I’m trying to figure out how to get to UA from NY. I have to consider the most feasible form of transportation when choosing a college and paying $700 to get a room on an Amtrak train to get to Tuscaloosa is kinda pricey lol. Any advice? Flying to Birmingham and taking a cab seems a bit cumbersome.
How do most out of state students get there?
Many fly in to Bham and take a shuttle.
Flying to Bhm and taking a taxi is far less cumbersome than taking the Amtrak from NY to Ttown.
@CaliCash are you coming for a visit?
Don’t be intimidated by trying to get a private ride-share from a fellow student to/from the BHM airport. There is a facebook group dedicated to this (can’t post link here, tho, but poke around and you’ll find it). This is not as scary as it seems, to get a ride from a perfect stranger - the UA community and the South in general is an extremely helpful lot! Even CC families have reached out to each other to help fellow families, either who are visiting or once enrolled, with transportation.
Have you ridden on the Amtrak train that far before? :0 My D and I rode on the train from FL to NYC. It took 22 loooooooooooooong hours! However, we didn’t spring for the room.
All right, there are quite a few ways to travel to Tuscaloosa from New York, I will post some generalizations here about travel logistics. However, since New York is a huge state and you are not saying Westchester, Rockland County or any of the upstate areas, and since you do mention the train (even though, not specifically Penn Station), i am going to assume you mean travel from one of the five boroughs of NYC, or travel from Long Island.
So here goes:
2.) You can also fly out of EWR (that is Newark Airport). The flights are one times less expensive from there. EWR is located in New Jersey.
3.) You can fly out of ISP (that is MacArthur Airport), which is located in Long Island. You will only be able to fly SouthWest Airlines to BHM from there. There will be fewer flights and very few direst lights. You could be making changes in one of several cities depending on the time and date.
Travel to these airports can either be by public transportation or car.
Once in Birmingham, you could travel to Tuscaloosa by The UA Shuttle on designated breaks but not at move-in or move-out dates.
You could car pool, or take a private car service.
Continued…
Yes, you can also take the Amtrak train from Penn Station directly to Tuscaloosa. One-Way fares, if booked well in advance, are not too expensive and you can apply for a student discount card (separate fee, not an Amtrak Card…see Amtrak’s website). You would not take a sleeper compartment, as this is very pricy. Instead, you purchase a coach seat and catch some sleep at your seat. I have done this and it is manageable.
I have posted a lot of usable info about this before -do a search under my name to find the posts. One advantage of the train is that you can take quite a bit of luggage for a low cost. One disadvantage is the time involved - it is a 24 hour trip. However, Penn Station is easily accessed via public transportation.
Of course, you can drive from NY to Tuscaloosa but since you haven’t mentioned any parental involvement, I will leave this option off.
Note that there ARE shuttles available for move-out, just not move-in dates: http://housing.ua.edu/on_campus/shuttle.cfm.
You can easily fly to BHM from any airport in the US which has commercial service on a major airline or their regional carriers. There are usually many 1-connection options or 2 connection options if coming from an airport with limited service. I’ve also had friends book flights on United which included train travel from their home city to Newark, NJ (EWR) and onwards to their destination.
Flying alone is actually very easy and is often less stressful than when traveling with other people. When booking flights for family members who don’t fly very much, I tend to book longer connections and which have plenty of alternate flight options in the event of delays. Sometimes it is better to pay a little extra and get the flight which works best for you instead of going with the cheapest option. I’ve known of many people who booked suboptimal flights to save $20-50 and ended up spending a lot more money than they “saved” when they had to find alternate transportation to get to/from the airport, ended up being delayed many hours, etc.
fly into Birmingham, rent a car - easy drive. Southwest out of Islip may be a bit less expensive, if booking early…
If I take a cab, how much will I be looking to pay? And are these scheduled ahead of time or will I be able to find a cab when I get to the airport? I’m not mentioning any parental involvement because I am not really sure if my parents will be willing to go down there with me.
@mom2collegekids I’m not visiting just yet. But I am however trying to find ways of transportation that will get me to each of the schools I’ve been accepted to so far.
Also, another concern I have is when it comes to transporting my things. I know there is no way i can for storage containers, school supplies, and clothing and dorm decorations in luggage with me and fly with them.
How do students typically get there stuff there? Do parents ship it or is that too costly?
Birmingham door to door is a reliable shuttle service from Birmingham airport to Tuscaloosa. Here’s a link https://www.birminghamdoortodoor.com/
I shipped most of my son’s dorm supplies via Walmart and Amazon at the beginning of the Fall Semester. Walmart will ship orders of $50 or more free and we had Amazon Prime which offers free 2 day shipping. Students also have access to a shuttle that runs to University Mall each Sunday http://crimsonride.ua.edu/shopping_route/ so you could shop for additional items once you arrive. There is also a shuttle to Target during Week of Welcome I believe.
^^^aeromom, thanks for the correction about the end of the year shuttles.
Calicash:
I will continue leaving out the option of driving, which if your parents had a reliable car, and were willing to do is a cost effective option for moving you and your stuff into the dorms.
However, As I mentioned Amtrak is very doable and can be very enjoyable if you look at the train ride as an adventure. You can take carry on luggage right into the train car with you but you can also take additional suitcases or boxes and have them checked on at Penn Station and taken directly off at Tuscaloosa. I have brought suitcases, coolers, shelving (properly wrapped) and had them checked in -see their website for info. Everything arrived safe and sound. I met interesting people, the train was clean and well air conditioned (take a small blanket) and like any mode of transport, remember to keep your valuables on your person. Your luggage will be taken off the train from the luggage car and brought right to the station house. You will need to carry off your own personal belongings, if you carry on items. Be prepared to do that. If you did need help, your conductor may be able to assist you to the door.
Be aware that in Tuscaloosa you dismount via stairs to the gound. In Penn station, you walk right onboard the train as onto the subway.
The cab ride from Tuscaloosa is about 5 minutes to the edge of campus and when I went the cost was about $8, remember to tip your driver (just like in NY).
This could well be your most economical way to initially come down to UA, if you book in advance, use a student discount card, and take extra luggage.
Flights if booked in advance can be a good price and if your parents take out a credit card with the airlines, your family can accumulate frequent flyer miles much more quickly and then you will probably have at least one or two free flights during your college years. Southwest often runs a promotion giving miles to join.
Join all the frequent flyer programs and book all your flights using your frequent flyer number in order to get your miles credited.
If you are flying, bringing a second piece of luggage can be very cost effective, even if you have to pay for that second checked bag. The cost of shipping a box from NY to Tuscaloosa will vary with the box size, but usually is about $1 a lb plus the cost of the box, packing and insurance. Boxes shipped on a Monday from NY will mostly arrive by Friday in Tuscaloosa. A 25lb box will cost approximately $40 - $50 depending on the physical dimensions of the box via UPS. Sometimes, it is cheaper to ship US Postal.
Note: SouthWest allows two free checked bags.
Shipping boxes ahead of time is the way to go. Sometimes one can also get discounts on UPS and FedEx shipping rates.
My advice would be to only pack the things you absolutely need and a few other small things. If you see something big that you like in NY, chances are that it or something similar will be available in Alabama as well. If you forget something, have your family mail/ship it down later when you decide that you might actually need it.
are you planning on moving down by yourself? It’s a lot easier to move down with a family member the first time so you can get a better feel for the area and have a rental car.
There will be a Bed, Bath and Beyond store opening in Tuscaloosa. You could shop online or at your local store and pickup in Tuscaloosa. The scheduled opening is late spring 2015. Of ourse you will have to get your items from the store to the dorm, but by then you may have made some friends with a car. (remember to chip in for gas). 
See here for the current ‘official’ UA off-campus transportation recommendations: http://housing.ua.edu/off_campus/transportation.cfm
<<<
Also, another concern I have is when it comes to transporting my things. I know there is no way i can for storage containers, school supplies, and clothing and dorm decorations in luggage with me and fly with them.
<<<
You’ll be buying a lot of things. The best is to order online and have them sent directly to UA. Or, you can order from Wal-Mart, Target, and BBB and pick up when you arrive.
Fly into BHM and rent a car. The car will be very helpful to buy stuff and move it in.
Follow up question to this thread, once you solve the problem of moving all the stuff down to TCL, what do you do with it over the summers? I can easily see getting the basics moved over in large suitcases and then buying stuff from Amazon, Bed Bath, etc but then you have the opposite problem over the summer, let’s say you buy a TV or something that’s impractical to transport back and forth.
Do people just rent storage for things like this?
Most people do rent storage, especially between their freshman and sophomore years. After that many have apartments so they don’t have to worry about moving in and moving out. We live 12 hours away. Since my son (now sons) want their guitars and bigger things home over break and they both are in dorms, we find it easier just to pick everything up.