I am a prospective international student, and I’m currently considering applying to Amherst for ED. I love everything about the College (especially its need-blind policy to intl. students!) but one thing that concerns me is the transportation to/from major airports in Boston & New York. For current international students: is this connection easy? How long does it take to reach either JFK or Logan? Are there easy and quick train or other PT connections? (Google maps says 8 hours!) Do Amherst students visit Boston, NYC, or other cities nearby frequently? Thank you!
I’m not an international student, but I do attend Amherst, so hopefully I can answer a few of your questions. Last year, I visited Boston twice and NYC once. Most students take the peter pan bus. It’s ~$40 to NYC, and ~$30 to Boston. Usually, the trip to and from Boston takes 5 hours by Peter Pan, but that does include 2 transfers, which can get annoying. You can find exact details by looking up Peter Pan bus on google, and then entering Amherst Center and Boston Logan Airport as destinations, and so on for NYC as well. Most students fly in to either Bradley airport in Hartford, CT or Logan airport in Boston.
Going to NYC or Boston for the weekend via the Peter Pan college express has no stops, only runs Friday and Sunday I think. There’s also Amtrak to NYC, my D took it last year when she got stuck in NYC during the big blizzard and buses couldn’t run.
There’s also Uber (pretty cheap if you share) and Valley Transporter (about $60pp) for getting to the airport in Hartford which is the closest one (45 minutes).
The college runs free shuttles to Boston and NYC and the airport in Hartford at breaks, good option if the schedules work for you. D also did that one time, had to wait at the airport like an extra hour but hey it was free.
Thanks for the responses! Do a lot of people tend to drive to Boston over the holidays and is carpooling popular/a possibility? Also, @ OHMomof2, do you know where I can find information about these shuttles or does the college provide that only to students? Thanks!
From last spring: https://www.amherst.edu/campuslife/aas/transport/shuttle - that should give you an idea but they are announced to students via email. Often on the web too but obviously the audience for these announcements is current students.
My D just spent the last weekend in Boston with two of her friends. The Coilege actually allows you to borrow from its fleet of cars for trips like that.
As far as flying in, we have found that Hartford is more convenient than Boston, but Boston will work in a pinch.