on-campus visits to chats at local college fairs. They even file the thank you notes, it's all very creepy really. Many will do an on-campus interview if you plan ahead; these are often with somebody more senior (i.e., with more clout) than one done locally by alumni or traveling reps.

My daughter ultimately transferred from her DC school (Catholic University) to one here in the Boston area. But a couple of weeks ago I helped her move back to DC, her favorite city, to work! She now lives in the Adams-Morgan neighborhood, just a couple of blocks from the zoo and that lovely Marriott.

Dreamer, your time is definitely too short for all that you want to do. I agree with Anonymous that if your time is limited, it would be better to schedule a visit with the department that your child is interested in rather than do the official tours.
During college visits with my daughter a couple years ago, we always included a stop in the drama department for a visit and she recently told me that one of the main reasons she chose the college that she did was that the department's undergrad advisor spent a lot of time with her and gave her an excellent tour of all the various theatres. My son is now in the college visit process and we recently returned from his first college visit. While the "official" session and tour were informative, he got the most out of his visit to the ROTC department since he plans to join ROTC and apply for a scholarship.
I've done both of the information sessions and tours at UVA and W&M. The campus tours were actually more informative for us because the student tour guides will tell you a lot of stuff that prospective students (your child) want to hear about a college. You'll also get to see a typical dorm room at W&M which can be pretty important for a new student. (UVA doesn't let you see a dorm room for "security" reasons.)
If you can't do the info session at W&M, I strongly suggest that you stop by the Admissions Office. They will give you a card for the specific admissions counselor that covers your part of the state/country with his/her phone number and e-mail address so that you can correspond directly. You can also fill out a postcard indicating your interest in the school and they will send further info to your child. I imagine you can do something similar at UVA, but I don't know personally about this.
Finally, if I were you and had your time constraints, I would drive to either Williamsburg or Charlottesville on Sunday. If you go to Williamsburg first, visit Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown and/or Yorktown on Sunday and spend the night. (You could even do a ghost tour of CW that night. We did and enjoyed it.) Then do your W&M stuff in the morning and drive to Charlottesville and do your UVA stuff in the afternoon and spend Monday night there. Leave on Tuesday morning to drive back to D.C. for your flight.
If you go to Charlottesville on Sunday, you could tour Monticello. Then do UVA on Monday morning and drive to W&M for the afternoon. Walk through CW in the late afternoon/evening (no charge) and perhaps do the ghost tour. Depart on Tuesday morning for D.C. and your flight home.
Good luck with your college visits. Having been through it once before, I know it can be a stressful time but "this, too, shall pass."

OK- Like Sherman through Georgia...

SAT:
10-10:40 Georgetown Info Session
12-1:00 Amer U. tour
2-3:00 The GW U tour

Still no can do?

Sunday- Go back and look around campus if necessary.
Drive to Charlottesville and visit Monticello (THanks for the tip, Longhorn, my son will LOVE that!)
Mon AM: UVA (10-12:30)
Mon PM: W&M (2:30-5:00)
(Will we make it in two hours?)

PS. I did do this with my daughter a couple years ago, but it was mostly Boston and New England area schools. Did New York area with son last month, heading down to unfamiliar territory next month!

I very much appreciate all your insight, folks. THanks again!

I dunno. Technically, if each session ends when it is supposed to, you could do it, but as I recall when we did the campus tour thing with each of my stepchildren, stuff doesn't always run on time. And will the "forced march" approach give your son the best impression of the schools? Is this better than not visiting? Guess the answers depend on your son.

Oh, and one more thing: you are missing the opportunity to eat on campus, which would give your son another slice-of-life view of the school.

And don't schools consider the fact that you've visited when reviewing the applications?

No. Why would they care if you visited? They don't know if you visited because it's your no. 1 choice, or because you happened to be in the area, or because you like the look of ivy. They don't know if you've visited one school or 20. Completely irrelevant in my experience.

My son reports that when he had his interview with a rep from his first-choice reach school, the rep knew he had visited, and brought it up in discussion, asking what he thought of the tour.
Guidance counselors at his school claim that any measure of interest and commitment is noticed. If you live within a day's travel of a school but haven't visited it, they are apparently less likely to take your application seriously.

I agree with the other posters that the schedule might be a little overly ambitious and you might want to consider dropping the more formal tour for at least one of the schools for a more informal wandering of the grounds or an appointment with someone from a department of interest.

Geographically, it makes more sense to have Georgetown and GW next to each other - they're nearer. Right now you're going to be running up to Tenleytown in between to see AU, which doesn't make a lot of sense (and no time for lunch - that would leave a grumpy, bad impression on any school, I would think!) AU and GW are very metro accessible (Tenleytown on the Red line and Macpherson Square on the Orange/Blue line, respectively) but Georgtown is not - however, on a nice day, the walk from GW to Georgetown is not bad, provided you're not in a huge hurry - and would give you a nice feel for the area.

As for the VA leg of the trip, glad you're taking the time to see Monticello, which is great, but it is going to be a bit of a strech to get from Charlottesville to Williamsburg in that 2 hour time period - it can be done, but just barely and again you're not leaving any time for lunch, traffic, etc., or just getting caught up in the scenery of the most beautiful time of year here.

Bottom line, I suppose what you're planning can technically be done, but it's likely to be stressful and hectic.

I know what you are trying to do, but it sounds miserable and I wonder if anyone will get much out of it.

If these are the five schools you want to see, I'd suggest either add another day or two, or split it into two trips. Otherwise, I think it could end up being a wasted trip without much insight.

The Charlottsville to Williamsburg leg is the most problematic. Two gorgeous campuses in small towns. There's no way you can really make a good decision about these schools in two hours and looking at you watch the whole time.

I think it's worth scrapping that part of the trip, focus on DC, and then plan another trip to Williamsbug and C'Ville.

I want to apologize for the sarcastic tone of my reply last night. I worked all day yesterday and was super-tired, and should have kept my thoughts to myself! (I guess they do KNOW that you visited, and maybe between two absolutely equally qualified candidates, it might be considered....I just think it's the least important factor of all possible factors).

...just to correct the Metro stop info provided by the previous poster: GW is at the Foggy Bottom/GW stop on the orange and blue lines.

AU is about 1/2 mile--maybe more from the Tenleytown stop. A nice walk in nice weather in a nice part of town.

Thanks, all! Good advice... I'll let you know how it all works out.

Dmlove: no worries! Hope things are better.

AU runs a bus from the Tenleytown stop to the campus. It picks up one block east of Wisconsin Avenue just north of Albemarle St.

That said, I don't know what this trip can accomplish. You won't see anything, much less get a feel for the campuses.

Whoops, yes, Foggy Bottom, not sure why I typed Macpherson - that's what I get for responding before drinking enough coffee!