<p>I am a high school incoming senior interested in going to Penn, but I am and hope to continue to be heavily involved in an organization that is based around NYC (I live near there now). This is a prime extracurricular of mine and I refuse to give it up, even if I go to Penn. So is it doable to go up to NYC a lot for meetings, etc. (say a few times a month, including weekday evenings) and still attend Penn without spending too much time or money on transporation? Will I have time/will this be practical? Consider also all the additonal time/money spent on taxis and getting from the station to where I need to be in NYC and back to campus</p>
<p>There are commuter trains and busses on a regular basis between Philly and NYC. The busses leave from 30th St station (train station).</p>
<p>Might be very difficult to keep up with Penn classes if you spend a lot of time in NYC and not studying.</p>
<p>You can travel between Philadelphia and New York City at about half the cost of Amtrak by using SEPTA to Trenton and then taking New Jersey Transit to NYC. It will be a longer trip though. Can you use NYC public transit rather than a taxi once there?</p>
<p>Weekday evenings may be tough on either time (bus) or money (Acela train) but there are lots of buses and trains between Philly and NYC. Back in the day, there were even buses picking up from West Philly, not that 30th Street Station is that far away. Traveling a few times a month is easy.</p>
<p>If you have to go on weekdays, it probably wouldn’t work out too well. A bus would take 2 hours each way just in travel, so unless you do schoolwork while on the bus, you’d likely fall behind.</p>
<p>Solution: go to NYU or Columbia.</p>
<p>These days, the predominant way for Penn students to travel to NYC is via the Bolt Bus or Megabus. They both leave from 30th Street Station, a few blocks from Penn’s campus, and drop you at Penn Station in Manhattan 2 hours later. And the cost is, AT MOST, $10 (and you can get even cheaper fares if you make an on-line reservation sufficiently in advance). Google those two names if you want to visit their sites and learn more.</p>
<p>So depending on where you need to be in NYC, the entire trip door-to-door could easily be at least 3 hours. The frequency of your trips, as well as the efficiency of your study habits, would determine how feasible it would be for you to be a student at Penn while regularly traveling to NYC.</p>
<p>You can get to NYC, but you will be giving up a lot of your college life both academically and socially in order to do so. Over time, the cost would add up as well, even with the les expensive bus services. I would suggest that you consider looking for an equally meaningful activity in Philadelphia (perhaps the organization you work with now would have some ideas) or look at schools which are located in NYC such as Columbia or Barnard (if you are female).</p>