<p>I'm an international student (senior) from British Columbia, Canada. I am trying to decide between two schools on where to attend in the fall : Penn's dual degree program in Wharton and Engineering, and Harvard. </p>
<p>I've decided to visit penn and attend the M&T (Management and Technology) day on the 15th. So my mother has bought tickets for me to arrive Philly on the 14th evening and returning from philly on the 17th at noon (tickets from Boston to Van is sold out :(). I am also planning on visiting boston while at philli. Does anyone know how i can get to Boston (Cambridge) from philly and back to catch my plane on the 17th? I can leave philly anytime after the evening of the 15th and i have to be back by noon on the 17th.</p>
<p>any travel advice would be very much appreciated. I'd also want to get the tickets back to philly ahead of time so i can be sure that i'll catch the plane.</p>
<p>Thanks,</p>
<p>P.S. if you have any comments regarding penn MT and Harvard, please share it with me as it might help me in making a sound decision. I am not 100% sure that i will be going into business but it is likely (80% chance), since i'm strong in economics, math, and the physical sciences...</p>
<p>You don't have much time for traveling back and forth! Normally Philly to Boston is about 6 hours by car. I suggest you take Amtrak and travel at night. I believe there is a train leaving Philly at 12:30 and arriving some time around 8:30 am, and the same going back. That would leave you the whole of April 16 to tour Harvard.<br>
If you take the train, it will arrive at South Station. From South Station, you can get to Harvard Square by subway. The Red Line goes directly from South Station to Harvard Square. It costs $1.25 per trip.</p>
<p>Make sure to contact the people you would want to see ahead of time to make optimal use of your time at both places. Good luck choosing. Honestly, you can't go wrong at either place, but if you're not absolutely sure you want to study business, find out more about the Wharton requirements.</p>
<p>check into the Student Advantage (or something like that) program at Amtrak. I believe there is an annual fee, but you may save enough on fare to more than pay for the membership. </p>
<p>Also, make sure you take an Acela train -- usually a little more expensive, but a much more pleasant ride than on the older, standard trains. Also a little faster.</p>
<p>I don't know what kind of fares are available on short notice, but airfare between Philly and Boston is just as cheap, if not cheaper than Amtrak. Check out Travelocity, Expedia, etc. Also check out Airtran. We can usually get round trip in the $120 range.</p>
<p>Even cheaper from Manchester, NH. Southwest has $29 one-way fares.</p>
<p>It's only about a 60 minute flight. </p>
<p>There's direct train service from the University Center station at UPENN to the Phila airport terminals -- only a 10 or 15 minute train ride.</p>
<p>This may sound really strange, but check into the Chinese busses. They run up and down the east coast between Chinatowns. S and his roommate have used them several times. S went from NY to Phila and the roommate went from NY to Boston. The fare is about $10 one way. S said it was fine- a regular coach bus. Google Chinese busses.</p>
<p>Greyhound has been trying to compete with the Chinese buses and it has a better track record of maintenance. S has gone to NYC on the Chinatown bus (which now costs $15) with no problem; but there was a reported incident of a bus catching fire recently and pretty much stranding the passengers for several hours. I believe that Greyhound's fare might be quite competitive.</p>
<p>I am trying to think of ways to make use of the night-time so that daytime can be used for visits. Although the flight from Philly to Boston is only 1 hour, you have to factor in check-in time and getting to and from the airport as well.</p>
<p>Amtrak is a bit too expensive. around 82 dollars one way.. i also googled up chinese buses, they only go fom NYC to Boston (great news for later, as i will be visiting friends from Columbia), but it does not go to philly.</p>
<p>i'm trying to go as cheap as possible. And if it is too expensive, this trip to boston is not necessary. I just thought it would be nice for me to visit cambridge as well if i have time.</p>
<p>I don't know if i did this right, but checking Greyhound, it takes 21h, 45m to get to Boston. =O</p>
<p>Yep. We routinely beat the $80+ one-way Amtrak fare flying our D between Boston and Phila. Airport transportation is fast between UPenn and the Phila airport. It's not terrible from Logan Airport in Boston to Cambridge, but it does require changing subway lines at least one, maybe twice.</p>
<p>There are Chinatown buses from the Market Street East station in downtown Phila to NYC. Then, you would transfer to a NYC-Boston bus. But, it's a long drive. Minimum 8 hours, I figure, possibly more. That would really not be the ideal way to do Phila-Boston-Phila. when there are $59 one-way air fares.</p>
<p>Did you try Southwest: Phil - Providence? Southwest isn't listed on Expedia or Orbitz is it? I'm assuming you can get transportation from Providence to Boston but perhaps that's not doable. The only reason I mention it is Southwest often has a (funny) commercial about people trying out their Boston accents before flying there from Phil and implies that Providence = Boston. My daughter did a round trip flight last summer for less then $100!</p>