<p>I understand that your parents are worried, but please assure them that plenty of kids your age have changed planes with no problems. My daughter flew to several colleges by herself senior year, and she even had some issues with cancelled flights & subsequent rerouting. She made it just fine! You will be in a secure airport the entire time, and if you are going for a scholarship interview … I assume you are intelligent enough to navigate an airport! I agree with having at least an hour between flights, because planes often arrive later than scheduled. Once you make the reservation, be sure to give the airline a mobile phone # and sign up for alerts. And check the flight status before you leave for the airport. If something happens enroute, don’t worry … you can get it taken care of. D had a connection at O’Hare that was cancelled after we left for the airport for the first leg of the flight. For some reason, they called only our home # to let us know, so we didn’t know about the cancellation. She flew the first leg & then didn’t have a flight once she got to Chicago. She talked to the ticket agent, who rerouted her through St. Louis … she eventually got to Memphis! Neither of us panicked, and it all worked out.</p>
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<p>The OP can take an overnight United Flight to Dulles, and then take a flight the following morning from Dulles to Rochester. Same airline…a bit easier.</p>
<p>Kayak.com is a good search engine - it searches all the flights and web sites (airlines and different web agencies). i did a quick search and no nonstop flights between LAX and Rochester popped up which leads me to thing there probably are non. Just make sure you have enough time to make connections - you should be fine.</p>
<p>You are looking at an 8 hour journey. Leaving the evening of the 26th may be a bit tight and stressful if the interview is the 27th.</p>
<p>Your cell phone has a chip in that follows you around. use the cell phone and walk them thru the airport. I put my kid on a plane from Paris to Chicago when she was 10. She has navigated the city of chicago subterreanean circus known as a subway and that is full of monsters and other things like drunken cubs fans. Tell your parent to cut the cord and if that dont work they can attach one of those gps trakkers on you and follow your every footsteps to college.</p>
<p>Just take JetBlue from Long Beach to Rochester with a change at JFK. The JetBlue terminal at JFK is self contained, so you’ll get off of the first plane and your connection will be very close. Go to [url=<a href=“http://www.jetblue.com%5DJetBlue%5B/url”>http://www.jetblue.com]JetBlue[/url</a>] to book it.</p>
<p>^YUS.</p>
<p>I loooove JetBlue. 
They have the comfiest planes I’ve ever been on.</p>
<p>Hands, my D is more or less in the same situation. (Renaissance finalist, lives far, far away from NY). Only we have even less access to a large airport with many different airlines. I had hoped the go with her to Rochester–but at over $650 for airfare (ouch!) just for her, its way too expensive. </p>
<p>Since I have a friend who is travel agent, she made some sensible suggestions about the trip. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>You’re not likely to find a non-stop to ROC. Just isn’t enough of a demand.</p></li>
<li><p>Avoid changing planes in O’Hare if at all possible. (D is going through Atlanta, even thought it makes her trip longer.) Airport is <em>always</em> under construction and the unpredictable midwest weather this time of year often makes for unexpected delays.</p></li>
<li><p>Try to avoid a connection that is the last possible flight out to your destination city that evening/night. D will be going out to ROC a day early because there are only two possible connections for her to get from here to there–and she’s taking the earlier one. However, on the way back Friday, she <em>will</em> be on the last flight from her connecting city (ATL) to home. No way to avoid it unless she wants to spent a third night sleeping on the dorm floor. </p></li>
<li><p>The big issue, according to my friend, is how to manage things if D gets stranded somewhere because of flight delays, cancellations etc..Since D is under 18, can’t rent a car and doesn’t have a credit card–she’s in a potentially bad situation. My friend recommended buying trip insurance. Cost of the policy depends on the cost of your ticket. The insurance co has 24-hr toll-free concierge number (and in some locations a staffed booth on the concourse) and they will arrange EVERYTHING should D get stuck–including a taxi/shuttle to an nearby hotel to spend the night and getting her put on stand-by on the next available to her destination (even it’s not on the airline she booked her flight on). For me, the peace of mind is worth the $40 extra.</p></li>
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<p>YMMV, of course. </p>
<p>Hope you have a safe and uneventful trip!</p>
<p>P.S. We knew the trip to ROC was going to be expensive and hard to arrange–she has friend who’s a freshman there. He didn’t even come home at Thanksgiving because of travel arrangement issues. Probably won’t be home for spring break either–same reason.</p>
<p>I sent my 10 and 12 year olds to Florida and they had to transfer. We paid some extra money to have them escorted. Though it may make you feel embarrassed to have such an arrangement, it may be enough to convince your parents to allow you to go and take advantage of such a fine opportunity.</p>
<p>Re: transport between airport and college. </p>
<p>Rochester’s admission dept. will pick the student up at the airport if they are arriving Wednesday or Thursday between 9 am and 5 pm. And return them to the same airport on Friday. It’[s already been arranged, all the student needs to do is tell the office her flight number and arrival time.</p>
<p>And if that doesn’t work, a cab ride to/from the campus is $10.</p>
<p>Depending on your age you can pay the extra money and fly as an unaccompanied minor. That should put your parents at ease, but may make you feel silly.</p>
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<p>Um… yes an almost grown adult having their hand held through the airport at all times would be a bit silly. Just tell the parents to chill… there’s nothing wrong with transferring flights. In many cases you get off one plane and walk less than 100 yards to the next gate. If they’re OK with you considering a school on the other side of the country then they should be more than confident in your ability to navigate an airport on your own ;-).</p>
<p>We try to have son go through small airports (Salt Lake City rather than Denver, etc), and use the same airline so it is easy to change planes. Sometimes, the second flight is on the same plane he just got off, so that makes it easy to find the gate.</p>
<p>The first time he went on his own, I printed out maps of the airports to help him find the gate. That was not needed, and he didn’t even look at them, but it made me feel better about him being on his own.</p>
<p>We also ask him to call us when he is successfully inside the gate on each leg of the flight.</p>
<p>Our biggest concern is that he gets so engrossed in a book, we wonder if he will miss a flight when sitting in front of the gate…</p>
<p>My son did the REMS interview weekend at URochester and I assume the Renaissance weekend will be run in a similar way. They should provide transportation between the airport and the school. The admissions people were very accommodating. They will take good care of you, showing you where to go, pairing you up with a host (a student to stay with). Make sure you have the phone number of someone associated with the interview weekend - call now if you don’t have that information. Maybe even have a backup number as well. There will be many students traveling that weekend so you may even meet someone at the Rochester airport waiting to be picked up. My daughter goes to school in Rochester and says the airport is tiny - you can’t get lost there. Worst case, get a cab and go directly to admissions.</p>
<p>Perhaps you’ve never flown, so you don’t know what to expect. If so, just ask. We can walk you through what happens at the airport. It helps to be prepared.</p>
<p>You might want to leave Friday morning. You will be go go go once you arrive in NY so don’t arrive exhausted. The weekend will be stressful but it’s intended to be fun, too. Remember, they want you to like their school so try to enjoy yourself.</p>