End of the Road

The final full day of our trip was dedicated to two schools in Amherst, Mass. After our delicious Purple Gables breakfast, we visited Amherst College. This school was not a great match for Joey (a little too stuffy) and I don't think Joey will apply, but they did have a really cool Natural History Museum with real dinosaur bones:

Our afternoon campus tour was of Hampshire College. Also not a good match (a little too unstructured--well a lot too unstructured) for Joey and he was pretty uninspired by the 60's style non-descript campus buildings so therefore no decent pictures.

Aerial view of Skidmore College

After leaving Amherst, Mass. we drove to Saratoga Springs, NY. Friday morning we took a 1 1/2 hour campus tour of Skidmore College. Joey and I were both so engrossed in the tour, we actually forgot to take pictures. It was a nice campus in a beautiful little town.

So, after an exhausting 4 1/2 day east coast college tour of 9 colleges, we ended up with 5 thumbs up: Columbia, Bard, Vassar, Wesleyan and Brown

a couple of neutrals (thumbs sideways?): RISD & Skidmore

and 3 thumbs down: NYU, Amherst & Hampshire.

It was an informative, exhausting, and exhilarating trip. Definitely worth taking, but I am definitely not up for a repeat any time soon.

Providence

After an exhausting day visiting three colleges plus quite a bit of driving, we arrived at our Bed & Breakfast in Providence, Rhode Island Tuesday night, opened our blinds and this was what we saw. A gorgeous view of the state capital building.

Our room at the Christopher Dodge house was really lovely, however the breakfast part of the deal left quite a bit to be desired.

Christopher Dodge House B&B:

Our first Wednesday stop on the Providence college Tour was Brown University. It was a gorgeous day and the Brown Campus is really special. We enjoyed our time at the school. Below is a photo of one side of the Brown War Memorial Gate

Learning a little about the housing and meal plans at Brown on the Campus Tour

The Center for Information Technology

Old Dorm Building for upper classmen... great location right on the quad

oldest building on campus, used for Administration

Our afternoon info session and tour picked up literally one block from where our Brown tour had left off. The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD-pronounced Rizdee) is a really wonderful Art School (generally considered the best fine arts school in the country) with a decent liberal arts program and some pretty famous alumni including Gus Van Sant (Writer and Director including Drugstore Cowboy, Good Will Hunting and most recently Milk, who also graduated from Catlin Gabel high school--the boys' current school in Portland). Brown and RISD have a nice reciprocal agreement so students enrolled in one of the schools can also take classes at the other. Although I don't think Joey will choose a focused art school for undergrad, we had a great time on our tour and the RISD campus was awesome.

RISD Classroom building:

RISD had a really phenomenal nature lab

and the library was a sight to see. The library also had the same natural cork floors that we have in our kitchen. Easy on the feet and great for sound absorption. Very practical.

After our exhausting tours of Brown and RISD (did I mention the campus buildings are located on a very steep hill), we headed out of town to our next stop: Amherst, Massachusetts

We stayed at a really cute B&B in Amherst named Purple Gables.

Everything about Purple Gables was just wonderful, including the homemade breakfast of fresh fruit and yogurt and perfectly prepared Eggs Benedict.

3 in 1

As in 3 colleges in 1 day and 3 states in 1 day. After our phenomenal Rhinebeck breakfast, we headed a few miles up the road to our first of three college tours set for Tuesday. Three colleges in one day, what were we thinking....

First we visited Bard College in Annandale on Hudson, NY. Bard will go down as the school with the most eclectic variety of buildings. From an old stone church to a completely modern steel science building, Bard is definitely a keeper. If Joey decides to apply to Bard, it won't be the most difficult to get into, but it will be a good match for Joey. They had a decent art building and Bard is considered one of the most, if not THE most, liberal college campus in America. 

Although it was sunny, it was cold and windy in the little "town" of Annandale on Hudson. Its really not a town, its six houses and the college.

Second on our Tuesday college tour was Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY. Joey REALLY likes Vassar. Another good choice. Vassar has some of the most beautiful buildings including very old dormitories.

Really beautiful classroom buildings and THE most beautiful library I have ever seen.

including a pretty spectacular stained glass window. Who wouldn't want to study in this library.

Joey thought this building, the drama 

and film building, looks like something from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory:

After leaving Poughkeepsie, we drove for a couple of hours to Middletown, CT. We knew we would be too late for an official tour at Wesleyan, but we grabbed a map at the Admissions Building and headed out on our first (and only) self guided tour of the trip.

Wesleyan also has some gorgeous buildings

Joey really liked the contemporary concrete art studios:

Middletown has a pretty cute old downtown where Joey and I stopped for an ice cream sundae before getting back in the car and heading to our next stop: Providence, Rhode Island.