After leaving the University of Georgia, we started on the next leg of our college tour–we were heading to Tennessee to visit the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.  After a quick stop for lunch and to arrange for a hotel stay, we turned on the Waze app and started this leg of the journey. Foreshadowing:  Sometimes things have ways of working out… We have some friends who live near the Knoxville area.  We had previously discussed trying to meet up, but we knew that due to various circumstances, any plans would have to be made last minute. Unfortunately, our friends would not be able to join us that evening. We followed the instructions provided by Waze.  We eventually reached a point where the app was giving one route, and my son was looking at a map wondering why Waze would take us in a roundabout direction.  The main highway looked like a much more direct route to our destination. My husband decided to follow my son’s recommendation thinking that he was using a travel app, not just looking at a map.  After some hemming and hawing after seeing on the phone that this new route added time to our travel, we finally realized why the more direct route on a map was the one which took more time. It took us through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  You simply don’t drive as fast through mountains and forests as you do on a highway! Simple as that! This was great! We were not in any rush. This unplanned part of the trip made it feel, at least for a brief time, that we were on a regular, good old fashioned, family vacation, not a trip focused on looking at schools.  We enjoyed looking at the schools, but it just isn’t the same. This part of our travel was gorgeous (much better than most highways). We all enjoyed the trees, mountains, and streams. We stopped along the way to just “enjoy the view” several times. Early in the journey through the park, we saw the telltale sign that there was something worth seeing–cars pulled to the side of the road.  There was a field of elk. Lots of them. I can honestly say that I have never before seen anything quite like that. As we drove, we made sure to get some family photos in the mountains (don’t step back!). This unplanned aspect of our trip was a welcome surprise! After leaving the park, I was amazed by the sudden change–we arrived in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.  Where did all of these people come from? We arrived in a mecca of family tourism fun! (It was reminiscent of the Wisconsin Dells)   We will definitely have to come back some day to enjoy that! Despite being right there, we did want to get into Knoxville at a relatively normal hour because we knew that our campus tour the next day was in the morning. We finished our journey to Knoxville safe and sound and enjoyed dinner at Dead End BBQ, a local restaurant.  “How did you find this place?” you may ask.  Upon arrival at the hotel, we asked the front desk staff where we could go for barbecue.  She first mentioned a chain restaurant just down the road, at which point my husband stopped her and said, “No chains – where do the locals go?”.   She gave us the answer we were seeking–a place for great local BBQ. We enjoyed a tasty (and probably better for the soul than the waistline) dinner.  I can’t say it was my healthiest meal on this trip–I had mac and cheese with sweet potato waffle fries (I am a vegetarian). I can tell you, though, that when you make those into a little sandwich, it is really good!  The rest of the family enjoyed their burgers, ribs, cornbread, etc. The next morning, we arrived on campus at University of Tennessee, Knoxville for our information session and tour.  We learned a little about the history and traditions of the school (“Rocky Top” is the unofficial fight song; Smokey, a bluetick coonhound, is the mascot seen at many sporting events; the name “Volunteers” is based on the role of Tennessee volunteer soldiers in history).  We heard about admission criteria, class sizes, opportunities such as internships, research, study abroad, and more. The same type of information was appropriately discussed at each campus. We were told that although letters of recommendation are listed as optional, it really is in the student’s best interest to have up to two (one from an academic area, one from outside general academic classes) submitted.  This school, like the others we had visited, told us that students can submit either the SAT or ACT; they are not both required. There are additional requirements (no surprise) if applying for scholarships and/or the honors program. Our two student tour guides continued the pattern of students making great tour guides!  They discussed and answered questions related to both the academic and social aspects of being a student.  This may be getting repetitive (which is good in this case), but long story short, we were now 4 for 4! Again, personally I was glad to notice how both academics and general student life are valued and are considered an important part of students’ overall education and well being.  (Although my description of what was discussed at each university sounds similar, I did take notes with specifics so that my family can refer to them as we need to make decisions. As mentioned in previous posts, if you would like school specific information, the school website and/or staff and students are more appropriate sources of information.  Part of the purpose of visiting campuses is to get a “feel” for the place and to help determine what matters most to you and your student. What matters to us will not be the same as what matters to you. Families should not be looking for “the best school.” They should be looking for the best school for your student. Different students thrive in different settings.)  As an aside, be aware that if you visit the campus and you come from a flat part of the country, you may want to do some training in advance. This campus is very hilly. VERY. I honestly don’t know how someone on crutches or in a wheelchair gets around. (I don’t doubt that in reality they do make it work.) You may be wondering why I actually have some photos for this school. These were actually taken after our tour as we walked around. I was still frantically taking notes during the student-led tour. My son really wanted to get a closer look at the Knoxville Sunsphere at World’s Fair Park before leaving town. This was just a short walk from campus.  We took advantage of the opportunity to simply sit down and rest.  While my husband and I did our daily “find a hotel for the night” work, my son was thrilled to be able to toss a frisbee with a student he saw on the lawn near the Sunsphere.  He had been wanting to toss a frisbee around for days but never had the opportunity to do so. This provided a great opportunity to talk with a current University of Tennessee student in a very casual, unofficial fashion (and he has been in contact with him since we have been back home).  I could see how much he was enjoying himself out there; he looked like he would be just fine once he got to college (I have no doubt that his high school is preparing him academically; I was able to see that he will end up fine socially as well). Our search for a hotel in Louisville, Kentucky for that night did not go quite as smoothly as it had for the other nights.  We simply could not find a reasonably priced room for a Thursday night! I did a little more searching. I came across some information which explained a lot–the NCAA tournament was taking place in Louisville that night.  I (obviously) had not even considered that. We ended up with the best we could find–we found a hotel in Frankfort, the capital of Kentucky, about an hour away from Louisville. At least it was on the way to Louisville, so it did not add on to our total travel time; it just broke it up.  We left Tennessee in preparation for the final school of the tour–University of Louisville. Addendum: If you want to jump around or see all of the posts again, here are the links to all 5 college tour posts. Enjoy!