<p>im a student, and im flying solo to Orientation-literally! haha but no, im actually very excited to go alone and cant wait to meet students and parents alike! any other students here going alone? im also arriving a day early because im coming from chicago...</p>
<p>To caliboi 1313: Make sure you have a place to stay or a reasonable flight back to Chicago when the orientation ends around 5 PM. This is one of the reasons my husband is going--I don't want my son flying back from LAX around 8 PM to the east coast (time zone change etc. makes it like flying all night--might not be as bad time wise to Chicago). Just want you to think about your flight time going back home.</p>
<p>i'm a student and i'm going alone too.. i kinda want one of my parents to go but it costs a lot and stuff =P</p>
<p>i'm flying to cali from ny the day before my orientation too.</p>
<p>Congrats wrd13 on the acceptance! </p>
<p>You (and others like caliboi1313) will be in good company at orientation. I think if it comes down to $/parents going to orientation: save it for a trip home for you!</p>
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i'm a student and i'm going alone too.. i kinda want one of my parents to go but it costs a lot and stuff =P</p>
<p>i'm flying to cali from ny the day before my orientation too.
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<p>Don't worry, you won't be the only one, my daughter will be there alone. In fact, she was about to go alone on ExploreUSC day, good thing I read this site and decided to come along. It was the best event from USC.</p>
<p>LAX is not too far from USC. I don't know what your arrangement is but I think you can easily take the shuttle from LAX to USC.</p>
<p>My concern is when the program ends and the kids have to get to LAX and fly home East arriving quite late. I am also not sure how to arrange a super shuttle from USC (perhaps from the Radisson?).</p>
<p>You can arrange to have a super-shuttle meet a passenger at any spot you designate. The front of the Radisson should work very well. Also, if the students take a non-stop red eye, they can get into an East Coast airport very early in the morning, having slept on the plane. They'll be stuck at LAX for a few hours, but this is definitely not dangerous or horrible. Also, I'm wondering if you can make arrangements for students to stay over on campus for one extra night so they can fly out in the a.m. Admissions has to have encountered this kind of problem before, and I wonder if they have some written material that makes it easier for parents to cope with the logistics. (I have a child who has flown red eye, non-stop from LA to New York as a teenager going solo, and it hasn't been a scary experience.)</p>
<p>I think you have to pay extra for the night before the Orientation so you probably have to pay extra for the day after. In front of the Radisson Hotel is an excellent suggestion. Airport shuttle knows the route from local hotel to the airport. </p>
<p>This is what I found googling for supershuttle fare from LAX to USC(2006 price)</p>
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Super Shuttle (310) 222-5500 Fare from LAX to USC: $13 per person ... by a short taxi ride from hotels located near the Staples Convention Center. ...
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<p>My impression is USC offered an additional night before the program begins because the program starts early in the morning. The program ends around 5 PM. Given the dinner time traffic in LA, coupled with the need to get to the airport early to go through security, the earliest plane I could envision is 8 PM or later. If you live in Arizona-Colorado, that is o.k. But, for the kids who fly to the East coast, it means arriving around 4-5 AM and parents getting to the airport to meet them extremely early in the morning or having a sleepy teenager get off the plane and get home on his/her own. I just think the return trip home needs to be thought out despite the additional expense of parent(s) meeting the child at USC and getting the info. USC wants to deliver to the parent(s) plus accompanying the child back East.</p>
<p>At first, we were going to send our son alone but after the discussion thread here was thought through, my husband decided to come to USC for the orientation.</p>
<p>mdcissp -- There's another way to do this that I really think could work if you live in a major city that has non-stop connections to Los Angeles. Kid leaves USC at 6:00 p.m., and even with pretty bad traffic, is at the airport by around 7:00. Kid goes through security and checks in. This could take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour. Hard to predict. Kid spends a couple of hours in the airport eating dinner and reading a book or doing something electronic. Kid boards an 11:00 non-stop flight at around 10:30 p.m. The kid sleeps on the flight, which takes about 5 hours getting to the east coast, which means it lands at 4 a.m. Calfornia time. But it's 3 hours later on the east coast, which means that the plane is actually arriving in the kid's home city at 7 a.m. EST. The kid deplanes and waits for luggage. Kid leaves the airport with parents before 7:45 a.m. only if the airline is miraculously efficient. The kid gets home and sleeps all morning. </p>
<p>If the parent wants to attend orientation, of course s/he should go. But if the primary reason the parent is attending is to facilitate the kid's transportation home, consider the above approach as a way less costly alternative.</p>
<p>Thank you Nester. My husband is also attending because the USC orientation material encourages parents to attend in order to receive relevant info. for parents to know. Since my son will be on the student part of the orientation, he was not sure if he could easily pick up the parent info. to bring home. Also, our experience over many years traveling between California and the East Coast is its best to fly before 12 noon (lunch time) between the coastal cities.</p>