Falling Skies and college tours

So I'm watching Fallng Skies, and I have to say, this might be a new show to add to my list. Of course, it completely depends on whether or not TNT will have videos up online later for me to use to catch up, because I'm going to be at camp for the entire month o July (!!!), so I'd need to have some way to catch up.
Questions I have because I missed the first hour or something: do we know why the alien thing had a robotic shooting machine that followed it? Do they all have those? Why was a small-ish child brought on the scouting/food mission (that kid was like 12...[later: HE WAS 13 BOO-YAH])
(My commitment has been established mainly, sad though it is, because of the presence of a pretty face, namely that of Drew Roy. What else is new? Though it is slightly intriguing on its own merits as well, if a little reminiscent of, well, every alien/apocalyptic doom movie ever made. Also, thank you for having this hot guy date the badass chick and not the touchy-feely doctor/nurse/Catholic/obviously flirting with someone else's guy girl. Seriously. I have no problem with religion, just don't try to pick up guys with it. Please.)

Anyway, beyond my obsession with hot guys that I will never ever meet, and probably wouldn't date even if I did meet them, we (as in my dad and I) are checking out colleges on the East Coast. Solely Ivies/"Ivy Plus" schools (I just looked up that, no I didn't know it off the top of my head, not that you care) this time: Hahvahd, Yale, Princeton, Brown, MIT. (ALSO someone recently said that Stanford was an Ivy. I would just like to take this time to mention that I was right, and it's not. HA.)
We'll see how these go...to be honest, most of these schools are fairly similar, in the end. I'm going to have some severe dificulties when I have to decide where to apply, and, more importantly, go. I know I need a school with a semi-strong science/math department, I know it needs to be at least over 2000 people, I know I don't want to go to a po-dunky town in the middle of nowhere, and that I want to go to a school on a coast or Chicago, with very few exceptions - that is to say, the South/Southwest/most of the Midwest are pretty much completely out off the question. That still leaves a ton of schools, and I HAVE NO FUCKING IDEA, excuse me, that was rude, I'm sorry, I just am feeling the stress a little. Also, an alien just jumped out on the TV, and it freaked me out a teeny bit.

Aaaaaaand thus concludes our boring update into the trials and travails of a hormonal, self-obssessed teenager. Why you bother to pay attention to them at all is beyond me.