My daughter and I will be visiting colleges in the NYC area this summer. Most of the schools she wants to look at are on Long Island and in Connecticut. We will be flying into MacArthur Airport on Long Island. Do you have suggestions for hotels? We want to be fairly close to Stony Brook, the Port Jefferson Ferry and the Ronkonkoma RR Station. I have found a Radisson near the airport, but have found some negative reviews of the property. Any suggestions for hotels? restaurants that won't break the bank? attractions besides visiting various college campuses? Always find great help and advice here.

As far as attractions. So many great ones on Long Island. Visit the wineries out on the North Fork. Check out the Hamptons (quaint villages, harbors and beaches) if the weather is nice or even take a trek out to Montauk. Cold Spring Harbor is great little town with some history. Sagamore Hill (Teddy Roosevelt's old mansion home) is beautiful. Lot's of neat things. Enjoy.

There is a pretty new hotel right across from the airport that looks very nice but I can't remember which chain it is. I think it's this La Quinta.
http://www.lq.com/lq/properties/prop...otel-amenities

Check reviews on tripadvisor.

That said, it's not particularly close to Stony Brook. If you stay in Port Jefferson, that's pretty close to Stony Brook--only 15 mins. away. What other LI school are you visiting? Why do you mention the Ronkonkoma RR? You are renting a car, yes?

We will be taking the train into Manhattan a couple times so want to be close to a Long Island Railroad station. I mentioned Ronkonkoma since it is close to the airport.
Other schools we will be visiting are Adelphi and Hofstra on LI. We will also take the ferry to Bridgeport, CT and visit schools in CT.
We will have a car so we can take a drive out to Montauk, but don't want to drive in Manhattan.
Thanks for the advice on using TripAdvisor.

You're looking at a very broad range of schools there. Is geography the only limitation? What major or area of study is your daughter interested in?

Stony Brook, while a state university, has a history of academic excellence and a very broad range of offerings. Hofstra, while having a couple of good departements, has much more the feel of a commuter school - very social and not very rigorous academically. And Adelphi was on the point of losing accreditation not long ago - I would really hesitate to spend any amount of money on an "education" there.

Naturally you can get a better or worse education at many schools - a large part is up to the wishes and determination of the student. But while some schools offer a lot that's good and some mediocre - there are many that are the other way around.

Try:
Dandords in Port Jefferson
Hamlet Windwatch in Islandia/Hauppuage
I think (it might be listed unter a Hyatt property now)

A littler more west is the Smithtown Sheraton- nice hotel.... close to experssway

As far as attractions go... depends on the time of the year... I think you said summer so I suggest:

Heading out east to spend a day in the vinyards and or Hamptons- maybe even take a ferry ride over to Fire Island.

There are outlets out in Riverhead

If you will be further west towards Nassau County Jones Beach is a great beach to visit

nytraveler,

Thanks for the heads up about Adelphi. She is interested in a liberal arts school with possible majors in art history or photography.
Geography isn't a limitation, the 3 schools I mentioned are on LI. We are also taking the ferry from Port Jefferson to Bridgeport to visit schools in Connecticut.
I've heard many great things about Stony Brook and that is her first choice before our visit. Hofstra and Adelphi are visits we may take "since we are on Long Island" but aren't necessarily her first choices in schools.
Any other good schools in the NYC area that you might suggest?

NYU, the New School and Columbia, all in Manhattan are probably the best art schools in the country. They're very competetive. This article will be interesting for you.
http://www.artschoolsdigital.com/art...rt_schools.php

Cooper Union and Pratt are other options for photography.

Thanks for all the help. Anyone else have an opinion?

Besides Stony Brook, what other SUNY campuses would be worth a look?

What liberal arts colleges would you recommend in the NYC area? This can be in a 75-100 mile radius from NYC. Not being from the area, it is helpful for any recommendations. I appreciate the post about Adelphi almost losing its accreditation. We will not be visiting that campus now. Thanks for all who have helped thus far.

Don;t know your daughters academics - but I would do some in-depth work with her college counselor to focus somewhat better. (S/he should be able to give you an idea of which schools are reaches for her and which are no brainers. Adelphi is the latter for everyone - they're practically paying people to come.)

Agree that even if it's a reach she should try for at least one of the major schools in the city that has a strong program in fine arts.

And keep in mind that with this major she needs easy access to the city - since a lot of courses will require her to visit city museums and galleries on a regular basis - even if she wouldn;t be doing this anyway given her intrests. (I was a history major and took a coupleof art history courses to have something light to balance all the reading courses - and even intro courses required museum/gallery visits to do papers.)

Her academics are at the top of her class with a very good ACT score. She also has a SAT score in the 70 %tile. Her strength is in fine arts, English, writing and literature. She has expressed interest in NYU but the cost is a barrier. She would need a lot of financial aid and scholarships. Our income would dictate we won't be eligible for much financial aid.
She has looked at schools on their websites and we are receiving information in the mail.
What is your opinion of Wagner College on Staten Island?

Have you looked into Swarthmore in Philadelphia? Only an hour from NYC, and a very strong traditonal liberal arts college, heavy on the writing and academic standards.

They seem to give a lot of both merit and need scholarships.

My best friends daughter is a freshman here and we've all been impressed.

Have you considered Fordham U - their Lincoln Center campus has liberal arts and a friends daughter is an Art History major there and has enjoyed the academics, living in the city, and all the architecture/museums/ etc at her doorstep.
She has also had some great summer jobs and internships during breaks while there, she is now a junior.

As well as looking into local attractions, when looking with my kids we always paid attention to campus activities, rate of boarders vs. commuters, availability of public transportation to nearby places of interest as well as getting home, and after the tour, spend some time on our own in the dining halls, student centers, dorms, and taking any available campus newspapers home to read, and checking out what type of activities are on the bulletin boards, etc which can give you a feel for the pulse of the campus.

The main difference we found between most city schools vs. those located outside of a city was how the campus is used - in the sense that in a city school the city becomes an extension of the campus, which means the on campus activities are sometimes less popular b/c they have a city at their doorstep vs. those campuses more removed where those on campus activities become even more important so there are choices for weekends.

Many of these things depend on personal preferences, and I don't know if Hofstra has changed but when my cousin was there six years ago there was a significant number of commuting students, so she may want to look into those numbers and pay attention when on campus - some refer to them as 'suitcase schools' too, where if many come from the surrounding area, and how many of them go home for weekends even if they don't commute daily.

My neighbors daughter is at the New School and loves it, but with many city schools you also have to ask what their offering is for promised on campus housing or if after freshmen or sophomore year they are mostly all in apartments on their own, if this matters to you personally or financially.
She loves this school, but it is not for everyone, - (she feels she has far more reading than many of her other college friends, not that that is a bad thing) but found many great part time paying jobs related to her field thru the school and a full time job now, with her graduation on the horizon this spring, -

My daughers friend graduated Connecticut College two years ago as an Art History major, - I don't know how many CT schools are on your radar, and the requirements change sometimes yearly, but you may want to take a look at it - it's a lovely campus, it was one of the schools my daughter rec'd an acceptance to - the admissions dept was very forthcoming with her about her interests/ majors and what that would mean for her at the school - it didn't end up being the place for her, but I found them very forthcoming about many things that we found some others skirted around.

Career counseling, internship programs, job networking, are all important factors too, in my opinion.

As far as her majors, in many colleges if they do not have a photography specialty, it will likely be a minor or available through the arts department but another important question for you to ask them is how readily available are these courses to a non-Art major - sometimes they are difficult to get into if it isn't your major, if you haven't had some required art courses first (studio art, etc) - this is certainly not true of all colleges, but it is always worth asking how the cross over works when you are interested in either a double major / a major and a minor/ or just some courses as electives for 'interest only' - what you don't want her to do is pick a school assuming she can select courses from various areas only to find they are 'reserved' for those studying it as a major and open to few as electives so to speak.

VikingCool - I would also say to look at her list of schools regarding financial aid/scholarships in relation to her acceptance possibilities - most kids end up with a list that includes some from the three categories; reach schools, possibles, likelies.
Sometimes if there is a school that falls into the likely category, where she would be, for them, in the upper echelon of their criteria, you can be surprised what the school might offer her to choose them - when my son applied one of his likely schools, which with his scores, grades, etc put him at the higher end of what they like to attract , offered him with his acceptance letter some fairly significant scholarship money for each year - he did not end up choosing there for other reasons, although the school would have served him well , had his major and many of the extra curricular he would have wanted - but whatever happens and wherever she chooses, if there are any offerings, do not be shy about telling one school you are weighing your options and what you are being offered elsewhere, many times they up their offer to attract such a student. -

there are many wonderful schools out there, and at most of them, if they have solid professors and academics and fit the bill, even if not what some would consider an A list school, you can receive a wonderful education b/c as someone said, much of it is what you put into it.

escargot,

Thanks for your post. Fordham is on her radar. We are planning on visiting a couple of schools in New Haven, Southern Conn. State and Albertus Magnus. We may now take a closer look at Conn. College. Thanks again for your advice.

How about SUNY-New Paltz or SUNY-Purchase? Any opinions about Iona or Wagner?

Moving to other states now...how about Rutgers? Or Liberal Arts schools in Jersey and Massachusetts?