CollegeTrips13

Visiting Colleges in March Tufts/BU /BC

Where is the most centrally located place a family can stay to visit all these schools

A suite would be great

Any suggestions?

Lookin_Glass

are you driving or flying?

CollegeTrips13

driving from ny westchester

padams421

I don't have a specific hotel suggestion for you but I have a couple of general suggestions for college trips (and I'll send your post back to the top). First, look at the college websites. They usually have visitor information including hotel suggestions, which are close to campus. Second, I'd pick a hotel within walking distance of your child's first choice of the three schools listed. By staying close to the top choice, you can spend more time there as well as easily go back for another walk around campus if you finish the other visits with time to spare.

We were in Boston last weekend looking at colleges. Have fun!

Jaya

...or get a hotel that is easily accessible to the MBTA (public transportation). All of these colleges should be on "T". The college websites or admissions office should be able to guide you too, plus Boston isn't that big and getting around on the T is quite easy.

capxxx

BC and BU are on the Green Line (BC is at the western terminus). The Green line splits into 3 lines outbound -- you want line B for both of them.

Tufts is sort of on the Red Line -- but it's a long hike up a big hill from Davis Square. (You could maybe catch a cab from Davis Square if necessary).

If you want to stay downtown near where the two lines meet, consider the Copley area or Back Bay.

There is a not-bad Holiday Inn in Brookline, easy Green Line access to BC and BU. But you'd want to drive to Tufts from there, to avoid going all the way downtown and then all the way out by T.

I don't believe there is a hotel in walking distance to Tufts. The nearest hotels are to the north of the campus, which makes them inconvenient for BU/BC.

capxxx

(To clarify : the Holiday Inn is on the C line, not the B line, but its not too hard to get where you want to be.)

Ackislander

I think you have gotten very good advice here so I am just going to emphasize certain things.

1. Very little of student life in Boston involves getting driving or getting driven around in a car. These three universities are wildly different from each other, and one way of choosing among them will be to use public transportation to get to them. Advice: stay in the center of the city, take the Green Line B trains to the two B colleges, and the Red Line to Davis Square and a taxi to Tufts.

2. Cars are often/usually restricted , especially for freshmen. Off campus parking on the street is difficult to impossible. People who find paid parking are happy to pay $120 a month. Advice: take the train to Boston from Westchester since that is pretty much how your student is going to have to get back and forth for the first couple of years. You can fly from White Plains to Boston if you prefer and if that is how s/he would travel. It reinforces staying in downtown (Back Bay, Copley, Financial District).

DonTopaz

Yikes, I can't imagine trying to scope out these places by using the T. BU is certainly T-accessible, but Tufts is a long haul from Davis Sq unless you knw which bus to take. And BC has a big campus, many parts of it a l-o-n-g way from the Lake St terminus of the Green Line.

I'd suggest the DoubleTree Suites Hotel in Allston, which is adjacent to the Mass Pike. Good access to BU by car or taxi, and to BC and Tufts by car. (Though you would definitely want to have GPS or good map). Also ultra-easy to reach for those coming from NY.

I would also have to believe that the Admissions Office buildings at BC and Tufts would have some type of visitor parking.

Ackislander

You may note that I recommended taking a taxi from Davis Square to Tufts. But Davis Square is an extremely cool place, and every potential Tufts student ought to see it -- not by car -- so they can compare it with BC which is also far out (geographically).

There will certainly be parking on all those campuses but the point was the kid won't be driving to those campuses when they are a freshman. S/he will be taking public transportation. That will make a huge difference in their college life, and that is just as important to experience as part of the visit process as the tour by a student ("this is the library; they don't just have books") and lunch in the cafeteria ("we have a salad station and a hot meals station and a sandwich station).

I was a college administrator once upon a time and I am more than familiar with the "I-thought-I-was-going-to-college-in-Boston-but-I-am-out-in-the-burbs." If the kid were looking at Brandeis, I would suggest they take commuter rail.

The OP and family are beginning the due diligence process on expenditures that are going to run them, what, $300,000 or so? They owe it to themselves to take the time to look carefully. They are not losing time by taking the MBTA, they are gaining information. Tha information may be, "no,it is a pain in the ... to get to ...", and I think I'll go to Wesleyan" or it may be "this is so cool; I love it". The Green Line on Friday and Saturday night is indeed a lot of fun, filled with kids doing stuff in the city. Of course, Monday morning is different!

travelgourmet

Tufts (at least the downhill side) is a 15 minute walk from the Davis Square T. The hill is actually in the middle of the Tufts campus, so you will have to climb up and down it all the time during the day and the walk to and from Davis is the least of your concerns. FWIW, I am pretty sure Freshmen can get a parking permit at Tufts if they want.

That being said, since you are driving anyway, you might as well drive to Tufts. I would definitely drive to BC because it is way out on the Green Line and, well, the Green Line is miserable and it takes forever.

In terms of accessibility to "Boston", I think Tufts is light years ahead of BC. BC is at the end of the Green Line, while Tufts is on the Red Line, which is much faster into downtown. Also, Tufts is on some frequent bus lines to Harvard Square, which is another locus of activity for "Boston". Personal prejudice - I also think that Cambridge/Somerville is better than Allston/Brighton for more immediate diversions.

For hotels, the Doubletree is definitely an option, but it is a cab or drive from pretty much anywhere. Another option might be the Marriott or Residence Inn in Kendall, which will be (literally) on top of the T, but with parking that is marginally cheaper than at a downtown hotel. Both are decent hotels, but with older, well-kept rooms (read: small bathtubs). There is also a Hyatt in Cambridge that is a bit of a walk from the T, but with no worse a location than the Doubletree.

In reality, though, there is no "great" location for all three schools, so I would look for a good deal anywhere in the core areas of Boston and Cambridge.

In general, and not to taint your opinion too much, I would note that if your kid really, really, really wants to go to college "in the city", then BU is the choice. Both BC and Tufts offer access to Boston that is still pretty convenient (certainly more than Brandeis or a place like Wellesley), but they emphasize the campus life much more than BU does, while the BU campus literally spills onto Commonwealth Ave.

Finally, and at the risk of slagging on BU unduly, I would note that it is definitely a step down in terms of prestige from Tufts and BC and I think it is actually a sizable step. With only some minor exceptions for program, or if BU blew me away with an aid offer, I would never choose BU over Tufts or BC strictly because of the prestige differential - it matters. In Boston, it matters a lot.

Between BC and Tufts, it depends a bit on what you want - BC has more school pride and more of a big-school feel. They also offer undergraduate business degrees and have a very strong reputation in the Boston business community. Tufts excels at sciences/pre-med and (especially) international relations. They also have an engineering school, which BC lacks. There is no business degree at Tufts.

DonTopaz

re hotels (esp Doubletree): I agree that the Doubletree is a usually a lousy location for someone just visiting Boston. However, it is a suites hotel (which OP hoped for), and it's vaguely in the center of an imaginary triangle formed by the 3 schools. (And, it must unfortunately be said, that had Snowflake worked a bit harder in high school, it would also have been in a prime location for visiting Harvard and/or MIT.)

travelgourmet

had Snowflake worked a bit harder in high school, it would also have been in a prime location for visiting Harvard and/or MIT.

Ouch.

I would argue that the admissions rates at both are so incredibly low that - for all but the absolutely most brilliant students - the decisions between who is in vs who is out can be quite random.

nanabee

>

Kinda laughing! But, double ouch!

nytraveler

Sorry - you have to have excellent academics to get into Harvard or MIT - but they're not limited to Einsteins - of whihc there are very few.

However, agree for anyone from the NYC area to get into either one is especially difficult - since so many NYC kids apply - versus the relatively few applications from many other parts of the country. And the schools do try to maintain some sort of geographic balance.

travelgourmet

Sorry - you have to have excellent academics to get into Harvard or MIT - but they're not limited to Einsteins - of whihc there are very few.

The admissions rate at Harvard is under 6% and declining. You do have to be exceptional in some way (in addition to meeting a baseline level of academic achievement) to be admitted.

However, agree for anyone from the NYC area to get into either one is especially difficult

I never cease to be amazed at the capacity of New Yorkers to think that they are exceptional just by living in New York.

I'm quite confident that, ceteris parabus, a New York area kid has the same likelihood of being accepted as a kid from Alabama. There might be more New York area kids that delude themselves into thinking they are Harvard material (more likely, they have parents that are deluded), driving acceptance rates down, but that is not the same as saying it is "more difficult" for a New York kid to get in.

The myth of the difficulty for New York area kids to gain acceptance to top schools is something perpetuated by New York area parents that can't accept that their kid is simply not as smart as they want to think.

HappyTrvlr

Geography does factor into college admissions. For a top ranked eastern college , for example,instead of another student from NYC,CT or MA, there would be a better chance of being admitted if applicant were from MT or SD. Schools are definitely looking for geographic diversity.

travelgourmet

Geography does factor into college admissions.

It does for lesser colleges. Harvard, however, gets something like 35k applications each year for around 2k slots. I doubt there are that many students that are passed over for geography - with that many applicants, the geographic distribution takes care of itself.

Lookin_Glass

How a simple request from a poster has turned into a pisssing match is beyond me. Way uncool.

cw

To go back to the original question. I think the Back Bay area is a good location for you, but parking will be quite pricey if you drive. It has easy access for taking public transportation to BU and BC. It can take a longer time to BC on the B Green Line subway but the end of the line is right at BC. (BC Law School is about a mile and a half away, and there are some freshmen dorms on the Newton campus, with shuttle buses running often.) Alternately you could take the D Green Line Riverside train to Chestnut Hill and walk about 15 minutes.

As others have said, you can get to Tufts on the Red Line.

If you really want a suite hotel, look at the Residence Inns (Tudor Wharf and Kendall Square) or the Doubletree Suites. Besides the one on/near Storrow Drive and the Charles River, there is one in downtown Boston.