College visits! (...round...some large number)

Thanks to my dad (what a nice dude), I don't actually have to write a blog post on what we did in our week on the East Coast! I might add a few points, for clarification or just to throw in my opinion, but these are his words :)

Let’s see:

Sunday – travel

Monday – Tufts…hotter than all get out (a record day in Boston)…Tufts is good but not great. Rachael will have a good experience if she goes there. We visited our cousins, Jim, Mac and Winston Berkman. Winston is a senior at Tufts and we helped him by building Ikea furniture for his off-campus apartment. Jim took us back to our hotel and described his experience at Harvard to Rachael. She and I become more interested in Harvard.

Tuesday – Another record-setting hot day. Yuck. School of the Museum of Fine Arts (plus a visit to MFA also). Wow! It’s very impressive, but probably overkill for Rachael. She loves art but this looks like too much of a good thing. Awesome dinner with the Berkmans.

Wednesday – Hot hot hot. A short jaunt through MIT (excellent!) and then to the information session at Harvard. It’s a winner! Of course nobody goes to school there because it’s impossible to get admitted. Still, it’s very much on Rachael’s radar.

Thursday – up early and drive to Providence to visit Brown. Brown’s big selling point is no core curriculum requirements. That turns out to be not quite as wonderful as it sounds. The majors have bigger requirements than at other schools. The school is beautiful but we come away not so excited. Back to Boston through nightmare traffic to catch an evening flight to Chicago.

Friday – University of Chicago day for 100 or so potential applicants. A welcome session, campus tour, admissions staff presentation, and a studen panel. It’s all well done and the school comes off excellently. Rachael wants to attend. Afternoon at the Museum of Science and Industry, including the Harry Potter exhibit.

Saturday – Museum of Surgery in the morning. Trepanation anyone? Millenium Park later. Then deep dish pizza in the late afternoon. Rachael’s buddy from the Galapagos trip (and her mom) travel 3 hours to Chicago to see Rachael (and Harry Potter). We shopped on the Magnificent Mile with them. Very nice!

Sunday – home at last!