First time to East
 

Hi

My husband and teenage son who is looking at the Eastern colleges would like to make our first trip to the area from Hawaii. We would like to include sometime outdoors as well as the cities.
We thought we might fly into Maine- Portland or Bangor ? and fly out of Washington DC. I know this is a lot of territory- kind of like driving from San Diego to Seattle . If we had about 2 weeks would this be enough time to spend several days at Acadia National Park, drive to Boston, NYC and Washington DC with 3 nights in each town ?
Thanks for your help.

I think the first question is whether 3 nights in Boston, NY and Washington is enough if you're spending any real time vising colleges. How many do you expect to visit? Will you take the formal tours (they take time)?

It would be doable, but incredibly rushed. The driving distances are Acadia National Park to Boston is a good 5 hours drive;
Boston to NYC another 4 hours; and NYC to DC at least 4 hours.

If you enocunter traffic u need to add more time.

I agree it makes sense to figure first which schools you want to see. The way tours and information sessions are scheduled it is hard to see more than 2 colleges a day even when they are not far apart. My kids both got overloaded quickly on college trips. If you try to go to too many places you won't have enough down time to explore the areas near the schools.

Although I love Acadia I would not include it on the trip you are describing but would try to find a coastal area closer to Boston/NY/DC

What time of year are you planning to go on this trip?

Agree that there's not really enough time for all the places you want to see.

And also agree if you can list which colleges your son is interested in visiting. And, visiting a college can easily take up 1/2 day or even a whole day; so when you say 3 nights in each city, does that mean you'll only have 2 days for sightseeing???

You will find very few flights into Portland or Bangor - instead, you should be looking at Boston or Manchester, NH. I am guessing price and convenience coming that distance means you will fly into Boston.

I might see colleges/sightsee in Boston first to break it up. Then north the Acadia. Then 2 days to drive to NYC (or one really long horrible day - it is never easy traffic getting into NY), south to Washington and fly home.

Having 2 years ago spent a week and a half seeing what seemed like every college between NY and Washington with my dtr, I can tell you it gets old very fast and to try to fit it all in is tough. I understand with the travel distance this is the way you have to do it.

Good luck.

Hi

Thanks for the input.

Vttraveller- what coastal areas near NY/Boston/DC would you recommend ?

We will be making this trip in early to mid-June.

The goal for my son is to get a flavor for the East coast. He has not really narrowed down his school list and I don't think we really need to get on each campus necessarily.

I do believe 3days/4 nights in each city is enough.

Reason to consider Acadia is because we do want to break up the trip and not get overwhelmed with colleges.

I don't think you can just ignore the campuses. there are vast differences in location, atmosphere, and what type of students you'll have. Out daughters would never have considered any school they didn't tour - there's just so much you don;t find out until you get there and talk to students.

Mixing in some touring is fine - but the various colleges in Boston, NYC etc are SO different from each other that not spending times at the ones he's seriously considering might leave him with some unhappy surprises.

Hi

What do you think about the Adirondaks instead of Acadia ?

What grade is your son in? Is this a serious "look at the colleges I'm really interested in" trip or more of a "look at a variety of colleges to get an idea of what east coast colleges are like" trip? If its the former, well, only you know how many he's interested in, which ones, and whether he has a chance of getting into them. If its the latter, I'd suggest you tour Harvard, NYU and/or Columbia, and Georgetown.

Hope your trip is as successful as Tony Soprano's.

I wouldn't do this as a driving trip...

I'd fly into Boston, then drive up to Maine or wherever you decide to see the great outdoors, then come back to Boston. Drop off the car, then fly, train or bus into New York. After that, another train or flight to DC, and rent a car for any day trips.

It is such a headache having a car in Boston or NYC, and this way you'll avoid one way/drop off fees, not to mention all the traffic and frustrations of driving.

0ne thing to consider is that going in June means that many of the universities will not be in session. Boston in the summer is not at all the same city as during the school year, when 1 out of 5 residents is a student.

Good luck. We are also from Hawaii and have done the college tours. Daughters are both graduating in mid-May from Boston U and Columbia, and both loved their time in the East.

I don't know what kind of student your son is or what his interests are, but here is a list of places to look at on a road trip from Maine to Washington and Virginia:

1. Bowdoin in Brunswick, ME: small private liberal arts. Colby and Bates are similar, but Brunswick is a much nicer town.
2. University of New Hampshire in Dover, NH: small state university, good for ecological studies, near skiing and Portsmouth (great small city on the ocean).
3. Boston University or Northeastern University, large universities in Boston. BU arts oriented, NEU science and business oriented. Look at Harvard and MIT if he is brilliant or Boston College if he is Catholic.
4. In NYC, Columbia is Harvardish and NYU has similarities to BU if you don't push the comparison too far. See Parsons if he is an artist.
5. In Philadelphia, Penn is a private urban Ivy League like Harvard or Columbia, Drexel is technologically oriented like Northeastern, and Haverford is a fine small liberal arts college.
6. Baltimore has Johns Hopkins, MIT plus the arts.
7. Washington has George Washington University (Northeasternish) and Georgetown, Boston College's big rival.

Most of these are highly, highly competitive. They are included here because the invite comparison and are on a straight-line trip down the east coast.

Three excellent schools off the main route, slightly less competitive, each with fanatically committed alumni, always a good sign, are Hamilton College, in upstate New York; Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, PA (PA Dutch country); and Washington and Lee in Lexington, VA.

There are dozens of others but we don't have enough information to tell you more.

Remember one last thing: if it is hard and expensive for you to get there for a visit, it will be hard and expensive for him at vactions and breaks.

For coastal areas farther south than Acadia I would consider southern Maine, the North Shore area (Cape Ann north of Boston), Cape Cod or Rhode Island. Near DC you could go to the Eastern Shore

The Adirondacks is another beautiful area or you might consider NH/VT and/or western Massachusetts for a rural change of pace.

You are getting a lot of suggestions about what schools to look at and I agree that if your son isn't sure whether he wants a university in or near a city or a small liberal arts college you should look at some of both. My sons grew up in rural Vt and both were set on being near a city.

I don't think you should rule out Boston College, Fordham and/or Georgetown if your family is not Catholic. They are excellent schools and our younger (non-Catholic, not-at-all religious) son has applied to all three.

I think your son should have a more definitive list of colleges he can realistically apply to so that your time in the East includes those specific towns/cities. Some colleges may be in downtown Boston and some may be in very rural areas.

Then it will be easier to pull your itinerary together.

I appreciate your suggestions.

Some of you are ahead of my son's college counselor, whom he will not meet one on one until April to put together that "list". The one school he is certain to want to see is Columbia.


We would be interested in hearing what outdoor activites might be had close to NYC/BOS/DC.

First of all Columbia is incredibly hard to et into.

Second, one doesn't come to NYC to specialize in outdoor activities. There are large parks in the city - but it will take at last an hour to get out past the subrurbs into areas that are "natural" at all - and often require renting a car.

Finally, a good part of the school year is late fall, winter and early spring, which will make outdoor activities - except skating and skiing - not very available.

The key questions are:

What are your son's areas of interest (he doesn;t have to pick a major now, but should be sure the schools he's looking at have at least decent departments in what he cares about)?

Are his test scores and recommendations truly exceptional - so he can get in almost anywhere?

What kind of experience and student body is he looking for. (One of my cousins went to Columbia. She came from a quire upscale family - her father was managing partner in the largest law firm in a sizable midwest city - but she felt uncomfortable around a lot of the other students - who were from a whole different economic strata (inherited wealth of the own your own island type).

That's not to say that you don;t find student of every economic strata at every school - but there are differences in percentages - and assumptions about what you own and what you can do (ski vacations at Gstaad, etc).

I know many people who went to Columbia and they are from all economic strata and interests and they have an large international student body.

NYU is the largest private school in the country and is also highly competitive especially the film school and the school of the arts.

It is not cliche when people who attend college in NYC say the City is their campus.

If your son doesn't have any idea yet, I think it's important for him to see the differenty types of colleges here on the E Coast.

There are small liberal arts colleges in small NE towns (ie, 2000-3000 students).

There are big universities in big cities, eg, Boston University.

There are smaller liberal arts colleges in suburbs of big cities, eg Tufts and Boston College

All of these will have a very different feel - does he want to live in a big city; or a small quaint town? Does he want to be in a school with 20,000 students?

If he doesn't know what he wants, it is important to have him see the differences between these different types of schools.

I do appreciate all the feedback regarding colleges.

The hope is to make this trip fun so the teenager will be inspired to consider schools in the area.

Historically 40% of the graduates of his high school will land in California. It will be tough to sell the East coast.

Well - why try to "sell" the east coast?

Four seasons - esp winter - can be a real shock - to people not used to it. And getting home for holidays will be a huge chore.

Is there some reason you're fixated on the east?

I can tell you it's very hard to sell him the East coast, given that you guys are from Hawaii.

There were quite a bunch of people in my grad school who grew up in So Cal. They were SO MISERABLE during their 4 years in Boston. I never understood why then... what's their problem??? Every single one of them could hardly wait until graduation day so that they can move back to Sunny SoCal. I finally understood them when, last month in Dec, I spent 3 warm and sunny weeks in LA:

1) You can't roll out of bed and go to classes in shorts and flip flops. Just an example, today's temperature in Boston is 15F, with windchill in single digit.

2) Winter in the NE is 6 months too long. Spring does not arrive until mid-May, and summer is only 2 weeks long

3) If your son is used to driving everywhere, it'll be a huge shock - he'll have to use mass transit and no more personal space as buses and subways are crowded

4) Even locals here suffer from SAD, I can't even imagine how non-natives get through the winters here.

You're correct nytraveler, there probably is no good reason one has to leave the comfort of the West to seek a good undergraduate education.

I'm a bit baffled by the "advice" I'm getting here .

Are there any other thoughts about getting outdoors in the area ?

Guys!

okoshi wants to know about outdoor areas to visit this June while on an East coast trip.

She is not asking which colleges her son should tour or attend!!!

0koshi- you might re-post this question. Use a new title such as, " Parks and outdoor activities in New England for June 09". Don't mention the college viewing aspect in it!

When you say "outdoors" what do you have in mind?

Around Boston, you can head out to Cape Cod for beaches (but traffic will be a killer in June); or up to New Hampshire to the White Mountains for hiking.

Closer around town, there's the Boston Harbor Islands
http://www.nps.gov/boha/

The MASS Dept of Conservation and Recreation operates state parks, one can go canoeing in lakes, hiking on trails etc
http://www.mass.gov/dcr/metroboston.htm

For winter activities, it's mainly snowskiing up in NH/VT/ME; or snowshoeing along hiking trails.

PS- I happen to have the latest bulletin from my daughters' school here in Honolulu. It has a list showing the colleges attended by the class of 2008.

0ver a quarter of the students are at East Coast schools,
vs 45% in California and the Pacific NW, so apparently it isn't that tough to sell.

Besides, ALL Hawaii kids think that winter is unbearably cold, whether they are in San Diego or Boston. That's half the adventure of going off to the mainland!

You're right Icuy -even the 60sF we've had recently has us running for socks !

Well, I think we will accept that this trip will be about the cities.