Random Thinking

Last week was the start of our college touring. Next September, Beth will be in college so we need to help Beth figure out which college she wants to attend. Beth’s counselor at her school had recommended Kenyon College in Ohio so we planned a trip to Ohio for August 7th, a day Kenyon was having an open house for prospective students. Driving to Ohio is a long trip from Long Island so we thought that we might visit another school while we were there and since the University of Dayton had sent Beth an invitation we decided to drop by there as well.

We left on Wednesday with the schedule being to drive to Columbus, Ohio (which is about half way between the two colleges) on the first day. This was estimated by Google to be about an 11 hour drive. We got out a little late and got stuck in traffic in the Bronx but after that it was clear sailing. Mikey was great in the car, watching his DVDs and sleeping for most of the trip. We took I-80 through Pennsylvania which is about as empty a drive as you could want. We arrived in Columbus a little after 9PM which made the total drive including stops to be about 10 hours. We stayed at the Embassy Suites which was nice except room service screwed up our order (sent it to the wrong room) and by the time they go it straightened out it was cold and the kitchen staff had left. So no supper but they did take a bit off the bill to make up for it.

The next day it was off to the University of Dayton (UD) and a meeting with a rep from the English Department. From the moment we arrived on campus we felt welcome. Mikey and I wandered around a bit and then went to the bookstore to buy t-shirts and chat with a few students we ran into while Michel and Beth went to the meeting and then did the campus tour with the admissions department. Beth was thrilled with the school and it is high on her list. When she came back she was excited about going to college where before she was nervous and really didn’t want to talk about it.

After the tour we drove back to Columbus for the night and ran into rush hour traffic. Traffic crawled until we passed a truck carrying onions pulled off the side of the road and then everything started moving. Are onions really so fascinating to people from Ohio? Anyway, the next day we were off to Kenyon College which turns out to be in the middle of nowhere. We were off the interstate for about an hour on two lane roads to get there. The town is right in the campus so we didn’t even realize at first that we were there. Almost immediately Beth was uncomfortable with the school. She didn’t like the school being so isolated and she didn’t get the same sense of friendliness that she got from UD. Beth and Michel went to admissions for the tour while Mikey and I wandered about. They didn’t stay for the whole planned day because they both decided that this wasn’t the school for Beth. We left around 1PM and drove to Carlisle, PA (right outside of Harrisburg) for the night. We stayed at the Comfort Suites (very nice) and then the next day we drove home with a brief stop in Bethlehem, PA.

The whole trip went well and was very worthwhile. Mikey was great for most of the trip and was only annoyed when Beth slept and didn’t entertain him. Beth is great on these trips, never asking for a stop. The next college visits are Ryder College in NJ next week and then SUNY Oneonta, Sienna College, and the College of Saint Rose (and maybe Western Connecticut if we have time) the week after that.