I, too, am moving almost 3,000 miles for med school, and I want to let you guys know about the magic that is shipping via Amtrak. I packed up my entire apartment (minus furniture) in 20 boxes that totaled 374 pounds, and there were some big boxes- a 3' x 2' box weighing 42 pounds, for example. When you ship via Amtrak, you have to bring all your stuff to an Amtrak station near you, and pick it up at the Amtrak station you're shipping it to, and getting it across the country takes about a week. But shipping is SO MUCH CHEAPER than if you attempted something similar at the post office.
My 20 boxes, 374 lbs of stuff, shipping from San Francisco, CA to Orlando, FL (where my parents are storing it for the summer) cost me a whopping $217 to ship. I insured it for $3,000, which cost me an additional $17 and change, bringing my total to about $235. If I tried to mail a 3' x 2' x 2' box weighing almost 50 lbs at the post office, that alone would be close to $80, I'd imagine, for being heavy and oversized.
They have some limits on sizes (No box can be bigger than 3' x 3' x 3') and no individual box can weigh more than 50 lbs, and no overall shipment can be more than 500 lbs. They also prohibit certain types of items, such as "electronics" and "breakables", but they don't like, go through your boxes to check. I had several examples of both (wine glasses, Kitchenaid mixer) in mine.
I feel like this is a little-known secret of how to get a lot of stuff across the country for relatively cheap. Happy moving!
ETA: Just did a quick postage calculation on the USPS site. They won't even take a 3'x2'x2' box because it's too large for them to ship. When I plugged in a 42 lb box that was 2'x2'x2' and calculated shipping between SF and my house in FL, the total came to $107.16. For ONE BOX. I had 20. AND the only way they'd ship it is parcel post, which takes a week and a half. So Amtrak really is a ridiculously good deal.
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