Wondering if someone with experience traveling to Worcester Poly from out of state, could shed some light on transportation options for students.
My daughter is very interested in WPI and we’re looking for best options from South Carolina. Searching online, looks like driving from Logan is the most common way, but of course she’ll not have a car or be able to rent one as an under 25yo. Sad to think maybe it’s just not a feasible location.
We’re planning a campus visit soon and would like to test out the route she would take.
We drove from Logan when we visited. For attending students who don’t have cars and can’t rent, there are other options. Great school. Best of luck to your student.
Thank you
I guess without a car, Silver Line from Logan to South Station, and then commuter train to Union. Two hours minimum… would be fun the first two or three trips
My daughter just landed in Charlotte from NJ, and will be getting on a 2+ hour shuttle to Clemson, she really doesn’t mind, she will only come home a handful of times. She’s driving back with others for winter break.
In addition to other good solutions mentioned by others, she could just take a cab from Logan to WPI.
In some cases it might be possible to share a ride with others. However, in a pinch it would be reasonable to just pay for the cab herself. We have paid for slightly longer cab rides in similar cases where other options did not work out. It was really not a problem.
What we found was that schools had shuttle options, Lyft, Uber, etc and maybe some freshmen used them, but once the student is established at the school they get rides from their friends. My daughter had about an hour commute from her school to the Orlando airport and she always had a friend who would drive her for about $20. The shuttle was about $60 but less if you had several friends to share one (which of course required similar travel time plans).
We looked at one school and we drove about 6 hours to get there, so I asked “How do people GET here?” It was about 45 minutes to an airport (but not a major one) so I was told someone would always give her a ride. We eliminated that school for a lot of reasons but getting there did seem to be an issue. Getting to WPI from Logan would not be much of a problem. Several colleges in Worcester so I’m sure there are shuttles and ride shares all the time into Boston.
Thanks all for sharing your experiences and suggestions.
Very encouraging!
If it turns out to be the right school, the logistics will follow in good time…
We toured WPI a few weeks ago and rented a car from Logan; had the same concerns about getting to campus alone. I think the idea about getting rides from friends is great, but note that WPI does not allow freshmen to have cars on campus so your student would need to befriend some sophomores, juniors, and/or seniors if they want to try that option during their first year.
A thousand years ago when I attended WPI, I found my ride-share (upperclassman) on some WPI bulletin board. I’d pay for gas, he’d drive the 6-7hours, and we chatted. It made the time fly.
People from Worcester fly out of Logan all the time. I’m sure if you called WPI directly you’d get some really good options. They might even do a shuttle for major breaks.
There is an airport in Worcester. Flies direct to JFK and other cities. You can fly to SC with one stop in NYC. Also, the airport in Worcester is just an inexpensive uber ride from WPI.
Sidenote - it is an amazing school and well worth the effort to get there. Our daughter graduated in 2020.
My daughter took a shuttle from Logan airport to the WPI campus. I think we learned about it on the WPI website. She would provide her flight number and time of landing. I think there was a choice of a ride share, which is cheaper but you have to wait for others who signed up for same shuttle, or you can be driven solo.
