UCSF interview timing

[STi555]

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I needed some advice on my plane ticket timing and my interview. I was planning on flying out after my interview, but the last flight of the day leaves at 5:51. The email I got said I shoudl be done at 3:00. I would be flying out of OAK. Is this cutting it too close? If I have to stay another day do you think a student host would mind letting me stay another night?

 

[lola]

you should be able to make it to oakland airport by 4:50 no problem -- even on public transportation. with a shuttle you should be able to make it there by 3:30 or 3:45.

 

[Nefertari]

STi555,

Hopefully, you're not driving, b/c the traffic SF to OAK airport is horrible @ that time. Your timing sounds OK (you can check BART schedules on their website if you need exact times). You can take BART (subway) from SF all the way to a stop pretty close to the OAK airport, then you transfer to a bart shuttle bus that takes you to the terminals. BART leaves @ every 20-30 min & I think they raised the fare (~ $5 one-way). Hope you enjoy San Francisco!

 

[STi555]

Thanks Lola. I just didn't want to cut it too close as I don't now much about getting around SF. Although I just realized that meant to type that my departure time was 3:30, but it sounds like that it should still allow me enough time.

 

[lola]

i don't think the traffic should be too bad at that time as long as you book it out of there at 3:00. of course, you never can be sure.

it would take max 40 minutes to get from ucsf to the bart station.
then it takes max 35 minutes to get to the airport bart stop.
then it takes a while on the bus to get to the airport... i dunno, max 45 minutes i guess. sometimes you have to wait a while.

that = 2 hrs. should be enough time. i'd take a shuttle just to be safe, but either way should be ok.

 

[lola]

3:30 hmmm....

well, if all goes normally you should be ok.
at that time the traffic may start to get bad, and if you have bad luck with public transport you could get to the airport around 5:15 or 5:30. hmmm....

i'd take a shuttle.

 

[STi555]

Thanks for the input. I have mixed feelings about this. I really hate to be rushed. I am thinking what if my interview is the last thing that day and it happens to go long. I don't want to be distracted thinking about what time it is and always looking at my watch. That would leave a bad impression. Do you think I should just stay the extra night and miss my friday classes? Of course if I am missing friday classes I am tempted to stay for part of the weekend.

 

[lola]

can you ask the admissions office for an early interview time? i don't know how it works at ucsf, but uvm was able to give me a 2:00 interview time so that i could catch a 4:20 flight.

 

[gogiants]

san francisco is certainly not a bad place to spend an extra day or two in. the only problem you might find is hotel costs (if you can't stay with a student). the city is not known for their inexpensiveness.

 

[Nefertari]

Originally posted by STi555
Thanks for the input. I have mixed feelings about this. I really hate to be rushed. I am thinking what if my interview is the last thing that day and it happens to go long. I don't want to be distracted thinking about what time it is and always looking at my watch. That would leave a bad impression. Do you think I should just stay the extra night and miss my friday classes? Of course if I am missing friday classes I am tempted to stay for part of the weekend.

If you can afford it, stay another day or so. If $$ is a concern, SF has 2 hostels (one downtown near Union Square and another @ Fort Mason--I like this one) for @ $15-20 per night.

Yeah, probably better that you don't rush & can enjoy your interview day. If you're leaving as late as 3:30 & need to be @ OAK airport by 6 pm, then the shuttle ($15-20) would be better b/c you won't have to worry @ transferring. Congrats on the SF interview!!! Many of us bay area folks are still waiting.

 

[LoneCoyote]

If you are worried about being rushed you might want to stay the extra night and even the weekend. I flew out of Oakland about 2 weeks ago in the late afternoon on a weekday and it was very busy getting through the security checkpoint at the Southwest terminal and I might have missed my flight if I'd been cutting it close with like 15-20 minutes. You might want to take that into account... Then again, the time I flew out of Oakland before my last trip I got there an hour early and got through in 5 minutes, so who knows.

I would say stay the weekend so youre not rushed and because you can't beat a few days in San Francisco. Of course, I am biased 🙂

For cheap lodging check out http://www.greentortoise.net/. The Green Tortoise is a hostel in North Beach and I think it's about $20 for dorm accommodations, and more for private rooms. I've had a few out-of-town guests stay there and they liked it... it's a nice location a great price. Congrats on your interview and I hope you have good time. Good luck!

 

[shimmer118]

I would definitely take public transportation, because pub. trans. can't get caught in traffic jams 🙂 whereas an airport shuttle can. I've traveled from UCSF - OAK several times, and I always take the muni and then BART. You should go online and check out www.transitinfo.org. Look at BART schedules. Taking the N-Judah (which is the Muni train you'll be taking from UCSF to BART) from UCSF to Civic Center (the first BART station you'll get to on the Muni) takes 15-20 min (max 20 min). And trains *usually* run every 15 min or so at that time of the day. BART from Civic Center - Oakland Airport takes 23 minutes, and they leave from C. Center every 5-10 min (as you'll see on the schedule). Once off BART, you'll take the bus "AirBART" and that leaves every 10-20 min or so. If you're crunched for time by the time you get to Oakland Airport BART, you can take one of the several taxis that are waiting outside at the BART station. Bus ride takes around 12 min.

That's a rather long-winded explanation. 🙂 But taking pub. trans. is waaay cheaper than taking a shuttle from SF to OAK. And it takes about the same amount of time, if not faster (especially since you'll be traveling during rush hour in the worst direction...)

Whew. Good luck on the interview! 🙂

 

[STi555]

Wow thanks for the info you guys are the best I guess I will call the interview office tomorrow to see if 3:30 means 3:30 or if it means about 3:30 but could be 4:00. Then I guess I will have to decide if I want to do the shuttle or the public transportation as both seem to have their advocates.

I was thinking that I would probably stay with a student host. The school is suppose to me mailing me a list. Would it be rude to ask them if I could stay Wednesday and Thursday night? I don't want to be too much of an inconvience. Actually, staying with the student host makes me think of another issue. Do I take all my stuff (I won't have that much, change of clothes and my toothbrush ect.) with me to the interview? Otherwise I will have to go back to the student's house and I don't know if the person will be there. (In case you couldn't tell this is my first interview and I hadn't thought about all these things before.) Thanks for all the help everyone.😍

 

[STi555]

Hmm, just a little add on. The UCSF interview site says that the day runs from 8-5 but the email said until 3:30. They also say not to make a reservation for a flight before 7:30. Guess I really better call them and figure this stuff out.

 

[souljah1]

20 minutes to bart via the N-Judah muni. 25 minutes to the oakland airpost shuttle via bart. 15 minutes on the shuttle. give yourself another 20 minutes to wait for everything. looks like an hour and a half or so.

here's one thing..most people get out of their interviews before three. however, some students will have their last interview around 3, so they won't finish until after 4. i'd be careful about that.

 

[paean]

Lots of interviewees take their suitcase with them to the admissions office in the morning. As long as it's not huge, they will be able to store it for you for the day. And you can ask us if you can stay two nights, but you may not get the answer you want. Sometimes it's totally fine, and sometimes the timing doesn't work out well.

If you offer to take your host out out to dinner (lots of inexpensive restaurants in the area, a nice meal for two can be had for under $20 if you pick the right place), they might be pursuaded to let you stay another night. 😉

 

[lola]

after thinking about it, i think you would be ok on public transport if you decide to leave that day. the only real problem i see is waiting for the bus to the airport when you get off the bart in oakland. i've only done it once, but i waited for approx 1/2 hr before the bus came. maybe this is unusual? i don't know. you could take a cab from there as somoene suggested.

 

[LoneCoyote]

I used to take the AirBart airport bus really often, almost weekly when I had to commute to LA, and for the most part it came within about 10 minutes (especially at that time of day), maybe 15-20. One thing though, it was often REALLY crowded at the end of the day with all the commuters flying out and a total pain for people who actually had luggage. Of course, this was over a year ago when the economy was still flying high. So it could be less crowded now without the .commers, or it could be not running as much if they have had transit cutbacks. I would agree with Lola though that you should be fine on public transit and can always get a cab. Just be sure you hop on the bus that says AirBART on it and NOT the transit bus that just reads "Oakland Airport" on its front sign. That one takes over 40 minutes to get to the airport since it makes all the local stops.

 

[STi555]

Thanks for all the help. I found a solution. Instead of flying out of the airport 15 minutes from my school I can fly to one about an hour away. This allows me to take a flight leaving OAK at 7:21, so I should have plenty of time. This way I won't feel rushed and I can have some extra time to explore the school or the city. But once again thanks for the helpful suggestions. Even though I won't be rushing I now know how to get the airport. I decided against staying extra days because the letter with a list of student hosts arrived today and it say one night only in bold type.