Hello All,
With Feb break coming up I am thinking to do another college touring trip with 16yo son. We live in NJ, and have done Boston back in Nov. Any suggestions of where to go next, to get the most 0f our time? I don't think we could spend more then 4 days. I am thinking Washington DC, or Philly. Also what are your thoughts about touring with another Mom and friend? Too distracting?
Thank you all so much!

You certainly would have the opportunity to visit a lot of colleges if you came to Washington, D.C. Not only would you have the colleges in D.C. itself (American, Georgetown, George Washington and Catholic), but you'd also be close to many of the colleges in Virgina and Maryland. Depending on the time you have to visit and your son's interests, you could go to the University of Mary Washington, UVA, College of William and Mary, George Mason University, James Madison University or even Virginia Tech. I know less about the Maryland colleges, but I do know you've got the University of Maryland and all the Baltimore area colleges.
If you intend for this to be a serious college tour, then I'd probably not bring another friend. If you intend this to just be a fun trip where your son gets introduced to a few colleges, then you might want to bring another Mom and friend.
(Personally, I liked doing college trips alone with my son and daughter as it gave us a lot of uninterrupted time to be together.)

My only caveat is NOT to try to visit too many schools at any one time or they will just all run together. With each of my two children, we just visited one or two schools at a time on weekend trips. For four days, I wouldn't try to visit more than 4-6 schools maximum.

Does your 16 year old son have any notion where he wants to go? Or what he wants to study? Is he a HS sophomore? I think I would do more thinking about the schools he wants, before just randomly visiting campuses. There are SO many colleges to choose from, it can be overwhelming (and expensive) if you don't do your homework.

My son is a soph. He is thinking to stay in the Northeast. We are looking now since my time is limited, and I think it is a great motivator. We have decided to head to DC this time. From NJ we will take Amtrak. Any thoughts on a nice hotel in a good location for easy commute to the different colleges? We have points with Marriott, so that will help, but I don't want to limit us to one brand. I do want this to feel like a bit of a vacation, so any thoughts about planning our time? We did have a nice time in Boston, so I am really looking forward to this trip. Thank you!

etk401, this may be jumping the gun a bit, but since your son still has some time and is interested in schools in the Northeast: for a future trip in warmer weather, do consider a loop through NH, VT, NY State. You could do another for CT and western MA. Both could be fun as mini-vacations with school touring thrown in (or vice versa). So many schools, so little time!

The universities in D.C. are all over the place, but most of them (e.g. American, Catholic and George Washington) are near Metro stops. Georgetown University is across Key Bridge from the Rosslyn Metro stop.
I'd just find a hotel that suits you and plan to take Metro to the various colleges.

AU is a bit of a hike from the Tenleytown metro. It does run a shuttle from the metro to the school. Not sure if anyone can take it or not. That said, I would agree that since the schools r a bit spread out, it doesn't really matter where u stay downtown.