Travel and CA schools

<p>Looking into travel between various CA schools to Newark, NJ. Direct flights preferred (Newark is notorious for delayed flights) which rules out San Jose. Santa Clara's website mentions BART as a way to get to San Francisco airport. Can anyone fill me in on BART-ease of use from SCU, travel time, etc? </p>

<p>Also looks like LAX and John Wayne airport have direct flights to Newark, but not San Diego. </p>

<p>D2 is a Jr. starting to investigate schools and is intent on warm weather (limits the pool). She's reading up on Santa Clara. Looking for min 5K student body (although 10K-25K ideal) with easy going, down-to-earth kids. School spirit and active campus life that's not dominated by Greek life. Undecided major. Fit over rankings. Any other suggestions welcome!</p>

<p>While direct flights might be preferred, there is a free shuttle bus from the Caltrain station across the street from Santa Clara that goes directly to San Jose airport. Otherwise it’s Caltrain to BART to SFO, about an hour.
Suggestions to look at: USD, Santa Clara, LMU, USF, St. Mary’s, Claremont Colleges, Redlands. If she wants a bigger school then you’re looking at at UC or CSU schools (USC - active Greek life?).</p>

<p>Thanks sarsfield! An hour to SFO is do-able. Thanks for your other school suggestions. Do you know which, if any, have sports that the kids pack the stands? I know from a little research LMU and SCU have basketball. Are they well-attended and is there a buzz around the games? D. is looking for some athletic events to cheer on. I’m positive she doesn’t have the stats for UCLA (esp. OOS) or USC which have some great games to attend. I didn’t see any mid-tier or lower-tier UC’s that had bigger sports atmospheres? So far she likes UMiami which covers warm weather/sports/academics.</p>

<p>Bart doesn’t go south to Santa Clara, and Caltrain doesn’t pass through SFO, so you will need to take multiple modes of transportation to get between SFO and SCU.</p>

<p>And it definitely takes longer than an hour for the whole trip one way, especially if you have to wait even just a couple minutes between transfers of Caltrain/BART/city bus - closer to 2 hours than 1 hour.</p>

<p>For example, the Caltrain schedule leaves the Santa Clara station (which is right near SCU) and doesn’t arrive at the San Bruno or Millbrae stations until 50 to 60 minutes later (ex. leaves SC at 9:15am arrives at Millbrae at 10:13 or San Bruno at 10:17). Then you’d have to take the city bus, taxi, or BART Pittsburgh/Bay Point line into SFO - easily another 20 - 30 minutes according to the BART website of real time departures from Millbrae or San Bruno going to SF Airport. You can drive your own vehicle in 40 minutes though!</p>

<p>Caltrain does have “limited stop” service and “Baby Bullet” trains, but they don’t look any better on timing. The “limited stops” takes ~50 minutes from my same example above and the “Baby Bullets” don’t even stop/depart at Santa Clara station. You would need to get to the SJ station downtown, near the SAP Center (the old HP Pavillion) to take one of those, possibly adding to travel time.</p>

<p>As for other schools: I second LMU and USF. USF will be the easiest to get to SFO, plus it’s a very nice campus if your D is into the city atmosphere. I’d also second St. Mary’s in Moraga. The Orinda BART station isn’t too far from campus and it’s a direct shot to SFO from there - although about 2 hours since you’d be coming from the other side of the bay.</p>

<p>Best of luck.</p>

<p>Thanks for the detailed info Turtlerock!</p>