<p>linnylu: Do not allow the distance between T-Town and the airport in Birmingham to be a reason to worry about a return to campus. Kids become very resourceful. For example, two years ago when my son was returning to school, his flight got in very early. He had booked the shuttle to go to campus, but instead of waiting for four hours, he called one of his roommates to see if he had left his home near Huntsville. Turns out that this young man was about 40 minutes from the airport and said he would swing by and pick up my son. Last year, when we found that flights were outrageous in cost from BHM to the DC area, I contacted a mom through CC and asked if she would drop off/pick up my son at the airport at Huntsville. She was delighted to do me the favor. </p>
<p>My son started college as a freshman who had flown just four times in his life. He did not like flying. Now, he’s been to American Samoa and back, slept in airports in LA and SF because of seven-hour layovers, had his luggage lost not only but twice, gone to Costa Rica twice with other UA students and spent all last summer studying abroad in Belgium (with lots of stops in between). He’ll return to American Samoa this summer for an internship with NOAA. Sure, we worry about him. He has learned to deal with so many situations and circumstances, but this will prepare him for life after school.</p>
<p>Flying can be a fun adventure if one is open to meeting new people and seeing different airports. As was stated previously, I really enjoy flying and consider it more of a perk than anything else. Can flying be stressful? Yes. Does one sometimes have to fly when tired or otherwise not feeling 100%? Yes. Do the positives outweigh any negatives? Very much so.</p>
<p>My DS seems to have those classes/exams that make the best flight (read “prices”) not fall in line with UA shuttle so he usually finds himself on E-shuttle. I agree with AL34 they are friendly and try to get travelers grouped so they get the discounted fare (doesn’t matter if they didn’t book together). </p>
<p>This break we also found that another option is taxi services(thank you Rose808 DD). He shared coming home, and on return he was solo (since he rtnd yesterday) at $65. (Tony’s current prices - $65 for one person one way $45 for two per, $35 for three people or more.)</p>
<p>My son rarely uses the shuttle service, he arranges to have a friend pick up him up or drop him off. He then buys dinner for the driver and pays for gas.</p>
<p>Most students will make travel arrangements with students who have the same finals schedule and are traveling in the same general direction.</p>
<p>^^^Ditto for my son, robotbldmom. He frequently shuttles to and from BHM with friends who live in Birmingham. Over this past winter break he hitched a ride to the airport with a friend who lives in Tennessee and who was more than willing to swing by BHM in both directions in exchange for gas money, companionship, and a meal.</p>
<p>Living in Hawaii, where the shortest flight to the Mainland is about 2,300 miles, our perceptions of time and distance are probably warped. Since this is all they’ve known, my son and daughter take long distance traveling (and all the logistical baggage that comes with it) in stride. Both are far better educated (and more resilient) for having had the experience and the acquired skill set that comes with it.</p>
<p>Last year, when my daughter studied abroad in India, she had to travel solo from Honolulu-Newark-Delhi-Varanasi, then back. She was a junior at the time. Because of her experience she was utterly confident (more so than her parents!).</p>
<p>Lastly, as I’ve mentioned before, my son’s mantra when he encounters a travel snafu is: “This is a first-world problem. Be grateful. Now solve it.”</p>
<p>Now that S has a car, what is the best option for breaks- parking at the airport? I would think for spring break& Thanksgiving break that would be ok? The winter break was so short this year, I’m not sure if I would have been happy with him driving 18 hours each way for 3 weeks.</p>
<p>I’m going to put in a word for another perspective here. I think that every family has a calculus for deciding the best place for a student to attend college and the travel hassle factor should be a consideration. How it is weighted for each family is very personal and depends on many things including family dynamics, norms for the family, how often the student would like to come home, etc. Another factor is “does school A that involves complicated travel” offer more than “school b which is more conveniently located.”</p>
<p>To pooh pooh the travel concerns of OOS students wholesale is slightly naive. I understand that these are all good life learning lessons but there are situations where the travel options available to Tuscaloosa and Birmingham wouldn’t work well for a student & their family’s needs. We’re not talking about an area like NYC, Chicago or LA where you can just catch a cab if your first option falls through. </p>
<p>I am in the middle of planning a bunch of college tours for D2 and travel specifics are one of the considerations. A quick look shows that 10 of the 13 schools on her list have very specific info about regular shuttles to the airport (not just for holiday breaks) public transportation, directions & transportation from the airport, etc. all very visible on the “visiting our campus” page. I just looked at the UA site and I don’t see anything anywhere on the “Visiting” page about travel from the airport; it’s buried under Housing, Crimson Ride, international student and law school web pages. If little ole Oberlin can figure out how to provide weekday airport shuttles during the academic year via a 3rd party, then UA should be able to as well after assessing the current campus needs in this area. It’s probably a lingering vestige from when the vast majority of students were in state, but when you ramp up OOS recruiting there are auxiliary services that need to accompany a successful effort.</p>
<p>^I agree it is something that could be improved on, and I suspect that it will happen with the increasing number of OOS students from states that do not border Alabama.</p>
<p>I think that this is one of those rare threads on CC where everyone’s opinion is correct! ;)</p>
<ol>
<li>Travel cost and convenience must be considered when choosing a college</li>
<li>benefits of the schools, despite location must be considered</li>
<li>flying and navigating a sometimes frustrating system is a life lesson that is good for the students. Practice is a good thing too! </li>
<li>Better transport/shuttle services from UA to airport is needed with ready info on the website. </li>
</ol>
<p>But my favorite has to be malani’s son’s advice:
<p>Hi vlines,
I just sent a note to some folks at UA regarding the suggestion to put better transportation information on the website. I hope you and your family are doing well; see you soon.
Regards,
xcitfan</p>
<p>Parking at BHM is expensive. The Economy lot is $10/day and the off-site lots aren’t that much cheaper. It could be worth it for Thanksgiving, but storing a car over Christmas break would be the equivalent of a second plane ticket.</p>
<p>* as you said the scholarship certainly makes up for any travel expenses.
I would rather spend the money to make sure my D gets back to campus safely- but that is because I realize how fortunate we are to have her tuition paid for. What other companies could she use to travel to campus if the college shuttle doesn’t work out? And if possible, what are the costs, contact info, etc. *</p>
<p>The one post about the shuttle mixup is the only one that anyone has posted about. We still don’t know what really happened. Perhaps the shuttle was there, but the kid went to the wrong place or something else happened.</p>
<p>You might want to call the shuttle place and find out if they didn’t have a shuttle there last Sat at 1pm and why. If they say that there was a communication screw up, ask them what is being done to prevent that from happening again. 205-348-6676 </p>
<p>There are other options, but I wouldn’t let that one situation scare someone from using the Shuttle…if anything, a phone call ahead of time to make sure that the shuttle company is aware of schedule.</p>
<p>This is Jacob from UA Undergraduate Admissions. It sounds like some of you have already found the following page on the Housing and Residential Communities website within the UA web presence:</p>
<p>We think you are correct that this information needs to be featured and linked more prominently on the Undergraduate Admissions website ([Undergraduate</a> Admissions - The University of Alabama](<a href=“http://gobama.ua.edu%5DUndergraduate”>http://gobama.ua.edu)) and probably on some other areas of the UA web presence. We plan to address this very soon, hopefully early next week as a matter of fact. I will make a post here on this thread once this has been done.</p>
<p>Thanks to all of you for pointing this out and helping us improve the information we are providing to students. Please let me know if you have any other questions and I’ll do my best to respond.</p>
<p>Jacob: that’s awesome! Another example of how UA is so responsive to student needs. Shuttles at UA are not a concern for our family because it’s within driving distance, but I can see how important they are when flights are involved.</p>