Five College Counselor Tour

Come Visit: Attend the Five College Counselor Tour October 19-22, 2025

Each fall, the Five College Consortium brings together high school counselors from around the country to tour the campuses. With student-led tours and presentations from admissions directors, attendees will learn how, by enrolling in one campus, their students can experience the benefits of all five.

Counselor Tour

Counselors will learn how our students choose from thousands of courses at five of the most rigorous and innovative campuses in the country, access 10 million library volumes through our Joint Online Catalog and participate in Five College academic programs that pool the strengths of each institution.

Most meals will be provided by campus dining services, with free lodging at the historic Hotel Northampton. If you are traveling by mass transit, we will pick you up at the airport or train station
and return you there after the tour at no charge.

Counselors are responsible for booking their own reservations and covering their transportation costs to the area.

Pre-registration

This year, email invitations containing pre-registration instructions will be sent out to counselors from the West (CA, TX, AZ, NM, OR, WA, CO, ID, MT) in mid-May. We register 42 counselors after a pre-registration cut-off date; due to the limited capacity available during this tour, we are only accepting counselors from public and private schools and community based organizations (CBOs). Should you become registered to attend the tour, further details on how to proceed will be emailed to you.

Counselor Tour

School counselors are invited to join us in beautiful western Massachusetts at the peak of foliage season to tour the campuses of the Five College Consortium.

Lodging

Your lodging will be on us at the historic Hotel Northampton(link is external) on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday nights. Each counselor will have its own room. 

Transportation

Counselors should plan to arrive Sunday. We will provide free shuttle service from Bradley International Airport (BDL) to the Hotel Northampton between 2 pm and 9 pm. If your flight is scheduled before or after that time you will need to arrange and pay for your own transportation. 

The tour is scheduled to end around 6:30pm on Tuesday and you will have that evening free.  If you schedule your Wednesday return flight for a departure after 9 am, Five Colleges will provide transportation from the Hotel Northampton directly to Bradley International Airport (BDL)

Schedule

The tour will begin on Monday with breakfast at the Hotel Northampton, followed by campus tours of Mount Holyoke College and UMass Amherst. On Tuesday, counselors will visit Hampshire, Amherst, and Smith Colleges. Departures will be on Wednesday morning.

Frequently Asked Questions

We will provide free accommodations (a single room) at the Hotel Northampton(link is external) on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday nights. Most meals will be provided. On Monday and Tuesday evening, there will be a late-afternoon reception with heavy hors d'oeuvres followed by a free evening in downtown Northampton. Counselors are responsible for booking their own flight reservations and covering their transportation costs to the area. For those flying into Bradley International Airport in Hartford, CT, we will provide free transportation to the Hotel Northampton on Sunday between 2 pm and 9 pm.

It is our aim to reach out to the most students possible; having two counselors from the same school attend our tour leaves one less space for someone from another institution to take part. Therefore, we do not register more than one counselor from the same high school to attend the Five College Counselor Tour. 

Before the end of May 2025 we will contact people to let them know if they have been registered to attend the fall 2025 counselor tour. If our available spaces are full, we will put you on waitlist, and contact you when a space becomes available.

If you become registered, we will provide you with further details regarding the tour. We will ask you to provide us with your travel plans (as confirmation of your intention to attend the tour) within two weeks of your registration confirmation notice. Please do not make travel plans before receiving registration confirmation

The tour is scheduled to end around 6:30pm on Tuesday and you will have that evening free.  If you schedule your Wednesday return flight for a departure after 9 am, Five Colleges will provide transportation from the Hotel Northampton directly to Bradley International Airport (BDL). If your flight is scheduled before that time you will need to arrange and pay for your own transportation. 
 

The Hotel Northampton(link is external) provides on-site parking free-of-charge to guests who are staying with them as part of the Five College Counselor Tour. Its address is 36 King Street, Northampton, MA 01060.  If you will be driving to and from the airport, according to internet mapping tools, it takes approximately 45 minutes to travel from the Hotel Northampton to BDL. If you are driving, please let us know.

 

Contacts

For questions about the Five College Counselor Tour, please email fcadmissions@fivecolleges.edu.