<p>Regarding public transportation in Texas, plane or bus would be about the only options. Within each city - Houston, Austin, San Antonio - the public trans options are very limited. I’d recommend renting a car with a GPS. Traveling between Houston, Austin/Georgetown and San Antonio is pretty easy, mostly highway driving, and it is pretty easy to get to each campus once you are in their respective cities.</p>
<p>The OP was wondering about travel options for her high school student should he go to Texas alone. Renting a car would not be an option. Most places will not rent to someone under 25 without a significant surcharge. Car rentals to high school students are unheard of.</p>
<p>Thanks for setting me straight, Thumper. </p>
<p>The preferred mode of transportation in Texas is by car, hence my suggestion regarding renting a car, which would be the easiest and most time-efficient option. Public transportation options are not the state’s strong suit. That said, there is bus, plane and also (I forgot) Amtrak service between the three cities mentioned. </p>
<p>In Houston, there is a light rail train that runs between the bus station and Rice. The light rail does not go directly to the Amtrak station, so getting to and from the Amtrak station from Rice would involve taking a bus or a cab (at least part of the way). Regarding transportation to and from the Houston airports, there is a reasonably priced bus service, in addition to the standard shuttles, etc. </p>
<p>Both bus and train stations are centrally located in San Antonio, and one can get to Trinity via bus or reasonably priced cab ride. Bus and train stations are also located in downtown Austin, but I am not aware of public trans options to Georgetown, which is about 30-45 minutes outside of Austin. </p>
<p>Hope this helps.</p>
<p>The best I can think of is Amtrak between Austin and SA, but I believe he could take Greyhound between any of them. If he can fly Southwest , my plan would be fly to Austin to visit SW, Greyhound to SA to visit SA, Greyhound to visit Houston, or the reverse, or if he is really into flying, he can fly into all three. The least convenient of the three to get to is Southwestern. Got to go. Hockey game into OT.</p>
<p>puma 12- Travel between the 3 Texas colleges is infinitely easier, time efficient, and affordable in a car.
If you send your S alone, the safest, least time consuming, but expensive option is flying into each city and taking a cab/super shuttle to each campus.
Trinity U is a 10 minute cab ride from SA Airport on the McAllister Frwy towards Downtown.</p>
<p>I would highly recommend having a high school-age kid flying Southwest between Houston and San Antonio/Austin over traveling by bus (for safety and convenience).</p>
<p>The smaller schools may offer evaluative interviews (which can be a way of showing interest) but they may not begin offering them until May or June. Check their websites----that may weigh in favor of one trip or the other at spring break.</p>
<p>OK - we were afraid of this - ya’ll have confirmed our fear that a 17 y/o going alone to try and visit Rice, Southwestern, and Trinity doesn’t really work due to transportation issues adding alot of expense. Those may end up being places to visit if admission and financial package make it feasible.
BUT we are forging ahead with the Cali plan - thanks for the PM’s on routing, etc.
Further comments are welcome.</p>
<p>Does anyone know if Trinity, southwestern, or rice put alot of stock in interest shown by a visit?</p>
<p>puma- Is there an aunt, uncle, grandparent that can drive your S around Texas to visit the schools?
They are three very different schools in very different settings.</p>
<p>puma, my twin Ds were both accepted at TU last year. The D with the attractive Merit Package had a similar GPA to your boys but not as shiney SATs. The other d had a 3.7w and a 26 ACT. They had interviews in Sacramento with the dean of admissions during their Junior year although at the time she wasn’t the dean but the Northern CA rep. She seemed genuinely impressed that they had gone out of their way to meet her (it was a 4 hour round trip) </p>
<p>I think with your S’s stats that there are other ways to show genuine interest which which will count just as heavily as a visit though they do consider demonstrated interested there is more than one way to skin that cat.</p>
<p>If you’re driving down through California and already have two Catholic colleges on your list, why not consider another good Jesuit university – University of San Francisco (USF)? It’s slightly larger than your son is looking for, with about 5,100 undergraduates, but it’s a pretty campus in a beautiful city.</p>
<p>As to the Texas universities, Rice does take into consideration interest of applicants. Visiting is a great way to show it. Given that Rice is significantly more difficult to get into than Trinity or Southwestern, if your son was going to visit any of them, I would suggest Rice.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t suggest Rice if the student wants a business major.</p>
<p>We did a Spring break tour last year - 4 colleges in 5 days. I thought this was optimum, because it allowed time to do all the activities on each campus and explore the surrounding area. By the 4th college, S2 was starting to get them mixed up. So I don’t recommend trying to cram too many into one trip. </p>
<p>Web-sites are a great way to narrow down the list. I told my son he had to pick the region of the country he wanted to visit, and then we would plan the trip. We did other visits during summer vacation, and scheduled one weekend visit in the fall.</p>
<p>You have a good list of options. I would also make sure you have a good mix of reaches, matches, and safeties, including a financial safety. The visits will help them feel comfortable with the safeties.</p>
<p>(I agree with the comments about lack of public transportation in Texas. It would be difficult for a 17 yr old to travel alone to 3 cities.)</p>
<p>I know a lot of people who are Trinity grads and/or have kids that go there - it’s a great school, and I know they have merit money.</p>
<p>When the Rice admissions rep came to our city, he made it pretty clear that making the 2000 mile trip to visit Rice would be beneficial for an applicant. As he put it, “Continental flies six non-stops a day from here to Houston!”</p>