<p>I agree that Southwest service should not be the only criteria, but I don’t think it’s a negligible one. You may occasionally find comparable or better fares on other airlines, but that is not the only thing to look at when flying. With a SW Visa card and my frequent travel, I earn 4-6 free tickets per year. Great for visits by us to S or him home. If you do pay for a ticket, you can change or cancel it with no extra fees and use the money for another flight. No charge to check 2 bags. </p>
<p>Every time I fly another airline, I swear I will never do so again (rude employees, delayed/canceled/changed flights, late flights for no discernible reason that cause a missed connection, lost luggage). It has happened to me so consistently on other airlines that I refuse to consider them if I can reasonably get there on SW. </p>
<p>S goes to school about an hour from the nearest SW airport, but if he can use a free ticket, it’s cost effective to pay for a shuttle/limo for him. You can also be sure that SW employees will look out for your kids if there’s an unavoidable delay, answer questions politely, make sure they get to a hotel, if necessary, and give good advice.</p>
<p>That reminds me – S1 has also taken Southwest into Hartford/Springfield and taken the shuttle to Hampshire College. It also does drop-offs at all the consortium colleges there (MHC, Smith, Amherst, UMass, Hampshire), so that opens up that area as well.</p>
<p>You’re definitely right. I regret not visiting, but in prestige driven Southeastern PA, going to school in Kansas is unfortunately not an option :/</p>
<p>Rumor has it that Southwest is actually going to take over two gates at Logan Airport. There won’t be a lot of flights from the rumors…and of course…they are only rumors. BUT that would certainly change the “landscape” of flying into Boston.</p>
<p>Wish Southwest would consider a LOT more cities to service–they know how to run an airline. This thread should be the cover for one of their ads!!</p>
<p>I am not certain if Towson University fits the criteria of ‘above average’, but it’s 30-40 minutes from BWI - shuttle service would be easy to find. It probably falls into the desired price range even for OOS. Towson is a nice town also.</p>
<p>And I think the Southwest criteria is fine. I think ease and cost of travel is a consideration for some. It certainly figured in the mix for my D.</p>
<p>There is easy and inexpensive shuttle service from Indianapolis. We have been very pleasantly surprised about the cost of travel for our daughter.</p>
<p>Excellent thread. Someone should compile all of these in a list and put it in a sticky underneath the one about schools with good financial aid. Travel and cost are a huge consideration for many of us. </p>
<p>Someone mentioned the Philadelphia area schools- Drexel, Villanova, St. Joe’s Swarthmore, etc, but none of them are under $30,000. However, West Chester University of Pennsylvania is under that price for OOS students and I’m sure they have bus service to Philly airport.</p>
<p>To paraphrase, if Southwest can giveth new airports, it can also taketh away. Southwest is doing well, but the airline industry isn’t exactly on the steadiest of footing these days. Seems touchy to base your search on travel options that can be added or removed based on the price of a barrel of oil.</p>
<p>But if there are 200 schools in the country that would be possible good fits, you’ve got to narrow the search somehow. Easy vs. hard to get to seems quite valid.</p>
<p>We’re talking about a student who does not have a “dream school” much less a list of possible majors. She has some preferences and the goal is to get to a manageable list that is then more thoroughly investigated.</p>
<p>Easy vs. hard to get to strikes me as valid, too. I say this as someone who will have to drive her kid to a school 7 hours away, and is about to apply for a Southwest charge card because the United miles aren’t going to be at all helpful here!</p>
<p>OK I have to admit this thread has been haunting me and drawing me into replying … avoid my first reaction reply hopefully this one will be helpful (and not redundant).</p>
<p>I can imagine travel distance/cost/ease being a factor in deciding where to attend college. That said I would not recommend the particular routes offered by a particular airline as a deciding factor. Airports and bus routes will probably be stable over the next few years … however the connections of a particular airline are from from stable … I would not advice going to that level of granularity as data to include in the decision.</p>
<p>Easy v. hard to get to is a valid screen for colleges. Every pre-Thanksgiving and Winter break season CC is full of reports and requests for help when kids get stranded at airport connections and/or otherwise when trying to get home from distant locations.</p>
<p>I think transportation is a valid factor and SWA does go to most places in the US. I think you’ll be a little more limited by the tuition under $30K (not saying that isn’t a valid factor either). I’m a frequent SWA flier from MA and SWA has flights from Providence, RI, Manchester, NH, and Hartford, CT, and soon will be flying out of Boston–which means that almost any college in MA or CT or RI would be accessible to your D. I started thinking of suggestions and quickly realized that almost every college I came up with had a tuition cost of over $30K. At least in New England, your D’s choices would probably be limited to public universities–and with OSS tuition even those may have tuitions that are close to $30K.</p>
<p>dsultemeier: It was hard to get from Midway to the University of Chicago on public transportation? Who did you ask for directions? They are essentially on the same street, about four miles apart, and a bus line runs right down it. The 55 bus originates just outside the Midway parking lots, and it ends just past the University at the Museum of Science and Industry. It makes 9-10 stops on or near the Chicago campus. There’s an express version during business hours.</p>
<p>I don’t know of any campus, anywhere, that’s more accessible from an airport on public transportation than the University of Chicago. Well, it’s easy to get to Harvard from Logan, too. But Southwest doesn’t fly to Logan.</p>
<p>Getting back to the OP . . . Given its proximity to Philadelphia (which has copious SWA flights), you might look at the University of Delaware. Also, Villanova, St. Joseph’s, Drexel, West Chester University, lots of smaller schools, too, if you change your mind about size. (Only Delaware is “largish” on this list, although West Chester and Drexel may come close.)</p>
<p>I will add that Southwest has made A TON of difference to us in making it possible to see our kids from time to time without selling body parts to do it. If I had any more kids, I might insist that they go to college in a Southwest market.</p>