Beth...no experience with these schools..but we just got back to the DC area last night from a week on Cape Cod using the route you took via Tappan Zee bridge as opposed to 95.....we got caught in rush hour in NYC and it delayed us 2 hours so make sure you are thru NYC by early afternoon.

Not sure what types of schools boys are interested in, but you could visit U of Md today for a drive by..probably about 45 min to an hour from your hotel around the beltway. One son went there and loved it. Daughter visited JM and liked the school but didn't like that it was in the middle of nowhere. So many great schools in New England, but some kids want to experience different part of the country...our DD went to school in Ohio and other son Tenn. They'll know which school feels right.

Oh my gosh, I am so glad that we somehow avoided the college tours! You must be exhausted, Beth. Because DH was born and raised in Oklahoma and got 3 of his 4 degrees at OU, we headed there a lot as the kids were growing up, visiting relatives and going to OU football games. We used to say the kids grew up on OU's campus. Both had their hearts set on going there as well. As much as I loved the university and the beautiful town of Norman that surrounds it, I was hoping the kids would choose our closer University of New Mexico. I wanted to see them often during those college years. We did take both kids on the UNM campus tour, but both chose OU and loved it.

Funny story: my friend C took her DD on several major college tours Back East. I think, in all, they toured 11 campuses. It cost C a small fortune, and I applaud her efforts. In the end, though, her daughter chose to go to UNM. C sees her daughter (now a sophomore) at least once every other week. I haven't seen my DD (also a college sophomore) since we took her back in late-July, as OU is an 8-hour drive from here.
Lynn

This post was edited by lynninnewmexico on Sun, Oct 13, 13 at 23:13

Joanie, thanks for the reminder about NYC. I was looking at routes home and I just can't decide what to do. I was wondering if NY would be less busy because of the Columbus Day Holiday. I drove through it Thursday night and it was scary, but going up through PA seems like a waste, but probably not if traffic is horrible. The idea of a 10-11 hour drive has me sad enough!

Lynn, I would love it if DS found a school in New England. He's insisting he try something a little farther away. By indulging him with these trips (which do cost a small fortune), I'm hoping he will change his mind. :) DH is taking him to Ohio to look at some schools in April. sigh. We will look at some closer to home as well as a trade off. DD is a senior at UNH, which has been great. It's less than 3 hours away, and last year when she got really sick, I was able to go and be with her.

Plenty of time for him to change his mind!

Beth P.

I loved our college trips with all three. We are in Maryland and DS1 wanted Maryland from the get go but we also looked at Penn State, Ohio State and some others. DD wanted nothing to do with Maryland. She was in a sport where we had to travel so we would look at colleges. I cracked up on one trip when we got about 50 feet into the entrance and she said "ok, we can go now". I said"but we haven't seen anything yet" and she said "I've seen enough." She and I then did a week long summer trip we dubbed the "48 colleges in 48 hours" trip. It wasn't quite that but in a weeks time we visited...are you ready....Ohio State, Purdue, u wisconsin, u Minnesota, u Illinois, Indiana u, u of Iowa and u Kentucky. DS2 had a very specific major and we visited ohio u, Indiana u, butler, and middle Tennessee state.

Beth....if u go to Ohio in April, DD went to Ohio State and loved it. A huge school but it doesn't feel like it. She is still in Columbus. Graduated 2008, moved home and worked at NIH for 9 months, then got offered a position at the OSU med center where she interned Junior/senior year. Finished her MHA there in May and it was basically free since she worked at med center. She's now in consulting. Can't say enough good things about OSU...their house caught fire Junior year and OSU really stepped up and took care of all the girls. Plus, they were pretty generous with scholarships.

. BTW....we enjoyed Cape Cod...stayed in Hyannis. Was surprised how busy it was this time of year.

Have a safe trip home!

Beth: The location of George Mason might surprise you at first -- tucked into a suburban community. But the proximity to D.C., if they're interested in politics, or to the big tech companies in Northern Virginia, if that's their focus, are big drawing points.

What do they think they want to major in or pursue down the line?

Was Virginia Tech considered?

(My sister did a multi-college tour with her triplets, and from the kids' comments, it's all pretty overwhelming -- trying to see the individualness of each school, getting the flavor, interviews/tours -- that I'm not surprised that at the end of the day, they just want to plop on the bed!)

Joanie, DS has been obsessed with OSU since he was about 10. I have no idea why. DH went to a private high school in Columbus, so he is sort of excited to go that way for a look around. I can't believe all the places you went! U of Kentucky and Indiana U are also on his list. We are having fun and I know I will treasure this time later when he's gone.

Both kids are interested in business school. One more into marketing, the other in entrepreneurship sort of things, small business management. My DS is also very interested in finance. I think having a friend along was good. They had some great discussions in the car about pros and cons of the places we looked at.

Pammy, thanks for the info about the location. We are looking forward to going tomorrow. We're leaving ourselves plenty of time to get there in the AM.

I can't imagine going with triplets. I only have one kid to find the perfect place, three at one time would be so hard! We considered taking an extra day and looking at another school, but I think the information overload would set in.

I haven't a clue if VA tech was considered. I sort of let him lead with this whole thing. Mostly because I want him closer to home!!!

Beth P.

I interviewed several students at GMU for a job with my company, and I was deeply disappointed with the quality of education they received.

Thanks Sue! That helps a lot.

Beth p

Been a long time since the college tour days. My DS insisted he wanted to go to Boulder(CU). I knew it was a bad choice for him but there was no talking him out of it. It was so hard to leave him there, two-thirds of the country away. His grades were good but he really floundered because the counseling was so poor. Anyway, he came home and graduated from Villanova.

BTW you can see a bunch of great schools around Philadelphia if you are passing through.

DO NOT go home via 95! You will pay $13 toll to cross the GW Bridge. My trip home from the Cape in early December on A Friday was a total nightmare. Took me 6.5 hours to get to Cape Cod (Chatham) but nine to get home. Horrendous. I will map out a route up through PA next time. If anyone knows a good way to go to miss the greater NYC area, let me know.

Boys are a riot, aren't they? My most riotous trip was visiting boarding schools with DS #1. Sheesh.

Ded.....we just went to the cape and back...no problem getting there on a sat/sun....we went up to northern jersey and over the Tappan Zee bridge to avoid 95. (78 and 287) DH wanted to break up the trip so we stayed sat night in Jersey. Coming home we left this past friday around 11...big mistake!!!! DH wanted to drive straight thru to Maryland. Took same route but got caught in rush hour at tappan zee for 2 hours...plus traffic all the way down 95 thru Conn....After 9 hours we were in Easton, Pa and decided to stop..we were both exhausted. Might have been ok had we left at 8 or 9 and gotten thru ny/nj area before rush hour..but also forgot it was a holiday weekend as we both work today.

Beth, wasnt going to say anything, but since suero spoke up, I will too. Yes, I think you can do better than George Mason--especially if you have to pay out of state. Also, I think it is mostly a commuter school...at least it was 30 years ago when I lived close by. Would be interesting to look up how many students come from out of state and stay in the dorms. Did the boys like it?

Have you thought of Providence College? Apparently they have a good business program. My DS (a senior) looked at it, basically because we forced him to, and he liked it more than he thought he would. DH liked it too!

Boston schools? My DS likes Northeastern and BU but sadly for me, seems to like Syracuse a bit more. Ugh, 5 hours from home.

I am from VA so can speak to a couple of these colleges. GMU is indeed mostly a communter school, so they likely won't get the same "college" experience as one with more of a true campus. My brother graduated from JMU and it is a good school with a good reputation. He got both his undergrad and MBA degrees from there and really enjoyed it. It's a little rural, but you can be in northern VA in just a couple hours.

A couple of others that you may not have considered. My alma mater is UVA - great school in the quite charming town of Charlottesville. If you go a bit further south to NC there is Wake Forest.

We've toured wayyyyy too many schools -mostly because we've done many family road trip vacations over the years, and we've tacked college tours on whenever possible. On the one hand, it all runs together at some point. On the other, I think it helps you to look deeper at schools after you've seen so many. The first gorgeous campus packs a wallop of an impact, but after ten, you look more closely.

We have a son in college right now, a graduating senior. So many great companies have already been on campus to recruit students for employment after graduation that he will probably have at least one solid job offer very soon -and he does not graduate until May. Many of his friends already have offers. We have many friends with students the same age, and not all have had this experience. So with DD poised to enter college next fall, that's one of the things we are looking hard at. Do they have career fairs early senior year and what kinds of schools participate?

I know there are people who don't believe you have to narrow the school choice down by major because something like 85% of kids change their mind anyway. But we know DD fairly well, and can come up with a list of 5 or 6 majors that is likely to include her ultimate choice. We don't want her to end up with a school that doesn't include most/all of these choices. So I am helping her gather data here on two fronts: How easy it is to switch majors, and how highly rated the major is at that school. Some average state universities are well known for 1 or 2 stellar programs. At some colleges, such as our state university, you must first be accepted into the particular school your major falls under, and then you can switch. This brings a degree of uncertainty and often adds more time. At others, you are accepted to the university period, and can declare a major from any of the schools within the university.

We are also looking hard at the 4 year/6 year graduation rates, which vary widely. There were some good, expensive schools on her list with 35% 4-year graduation rates. We nixed those just because of that.

It's exhausting, but worthwhile I think, to try to get it matched up to your student as much as possible. For DD, that means a diverse campus, not too urban, but with urban proximity, a mid-size to large size school with a strong School of Communications, a college town feel that includes good restaurants and shops, etc. Her short list right now includes Univ of Texas (in-state), Syracuse, Univ of Miami (Coral Gables), Tulane and Penn State and Boston University. She's visited all except BU and Syracuse, but we will plan to take her if she's accepted.

Joanie, thanks for the tips about driving. I left the Cape on a Friday, so I at least missed the giant Saturday exodus. I really do have to find a way that totally avoids the CT to NJ traffic on 95. Horrible and too many thoughtless drivers, although I was about to have road rage myself!

Once your son has narrowed down his choices, see if he can participate in an on-campus weekend visit without you. That's great way to get a real feel for the place. Oh what I would give to be going off to college! Hopefully I'd make better life choices the second time around.

One thing to keep in mind with changing majors: It usually does put the student behind. It might only be a course or two like taking our Intro course, or it could be much more if someone changes to major which requires more math and science than they may have taken.

However, if the student stays at the same school, the general education requirements will stay the same, but each dept. may require a specific course (say a specific psychology) while others may allow students more choice.

We are coming up on advising next week, so I am preparing for the avalanche of change of majors. So, it is definitely forward thinking to choose schools which have a variety of majors where your DS/DD is interested.

Bestyears, in talking with our Communications faculty recently, the whole field is so rapidly changing, it is a both an interesting and a challenging time to be in that field.

gsciencechick -are you speaking of the digital component, social media, etc.? Or something else?

My son is a freshman at JMU. He seems to like it so far. It is a very "happy" school - one of the things people always notice -- everyone is very friendly. Actually, it was kind of getting on his nerves for the first few weeks! That may seem strange, but after you visit, you might understand. He is undeclared at the moment but is planning to major in business with a minor in philosophy. One thing about JMU is they require a LOT of "gen-eds", the general education courses. More than a lot of other schools. Up until a few weeks ago, we lived a couple of miles from GMU. It used to be primarily a commuter school but has been rapidly growing into much more -- thanks in a large part to their final four appearance a few years ago. They've built a lot of new dorms and are still building more. The campus is much different than it used to be. There's not a lot to do around the campus though, but DC is not far away. I think I might be a little bored there. The basketball games are well attended by the students, and they are a lot of fun, so if your son likes college basketball he would enjoy that. I think their economics school is good though. My other son goes to UVA which has a top commerce school, and Charlottesville is the perfect college town. My son is double majoring in economics/computer science. I know its too late for you to check out, but he might want to look into UVA as well.

Bestyears, what she said is that the entire profession is changing in that employment is not really coming from the large news organizations anymore but students need to be more entrepreneurial in their approach, that they really need to know how to do everything for themselves--computers, blogs, social media, video, and they may likely be self employed.

Thanks gscience -that's interesting. A few of the schools on her list mention 'entrepeneurship' under the Communications schools -we'll have to go back and take a harder look at that, now that I better understand the impact.

Bestyears--my middle dd went to SLU and got her degree in the school of business. Double major in entepreneurship and something else (can't remember?). So, some schools definitely have it in the school of business.

She started out in accounting. She found that it was not for her and was scared to death to change her major. She was afraid it would put her behind and we would be upset. I told her to do it. I did not want her to do something that was going to make her miserable just to make me happy.

She loved Entepreneurship and as it turned out, still finished in 4 years.

Let me know if you want any more info or if your dd would like to talk to my dd about her major.

She ended up working for Live Nation, where she had an internship. Now, she works for us and she is very "entrepreneurial", lol.

Hope this helps.

Here is a link that might be useful: Link

Thanks red_lover -we'll definitely take a look!