On Modern Family Season 6 Episode 2, the Dunphy family accompanies Alex on a tour of Caltech. Claire is pushing for her to go there because it's close to him and she thinks Alex will fly the coop at the first chance she gets. Alex admits that it's too close to home and she needs space from her family.

Alex meets an equally smart, nerdy, and awkward boy on her tour that makes her reconsider the idea of staying so close to home. After all, should she really base her college decision on proximity to her family? The boy later friends Alex on facebook. Claire thinks she reconsidered Caltech because she realized she'd be homesick.

Phil and Luke fight because Luke cut class to finish his movie project. Haley invited herself along on the college trip because she thought her family was trying to re-inspire her to want to attend college. The three of them decide to take part in a campus experiment and think it ends up being a psych experiment. They have a family breakthrough where Haley talks about feeling like a failure. 

Meanwhile Cam and Mitchell are taking a new family photo because Lily is upset she is not in the current one. In every snapshot, Lily keeps giving a huge, awkward, terrible smile. They try to gently tell her to change, but end up upsetting her. Claire tells Mitchell that if you push your kids too much one something it will only push them away.

It is Gloria and Jay's anniversary. Jay makes a homemade present for Gloria of a pottery sculpture of a bunny, her old nickname. Gloria mistakes it as what he's hiding an expensive bracelet in. Manny teaches them both a lesson.