<p>I was reading a thread today about a girl at Whitman which I know is a great school in Walla Walla…but off the top of my head I wasn’t sure how out in the boonies that is (and googling is SO DEMANDING)…how far to the nearest airport? </p>
<p>I looked and didn’t see a thread on this and travel time to/from school is a big deal and …so a comprehensive list would be nice… “How far is it to the nearest (major/commuter) airport?”</p>
<p>I’ll start with the Arizona universities. </p>
<p>ASU is very very close…less than ten minutes away. Both U of A and NAU have local commuter airports but probably most kids fly to Phoenix and drive the 1.5-2 hours to each. Embry Riddle is the same. </p>
<p>(many East and West coast ones I know but Middle America and the South are just vague “here be monsters…” )</p>
<p>Sometimes, distance may not be reflective of difficulty or expense getting between the school and airport. Options for public transportation, taxis, shuttles, etc. can vary for each combination of school and airport. Remember that many students do not bring cars to the school, and renting cars may be difficult for those who go to college right after high school.</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon, the University of Pittsburgh, and Duquesne are a sizable distance from the Pittsburgh airport, but there’s a city bus (the 28X) which runs pretty regularly to all three (at least I know it does for the first two) and is only a standard bus fare for the ride. At least $50 cheaper than a taxi. It’s pretty fast, too.</p>
<p>Caltech is a 20-120 minute car ride from LAX, and 20-60 minutes from Burbank. You can take the Super Shuttle from either. There’s also a way to get to Caltech via public transit, but it requires a bus and two train rides, plus over a mile of walking. Much easier to pay the $20 extra for the shuttle ride.</p>
<p>S1 goes to University of Minnesota. He has never flown home (has taken the 7 hour ride on the Megabus) but the airport is probably about 45 minutes away. Students now can take the bus to the light rail and take that directly to the airport. Next year the light rail will be running from the university so a bus to the station will not be needed. Not sure what the cost is but probably less than $10. (Taxis to the airport would obviously be more.)</p>
<p>S2 goes to University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. This is about 1 hour away from the Birmingham airport. On regular holidays etc. the students can take a shuttle from the University for $30 one way. On off times, the students have to arrange for a taxi, limo etc. and the expense can be around $160 one way. We try to use the shuttle as much as possible!!!</p>
<p>The University of Oklahoma is a 20 minute drive to the OKC airport. Fortunately for myself, it offers a direct flight to LA at least once a day. </p>
<p>Getting to the ATL airport from Oxford of Emory was a huge hassle, especially for the students that needed to go home on non holidays. A taxi from the school to the airport ran about $65, and the school sponsored shuttles offered on holidays could only accommodate the needs of about 1/3 of the out of area student body.</p>
<p>S1 – University of Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh airport is reachable by the 28X. It is super convenient and cheap! </p>
<p>S2 – University of Minnesota. Airport is reachable using the bus then transferring to the light rail. Once the light rail opens on campus, then it will be a straight shot to the airport. Cost is around $2.25 one way (free transfer from bus to light rail). Taxi is around $50 bucks one way (depending upon traffic). The light rail is the way to go with stops at both airport terminals.</p>
<p>I currently attend UNLV where the airport is literally down the street. Great for students who travel during breaks.</p>
<p>Before, I attended a small school on the East Coast where the nearest airport was a ~30-40 minute train ride away (and the walk to the train itself was about 15-20 minutes… with my beautiful luggage). I remember it snowing/raining one time I came back from winter break. One of the reasons why I transferred… It was stressful coming to/from school during all the breaks.</p>
<p>Most colleges have an airport within shot of the campus but like someone said it’s going to depend on your stomach for budget. My oldest had the choice of paying twice the plane ticket to get to a metro airport on a commuter flight or take a $60 bus/shuttle then pay the ‘cheaper’ airport home. If you don’t mind $600-$800 roundtrip airline tickets then most kids can fly just about anywhere in the country. The best “deal” I got was about $550 flying all three legs as opposed to around $300 shuttling one let and flying the remaining two. The bigger problem we faced after paying for the ticket were the blizzards here in the midwest at Christmas time. 2 out of 4 Christmas holidays he slept in an airport overnight somewhere along the way. Then a pilot friend told me to fly him south somewhere, then north on two longer legs in stead of three legs cross country. Worked like a charm. The third Christmas his plane was the ONLY plane that landed at our airport that afternoon and evening - what goes up must come down.</p>
<p>Penn State-State College has its own airport, but as someone above said, it boils down to how much you want to pay. The airline ticket from State College to a large airport (say Philadelphia or New York) was usually more than the remainder flight to Los Angeles. In addition, flights to and from State College got cancelled frequently. At major holidays and school breaks, the airlines knew they had the students in a corner and it would have usually cost around $700-$800 to go from State College to LAX. My D usually took the Megabus or got a ride to Philly or NY for around $30-40, and then would catch a flight to LAX for anywhere from $300-$400. It made for some very long trips home.</p>
<p>CYUL (if any of you is familiar with ICAO codes…): about a 20-30 minute drive from the school, given the poor condition of the roads either near the airport or near the school</p>
<p>DS started college at Northeastern in Boston. The transportation option can’t be beat! In fact, his shortest walk from dorm to class was thru a T station. He is not on the outskirts of Boston, but still close enough to Logan to make things convenient. Another perk - lots of direct flights to Denver are available.</p>
<p>We didn’t’ rule out schools far from airports. But it was a definite disadvantage.</p>
<p>The University of Michigan is about a 30 minute bus ride from Detroit Metro Airport (DTW). The Ann Arbor Transit Authority runs 12 buses daily for $12 each way advanced purchase. During scheduled university breaks, the student government provides additional shuttles with convenient on-campus stops for as low as $7 each way. </p>
<p>My D1 attends Haverford College in suburban Philadelphia. From there it’s about a 40 minute train ride to the Philadelphia airport (PHL) with a change of trains in Center City Philadelphia. Trains are frequent and relatively inexpensive.</p>
<p>We also didn’t use proximity to an airport as a college selection criterion, but it sure makes college holidays easier.</p>
<p>We spend about $3000/ year on transportation for breaks. It is expensive and we still have to contend with missed connections, bad weather, etc. I even pay extra for slightly longer connection times to help avoid missed connections. Her school is 15 minutes for an airport and we live less than one hour from 2 major airports. The problems is the connection issue.</p>
<p>I concur that it’s easy to take the bus to the airport at Carnegie Mellon, though my son almost missed a plane when he didn’t allow himself enough time and the bus didn’t come quite as regularly as it is supposed to. I told him to pay the $40ish dollars it would cost to take a taxi. Younger son can get to Boston airport on public transportation from Tufts, but he usually takes the train (because he can get to our town) and occasionally a bus (which only takes him into NYC but costs much, much less).</p>
<p>There are three airports within an hour of William & Mary, which two of my kids attended. But none of them have direct flights to our local airport (which would be asking for a lot, I realize). Whatever airline or airport we chose, we could never get the commute time by air under 9 hours, which is just about how long the drive is from our house. They still flew home for holidays, but there were usually delays, missed connections, etc. Just not a flight friendly-school between here and there.</p>
<p>Sometimes they had a car, which they’d drive to the airport and park; more often they needed to use a transportation service, which ranged in price from $50 one-way (plus tip) to Richmond and, for some reason, almost $100 to Norfolk.</p>
<p>There is a major airport in Nashville, of course, and my Vandy daughter’s commute times between there and Syracuse were shorter, though the distance is greater. This daughter is now at UVA for grad school, but has never flown out of the Charlottesville airport.</p>