“Created by the AAMC in collaboration with the medical school financial aid community and the Organization of Student Representatives, FIRST for Medical Education is designed to help members of the academic medicine community navigate the complexities of student debt.”
“FIRST offers a full range of Financial Information, Resources, Services, and Tools for applicants, medical school students, residents, advisors, and financial aid officers. Our goal is to help medical school borrowers expand their financial literacy, make smart decisions about student loans, and manage their student debt wisely.”
An article put out by the AAMC’s FIRST program entiltled, The Cost of Applying to Medical Residency, does a nice job of detailing specific costs associated with applying and interviewing for residency positions. More importantly, they recognize SmartMedTravel.com as a valuable and helpful resource in keeping residency interviewing costs low.
In order to provide an additional community to allow medical students to share comments and advice about traveling around the country. This group is intended to act as a forum for pre-meds and medical students who will be traveling to interviews all over the country. We understand that in this economic climate the cost of interview travel will be more of an issue this year than it has ever been in the past.
The hope is that we combine our efforts to compile the most relevant information to save money for all of our colleagues. Please contribute anything from cheap hotels, travel options, tricks etc.
Join Our Group and Contribute!
Southern California’s FlyAway Airport Shuttle from LAX is Cheap, Easy and Convenient
The FlyAway Airport Shuttle bus is one of the best deals you will ever find while traveling around the country. This is a 24 hour, 7 days a week non-stop shuttle service between LAX and several destinations in and around Los Angeles. The best part of the deal is that it only costs $4 for a one-way ticket. The three destinations to choose from include Van Nuys, Union Station and Westwood. When riding from the airport the classic blue buses pick-up passengers on the lower level of the airport terminal in areas marked by green signs reading “FlyAway Buses and Long-Distance Vans”.
To Westwood
Westwood is where UCLA is located and this service will drop you off within a few blocks of the UCLA Medical Center. Specifically, the Westwood stop is located at the UCLA parking structure 32, located at Kinross Avenue and Weyburn Place. This is a non-stop trip that takes about 25 to 45 minutes depending on traffic. According to the website, the LAX to Westwood Service runs 24 hrs a day and shuttles leave every 30 minutes on the hour and half hour from either destination.
To Union Station
Union Station is located in the heart of downtown Los Angeles. It is essentially the key hub for public and private transportation options such as Metrolink, Metro Rail System, LA County Public Transportation, City of Los Angeles Public Transit, Orange County Transit, Santa Monica Big Blue Bus and a few others. Essentially if you are traveling to a city closer to LAX than Los Angeles itself, I would investigate that cities public transportation options directly from the airport. For example there is a Santa Monica Blue Bus that goes directly from the Airport to Santa Monica. However, if the place you are headed to does not have a direct line from the airport then Union Station will most likely have a connection. Your best bet is to use the LA County Merto Transportation Trip Planner to ensure that you get the best route.
The FlyAway shuttle travels to Bus Stop 9 at the Patsaouras Transit Plaza at Union Station. Passengers will enter on the Vignes Street side of Union Station. Depending on traffic conditions, travel times each way can range from 30-50 minutes. According to the website, the LAX to Union Station Service runs 24 hrs a day and shuttles leave every 30 minutes on the hour and half hour from either destination. However from 1 AM to 5 AM the bus service runs hourly.
To Van Nuys
The LAX FlyAway service operates from the FlyAway Bus Terminal located at 7610 Woodley Avenue, Van Nuys. This is directly next to the Van Nuys Airport. Depending on traffic conditions, travel times each way can range from 35-60 minutes. According to the website, the LAX to Union Station Service runs 24 hrs a day and shuttles leave every 30 minutes on the hour and half hour from either destination. From 4:30 AM to 9:30 AM the bus leaves every 15 minutes. However from 12 AM to 4 AM the bus service runs hourly.
I know LA seems like a tough sell on using public transportation. However it seems confusing because there are tons and tons of options. The best bet is to use the LA County Merto Transportation Trip Planner to ensure that you get the best route. However it is important to realize that the FlyAway service is an extremely convenient and cheap way that can get you to the central locations in Los Angeles County. The best part is that is a Non-Stop Service. From that point you can connect to a wealth of public transportation to get you to your final destination.
The other day Randon and I were talking and came up with the idea of having a trip planner on the website to help people compare cities when traveling on multi-segment trips, especially to those places with which you might be unfamiliar. And now we’ve released the trip planner.
We think the most useful feature is the ability to see if your favorite budget airline travels to the cities you’ve selected so you can better arrange travel dates, if you have that flexibility. As always, if you have any ideas to make the feature better, please let us know. It’s always a work in progress.
Thanks to a user’s suggestion, we now have a new way to search for the city in which you’re interested. There is a large box at the top of the home page, and then every other page has the search box in the top right corner (this page too). Start typing and some suggestions will appear. Click on whichever city you want. It will find a match based on airport code, the city’s name or state, residency program, or medical school. The interactive map on the home page still works, but this adds another way for users to search.
BlogMarks
Furl
Newsvine
Rojo
Email This to a Friend
If you like this then please subscribe to the 
