OK, we're doing the college tour thing for spring break 3/29-4/1. I've read the other recent thread on east coast college tours and most people said that it was just too many to get done in one trip. We know that, and will probably prune but wanted some advise anyway. The trip starts in Philly visiting family and ends in Manhattan to visit my Parents, with colleges in between.

The biggest problem is my 14 year old son is joining us. I need to find some diversions that will interest him in between the colleges. We're starting in Philly, heading to Dickinson (Carlisle) Bucknell (Lewisburg) Cornell & Ithaca Col. (Ithaca) Skidmore (Saratoga Springs) Trinity (Hartford) & Conn. College (New London).

Are there any interesting things to do in Lancaster for a boy? Any mining things open in the Scranton area at this time of year? Is Coopertown worth going to when there are no events planned? (We are big Cardinal fans) Any seafood restaurant ideas near New London?

I live in St. Louis, but I grew up on the UWS and have spent many summers in Jamestown RI so I'm not a complete East coast novice but I would like some local input. Thanks for your thoughts.

Buy him a personal DVD player; you'll be spending a LOT of time in the car.

This looks like roughly 15-20 hours in the car over 4 days! How can you possibly look at all those schools, much less take side trips to entertain little brother? I would skip Ithaca and Saratoga Springs if possible.

Is there any chance you could just put your son on a train for Philly to NYC, and have your parents entertain him for those 4 days, or have him stay with the Philly relatives a bit longer and then go directly to NY?

The train from Philly to NYC is also an option, but my parents keep saying things like "oh, he can come down and meet me for lunch" or he can go to Museum of Nat. History.

This is a midwestern kid...I'm not so sure I'm comfortable sending him by himself to 54th & 6th or walking 15 blocks to the museum. I know I did it growing up, and my son has been all these place with me. I just don't think my parents have the energy to entertain him and I'm worried about him managing by himself....

You cannot possibly visit that many schools in so few days and develop any kind of sense of them. I know because I took my son to visit most of those schools 2 summers ago. (After driving to campuses all over the countryside, didn't he decide he had to go to an URBAN school??? Of course!) We live in Philly, so it was easier to hit a few schools at a time. The typical campus tour takes an hour to an hour and a half, the info session takes an hour, and if your child needs to interview, add at least another hour. To your drive time between schools, add the time it takes to drive around the campus trying to find the admissions office and parking, fill out forms, etc. Plus--it's exhausting, and after awhile all the schools start to blend together. You are right to want to leave younger brother somewhere, happily amused, rather than drag him around on the campus circuit. Unfortunately, with all your college appointments, you won't have time to engineer your younger child's side trips, unless you adults plan to divide up, one for the side trip and one for the college tour. I recommend: Dickinson plus family tour of Gettysburg historical area, back to Philly (one tiring day); Ithaca/Cornell and then possibly up to Saratoga (Day 2), stay over in Saratoga area. These are both cute, "safe" towns. You could contact their chambers of commerce and find something younger brother can do to amuse himself while you do the tours, or just let him laze around the gorgeous campuses. Weather may still be cold and unpredictable that time of year. Day 3, do the Saratoga tour, then head down to Hartford/Conn. for Trinity's latest afternoon tour. On the way, leave younger son at a tourist site with instructions to wait for you to pick him up. Hartford's not the best city for a midwestern kid to wander in. Then head down to NYC and the relatives. Come back another time in warmer weather and do Bucknell, rewarding your kids on the way back to Philly with a stop at Knoebels amusement park and a hike in Ricketts Glen State park. Good luck!

My son and daughter both attended Bucknell and it is in the middle of nowhere. Or as my son so adroitly puts it...East Bumblef*#k, Pa. They both loved the school, but there is really not much else around except a federal penitentiary. It is very pretty and they both recieved a decent education, so just giving you a heads up.

Thanks for the replies so far. I've been thinking the same thing about Bucknell, but she really wants to see it. I think it will only reinforce the fact that she won't want to be stuck in the middle of nowhere.

We've been to Gettysburg before, so I'm looking for some other options. Anyone know about mining tours near Scranton? More comments very welcome.

Hi, believe the coal mine tour in Scranton does not reopen until late April, early May - we still have snow on the road and the coal mine tour is underground...Open Daily 10am - 4:30pm
April through November
800-238-7245.

If you decide to come out to Northeast PA during the warmer months, it is pretty interesting - and I agree that there are a few amusement parks out this way that are fun - Knoebels and Dorney...Good luck!

Liz-I'm the Gettysburg/Dickinson mom. We are also planning to visit Bucknell. I'm curious as to how your college trip went, and particularly, how the timing was. We, too, are seeing several colleges in a short period (6 in 5 days) with LOTS of driving time between schools.

well....It was a pretty good week. We flew into Philly on Saturday. Spent the weekend with family. Couldn't believe the security that you have to go through to get into to see the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. 911 has changed a lot of things.

My basic plan for the trip was to try to stay nearest the school we wanted to see first the following morning. I did much of the driving directions through AAA.com. If you are a member, just register and use their internet trip-tik service. You can select a college as your starting location. The directions were quite accurate.

We toured U. of Pennsylvania on Monday morning in the pouring rain then drove to Carlisle. We didn't get out of Philly until 3:00 so we did not have a chance to stop and see much. We were going to try to see some Amish crafts etc, in Lancaster county, but we were late and it was still pouring.

Carlisle seemed like a cute town, although not much there. The student guide (Sean-he was great) said that most kids stay on campus, there is enough to do there. That translates to me that there is nothing to do anywhere else.

The drive to Bucknell was easy (78 miles) the campus was pretty, the school is heavy on engineering and very preppy/frat oriented. It turned my daughter off, and it really is in the middle of nowhere, even moreso than Dickinson.

All the schools have specific tour times, check their websites. I printed the page from each school so I would have the schedule with me, and also the admission's office phone number in case I needed to call them. The tours are often preceeded or followed by an "information session" They are all mostly the same, giving you statistics on their class sizes, acceptence rates, SAT scores etc. Of course, they were useful especially for my 14 year old son. He needed to hear someone besides his parents say "you need to take the most rigorous courses you can, we look for dedication to one or two things, not flitting araound from club to club etc..."

The one day we tried to do 3 schools, we realized it would be impossible. I really think you can only realistically do 2/day. She did not do any interviews, we just registered in the admissions office, took the tour and often went to the info. session.

If you have any more questions, just ask. AND, if you think this was too many schools, we ran into a Dad and his daughter at Colgate who were doing 13 in one week!!

These are a copy of the directions from aaa.com for travel between Dickinson and Bucknell. Hope this is helpful, Liz

Dickinson Col, Pa to Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania
Distance: 78.5 miles (126.3km)

Start out heading EAST on W HIGH STREET towards S WEST STREET. Drive for 0.3 miles.

Go STRAIGHT on PA-641. Drive for 1.6 miles.

Turn RIGHT to get on I-81 N towards HARRISBURG. Drive for 18.4 miles.

Take exit number 67A to get on US-22 W towards US-322 W / PA-230 E / LEWISTOWN / US-22 W / CAMERON ST / US-22 E. Drive for 13.2 miles.

Take US-11 N towards US-15 N / US-11 N / SELINSGROVE. Drive for 32.5 miles.

Take US-11 towards US-15 N / US-11 N. Drive for 3.5 miles. 21. Go STRAIGHT on US-15. Drive for 8.2 miles.
Turn RIGHT onto BUCKNELL UNIVERSITY. 23. Drive for 0.1 miles to reach the destination.

Topping,so that hopefully Momof2 will see this.

I would skip the Ct. leg of this trip, and do Skidmore last. It's just a few hours from Saratoga down to Manhattan. Saratoga is a pretty interesting town, even for a 14 year old, with the different 'flavored' water fountains throughout the downtown park.
PS: Our daughter went to Skidmore and loved it - it's a very artsy, modern feeling school with no frat scene and a beautiful campus.

Thank you, Liz! We're not interviewing either. I figured we could return to any of these if she were interested enough to revisit. Happy trails!

I can't believe that I missed your note. You could have visited Franklin & Marshall while in Lancaster. Easy access to Amtrak and 30 easy miles from the Harrisburg airport.