<p>When I was a sophomore I travelled all over Europe with a backpack and a train pass. I can’t believe I survived. Best time of my life. Hopefully our kids are smart enough to stay out of iffy situations. Not much I will be able to do from 3,000 miles away. Scary that Halflokum’s D was so sick. Must have been awful to be so far away and not able to help her.</p>
<p>OneToughMommy - I’m from NYC, born and bred my whole life (except college). That means I lived in the city during the 60’s-80’s, it’s darkest times. I don’t scare easily but I will not allow my kids to take those buses. If you can’t spring for the extra dollars to take licensed, legitimate, safe transportation you can’t afford to go. My information comes from the newspapers, right or wrong. </p>
<p>Everyone has their comfort levels and things that go bump in the night, one of mine is the cheap bus companies. I have no problem with my kids riding the subways at all hours of the night (much safer than when I did it), I think the city is incredibly safe, especially if you’re not stupid. But I won’t let my kids ride those buses. To each his/her own.</p>
<p>What is a bolt bus anyway asks the rural chick??? Maybe I should change my online name to rural chick, redneck babe, I don’t know. Although I’m not a proper redneck. More like a GreenAcres city chick :)</p>
<p>and for the record, I know how to handle any subway system too :)</p>
<p>Boltbus is a joint venture between Greyhound and Peter Pan bus lines in the Northeast (servicing the I-95 corridor) and is owned directly by Greyhound in the West (servicing I-5). The service was created to compete with the Chinatown bus lines which have had two fatal accidents. I’ve never taken the Chinatown busses and yes, I’d probably pass on those because there is an inexpensive alternative that I’m comfortable with. You can read about Boltbus in Wikipedia for more info if you want it. [BoltBus</a> - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BoltBus]BoltBus”>BoltBus - Wikipedia) If you live in the middle of the country, you would have no reason to know Boltbus.</p>
<p>Yep. peter pan does not have great safety record either. But this is good to know and I will need to know about boltbus by next year!!! Yeah, the Chinatown buses are scary, would not use those. But on foggy mornings in the mountains, not sure anyone is safe bus or not. The fog can get quite bad and a lot of the truck/bus accidents that make national news happen on a mountain on a foggy morning. Or on snow and ice… Not to scare everyone; it’s just northern roads can get treacherous at times.</p>
<p>and lest I scare everyone, kids will not have these issues in NYC or Boston. I’m talking about the interstate highways that are out in the country. Say kid is travelling from Chicago to NYC</p>
<p>You make a great point rural chick. 
Whatever the safety records are of Bolt Bus, I would bet the serious injury and/or fatality risk for a teenager riding on one of those buses on the east coast would be much lower than the injury and/or fatality risk of the rural kid driving home from college 2-3 hours. I’m familiar with both rural and city having grown up in Wisconsin and now living in NJ.</p>
<p>oh totally agreed Acting Dad. Kid is much safer on bus, at least if the bus company invests enough money to hire quality drivers and maintains buses adequately. I was very lucky to not be in bad accident when i first hit one of those fogs myself. they are bad… and you’d know all about icy roads too 
But even some experienced drivers can’t avoid all accidents. And some trucks on the road are NUTS which makes it all the more worse for our kids when they are driving. The bus drivers would have a lot more experience dealing with idiot truckers. Had one idiot cut my kid off when he still had a permit. How the kid managed to avoid having an accident was beyond me…</p>
<p>Are there schools who don’t send decisions until April?</p>
<p>We waited until April 7th to hear from Syracuse last year (fourth wave, lucky us). Also NYU is quite late, I think.</p>
<p>bisouu, many schools don’t send decisions until April. You have until May 1 to reply. There was a bit of a controversy last year when some schools pressured people to accept before the May 1 deadline. I guess we’ll see what happens this year.</p>
<p>We actually had to decline a school because they would not give us the May 1 deadline, and it was not the school, but the department. I think after their initial acceptance mailing, they sent out subsequent acceptances based on finding out who was not coming. And since last year was a bulge year for many programs, I expect they will be doing the same this year.</p>