<p>Some boarding school issues concern everyone on this board. Other subjects are more focused. Long distance families face their own specific set of challenges. There does not appear to be very much discussion on this subject (could well be my ineptitude as I am yet unskilled at navigating this site). I do see that GMTplus7 has raised the issues of how travel impacts school selection and minors flying solo. Distance from home can affect everything from campus visits and admission interviews to financial aid to what kids do for holidays and where. Perhaps those with questions and concerns might receive some tips and tricks from those with solutions. </p>
<p>A lot depends on whether you are international or not. If you are international, you’ll want to make sure you have an easy cab ride or school-provided transportation to a major international airport, like Dulles, JFK, or Newark. </p>
<p>Andover (and, I’m sure, many other New England BS) has transportation to and from Boston Logan Airport during the breaks. Also, for Thanksgiving, which may be too short a break to warrant students traveling across the country, it is easy to organize for a student to go home with a student who may live nearby. </p>
<p>Yes, many schools have transport plans to the airports. From a long distance POV, Andover is particularly attractive, being only forty miles from Logan. Of course it’s unlikely that access to airports is what’s on the minds of eager applicants and their school choices (if they are fortunate to have choices) will be based on many factors. Nevertheless schools that are closer to home have real advantages over those far away, Thanksgiving being one example. I was thinking more the other way around - the consequences of school proximity for parents to come for games and events, to connect with the teachers and be more involved overall.</p>
<p>Ease of reach, rather than nearness, might be more significant to some. I spoke recently with a Florida parent who has a daughter at Saint Timothy’s in Maryland. She (the parent) said that direct air connection was a big factor in their school selection decision. There are direct and not expensive flights from Fort Lauderdale to Baltimore and these have helped keep costs down and allow the parents to get to campus more often.</p>
<p>Another issue which comes up is how to “spend” your travel time when money is tight. There is a lot of discussion here about visiting schools to get a sense of “fit” before applying. But if your family is long distance and can’t afford initial school visits and also revisits after acceptance, how to choose? If families face an either/or, I know one AO who recommends no visiting until the student is accepted and then going to “revisits” before making a decision. </p>
<p>Similarly, long distance families face some issues with applicant interviews. Trying to book multiple school visits in one trip can result in exhausted kids facing on campus interviews after a lot of travel and little time to prepare for any particular school. The flip of this is interviewing off campus with regional reps or travelling AOs. Is there a measurable benefit to interviewing on campus? I suppose that is a subject for another thread, and most likely has been covered already. </p>
<p>I would try to save money for when it really matters- revisits and/or break travel. No doubt you will want to come up for the regional championship game where your kid is starting or for parent weekend, or your kid might want to take an amazing international trip. I think there is a real benefit to visiting/touring campus and interviewing there, but there are many people who receive acceptances from Skype or phone interviews. With that said, revisits are the decision-making visits, so making a connection with the AO over a Skype interview and follow-up emails probably wouldn’t matter as much as finding the right fit through a revisit. But, to give you freedom, balance the application process expenses with the reality of the expenses of attending a school.</p>
<p>Arrange for a host family for when there are short breaks your child cannot come home for- Thanksgiving and Easter are big ones. Your son/daughter can also make a good day student friend at school and see if (s)he can stay with them for a night or two. Place focus on schools within an hour’s drive of Bradley, Dulles, or Newark if you can- there are plentiful options. Another option is to have you come up for the short breaks- your child will have to be in classes before and following, but you might have more flexibility. You could come up and rent a house or stay in a hotel with your child. </p>
<p>No, Andover is NOT particularly attractive for long distance families; it is rather average for travel accessibility. There are many schools with closer access to BOS. And let’s not forget BDL. BDL is also a major player in the New England boarding school/college world. All boarding schools will provide assistance and/or shuttle service to airports and to major cities from where a lot of their kids hail (e.g., NYC, Boston).</p>
<p>But for int’l families, nothing matches JFK. Other int’l airports like BOS, IAD, EWR are not even a close 2nd place for int’l destinations/routes, airfares, schedule & choice for airlines. </p>
<p>Airline schedule is important, especially for asia families, because for east coast boarding school kids flying to asia, the problem is that a lot of BS dismiss students for break too late in the day to catch a flight to asia. Or the flights from asia arrive too late in the day to catch the school-organized transportation back to campus. This can mean having to ‘stage’ the night before the flight, or booking expensive private drivers. From the u.s. east coast, flights to europe are a piece-of-cake, schedule-wise: they depart from the u.s. in the evening, and arrive in the u.s. in the morning. You can reverse the whole asia/europe story for the u.s. west coast. We’ve lived in europe & in asia and have had to deal first hand w juggling airline schedules. </p>
<p>Airport destination/routes is especially important for the int’l younger kids (<15/16 yr old) who are required to buy the ‘unaccompanied minor service’. For these kids, the airlines will NOT allow your child to connect to a different carrier (e.g. kid cannot start out on American Airlines, then be handed over to Qatar Airlines). We’ve already been thru this headache during S1’s freshman year. </p>
<p>We are letting S2 decide after Revisits which school he wants to go to, but I am secretly rooting for the one closest to JFK.</p>
<p>Agincourt raises a good issue about long distance families for whom tuition/fees is already a financial stretch. The cost of travel for breaks and cost of travel/hotel/meals for Parent Weekends is substantial. </p>
<p>Student travel will be during peak holiday airfare times (thanksgiving, xmas/new years) Parent Weekends are going to be during peak hotel occupancy periods. </p>
<p>We are a West Coast family, and this has been a much bigger issue than I anticipated. The cost of flying him home from the nearest airport to his school is about 30% than from NY airports. Factor in the schedules and the fact than until next month, he is 14, and it’s been a headache. We are fortunate that my in-laws live in NY and he can go to their house a day early and then catch the bus back to school from Penn Station.</p>
<p>Another factor has been the school transportation. The school will get your child to the airport, but there may only be one bus, and you need to schedule flights around the bus time. We had a travel fiasco with the trip home for Spring Break - which cost us a big change fee and was a huge headache. </p>
<p>Our son went to school in California and we lived in DC at the time. There is the additional cost and the extra time devoted to the travel that needs to be factored in, but, all in all, the x-country commute worked well for four years. We were able to do direct DCA-LAX flights. Parents of local kids are always there to help if there is a travel snafu. The school made several runs to the airport, which was convenient. </p>
<p>The x-country experience was positive. The exposure to the different culture of the other coast was a huge plus. And it was always fun for Mom and Dad to travel from the East Coast to Southern California for visits, especially during the winter. Your child will become a seasoned traveler quickly.</p>
<p>Although i can get my daughter home very inexpensively via southwest airlines out of Baltimore, the cost of the school provided transport nearly doubles the cost. Seriously, i realize it’s an 1 1/2 hours away, but when you’ve got 30 kids on the school owned bus, do they each need to pay 75 dollars? I feel like im being gouged. </p>
<p>I hope, but dont know, that the school uses the huge profit it makes from this to underwrite the weekrnd trips to Baltimore and DC that only cost 5 bucks round trip (instead of 150 when you actually need it).</p>
<p>We love non-stop flights, and from our hometown there are 1-2 a day to/from Boston so that’s what we do. My son attends SPS. Manchester airport is closer to the school, but requires a plane change on any airline. For as long as Delta is offering the non-stop flight, that’s what we will have my son do. Interesting comment above about the Asian/international kids - they do have a long trip and I think this must be why SPS sends the school shuttle bus to Boston Logan airport at 5:30 am. This is awfully early for us, as my son’s non-stop flight leaves at 2:30 pm. I think it would be nice for the school to offer two shuttles, one for the early morning group and one that allows them to sleep a little and pack up. Sometimes we pay a driver to get him from school at around 11:30 am and this works, but it isn’t the most cost effective. I wish the school had an online message board so we could coordinate ride-sharing. I’m sure my son isn’t the only one with a later flight, and it would be much more affordable if he could split the $100 ride with a few others.<br>
We go out there for parents’ weekend and a similar weekend in the winter. It’s a lot of travel and expense. Our next child will be attending Culver Academy which is in our state - this will be much more convenient! </p>
<p>We live in Alabama and our D is in Interlochen,Michigan. Travel does get expensive. One consideration that hit us harder than I anticipated was coordinating travel for college music auditions. My D will not be 18 until May, we had to meet her because it is hard to find a hotel that will book for someone under 18. If your child is looking at colleges that require an audition or in-person interview, be sure to budget that in. The cost and time off of work associated with the college visits, prevented us from visiting her at school and attending performances. </p>
<p>Does anyone know what Andover charges for those trips to the airport?</p>
<p>At SPS, in a addition to break buses to the local airport in Manchester, NH and Logan in Boston, the school also arranges bus transportation to JFK airport (as well as stops in various points CT and NYC). Buses do leave very early AM. SPS also allows international students the option of returning a day early from breaks for international students to allow for travel flexibility and jetlag recovery. The school allows students to stay on campus for long weekend breaks and will help arrange stays with other SPS families for Thanksgiving breaks if needed.</p>