Return of the College Trip
When an "obsessive planner" wants to bring back a school tradition after a one-year hiatus.
November 2021
In the midst of the pandemic, the college application season was surprisingly normal, at least from my vantage point. The search process was anything but. Here at Browning, the biggest singular loss was the College Trip. It was untenable in the face of COVID, and its absence loomed large in the culture.
I was determined to resurrect it.
I’m kind of an obsessive planer. That’s one of the things I have loved about this annual adventure. Often, while on the bus, energized by the visits, I would start planning the following year’s itinerary! I start with a region. I have about eight general destinations that I cycle among, although I try to spice things up with a new entry when I can. I never ask for suggestions because I want to avoid any semblance of preference. In reality, it doesn’t matter where we go, only that we visit a variety of institutions.
"To my delight (and surprise!) several colleges were ecstatic to jump-start their tour programs with my ready-made group.”
Then I pick a hotel. My first choice is always Embassy Suites. A wonderful, cooked-to-order breakfast and three boys in a room with three beds. I generally find that if you put them in a nice place, they rise to suit the surroundings. The early risers bask in the glory of freshly-made omelettes and blueberry pancakes, while the boys who stayed up late playing video games are scrambling to grab a donut on the way to the bus. There are only a handful of Embassy Suites locations that are suitable for the trip, however. If the description says “Just a short walk to the Metro” it’s out! We can stay near Dulles Airport, but not in Crystal City. I don’t really worry about them catching a plane at 2 am, but sneaking off to a bar downtown is not a temptation I want to place in front of them. If there are three fast food joints across the parking lot and nothing else in sight, that’s perfect.
This trip, however, could not be planned in advance. Colleges did not know in May whether they would be able to have campus tours in June, let alone in September. And when student-led tours began to resume, they were often limited to one or two families.
I tried to convince myself that I could find six schools that would let us bring 60 boys to campus for an outdoor walking tour, but I was absolutely certain that no one was going to let me bring 60 boys into a dining hall. On the College Trip, I always feed the boys lunch and dinner on campuses. I have found that that is a particularly good way for them to get a strong, clear impression of a student body. It's also less expensive and less chaotic than taking them to McDonald's! I knew a long bus ride would be unwise, and I was fearful of a stay in a hotel, which, in any case, needs to be booked four months ahead of time. There were just too many unknowns. I was not particularly optimistic.
Juniors and seniors visited a total of seven schools during three consecutive day trips to Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Connecticut.
Then last April, during a rep visit with Bruce Bunnick, Director of Admission at Lehigh University, I mused that I was hoping to find a few schools that would be willing to let us tour in September. Without a moment’s hesitation and with the uncertainty of the pandemic swirling around us, Bruce said: “You can come to Lehigh!” A clip from Ghostbusters popped into my head: Annie Potts leaping up from her seat, hollering: “We got one!”
If I could find another school in the vicinity of Lehigh, I could make it a day trip. We could bring box lunches from Browning and return everyone home for dinner, so no dining halls. Heading into Labor Day weekend, I emailed a number of admission colleagues at schools within about 2 hours of Browning to see if they would be willing to provide student-led walking tours to our masked, vaccinated cohort. The subject was “Browning Visit Hail Mary.” A few took rain checks; they were not yet holding on-campus tours or could not accommodate such a large group. But to my delight (and surprise!) several were ecstatic to jump-start their tour programs with my ready-made group. The last one confirmed less than a week before the visit. All the schools required us to be vaccinated, and most asked us to remain masked during the visit, even outdoors. Only one asked each participant to show proof of vaccination and did temperature checks.
In the end, we visited Lafayette, Lehigh, Wesleyan, Trinity, Muhlenberg, and Drew. I prefer more variety in size, but none of the larger schools I contacted were willing to host such a large group on campus. I’ll make up for it next year; I already have the itinerary in mind.
Sanford Pelz ’71 is in his 47th year of teaching at Browning. Read more of his college guidance blog here.
