<p>I was recently accepted with a generous scholarship at Mills College. I love the campus (from what I've seen in pictures, I live in Pennsylvania so it's not obviously not as easy for me to visit, but I'm trying to coordinate one,) the close-knit environment of small, liberal arts women's college, and the opportunity of being a brand new city. I know that Oakland is not very safe, but that campus security is excellent, so I'm not very worried about being safe there. However, is San Francisco accessible through public transportation? I know there's a shuttle to the UC Berkeley campus, but it would be a shame to be so close to such an amazing city like SF and only go once or twice a year. Is there any way to get into SF from Mills? Thanks!</p>
<p>There should be, yeah. I live in California and actually quite close to SF/Berkeley/etc. You could probably take the Bart to SanFran. Well actually I know for sure you could go to SF from berkeley using the Bart because we did that on a school trip.</p>
<p>alc710
My daughter is also contemplating attending Mills from the east coast. We visited recently during their admitted student weekend. Flew into SFO and took BART to Oakland. It was very easy and took about 45 minutes. The stops in downtown SF are much closer to Oakland. The entire Bay area seems easy to get around on public transportation. The Mills shuttle departs regularly for Berkeley, stopping in some of Oakland’s nicer neighborhoods (Piedmont and Rockridge, next to the BART station). It seemed to be used by a lot of commuter students. On weekends I think it stops at the MacArthur BART station. We stayed in downtown Oakland, which was nice, especially the waterfront and around Lake Merritt. The area right around Mills is less interesting (a mostly residential neighborhood across the street) and the main commercial area along that part of MacArthur, although it had some interesting coffee shops etc., looked like it was not somewhere you would want to walk around at night (bars on windows). The Mills campus itself is lovely and well-maintained. My daughter stayed overnight with a student from Texas, which gave her the opportunity to ask about what it was like to be from farther away than most of the student population (overwhelmingly Californian). She said that the campus doesn’t empty on weekends because many are from too far to go home (SoCal, for example). My daughter went to two classes and enjoyed them. Although there are graduate students at Mills, classes are not taught by TAs. All in all we were impressed by the students (smart and interesting), by the academic programs, and by Oakland itself. Add to that the rest of the Bay area and it’s hard to imagine a better place to spend four years. If she ends up there, I’ll enjoy visiting!</p>
<p>Bay Area resident here! San Francisco is a whopping 15 miles away from Oakland. On BART, it is five minutes from the last Oakland stop (West Oakland) to the first SF stop (Embarcadero). Mills is between Coliseum and Fruitvale BART, but the Shuttle does stop at Rockridge and MacArthur stations, which are at most 20 minutes from SF on the train.</p>
<p>My daughter attends Mills and frequently visits San Francisco. She had many great college options, but she felt like and still feels that Mills was the best fit for her. She loves her campus, her classes, teachers and fellow students. When she graduates, she is only a sophomore, she will have some great rec letters because of the numerous leadership opportunities she has had and will continue to have. It is truly amazing how much she has accomplished, in so many arenas, in such a short period of time.</p>