I currently have 9th and 10 graders and I plan to do a few college tours this summer to get an idea of what type of school our first will want. We have already told our kids they are going to state schools. We are also in Virginia and our state schools are excellent. I am with Lauren on the state vs private money deal. The privates are just too much.
As far as desirable schools in Virginia? UVA, Virginia Tech, James Madison and William and Mary are the top choices. Christopher Newport is a new popular choice, but not on the same level as UVA or william and Mary.

Lauren - that is great about your son. My stepson is pursuing theater and looking at many different programs. I am curious is W&M a conservatory program? He is done applying etc but some of the schools that he has auditioned for we have come to find that it would be hard for him to go on to get his masters due to the way the theater program is structured.

Check out Wake Forest in Winston-Salem, NC

You already have a lot of good advice about how to manage the college tour trip, so I'll just add a couple of things. First, I know there have been previous threads on this sort of topic -- college visits in Virginia -- so you may be able to find some of those and see what advice those people got.

Washington and Lee is about two hours from Charlottesville. Lexington is pretty but small.

UVA, at least -- and probably other schools do this -- used to have a program where prospective students could come stay for a weekend with a student at the school (I think they stayed with first-years). So your kid might look into that if he's really interested.

W & M is a regular liberal arts program. He got a B.A. Then DS went to The New School University in NYC for his MFA.

Lauren - thank you! That seems to be the best of both worlds. He has audtioned for UCLA, NYU, USC - hopefully he will make it into one of those programs.

MomDD--Good luck to your son and I hope he finds a program that suits his interests. Just a note--my daughter is in the theatre program at a major university. She did a conservatory program at Dublin's Gaiety Theatre last semester. While it was a great experience for her, she
came back so thankful that she had not chosen a conservatory program in lieu of a regular university. Her best friend is in a music conservatory and now wishes that she had chosen a regular university. It makes me think that students with a strong academic leaning miss the challenges and variety that a good university can offer. If you son falls into this category, it may be something for him to think about.

Longhorn55 - we are really trying to get him to see that a liberal arts degree from a traditional U would best suit him - it may very well work itself out - as those programs are very exclusive and take very small numbers.
He went to Austin over the weekend and liked St. Edwards and they have a good theater program. The best would be for him to get into UCLA - great program and great prices :).

Thanks for the feedback - I have heard that more and more. Best of luck to your daughter.

My take on conservatory programs are that they are only for those who are totally committed to their art. You can't exactly change your mind in those programs--and lots of kids do.

Yes, Lauren and some get cut.

Tell him we know of one girl who got into Juilliard (you can't do better than that) and transferred to Sarah Lawrence after sophomore year because she didn't like how narrow her education was turning out to be, got tired of how narrowly focused her classmates were. She's still doing dance, commuting, doing summer programs, but she's relieved to be out of the conservatory's rarefied atmosphere. She even told her parents in horror about a Julliard classmate who'd wrecked a knee in a car accident, ended her training and possibly her career, and now had nothing to show for her time there other than maybe being able to teach somewhere.

Of course, you don't have to tell him that his parents had the same discussions with her re: conservatory vs. liberal arts before she even went to Juilliard to no avail - and after all, it would have taken a huge act of courage to turn Juilliard down - but this makes much more sense for her.

Thanks HKP - he has taken San Fran state off his list - which we are thrilled about. Glad that worked itself out. They are impacted on housing and needed a sum of monies by mid-march and he was not ready to make his choice.
He has St. Edwards in Austin, Manhattanville in NY, St. Mary's in Northern California - all of those will give him a liberal arts.

We cannot tell him anything as more then any other 18 year old we have ever known - he knows EVERYTHING.

You think he's bad at 18 - you won't believe what a "genius" he'll become after freshman year. And how stupid and uninformed you'll be by then, too. Courage! ;-)

And good luck if he decides to go somewhere far from you - it's a wrench, no question, but talk him into a webcam.

well - we got the very surprising news today that he got into SUNY Purchase's drama program. We are all stunned. No WAY did we think he would get in... wow.