<p>Just an opinion: I hear you loud and clear on the change planes <em>plus</em> bus connection and long(ish) bus ride. That is not fun. Doable, but not fun.</p>
<p>However, I personally wouldn't let the "can come home on weekends" criterion enter too heavily into the calculus. Not many kids come home on weekends, unless they are at "suitcase schools," where most live so close to home that there is little on-campus life over those days. Your friend's kids seem quite unusual on that, to me, if they are coming home on weekends to LA from St. Louis, Nashville or Philadelphia. </p>
<p>Ease of coming and going for the move-in/move-out, major holidays and breaks... I get that. But coming home on weekends is something that probably won't happen much, if at all; and, if it does, might indicate they don't like where they are.
YMMV.</p>
<p>Yes, I think that issue is something that does vary a lot by kid, but the student probably knows who they are before they apply to school. I doubt my son will ever come home for just a weekend, though he could, but my daughter wanted a school integrated into her larger life, and she does, primarily to see friends whose school breaks differ from hers. </p>
<p>She is only a two hour train ride away; in fact one summer she "commuted" several days a week to a class she taught on campus. However, since she is commuting to NYC she is in good company. She loves where she is, does not get homesick, is going to London next semester, but she does like to come home for an occasional weekend. Has brought friends for baths, endless TV, whatever. However, she knew she wanted this lifestyle before she applied to colleges.</p>
<p>Have you thought of midwest LACs? Minneapolis-St. Paul is the airport one would take for Carleton and Macalester and there should be plenty of direct flights from southern California.</p>
<p>We live in the Seal Beach area and D attends Tufts just outside of Boston. Jet Blue flies out of Long Beach direct into Logan. It has been perfect. No hassles at Long Beach. Schools in and around Boston are easy access. The more remote schools are not a problem when the weather is good in the NE but that eliminates 9 months of the year. You must avoid any connections that take you thru JFK, Dulles, O'Hare in the winter.</p>
<p>The problem with the more remote schools in the Boston area is that you have to leave for the airport ridiculously early to catch a flight. For instance, my kid goes to school in Worcester. To use Logan he'd have to leave school at least 4 hours before his flight! It's only a 6 hours drive home...so he has taken Greyhound instead.</p>
<p>...........by the way..........D won't be coming home for Thanksgiving, even from Boston, because flying that week/weekend is not worth the hassle. As a freshman, she came home. Now, as a sophomore, she would prefer to have Thanksgiving with a local family or friends. </p>
<p>..........One other point...If you plan to visit your S, then you get to deal with the hassle. We love flying into Boston to visit D and then we make a trip to visit other places nearby (Cape Cod, NYC) etc. You won't be visiting your S if he is in a rural area. This may not matter to you but because our D is in performing arts, we have been able to go back and see her starring role in the musical, hear her chamber group sing in Boston's symphony hall, hear her a capella group..........etc.</p>
<p>Ah, but Weenie...some of us sending our S's and D's across country figure there's an educational benefit to attending college across country. And, yeah, I'm of the "perfect fit" school. But D is getting a lot more out of Smith than she would have at Scripps. Or even Pomona.</p>
<p>I go to Bates (and live in CA), and in terms of non stop flights, you can only get them out of Logan. However, Jet Blue has fairly cheap (usually around $150 each way) red eye flights, which will let you have the day, instead of spending it traveling. I can go home for weekends, but I tend to go home just for major breaks - it's easier. However, I am going home for a weekend in a couple weeks (mom's birthday) and we'll see how that goes. Mermaid Transportation goes door to door from Bates to Logan (it does this with Bowdoin and Colby as well) and Concord Trailways will take you to Portland from Logan for much cheaper, where there's usually at least one other Batesie either passing through or living, to take you back up to Bates. It's a pain to get to, but I wouldn't call that a deciding factor in choosing the school. If you love the school, a little hassle in transportation is worth it. If getting home constantly is a major priority, then looking out East (anywhere further than drive-able, really) probably isn't the best bet.</p>
<p>Freshman year, I was gung ho to go cross-country to NYU/Harvard or something like that.</p>
<p>As HS went on, it got closer and closer to Cali. Junior year I believe I was looking at Colorado and schools in that area. Now I've decided that I want to stay in-state.</p>
<p>Try not to limit him TOO much, but just remember it's still a long time before decision time and he'll probably change a lot in the next year. Don't start packing for that cross-country trip just yet.</p>
<p>CA parent here with a kid in Boston. Our closest airport is Santa Barbara, so he can go from Boston to LA to SBA. I have a friend whose son is at Bowdoin. He loves it but...both boys don't come home except for major breaks. There is no coming home for weekends even if it is Mom's birthday. It's just too much. AND we have the option of direct Boston to LA and then going to LA to pick him up.
When you are talking about northeast NE (I grew up there) it is a hassle no matter how you do it.
More than once, I went back there in the winter, flying from SBA to LA to NYC and then on to BDL (Hartford). More than once planes couldn't leave from NYC and I had to hire a car to get home.<br>
Now you can fly SBA or LA to BDL but there are fewer flights, there are hardly ever mileage point seats, etc.
If he loves one of those schools, let him go for it but sit him down and make sure he knows it will be home for Christmas and Spring break only.<br>
Thanksgiving/Easter/etc. he will be going to a friend's house.</p>
<p>LA parent here with 2 kids, one who recently graduated from Syracuse and the other now attending Cornell. They were/are very happy with their schools, and feel that the inconvenience of not having non-stop flights was very minor. In addition to Jet Blue, United, American, US Air, Delta, Continental and Northwest all fly between LAX and SYR. From SYR airport, Syracuse U is only 20 min. or so away by taxi, and Cornell is a 50 min. bus ride via Ithaca Airport Limo. If your student winds up at Cornell, I strongly recommend using SYR rather than Ithaca Airport - more flight choices, larger planes, lower fares, and most important, less risk of weather delays.</p>
<p>I appreciate the excellent feedback. We have decided to visit several of the schools mentioned along with more convenient schools, including UC Berkeley (love the idea of a birthday visit!) S is now saying that he is not interested in small LACs, but if he changes his mind, we might check out one in the midwest in addition to one in Maine.</p>
<p>neurotic, It does get clearer as time goes on. If Williams gets back on the radar screen and you would like any specific information please pm me.</p>
<p>While we're all at it here, can someone from LA give me a sense of how much easier these smaller airports are, compared to LAX. Everyone keeps talking about avoiding LAX but sometimes they have the best deals or schedules. At that point, I'm not sure how to balance asking my kid to take 50 minutes (up to 3 hours...??) on route 5 into LA to get a good deal, or pay more to have him fly out of Santa Ana or Long Beach airports (he's in Town of Orange, CA). Maybe it's an unanswerable question with so many small airports. Is it just shorter security lines at smaller airports, or other big advantages to say "avoid LAX".</p>
<p>In the Northeast there's usually one close airport to each city, although in Chicago there's a nice choice between Midway or O'Hare, and NYC has JFK, Laguardia or Newark as choices, plus some far-flung ones like White Plains.</p>
<p>Since this question came up relative to the OP's interest in flying out of the LA area, it's relevant and I hope not considered a hijack. We don't like hijacks espec. talking about airplanes.</p>
<p>If your kid doesn't mind changing planes, I'd recommend the University of Rochester (and yes, that's the upstate airport weenie's talked about!). My d goes there and the airport is about 5 minutes from the campus. And it's a great school.</p>
<p>Paying3tuitions: We do this in the opposite direction. We live in Virginia, and my son goes to school in LA. The biggest problem we've found is the traffic getting to LAX (in 3 1/2 years, he's missed two flights--but he was able to rebook with only a couple of hours delay.) He has to go there, because he doesn't have a car, so he takes the Super Shuttle or the Big Blue Bus. (The Super Shuttle is $12 from Westwood.) When we go to visit him, though, we take Jet Blue to Long Beach, which is a much easier airport to get in and out of. Then I rent a car from there, which is not an option for him, unfortunately. I once asked how much the SuperShuttle was from Westwood to Long Beach, and they told me $60, so that was out. Unfortunately, I don't know anything about Santa Ana airport.</p>
<p>paying3,
Happy to help and don't mind the hijack at all (as long as it's virtual). We ADORE the Long Beach airport, a quintessential old-fashioned facility which is the local hub of Jet Blue. Also has some US Air and Delta flights. Parking is a dream, security and check-in lines are short, decor is vintage mid-century modern - you almost expect to see travelers wearing pillbox hats. Can't help you with Santa Ana - haven't ever used it and Burbank would be too far for your son. Even though we use LAX often (for business and intl travel), I would say that in your son's case, it's worth paying more to avoid LAX if his flight is in the morning or late afternoon. He shouldn't have a problem with red-eye flights. What is his destination?</p>
<p>momrath and chedva,
Williams is on the short list and S is also considering Rochester. Will wait for PSAT scores before we plan our spring trip.</p>
<p>Bowdoin, Bates, Wesleyan, Trinity (in Hartford), Smith, Mt Holyoke, are all closer to Boston than Williams. They're all about 2 hours' drive, though in different directions.</p>