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This subject is very dear to my heart lately. Kid 1 is only a rising freshman, but since we live in a middle of nowhere we really have to plan ahead and take advantage of every opportunity.
The first out of state college we visited this summer. It was an Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. Even though my kid does not talk about the service academies, he already has some flying lessons behind his belt and seriously wants to become a pilot, we thought why not? We just did a regular visitor tour, but it did give us some insight into the life of the cadets.
We plan to visit Caltech in October and Stanford in a year from now. I do want to make sure that we visit while colleges are in session and I would love for my kid to sit for some of the lectures. They probably won't let him thought till he is a senior. Any thoughts there?
UNC and Duke on one trip, Boston area on the other. Boston and New England will be very challenging since there is so much to see there. And we have absolutely no friends there!
The kids change so much between freshman and junir years, but I have no choice other than to spread it out in time...

Ania wrote:

�Boston and New England will be very challenging since there is so much to see there.�

You remind me of our first grand college tour a couple years ago when my older daughter was a rising junior. We flew from California to NYC where we rented a car to drive south to DC. The first college that we hit was Georgetown, then, we drove back north. JHU, U Penn, Princeton, Yale, Brown, MIT and ended with Harvard. We missed more than a few colleges obviously. That tour took us a week to complete. The next year we covered a few more college such Columbia and Dartmouth. Cornell is too out of way so it stays on to-do list.

We usually saw one college a day, taking organized campus tour and listening to the information session which all sounded great. The tours did provide some value. You know the surrounding of the college much better. For example, we crossed the JHU off the list because I just don�t feel comfortable sending my daughter there (no offense to anyone).

Colleges of east coast generally do not require pre-registration. You just need to show up in front of Admission Office (usually 9:00 am), they will put you on tours. West coast colleges such as Stanford and CalTech do require registration (through their website). I don�t know if they allow you just walk into a classroom. My D did listen to a class at Berkeley (Organic Chemistry) after she was admitted. That class scared her away (around 400 people).

Out of all the campus tours, she liked MIT�s the best. Although MIT did not look that great in terms of architecture, the student who led the tour gave the best performance with wit, humor and enthusiasm. My daughter said that �I can really picture myself here� afterwards. As for Harvard, both information session and tour were average. One thing to note: when you visit Harvard yard, make sure that you touch the foot of statute of John Harvard. Rumor said that it enhances the chance of getting into Harvard. Whether this works or not requires a large scale study. However, small samples do show that it had some effects.

A coworkers son went to the Air Force Academy, got into flight school, and then flies bombers. My dad has been in aviation most of his life. Most people do not get to fly. You need perfect eyes and ears and then there is the pace of pre and flight school that some people cannot handle. Its not just an intellectual thing - its mind and body and some VERY smart people just cannot handle it. And manned flight is being phased out with UAVs. The Army, unlike the other services, will guarantee a slot and if you do not make it, you can back out. However, the Army mostly does Rotary, not fixed wing.




Stanford is a lot more fun than Caltech. Caltech can really beat kids down with the work load.

We have hosted several cadets over the years who go to a pre-academy year in my town and then go on to US Air Force Academy or West Point or Coast Guard, etc. The 2 young men we've hosted that have gone to USAFA are now finished (we went to one of the graduation ceremonies which was really neat--the president spoke and the stunt jet fighters-Thunderbirds?-flew over). Instead of having to pay for college, they received a monthly check. They had purchased new vehicles. They went on to flight school after the academy. If there's no space, they spend a year at a base with minor assignments (that counts as one of their service years) and then go on to flight school. It's really a terrific program. One of the young men flew back to town with his other trainees to have lunch with the family--it was really neat.

West Point was recently rated #1 school in one paper (I'll have to remember which).

We are looking at Colorado College in Colo. Springs. My husband graduated from there. It is a truly gifted curriculum - but expensive. We need a scholarship.

You take one class each month and they are very interesting courses. That gives the student the freedom to fly to Florence to see Art Museums for Art History or spend one week in the mountains for Geology. It is completely different than the basic courses that colleges teach.

I don't why New York hasn't been brought yet in the discussion. Sure, it's a city too busy, and dangerous, for teenagers, but the educational programs offered in the state are too good to turn the state down. NYU, Barnard College, King's College, City College of New York, and so on. Plus, the lakes are extravagant. Although you'd have to bring a jacket or two during wintertime, New York is fine.