Commuting from Brown to Boston

<p>I'm a rising senior living in the Boston area and interested in staying nearby for college. I've visited Brown and it seems really nice, but I'm wondering how easy it would be to commute regularly between Brown and Boston. My boyfriend and all my friends will be staying in Boston, so I would visit a couple times per week. Is that feasible if I stick to public transportation? I know there's Peter Pan bus service and Commuter Rail service (as well as expensive Amtrak service), but is that a major hassle? </p>

<p>(FYI, I'm tied down to Boston, not Brown, so don't try to convince me that I could just stay in Providence most of the time. If I attend Brown, I would definitely come to Boston a lot.)</p>

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<p>Then don’t apply to Brown; apply to colleges in Boston instead.</p>

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<p>Rather silly reason to choose a college, as far as I’m concerned.</p>

<p>Public transport always involves some level of hassle, as opposed to jumping in your own car. By car, the commute is what, an hour? So add another 50% to that tho’ I have no info about the logistics of stations or tickets costs. My bigger question…it seems as tho’ your “heart” is in Boston, so why not just stay there? Can’t do much better as far as college towns go…and you’re def not doing Brown any favors by going to school there but not really having an interest in engaging in the college experience there.</p>

<p>Don’t apply to Brown. You’re not ready to leave your friends behind and go off on a new adventure yet. Apply to schools in Boston, live at home (it will save you money, anyway), and then apply to Brown for grad school, when you’ve grown up a bit and are ready to leave home.</p>

<p>Lots of kids feel the way you do. There’s nothing wrong with taking a gap year, either, if you’re still not sure what to do.</p>

<p>Apply to Brown, the odds against getting in are pretty high so I think you will waste a lot of time deciding whether to apply. APPLY. See what happens.
If you were to get into Brown, live on campus. Over time, you will have less and less time to visit Boston since you will get wrapped up in your courses and the wonderful student life that Brown has. But you can do it if you want to.
And your Boston friends can also come visit you…</p>

<p>It is unlikely Brown would permit you to live off campus your freshman year so you’ll be spending a lot of money on housing you are not using. If you want to commute, Wheaton would be a far better choice than Brown.</p>

<p>According to google Providence is ~1 hour away from Boston so if you wanted to visit once every 2 weeks it probably wouldn’t be too bad.</p>

<p>The commute is doable but you’d be bringing the wrong attitude to start your college experience if your heart is elsewhere. My recommendation is that you spend the next few months examining your heart and what you really want out of college. Try to understand why you are going to college in the first place. Its a very expensive proposition that should not be taken lightly.</p>

<p>Why Brown?</p>

<p>I don’t think the commute is doable. What are you going to do, go home in the afternoon for overnight then come back in the morning before class? Freshmen can’t have cars (and can’t live off campus.) You’d have to get a bus to the transit center in downtown (which I don’t recall operates as frequently as you might think) and then IDK low long the bus or train takes including wait times between transfers. You have to take into consideration the vagaries of public transportation reliability. Plus your travel from there to home. I can see managing frequent weekends at best.</p>

<p>It is not uncommon for students to study till midnight pretty much every weekday. I can’t see that your studies wouldn’t suffer with a couple nights a week ‘off’.</p>

<p>This is the worst of both worlds. You should not go to Brown unless you want to be there. And this does not represent wanting to be there. OK I’ll just say it, please don’t apply to Brown, this is just so wrong.</p>

<p>Run your question by the Brown forum if you like (at your own risk).</p>

<p>fyi Brown doesn’t give plus or minus grades, so you can’t get a possible edge for law school admissions that a weighted A+ can give (mentioned by a poster in another thread.)</p>

<p>Good luck with Harvard!</p>

<p>Commuting from Brown to Boston is not doable. Stick to Boston. You have several excellent options there, including Harvard, MIT, Tufts, Boston College and Wellesley. Apply to Brown anyway, as your personal situation may have changed in one year. You may no longer be with your boyfriend at that time. But if you are still attached to the relationship then, stay in Boston.</p>

<p>I used to commute from Cambridge to Providence using public transit to visit my gf at the time. I only did it on the occasional weekend and it was definitey a hassle.</p>

<p>Everybody is so negative, Sheesh. </p>

<p>I think going to Brown will be fine and you will be able to maintain your Boston relationships. Expect your bf to visit you sometimes too. I’m guessing it will be mostly on weekends though. You’re going to have to work pretty hard there and taking off to Boston midweek is going to be time consuming. </p>

<p>My brother-in-law and sister-in-law were high school sweethearts and endured a lot more distance. They made it work.</p>

<p>Also, most colleges have ride boards, which would save you time and money.</p>

<p>You can probably get into BC or Tufts if you got into Brown. Might be easier.</p>

<p>I agree about the negativity ClassicRocker although I still strongly suggest that OP spends the next several months reflecting about what she wants out of college. That will help her decide whether Brown is worth it or whether Boston is more suitable.</p>

<p>I can’t remember but I’m pretty sure there’s a Boston-Providence bus line out of south station. Really, its not that far (a tad under an hour) but regular mid-week visits are not a great idea. If it comes down to wanting to maintain a relationship, weekend visits in both directions along with the occasional hometown visit would be the best course IMO.</p>

<p>CRDad:</p>

<p>you have changed the OP’s question to fit your response. The OP clearly said that she wants to “visit [Boston] a couple times per week…”, not just on “weekends”. For whatever reason, she and her bf do not want to be apart. (Awful reason to choose a college, IMO, but she didn’t ask us to comment on that aspect.) Thus, Brown will not/cannot work.</p>

<p>Public transit between Providence and Boston isn’t too bad, but as a student at a high-powered college it’s not something you’d want to do daily or even a “couple times per week.” The Peter Pan bus is scheduled for 1 hr. 15 min. and costs $8 each way, but when traffic is heavy around Boston it often runs late. An added complication: the main Peter Pan bus terminal isn’t in downtown Providence, it’s on the north end of town near I-95. Most of the buses to/from Boston’s South Station start from/end there; only a few stop in downtown Providence. So it’s a bit of a hassle to get out to the bus station. Then, of course, there’s additional travel time from South Station to wherever you’re going in Boston. All told, the trip is likely to take 2 and a half hours or so door-to-door in each direction.</p>

<p>Another option is the MBTA commuter rail service between downtown Providence and South Station in Boston. That’s also scheduled for about 1 hr 15 min, but it costs $10 each way. It’s easier to get to the train station from the Brown campus–about a 15 minute walk, but you’ll still have additional travel time between South Station and your destination in Boston, so you’re still looking at 2 hrs +/- door-to-door in each direction. That’s a lot of travel time. The other problem with commuter rail is that it really is designed for commuters; service is somewhat infrequent mid-day, after the evening rush, and on weekends.</p>

<p>I think what’s realistic without interfering with your studies and on-campus life is an occasional trip to Boston, maybe once a month or so, plus holidays and school breaks which add up to a lot of time. (In a typical academic calendar, you’re only at school around 32 weeks or so). If you need to be in Boston more than that, you should look at schools in/near Boston, and perhaps look at less high-powered schools than Brown because it suggests your social life is going to take precedence over your studies.</p>

<p>It’s not negativity, it’s reality. The idea of planning to travel home from college several times a week, 2-3 hours round trip, is somewhere between not realistic and downright foolish. And what for? To go to Brown? Great school, but there’s nothing at Brown that you won’t find in Boston. OP’s FYI sums it up. She is tied to Boston. If that’s the case, forget about Brown. </p>

<p>Side note, if you’re going to stay with all your old friends and not move on with your life, you’re missing out on the best part of college.</p>

<p>I think we should defer this discussion until the OP **gets into ** Brown. With an acceptance rate of 9%, the odds are stacked against him or her.
OP - lets revisit this after you get your acceptances. We can help you figure out which schools you get into and can afford will allow you to maintain your Boston connections.
Also, what other schools are you considering?</p>