Doing the look at colleges thing with dtr. One cluster is as follows - help me plot a route (OK to leave one or more stops off - her list is way too long to see everything) - and this is only the Virginia schools - not even into NC list yet.

American and Catholic Univ in DC and George Mason in Fairfax

James Madison (Harrisonburg)

Mary Washington (Fredericksburg) and possibly Richmond

Radford

Roanoke

Washington and Lee (Lexington)

William and Mary (Williamsburg)


We would either drive from Boston area or fly someplace (Southwest from Manchester, NH possibility) and rent a car.

Also taking offers on anyone who wants to trade places and deal with trauma and drama of 16 year old HS junior researching colleges - it was way easier with our son!

I would spend some more time narrowing he schools before setting a plan. The schools listed are widly varied in types. Example, William & Mary and Washington and Lee are very tough schools to get into. Next toughest would probably be Mary Washington and Richmond. Does she really have a shot at all of these schools? If so, I find it odd she's looking at Madison, Mason, Roanoke and Radford. All of which are fine schools, but are not usually looked at by the same persons looking at William & Mary, and others.

I would suggest a stop in DC to look at American and Catholic. Then, if you think she has a realistic shot at W&M, heading down I-95S to see Mary Washington, then down I-95S to see Univ. of Richmond and then down I-64E to see William & Mary.

If she doesn;t have a realistic shot at W&M, I would suggest seeing the DC schools, head down I-95 to see Mary Washington and Richmond, then heading west on I-64 to I-81 South to Washington and Lee and then down I-81 to see Roanoke and Radford. On the return trip up I-81N, you can look at James Madison.

Whew! What an trip!

DC a good place to start. The to 66W and next go to Mason (not to be missed--up and coming. Continue down 66 to 81 S to JMU. Either further down 81S to Wash and Lee or over the mountain (via 64 to 95) to Fredericksburg and MWU. I agree with earlier posting that you have a wide variety here. Some VERY selective, some MODERATELY selecitive. I am an alum of MW, GMU, and UVA. All are EXCELLENT schools, but entirely different in feel and focus. What does she think she is interested in?

I agree with the other posters that you need to narrow down your trip a bit. I disagree with MWU being more difficult (especially for a girl) than JMU, but that's another discussion <g>. Skipop has the right idea IMO.

What about UMD, George Washington, or Johns Hopkins?

Agree with previous posts. You will need to narrow down what you are looking for...either by size, specialization, feel, etc. Those that you have listed are all over the map, literally, and, as an itinerary, not so good. Like spending a week in Europe and 1 day in London, 1 in Paris, 1 in Rome, 1 in Vienna, and 1 in Madrid.

Not to beat a dead horse but as a Virginian familiar with all these schools (and as a W&L alum/UVA law alum who is married to a JMU alum) your daughter needs to focus more.

Right now you'll be driving all over Va. and these are VERY varied schools.

Is it just me, or does this thread exceed even this board's Nosy Parker culture??

While the OP does invite us into her life to a degree by asking us for advice, she did not ask us to help her daughter choose a school. Since this is a TRAVEL board--hello!--she asked us to help put together an itinerary.

The kid wants to look at a lot of different schools! So what? Enough with the digs at lack of focus, or her ability to get in anywhere.

Now, the itinerary!

Why not fly Southwest to NORFOLK, and pick up a rental car (You will be doing a great deal of driving, so why add hours from home to the area when Southwest is cheap?) Then make a circuit that ends up in DC, shoot up to BWI, and fly home from there?

See William and Mary, then head west cutting through Richmond over to 81 and down to Radford. Then head up 81 to see Roanoke, W&L, UVA, JMU, then turn east toward Mary Washington, up 95 to George Mason, back into DC for the DC schools, then north to BWI to drop off the car and fly home.

This route would still have you back tracking some, but would cover everything.

For the record, I'm a Virginia teacher of AP seniors so I am familiar with all these schools. Not to be a nosey parker at all, but GMU is getting much more selective since the Final Four, at least for Virginia kids. Apparently this is GMU's big chance to shake off the commuter school feeling. For all schools, right now it is generally easier for boys than girls, especially Mary Washington.

Thanks for all your advice - I knew I could count on getting both routing info and college counseling advice.

The whole idea IS that they are all over the map (both geographically and academically) and note I said we would not be seeing all.

We are at the point of seeing a mix of school types - and then go from there.
So we will see rural, suburban, city schools throughout eastern US (that is MY geographic limit) - have already seen a city school and suburban school - some of these are more rural.

Different styles of different kids - my son at age 16 was focused on 2 schools (computer animation), applied to both, got in, and is now a junior.

Thanks again and in advance for other advice.

PS - Yes, she does have "a shot" at getting into any of these schools. But in the words of a very wise guidance counselor at her HS "The most elite school you can get into is not always the best match for you - hence the varied difficulty of acceptance on the list"

Gail-

That is a wise guidance counselor!

The solicited advice:

Have your daughter plot the colleges on Google Maps. Using a Gmail login, you can use maps.google.com to plot different locations.

I did this, and your schools cluster out from DC (Catholic and American) along 66 (GMU) and down I81 (JMU, W&L, Roanoke, and Radford) and out of DC down 95 (UMW and U of R) and arching to Williamsburg (W&M). You could go from the DC schools all the way down 81 to Radford, then back up 81 and cut across to Richmond using 64. Then go to W&M, and then come back to Fredericksburg on 95.

Or, run your VA trip into your NC trip, and continue from Radford into NC, to, say, Wake Forest or the Greensboro schools, past Elon in Burlington, to the Triangle-area colleges, then back up 95 to Richmond.

The unsolicited advice:
This is too many schools, and honestly what should be limiting the route is not how far the schools are out of the way, but rather how interested she is in each of them. A Catholic is VERY different from a Radford - setting wise, and I'm not even talking about the huge academic differences between the listed schools.

(BTW, Richmond is the second-most expensive college now. GWU is the most - or it might be the other way around.)

Further, too many schools (unless you're just looking for excuses for summer tourism) will leave you both burned out. By the last day of your trips, you'll be so eager to just go home and get away from each other, you might overlook the perfect college. Or, you might give too much importance to the bucolic setting of one school over another, because you caught one on a nice day and the other on a crummy one. (For example, getting lost in DC traffic would put me off a DC-area school. And it did, for me, at least.)

I know it is too many colleges - but I wanted a reasonable geographic route - I think actually got that from various responders.

I do like the part about her taking part in the route planning - she is already well-traveled (flying alone to north western Spain this summer to stay with family of exchange student we hosted 2 years ago). That way she can also participate in the timing of the trip (how long before it all becomes a blur and one of us considers flying home alone).

Gail:
Good luck--I think BlueSwimmer's route makes the most sense. Happy planning.

I hope she enjoys seeing all these colleges. After I posted I realized you are right, the point fo going to a lot of different schools is to see what she likes! Hope she finds a good fit.

Gail - I don't know how you plan on getting to your local airport. If you are not parking your car, look at Airtran from Boston to PHF (Newport News/Williamsburg)There are cheap nonstops and PHF is the closest to W&M.

My take on these college trips is to go after you see where they are admitted. Visiting 20 college campuses at once is going to result in a large blur. The kids end up liking or disliking colleges based on irrational things anyway.

No kid should be allowed to apply to more than 10 schools. For one thing, who wants to do all those essays?