<p>Hello Notre Dame Parents & students! My dd has been accepted to ND EA as a ND scholar & we are so proud of her! She is very, very excited, but alas we must wait and see about the financial situation. There are probably hundreds of questions and issues I'd like to discuss, but the first question I have is what is the best way for a student get to ND from the New York metro area? Do they fly into Chicago? South Bend? Take a train? How does one get to ND from the airport? Bus? Cab? Car Service? Does ND provide transportation to and from the airport for the students? I'd be particularly interested in hearing from parents with daughters. Do you let them travel alone? I worry when my dd has to drive a few miles from home so this is not going to be easy! LOL!! Thank you in advance for any insight into this issue.</p>
<p>NYmama-Congrats! I have a soph son who travels south via the South
Bend airport. I can attest that up to this point he has had no problems flying in and out of the SB airport. He flies to Atlanta and then changes for a connecting flight. He has used a cab service each time and has had no problems with cabs either. He does not have a car at school, by the way, and probably won't have one(maybe his senior year)! Hope that helps you a little bit with regard to transportation and South Bend airport.</p>
<p>I live in Yonkers, I'm a sophomore at ND, and I've taken probably every permutation of travel from home to school and back except hot air balloon. </p>
<p>My favorite combination is flying out of White Plains airport to South Bend. It requires a layover, they don't fly direct, but that's still better. No airport in the NY Metro area flies direct to SB, so you would need to fly to Chicago. White Plains to SB usually stops in Cleveland, but I've also had layovers in Chicago.</p>
<p>You could also fly to Chicago and take the bus. I hate the bus. I despise it. It's my least favorite thing to do in the world. The bus is slow, it's cramped, and it can take up to 3 and a half hours on a really bad day. It costs 37 dollars one way. If you're taking the bus, fly into Midway. It's easier to get from the baggage claim to the bus stop than O'Hare.</p>
<p>Direct to SB, however, while it may seem much more expensive than to Chicago + bus, usually only costs 30-50 dollars more, because of the cost of the bus. </p>
<p>I've also taken the train. My advice? Don't take the train.</p>
<p>If you are visiting with her, I'd recommend flying into Midway (avoid O' Hare like the plague) and renting a car. If she ends up going there, you can do the same when you take her to campus. </p>
<p>If it's just her, you'll have to try different permutations on Expedia to see if it's better to fly into S. Bend or Chicago. The advantage for us to just going to Chicago and busing it is that we can get a direct flight to Midway which cuts down the odds of something going wrong by half. We are on the west coast so the only direct flights for us to that part of the country are to Chicago, so flying to S. Bend would result in an O'Hare stop for us. We have never, not once, had things go smoothly when using O'Hare.--that's why we just have her bus it from Midway.</p>
<p>I think it is worth going on the visit with her--you'll get a better sense of what the school is like. Definitely plan on helping her get her stuff there--most people drive from the east coast as hauling all that stuff is easier than flying unless you are traveling a vast distance. </p>
<p>Once she's settled, she can absolutely get back and forth alone--part of college is figuring that stuff out. </p>
<p>Southwest flies in and out of Midway and they are fine.</p>
<p>Wow, the whole Chicago airport mess makes me glad I live a two and a half hour drive away. Once I'm out of my driveway, it's literally 7 turns until I'm in an ND parking lot.</p>
<p>Handyandy, it's not many more for me, haha. I get on 80 at the George Washington Bridge, I get off 80 and ND.</p>
<p>Exactly. I-80 is the ultimate road.</p>