Hi Ma1:
Its unlikely you will make your flight if you leave at 5:00pm from Berkeley to go to SFO. SFO is located in South San Francisco, and it usually takes me around 45 minutes to 1.5 hours to get to the airport (my dad work around there) from Berkeley depending on traffic. If you are renting a car, youll be amazed how many people will be driving into San Francisco during the weekend and the traffic can be terrible on the Bay Bridge.
BART isnt a great option. The BART station in Downtown Berkeley is not that close to the optometry school. It is about a 15 minute walk and you might take longer if you have some luggage. The time from the Downtown Berkeley stop to SFO is about 50 minutes. From the SFO BART stop, you may still need to take the AirTran shuttle to the appropriate terminal (all domestic flights are around a five to ten minute AirTran ride from the BART station). You will also need to make one transfer to get on the Millbrae train to SFO so youll be in trouble if you miss that. In addition, the trains do not come very frequently as compared to metro trains in New York; you could wait up to 10-20 minutes if you miss one.
If you absolutely need to make the 6:35pm flight and you finances wont allow you to stay an extra night, I would recommend that you contact the admissions office and ask to be placed in a particular interview group. Unless theyve changed it, all interview applicants are separated into 4 to 5 groups. During the day, you will stay with this group as you circulate between stations including a school tour, meeting current students, essay section, and the actual interview. The most important thing for you to accomplish is the interview itself and the essay section. So, I would call Sharon Joyce and tell her your situation, and ask her if you can be placed in the group that will be finished earliest with both the interview and the essay. You will miss out on the more social things, but youll at least be in a better position to make your flight.
In addition, you can bring your luggage with you to the interview and it will be safely stored in the admissions office. If you are going to have a taxicab or an airport shuttle pick you up, make sure they get very specific directions to the optometry school. Here is a map that you can fax or e-mail to the driver so they know where exactly to get you -->
http://www.caleyecare.com/images/Clinic_Map.gif (Minor Hall)
Also, only bring a carry-on luggage and dont bring any luggage you will need to check-in. Most major airlines will allow you to check-in to your flight online 24 hours before departure. So, you can find a place such as Kinkos or an internet café to check-in to your flight and print out your boarding pass. Then, as soon as you get to the airport, you can go straight to the security gate.
And to make a bit easier for you, try to see if you can fly out of Oakland airport instead of San Francisco.
Best of luck,
Rosanna F.
