Five College Counselor Tour
Come Visit: Attend the Five College Counselor Tour October 20-22, 2024
Each fall, the Five College Consortium brings together 55 high school counselors from around the country to tour the campuses. With student-led tours, faculty panel discussions, 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, train or bus station
and return you there after the tour at no charge.
Pre-registration
Email invitations containing pre-registration instructions are sent out to counselors each spring, typically mid-May. We register 55 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, here in beautiful western Massachusetts at the peak of foliage season. Each counselor will have its own room.
Transportation
Five Colleges will, at no charge, arrange to have you picked up at an area train or bus station, or at Bradley International Airport (BDL) in Hartford, CT. We can also return you on Tuesday afternoon.
Schedule
The tour will begin with an early evening event on Sunday, and the last campus tour will end around 3 pm on Tuesday.
Frequently Asked Questions
We will provide free accommodations (a single room) at the Hotel Northampton on Sunday and Monday nights. All meals will be provided, with the exception of dinner on Monday. On Monday 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 reservations and covering their transportation costs to the area. For those flying into Bradley International Airport in Hartford, CT, or taking a bus or train to Springfield, MA, we will provide free transportation to and from the Hotel Northampton.
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. If more than one person from the same school/organization does pre-register for the tour, we put the second person on our waitlist. Should space become available, we will be in touch with pre-registered counselors on our waitlist.
Before the end of May 2024 we will contact people to let them know if they have been registered to attend the fall 2024 counselor tour. If our available spaces are full, we will put you on waitlist, and contact you when a space becomes available.
Should 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 three weeks of your registration confirmation notice. Please do not make travel plans before receiving registration confirmation.
The tour is scheduled to end at UMass Amherst around 3 pm on Tuesday. The Five College Consortium will be providing transportation from UMass Amherst directly to Bradley International Airport (BDL). If you were to estimate an hour to be on the safe side, that would put the arrival time at the airport around 4 pm. Therefore, we do not recommend booking flights with a departure time any earlier than 5:30 pm. You are free to use your discretion, of course, when looking into flights once you've received confirmation from Five Colleges that you have been registered for the 2024 Counselor Tour.
The Hotel Northampton 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.