February 2016 - East Coast College Visits

East Coast College Visits - February 2016

In a cold week in February, my daughter and I traveled to the East Coast to visit five universities to kick off her college visits as a high school junior. Why we selected the East Coast in February is still a mystery and it was a snowy and cold week. We flew into Newark, rented a large SUV to combat the winter weather and drove south to Princeton, arriving late at night.

We stopped in for a late night supper at an Italian eatery on a very cold winter’s night after arriving in Princeton. We were staying across the street at the Nassau Inn, a few steps away. The cafe had been very crowded earlier in the evening when we arrived at the hotel. When we walked in after 9 pm, they sat us at the bar, which in hindsight was not the most comfortable place for us. But, there was a group of men to our right and a couple drinking their dinner to our left. In the end, upon hearing that we were visiting Princeton, the men at our right paid for our meals. It was a surprising and kind gesture. We were so surprised that we left and later I realized that I had not even left a tip.

We stayed at the Nassau Inn in Princeton.

This historic inn is in the heart of Princeton and just a block’s walk from campus. Its location is perfect if you are visiting Princeton campus. The inn's restaurant really filled up for Sunday Brunch or lunch; by the time we left, every table was filled. Luckily, it was so cold that things were not moving on time on campus either. 

We enjoyed our tour of Princeton campus, even though it was about 5 below zero.

We loved our tour guide, who, Alle was quick to note, joined the crew team even though she only started rowing in college (which is something Alle hopes to do). One thing I noted was that although the tour guide and students were casual and looked like any other college students, the tour participants looked decidedly posh. Most of the mothers were wearing furs and jewelry. Alle and I were in our Iowa standard parkas.

 Although it was cold, the glass in front of the art museum on campus caught the sunlight beautifully. 

We had to get to NYC for the afternoon, so we wanted to grab lunch and go. We stopped by a great small corner lunch shop for a quick carry-out soup and sandwich before getting on the road. The lobster bisque was some of the best I have ever had with lots of chunks of lobster in it. We also stopped in a chocolate shop and it was hopping (it was Valentine’s Day). We purchased a box for a gift and got a box of dark chocolates to try for ourselves. For the duration of our drive from Princeton to New York City, we ate chocolates.

We drove from Princeton to NYC to stay with a college friend of mine and visit Columbia. It was a great stop on our tour. It was good fun, as always to see Deep and Alle loved Columbia.

We drove into NYC through the Lincoln Tunnel and I love the feeling of suddenly being in the heart of Manhattan.

We had a lovely home cooked meal at Deep’s apartment with him and his son for Valentine’s Day and spent the night there. The next morning, we drove to Columbia campus for our morning intro session and tour.

It was snowing for our time at Columbia, but we both really loved campus.



It is sits up a few floors above the streets of New York and so still has a separate campus feel.

The program is more structured that others we had heard about and it was a good visit.

From New York, we made our way during a snow storm to New Haven. It is not a long drive, but it is a difficult one, especially in snow. Miraculously we made it out of NYC without hitting anything or another car and we arrived in New Haven before 5 pm.  We had arranged to go to the Haas Art Library and visit the Kredel Archive. I am in touch with the librarians there often, but rarely see them in person. This is the location of many of the books and papers of my mother’s father. We got to see some of their new purchases and then the librarian took us to the roof of the library to see the snow storm and campus from that elevated viewpoint. It was beautiful in the evening light.

We stayed at The Study at Yale.

We loved this modern, quirky hotel.  Our room did not look out to campus, unfortunately. However, The Study is around the corner from the start of Yale campus and very convenient for visiting campus. Our tour guide was quirky and fun and the next morning, we had a great tour and intro to Yale.

From New Haven, we drove to Middletown, CT to see Wesleyan. This was the low point of our tour. Neither of us liked Wesleyan as well, sadly.

I don’t know if it was the cold, rainy weather or our negative tour guide, but we did not get a good impression.

We stayed at the Inn at Middletown one night after a tour of Wesleyan University. The town of Middletown seems to roll up its sidewalks at 9 pm and so there were not many food or dessert options open late at night as you might expect in a college town. The Inn is conveniently located a few blocks from campus. We walked down the main street from our hotel for pizza at Mondo Pizza. Afterwards, when we could not find any dessert options open, the bar at the hotel did serve us ice cream and sorbet, which we appreciated.

From Middletown, we drove to Providence, RI to see Brown University. We loved Brown. We had a very positive tour guide who was a trombone player and was able to talk to my daughter about options for playing trombone in college. The weather became sunny and warm and campus was walkable, very active and easy to see.



Alle loved the program summary at the intro session. 

After tour, we drove to Bristol and got dinner for an old friend of my mother’s. We visited her in her apartment, which has as a highlight one of my first glass commissions!

She has since moved into a retirement home. I am glad we got a chance to visit her before she moved.

We flew out of Providence the next day and returned home with many more college visits to come in the next year.