Questions about flying to and from CA to Indiana-Bloomington

2Leashes · 11-08-2009, 05:06 AM

I can't sleep, so here I am at CC!

As I had mentioned in an earlier thread, my daughter's first college choice is Indiana University-Bloomington. We live on the Central Coast in California, between San Francisco and Monterey/Carmel. She doesn't want to attend a school near the beach. Or really even in California. She wants to experience something different. At least it's not way back in Boston like she originally was considering!

She discovered IU-B and it just looks like everything she wants in a school. She told me today that it's her absolute first choice.

Okay, IF she gets accepted and IF she gets a decent scholarship and we decide it's financially feasible...I have a question about flying back and forth. How long does it take from San Jose Airport? (closest Int'l airport to us.) And, what's an estimated roundtrip fare during the Christmas holidays, summer, etc.?

I just want to get an idea of what we might expect regarding travel expenses if this were ever to come to fruition.

As I mentioned on the IU site earlier, I'm still not sure this will be something we can afford, even with a somewhat generous scholarship.

But, we'll see!

rrah · 11-08-2009, 08:44 AM

From Bloomington she can take a shuttle to Indianapolis airport. That will be about an hour, more or less. I don't believe there is a direct flight from Indianapolis to San Jose. A quick glance at Expedia indicates most flights will stop in Dallas. Using a typical winter break departure date of 12/18 and return of 1/4 the cost is about $500 total. Time will depend upon how long the layover is, but I would expect 7-10 hours including the shuttle time.

Tulare · 11-08-2009, 12:13 PM

My daughter is a freshman at IU this year and we live about 15 minutes from the San Francisco airport. So far I've booked 4 flights to and from, and the cost has ranged from the low $200s to high-$300s. There are no direct flights from SFO, but several options with all kinds of crazy places to connect (first time we went we connected in North Carolina -- talk about indirect). Southwest has been by far the best bet so far, connecting through Las Vegas or Phoenix. I booked her flight home for winter break back in July on Southwest and it cost $387. The shuttle from the Indianapolis airport to campus is an additional $40 round trip if booked online. A typical Southwest flight will leave SFO at 7:30am and arrive in Indianapolis at 4pm (with a 3 hour time difference). It takes about 1-1/2 hours for the shuttle ride.

hugalabugala · 11-09-2009, 07:49 PM

why people would even consider coming from the west coast to somewhere like indiana is beyond me !

this place is absolutely boring ! if she wants to experience corn, then this is the place for her

linz1990 · 11-10-2009, 11:31 AM

wow... Bloomington has few, if any, corn fields. As an IU student who lives near Bloomington, I think I know what I'm talking about. Outside of Bloomington, sure, there's some farms. But here the soil has a lot of clay, and it isn't that great for growing many crops.

Nice try though.

2Leashes · 11-10-2009, 09:29 PM

LOL. Believe me, he or she won't dissuade MY California beach girl from going out to Indiana! And, we actually live in a VERY agricultural area here on the northern Central coast. Artichokes, brussels sprouts, strawberries, lettuce, apples...big industry around these parts! It's not ALL about surfing.

Today, 08:31 AM #5

linz1990 posted:

wow... Bloomington has few, if any, corn fields. As an IU student who lives near Bloomington, I think I know what I'm talking about. Outside of Bloomington, sure, there's some farms. But here the soil has a lot of clay, and it isn't that great for growing many crops.

Nice try though.

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hugalabugala posted:

why people would even consider coming from the west coast to somewhere like indiana is beyond me !

this place is absolutely boring ! if she wants to experience corn, then this is the place for her

2Leashes · 11-10-2009, 09:35 PM

How is she liking it? I realize she hasn't experienced the long winters yet. But, how does she like it, otherwise? The school and town? What about fellow students? Classes? Professors? LOTS of questions!

I'm still not 100% sold on having her go out of state for undergrad school yet...but I'm keeping an open mind...not so much an open wallet, though. ;-)

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Tulare wrote:

My daughter is a freshman at IU this year and we live about 15 minutes from the San Francisco airport. So far I've booked 4 flights to and from, and the cost has ranged from the low $200s to high-$300s. There are no direct flights from SFO, but several options with all kinds of crazy places to connect (first time we went we connected in North Carolina -- talk about indirect). Southwest has been by far the best bet so far, connecting through Las Vegas or Phoenix. I booked her flight home for winter break back in July on Southwest and it cost $387. The shuttle from the Indianapolis airport to campus is an additional $40 round trip if booked online. A typical Southwest flight will leave SFO at 7:30am and arrive in Indianapolis at 4pm (with a 3 hour time difference). It takes about 1-1/2 hours for the shuttle ride.

Tulare · 11-11-2009, 06:06 PM

2Leashes, my daughter is enjoying her time at IU very much so far. She has enjoyed most of her classes this semester, made good friends right away, feels comfortable on campus and finds the people friendly and warm. She loves the changing of seasons that we don't get here in the Bay Area and keeps sending me gorgeous photos of campus in its full fall glory. It is a beautiful, traditional-looking campus which is just what she wanted. And Bloomington has earned its reputation of one of the best college towns in the country. I think it's good for a kid to experience living in an entirely different part of the country if given the opportunity.

However, I understand your hesitancy to have your daughter go out of state. My daughter has found the distance from home more difficult than she expected. We didn't go to freshman family weekend or parents weekend, and while other students' parents have dropped in for weekends here and there she hasn't seen me since the end of August. But the distance has helped her become independent more quickly than she might have otherwise, and her confidence has increased as she has discovered how capable she is of being on her own.

Lastly regarding cost, I feel your pain about paying OOS tuition. However, when we really put pen to paper we discovered that it is not that much more costly than had she gone to a UC. Given California's budget crisis you can expect tuition to increase in the double digits each year, and it is becoming common to take at least 5-6 years if not longer to graduate from UCs and CA State schools because it's so hard to get classes. My daughter will almost certainly graduate in 4 years, so that's at least one year of tuition, room and board saved and at least one more year of earning power because she'll get a job sooner. At least, that's our rationale that makes us feel better about the OOS cost.

Feel free to PM me if you'd like any other information. In the meantime, good luck with the admissions process. I know it's a stressful time.

Calcruzer · 11-12-2009, 01:34 AM

Okay, first the info on flights--the shortest flight was via Air Tran nonstop from San Francisco to Indianapolis, but that flight no longer exists. Flights out of San Jose and San Francisco now all require a stop along the way--in Minneapolis, Dallas, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Houston, or Denver. Probably the cheapest (and more direct) are Southwest or Frontier or Continental, but United and Northwest and Delta are other possibilities. My son usually takes Southwest (through Las Vegas or Phoenix) or Continental (through Houston)--but that's only because he doesn't like the flight over the Rockies into Denver (which is the Frontier flight route).

As far as adapting to Indiana from central California, our family lives in a town very close to Santa Cruz (thus my site name, Calcruzer) and my son is in his senior year at IU-B. You probably live just a short ways (like an hour south or southeast of where we are)

My son felt almost exactly like your daughter (that is, he must go somewhere besides California for school) and after looking at places where he was accepted in Boston, Pittsburgh, and in Oregon, he ended up at IU-B.

The first year at IU-B (if she goes there) will be the toughest for you and for your daughter because (1) she'll realize that she doesn't have all her old friends around her and will feel some homesickness--and you'll feel fairly helpless to assist her; and (2) when winter kicks in around January, she'll think that maybe California wasn't so bad.

Once she gets past this, (which lagely depending upon how soon she makes friends and starts being active in school events) will determine how well IU-B works for her. My own son at first hated the first year at IU-B for the reasons given above, and was considering dropping out or transferring to another school, but then he started getting involved with the school in his second year--and at this point is now happily involved in all the activities at the school and is considering going for his MBA somewhere in the midwest (either at Notre Dame, Michigan or continuing at IU-B). He still may come home to this area to work--but that's because he wants to save money for grad school by living at home temporarily--not because he dislikes Indiana (the state or the school).

Besides Tulare's point about saving costs because you can't get through California schools in less than 5-6 years, there is also the fact that Indiana University at Bloomington offers some major undergraduate programs that are the equivalent or better of those offered at the UC's--for example, the music program, business program, theatre, public administration, foreign language (especially French, Italian, and Central Asian ones), dance (ballet), and English/journalism programs are all ranked in the top 10 nationwide. My own son chose a business major with a legal studies concentration--which is not offered at any University of California campus except Berkeley--and his undergraduate grades wouldn't have gotten him into Berkeley.

One other thing--probably unknown by many people on CC--is that IU-B was also ranked as one of the most beautiful schools in the country--and was named #1 in one publication on the topic. And Bloomington is a great small college town--which probably is the equivalent of a place like Santa Cruz in California (although no beach, of course).

cheezwhiz · 11-15-2009, 06:49 PM

IU-B has the best college town and is not in the middle of the corn field. The town LOVES the students and is built around the college. IU has a lot to offer as far as culture and the arts.

It is a very pretty and traditional campus. My son looked at campus from the East coast, southeast and the West and loved the campus.

Indiana University is a huge college but is known for making this campus seem small and personal.

As far as not being able to visit we live in Chicago (4.5 hrs) and have only been down once so far. I think the kids like it that way! They will be at home enough during the holidays and will appreciate you even more.

One thing I would recommend is to get into a Living Learning community that they would enjoy. If she is a Business Major they may want to look at Kelley Living and Learning. This was a wonderful program and this year was the first year.