Worst Interview Travel Experiences

[lamborghiniMD]

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Just for kicks. What school did you interview at with the worst travel experience?

 

[Chillywilly]

I heard a lot of people thought getting to LECOM-E was a nightmare.

For me, getting to Touro-NY was awful. I made the mistake of driving in from Jersey, when I should've taken the train. If the morning traffic on I-95N crossing the GW wasn't bad enough, finding parking was the cherry on top.
Every parking was either a 1-3 hour limit (including pay), or taken up by residents. I finally found parking on the side of the street, and had 45 min to spare. I decided to walk to the interview building, but I remembered I forgot the Tech Standards sheet in my car. I get to my car and somehow noticed a sign that said "Street Cleaning 9AM-11AM T/Th." I panicked! Good thing I went back to get the tech sheet, otherwise I would've had a ticket or had my car towed.

I then got in my car and panicked again. I now had less than 30min to find parking (with the traffic and taken parking spots) and arrive on time. I drove for about 12 minutes trying to find parking garages.
Siri is a dumb b****, and kept taking me to random streets with no parking garages, or failed to understand what I was trying to say. Miraculously I found a shady parking garage that charged $10 for an entire day. The employees were sketchy and little unprofessional, but I was desperate and left my car with them. Walking to the interview, I was pretty sure I was going to get jumped in broad daylight. Despite all that, I made it to my interview on time.

I also just came back from Miami the night before after my Nova interview, and a weekend of nonstop partying in South Beach. So being back in NY on a cold October was not fun in the first place.

I would say the easiest places I travelled for an interview were LECOM-E and Rowan. I basically drove in a straight line the entire time.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Probably Touro-NV. Both ways the flight was packed, I couldn't sleep and I ended up basically getting 4 hours of sleep spread over 2 days. Getting to Henderson from Vegas however was pretty easy tho.

 

[joyfulll]

Driving from Chicago to Kirksville for my KCOM interview (December) during snowstorm was quite difficult! 6-7 hour drive became almost 9 hour drive. I saw so many car accidents that evening, so no wonder why many cars were driving 30 miles/hour on highways...That was not enjoyable!

 

[Playdoh4lyfe]

Nova...driving around Ft. Lauderdale and Miami was, and always is, hellish.

It's not the non-stop traffic thats the problem, I lived outside NYC for a number of years and have learned to deal with bumper to bumper movement.

It's the quality of other drivers that is a world apart from any other city I've visited. It seems to be a plethora of tourists, retired folks, young kids with beamers/audi's and immigrants/refugee's who managed to get a license despite zero driving experience in their home countries. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for letting geriatrics, teenagers and refugees drive, but it would be helpful if they took lessons and were tested on their driving skills before getting a license...rather than simply having to memorize the answers to a written exam.

Anyway, forgive me for my short rant. Props to anyone who can drive down there without turning green from road rage, I wish I could put up with it because So Fla is beautiful.

 

[Isha2018]

When I was driving from Phoenix to Mesa,AZ for my ATSU-SOMA interview back in September, a giant rock was kicked up by a dump truck on the highway and pretty much destroyed my rental car's windshield! It was totally scary, and I had to return the car immediately. Thankfully, I still made it to my interview due to my obsession with being early. 🙂

 

[coolingglasses]

Nova...driving around Ft. Lauderdale and Miami was, and always is, hellish.

It's not the non-stop traffic thats the problem, I lived outside NYC for a number of years and have learned to deal with bumper to bumper movement.

It's the quality of other drivers that is a world apart from any other city I've visited. It seems to be a plethora of tourists, retired folks, young kids with beamers/audi's and immigrants/refugee's who managed to get a license despite zero driving experience in their home countries. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for letting geriatrics, teenagers and refugees drive, but it would be helpful if they took lessons and were tested on their driving skills before getting a license...rather than simply having to memorize the answers to a written exam.

Anyway, forgive me for my short rant. Props to anyone who can drive down there without turning green from road rage, I wish I could put up with it because So Fla is beautiful.

yeah, the types of drives in SoFla are... suspect. I moved into a lane and gave a courtesy wave to the person behind me. they ended up cutting me off (as in, they rushed to get in front of me and almost clipped my bumper). the courtesy wave might have been misinterpreted as the finger.

 

[Bill Brasky]

Going to and from WesternU was awful. I had to sprint to make the connecting flight in Houston, the SoCal traffic was nerve-wracking for someone trying to navigate the highways for the first time, and Pomona is a major dump (and this is coming from someone who lives near Deteoit). I was legitimately worried about my very new-looking rental car sitting in an open parking lot. Then my flight back from Houston to Detroit was delayed two hours and flew through some nightmarish storms.

Nice school, though, I can vouch for that. Just in the worst area of any school I interviewed at.

 

[Back 5]

Probably Touro-NV. Both ways the flight was packed, I couldn't sleep and I ended up basically getting 4 hours of sleep spread over 2 days. Getting to Henderson from Vegas however was pretty easy tho.

My TUN interview involved a redeye flight directly after work to Nevada. 5 hours of sleep, interview day, redeye home, another 5 hours of sleep and back to work the next day. Spent a total of 20 hours in Nevada.

 

[Roxas]

I was traveling back from my KCUMB interview: Due to some bad weather and delays I missed a my connecting flight in Denver they couldn't get me a flight to Salt Lake City until 8 AM the next day (nearly 24 hours later), and to top it all off the airline staff was incredibly rude at the customer service desk.

I was planning on spending all day and night in the denver airport because I was nearly out of money and couldn't afford a hotel. However, I had few conversations with a fellow SDNer who lived in Denver who I mentioned I was going to be kicking it there for a while. Even thought I had never met this guy, he offered to drive all the way to the airport to pick me up, let me crash at his place, and get up at 5 the next morning to take me back to the airpot. I'm refraining from giving away his username because I don't know how much anonymity he wants, but this dude is a freaking saint. We ended up having a really fun night in Denver, so it totally turned my crappy situation into an awesome one. Thank you SDN!

 

[chizledfrmstone]

I was traveling back from my KCUMB interview: Due to some bad weather and delays I missed a my connecting flight in Denver they couldn't get me a flight to Salt Lake City until 8 AM the next day (nearly 24 hours later), and to top it all off the airline staff was incredibly rude at the customer service desk.

I was planning on spending all day and night in the denver airport because I was nearly out of money and couldn't afford a hotel. However, I had few conversations with a fellow SDNer who lived in Denver who I mentioned I was going to be kicking it there for a while. Even thought I had never met this guy, he offered to drive all the way to the airport to pick me up, let me crash at his place, and get up at 5 the next morning to take me back to the airpot. I'm refraining from giving away his username because I don't know how much anonymity he wants, but this dude is a freaking saint. We ended up having a really fun night in Denver, so it totally turned my crappy situation into an awesome one. Thank you SDN!

That's awesome.

---
My travels were pretty tame compared to what you guys dealt with.

The morning traffic before my WesternU interview SUCKED. I come from a big city but I hadn't seen traffic like this in a while. Luckily I had decided to leave 1 hour early.

My flight to Florida was about 7-8 hours (connecting flight). For the 2nd half I was crunched between 2 300lbs guys. I finally got there and drove from Tampa to Bradenton. Next morning I wake up and someone had scraped the side of my rental.

 

[guylewis]

I was traveling back from my KCUMB interview: Due to some bad weather and delays I missed a my connecting flight in Denver they couldn't get me a flight to Salt Lake City until 8 AM the next day (nearly 24 hours later), and to top it all off the airline staff was incredibly rude at the customer service desk.

I was planning on spending all day and night in the denver airport because I was nearly out of money and couldn't afford a hotel. However, I had few conversations with a fellow SDNer who lived in Denver who I mentioned I was going to be kicking it there for a while. Even thought I had never met this guy, he offered to drive all the way to the airport to pick me up, let me crash at his place, and get up at 5 the next morning to take me back to the airpot. I'm refraining from giving away his username because I don't know how much anonymity he wants, but this dude is a freaking saint. We ended up having a really fun night in Denver, so it totally turned my crappy situation into an awesome one. Thank you SDN!

I thought this was appropriate:

 

[Wipeout416]

My flight home after NSU was on 9/11, no wonder the plane was empty 😛

Went from Fort laud to Chicago, where some people texted me asking how the flight was... Only there did I realize. Haha. Next flight to La was the same way.

 

[Chillywilly]

Nova...driving around Ft. Lauderdale and Miami was, and always is, hellish.

It's not the non-stop traffic thats the problem, I lived outside NYC for a number of years and have learned to deal with bumper to bumper movement.

It's the quality of other drivers that is a world apart from any other city I've visited. It seems to be a plethora of tourists, retired folks, young kids with beamers/audi's and immigrants/refugee's who managed to get a license despite zero driving experience in their home countries. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for letting geriatrics, teenagers and refugees drive, but it would be helpful if they took lessons and were tested on their driving skills before getting a license...rather than simply having to memorize the answers to a written exam.

Anyway, forgive me for my short rant. Props to anyone who can drive down there without turning green from road rage, I wish I could put up with it because So Fla is beautiful.

Interesting my driving experience in FLL and Miami were pleasant. Even in traffic I found it to be 10x better than the craziness of North Jersey and NYC. People in north New Jersey can't drive...

 

[chizledfrmstone]

My flight home after NSU was on 9/11, no wonder the plane was empty 😛

Went from Fort laud to Chicago, where some people texted me asking how the flight was... Only there did I realize. Haha. Next flight to La was the same way.

This reminds me, I hate how Priceline connected my flights.

On my DMU interview there was an option for $270, no stops in ~4 hours. I waited 2-3 days because I wanted to see if I could move my interview days up (didn't happen). So 3 days later I check and now it's $370 w/ 1 connecting flight. Return is Des Moines to Chicago with a layover of 1 hours. Then from Chicago to Phoenix... for a grand total of ~6.5 hours.

 

[guylewis]

This reminds me, I hate how Priceline connected my flights.

On my DMU interview there was an option for $270, no stops in ~4 hours. I waited 2-3 days because I wanted to see if I could move my interview days up (didn't happen). So 3 days later I check and now it's $370 w/ 1 connecting flight. Return is Des Moines to Chicago with a layover of 1 hours. Then from Chicago to Phoenix... for a grand total of ~6.5 hours.

next time use google flights. it searches all the airlines for all the deals and will give you the lowest price. the graph function is awesome too.

For the lazy: https://www.google.com/flights/

 

[chizledfrmstone]

next time use google flights. it searches all the airlines for all the deals and will give you the lowest price. the graph function is awesome too.

For the lazy: https://www.google.com/flights/

Why the heck does Google have such awesome features yet they are hidden.

 

[baboxxyun]

This didn't happened to me, but the current students/ faculty were telling this to the interviewees.

Apparently someone from last year had their luggage sent to a totally different destination, which had his suit and everything. The student called the school to tell them about his situation and they were surprisingly lenient. He went to the interview in a polo, khakis, and sneakers, but all of the interviewers/ faculty were aware of his situation. Granted, he definitely stood out and had something to talk about because of this haha.

 

[chizledfrmstone]

This didn't happened to me, but the current students/ faculty were telling this to the interviewees.

Apparently someone from last year had their luggage sent to a totally different destination, which had his suit and everything. The student called the school to tell them about his situation and they were surprisingly lenient. He went to the interview in a polo, khakis, and sneakers, but all of the interviewers/ faculty were aware of his situation. Granted, he definitely stood out and had something to talk about because of this haha.

I actually had a nightmare about this a week before traveling. I always took my suit as a carry on item.

 

[guylewis]

I actually had a nightmare about this a week before traveling. I always took my suit as a carry on item.

take note everyone. Always take your suit with you on the plane. they have a closet in the front of the airplane where you can hang your suit bag. I never dared check in my suit and tie. i also kept my shoes in my backpack and i rarely checked in any of my luggage.

 

[QuantumJ]

Drove to El Paso alone. It's a 9 hr drive but I've never been so I'm excited. That night my pillows were too small and lumpy, the a/c was too loud or it was quiet and hot. I fell asleep near 2:30 in the am. Got up at 5:30 so I could have time eat breakfast and wake up. I went on the interview and loved it so the adrenaline kept me going. At 3:30 on Thursday the interview is over and I'm too poor to afford another hotel room so I'm planning on driving the 9hr back to Fort Worth that night and roll in Friday morning at 1 am or so. About 2 hours outside of El Paso my tire explodes. By the time I got out of the city, filled up, changed, then had the blow out it was probably 8:30 or so. I had to drive another 30-45min on my spare to get to a hotel. Finally got to lay down on the bed at around 9:30 Thursday night. My one pair of street clothes are covered in grease and such so I spent a while washing clothes in the sink and bathtub. I didn't want to drive at all so I fetched some snack food out of the vending machine and marathoned sportscenter. My wife had such a bad day of subbing that she called me crying and it made me feel awful I was so far away and too tired to really comfort her. Got up the next morning and drove 1hr or so to a tire center in the middle of nowhere Texas. They said it'd be done by 11:30 but it wasn't done until 1:30. My phone ended up dying while waiting so no one really knew where I was until I drove into the driveway at home on Friday around 6:30 that evening.

 

[scarecrow90]

I was traveling back from my KCUMB interview: Due to some bad weather and delays I missed a my connecting flight in Denver they couldn't get me a flight to Salt Lake City until 8 AM the next day (nearly 24 hours later), and to top it all off the airline staff was incredibly rude at the customer service desk.

I was planning on spending all day and night in the denver airport because I was nearly out of money and couldn't afford a hotel. However, I had few conversations with a fellow SDNer who lived in Denver who I mentioned I was going to be kicking it there for a while. Even thought I had never met this guy, he offered to drive all the way to the airport to pick me up, let me crash at his place, and get up at 5 the next morning to take me back to the airpot. I'm refraining from giving away his username because I don't know how much anonymity he wants, but this dude is a freaking saint. We ended up having a really fun night in Denver, so it totally turned my crappy situation into an awesome one. Thank you SDN!

I'm blushing. I had a GREAT time and it was so good to finally meet you!

 

[EmCEm]

Drove to El Paso alone. It's a 9 hr drive but I've never been so I'm excited. That night my pillows were too small and lumpy, the a/c was too loud or it was quiet and hot. I fell asleep near 2:30 in the am. Got up at 5:30 so I could have time eat breakfast and wake up. I went on the interview and loved it so the adrenaline kept me going. At 3:30 on Thursday the interview is over and I'm too poor to afford another hotel room so I'm planning on driving the 9hr back to Fort Worth that night and roll in Friday morning at 1 am or so. About 2 hours outside of El Paso my tire explodes. By the time I got out of the city, filled up, changed, then had the blow out it was probably 8:30 or so. I had to drive another 30-45min on my spare to get to a hotel. Finally got to lay down on the bed at around 9:30 Thursday night. My one pair of street clothes are covered in grease and such so I spent a while washing clothes in the sink and bathtub. I didn't want to drive at all so I fetched some snack food out of the vending machine and marathoned sportscenter. My wife had such a bad day of subbing that she called me crying and it made me feel awful I was so far away and too tired to really comfort her. Got up the next morning and drove 1hr or so to a tire center in the middle of nowhere Texas. They said it'd be done by 11:30 but it wasn't done until 1:30. My phone ended up dying while waiting so no one really knew where I was until I drove into the driveway at home on Friday around 6:30 that evening.

Whew.. That does sound brutal. Way to push through!

 

[chizledfrmstone]

Drove to El Paso alone. It's a 9 hr drive but I've never been so I'm excited. That night my pillows were too small and lumpy, the a/c was too loud or it was quiet and hot. I fell asleep near 2:30 in the am. Got up at 5:30 so I could have time eat breakfast and wake up. I went on the interview and loved it so the adrenaline kept me going. At 3:30 on Thursday the interview is over and I'm too poor to afford another hotel room so I'm planning on driving the 9hr back to Fort Worth that night and roll in Friday morning at 1 am or so. About 2 hours outside of El Paso my tire explodes. By the time I got out of the city, filled up, changed, then had the blow out it was probably 8:30 or so. I had to drive another 30-45min on my spare to get to a hotel. Finally got to lay down on the bed at around 9:30 Thursday night. My one pair of street clothes are covered in grease and such so I spent a while washing clothes in the sink and bathtub. I didn't want to drive at all so I fetched some snack food out of the vending machine and marathoned sportscenter. My wife had such a bad day of subbing that she called me crying and it made me feel awful I was so far away and too tired to really comfort her. Got up the next morning and drove 1hr or so to a tire center in the middle of nowhere Texas. They said it'd be done by 11:30 but it wasn't done until 1:30. My phone ended up dying while waiting so no one really knew where I was until I drove into the driveway at home on Friday around 6:30 that evening.

Wow, that's nuts.

Congrats on your acceptance though!

 

[kp11]

After interviewing at PCOM-GA, I flew to interview at CUSOM. My flight got into the Raleigh airport at midnight, and the school is 1 hr south of the airport. I got to the rental car counter, and because my return flight was made separately from my arrival, they refused to rent me the car. I had to walk around to the other car rental companies asking if anyone could rent me a car. Long story short, I finally got into my hotel at 2:15 am for a 7 am interview.

word to the wise: when someone tells you "Sir, I don't think the computer will allow me to rent you the car," you don't score sympathy points by replying "...or maybe YOU just don't know how to use a computer!"

 

[chizledfrmstone]

After interviewing at PCOM-GA, I flew to interview at CUSOM. My flight got into the Raleigh airport at midnight, and the school is 1 hr south of the airport. I got to the rental car counter, and because my return flight was made separately from my arrival, they refused to rent me the car. I had to walk around to the other car rental companies asking if anyone could rent me a car. Long story short, I finally got into my hotel at 2:15 am for a 7 am interview.

word to the wise: when someone tells you "Sir, I don't think the computer will allow me to rent you the car," you don't score sympathy points by replying "...or maybe YOU just don't know how to use a computer!"

Why is this?

 

[TreadLightly]

Going to and from WesternU was awful. I had to sprint to make the connecting flight in Houston, the SoCal traffic was nerve-wracking for someone trying to navigate the highways for the first time, and Pomona is a major dump (and this is coming from someone who lives near Deteoit). I was legitimately worried about my very new-looking rental car sitting in an open parking lot. Then my flight back from Houston to Detroit was delayed two hours and flew through some nightmarish storms.

Nice school, though, I can vouch for that. Just in the worst area of any school I interviewed at.

LOL. I parked off campus on a random street next to some shanty town just to save a few bucks on parking. I didn't even think twice about it. I've grown up in some of the nicest areas of So Cal and Pomona doesn't bother me at all. I'm so hood, the dirty D couldn't even handle me.

I hit zero traffic on the way to Western. All of my other interviews involving flights and rental cars could not have gone smoother as well so I guess I'm pretty lucky.

 

[guylewis]

LOL. I parked off campus on a random street next to some shanty town just to save a few bucks on parking. I didn't even think twice about it. I've grown up in some of the nicest areas of So Cal and Pomona doesn't bother me at all. I'm so hood, the dirty D couldn't even handle me.

I hit zero traffic on the way to Western. All of my other interviews involving flights and rental cars could not have gone smoother as well so I guess I'm pretty lucky.

My thoughts on Pomona exactly. I've lived in nice areas of LA as well and Pomona still doesn't bother me a bit. not to mention, the drive to the interview was incredibly problem-free. It was like Murphy's Law was taking a break that day.

 

[Bill Brasky]

LOL. I parked off campus on a random street next to some shanty town just to save a few bucks on parking. I didn't even think twice about it. I've grown up in some of the nicest areas of So Cal and Pomona doesn't bother me at all. I'm so hood, the dirty D couldn't even handle me.

I think you are mistaking my cautiousness for sheltered fear. It wasn't a matter of being "bothered" - I grew up in a pretty crappy area that would make Pomona look good. It's an instinct from unprotected cars being broken into being a common thing where I used to live.

Nonetheless, I really did like WesternU and almost chose to go there. I just had a weird experience on the way.

 

[frodohobo]

I was interviewing at KCUMB and my flight kept getting delayed until 1 am and didn't get into KC until 3 am. When I went to pick up my rental car reservation the desks were already closed so I had to pay for cab to my hotel and when I get to my hotel the service guy isn't even there so I basically had to spend the night in the front lobby. Horrible experience but hey I got my first acceptance from that day 😉

 

[mrttihw]

This is pretty funny as I was reading this thread a week or two ago before an interview, and fell victim to similar circumstances.

I was leaving out of Denver, Colorado Thursday for my interview at WVSOM on Friday. I had arrived two hours early in preparation for the flight, shamelessly shoved my oversized dugfflebag in the overhead bin, and made myself comfortable in seat 32 C. Not long after the exit door was closed, seatbelts fastened, the flight attendant announced through the P.A. that we would have to de-plane in order to check the plane engines. They were not firing correctly. After a very large group of disgruntled passengers made their way off the plane, I stood intently watching out the window as the flight crew started up the engines, shut them off, and continued in a process. 30 minutes later it was announced that the plane would not be leaving the ground. Luckily, I was able to speak with representatives, rebook another flight into Washington, D.C., although I had to sprint to make the flight.

Once on the second plane, the flight was delayed and I missed my connection into West Virginia. Therefore, the best they could do is put me on a red-eye flight to Roanoake, VA which was about a 2 hour ride away from where I was staying. So, I rebooked my rental car to the second airport and confirmed that the rental car agent would stick around to hand over the keys once I reached Roanoke. Once I touched down in Washington DC my red-eye to Roanoke was cancelled. Then it was rescheduled and pushed to 11:0o pm. Then cancelled again. Once they re-enstated the flight for 11:00 pm I waited the 6 hours, and read through some textbooks to kill some time. Well, 11:00 came and went, and at 12:45 am I boarded the little hopper plane to Roanoke. Once in Roanoke, I was directed to the rental car counter area which was pitch black. All rental places were closed, and Victor (the rental representative who had obliged that they must stay open until all flights were in) was nowhere to be found. At this point it was around 1:45 am, with no shuttles available across the state line. A $300 cab ride later, I made it to my hotel just shy of 4:00 am to wake up in time for my 7:30 am interview.

That's not all folks.

The following day I was booked to travel out of Beckley, WV. After 2 hours of travel west to the airport, I walk in with my baggage to discover that no flights will be going out that day. I was rescheduled to leave Monday evening. That was a no-go as I needed to be back for my master's program classes on Monday 7:00 am sharp.

I jump in my rental, and called up my airline to try and reschedule out of a neighboring airport. The only flight leaving that day was out of Roanoke (now 4 hours away) in less than 5 hours. At this point I book it down to Roanoke, passing herds of semi-trucks through the icy mountainside highway, and get through security. Upon arrival to my gate, the representative alerts the passengers (3 other individuals) that the plane is having maintenance problems and has to turn around and return to Washington DC. Once on the ground, they could diagnose the issue and possibly fix the problem. Time passed, and there was no possibility of making my connection. Long story short, I jumped on a plane that was going out of the way, but eventually found a connection putting me in Denver 10 hours after my initial expected landing time.


At this point, all I can do is laugh. I am glad to have made it safe and sound, and the interview went very well. There were quite a few wrenches thrown in my way on this trip, and I can only hope for smooth travels to come! In the end, I have a pretty darn 'against the odds' travel story, and will no longer be flying United!