This summer my two little brothers and I are going to partake on an epic (to me and them at least) roadtrip that will go a little something like this.

pittsburgh (Home, CMU) to
philadelphia (UPENN) to
princeton (Princeton) to
new york (columbia, cooper union, pratt) to
Providence (RISD) to
Boston (Harvard, MIT) to
Ithaca (Cornell) to
State College (Penn State) to
pittsburgh (Home)

So obviously this is going to be primarily a research trip for all of us with them looking at art and architecture programs at an undergrad level and myself looking at PhD level. so I was just curious if you guys had any advice in general for the cities and things to see. I'm leaving plenty of time to do research and plan obviously, but the schedule is going to be very tight with having a full time 9-5 job. We are planning to pack light and camp if at all possible (accept in new york and boston) so that will save some time and money doing it like that.. but just in general any info about the off the normal path type stuff. I have no idea if there is anything going on architecturally speaking in ithaca, providence, and state college, so that would be awesome if you guys could start me off on the right foot.