Getting to Olin college

DAY STUDENT DROP-OFF AND PICK-UP INSTRUCTIONS

Drop off begins at 8:30am and ends at 9:00am (when classes begin). Please drive to 1000 Olin Way, Needham, Massachusetts 02492 for drop off and pick up of day students. Following down Olin Way, the actual drop off location is approximately 500 feet in front of parking lot A, on your left. There will be numerous staff with yellow lanyards and signs directing traffic to the appropriate location. 

Please follow the indicated traffic pattern as we are anticipating a high volume of students commuting.  This will also help you avoid traffic from other summer programs running at Olin College.

Although programs do not start until 9 am, it makes for a smoother transition if parents drop off by 8:45. This is especially true on field trip days because there is a bus that needs to leave or a commuter rail train that the students need to catch.  If students miss the commuter train, the next train may not arrive for another 45 minutes to an hour: Even arriving 5 or 10 minutes past 9 on a field trip day can cause the student to miss the day’s field trip. We greatly encourage parents to aim for an 8:45 drop-off each day so that the student can arrive in time for the day’s activities and or field trips.

Pick-up: parents of day students prefer flexibility as some students need to attend sports practices in the late afternoon and require early pick-up whereas other parents need to work late and prefer a later pick-up time. Students may be picked up from 3:30pm to 3:45pm in front of Parking lot A. If students prefer to be picked up later, they can be picked up behind the dorms.  The daytime offerings end no later than 5:00 on days when there are no field trips.  The time may be later on days when there are field trips.  On these days, students typically use their cell phones to coordinate pick-up with their parents.

If the parent has not arrived by 3:45, the students will go with the counselor to the residence halls.  Please understand that we cannot wait at the drop-off location past 3:45 for parents who run late because this means that the other students have to be delayed in beginning their afternoon activities.  If parents arrive after 3:45, they must pick their student up at the residence hall pick-up location.  Parents who pick up after 3:45 will often have to wait in line with parents picking up students from other programs.  We understand that there is typically no line at our 3:30 to 3:45 location and that the alternate line is long and parents from other programs will be angry if our parents try to circumvent the line.  We cannot help this as parents will have to wait their turn in line.

Pick-Up Directions: Proceeding from Olin Way, you will be taking a right towards the residence halls as opposed to the left (where students will be dropped off). For the residence hall pick-up location, directions will be forthcoming after we receive residence hall assignments.

Arrival by train
Our Olin College Campus is a short ride from Needham Center, a stop on the Needham Line of the commuter rail from Boston. The Needham Center Station is located at the intersection of Great Plain Avenue and Eaton Square.

To get to our Olin College location: Students may take the Needham commuter rail outbound from Boston’s South Station or Boston’s Back Bay Station. Needham Square is just a short ride to Olin College.
Train schedule can be found here.

RESIDENTIAL STUDENT ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE

Arrival and Departure Dates and Times
Residential students arrive the Sunday before their program begins and leave the Saturday after.  Some residential students do elect to arrive the first Monday or last Friday of their program due to scheduling conflicts or vacation plans or restricted choice of flights. Do not worry if your student is traveling on the less common days as typically a few students each session do arrive and depart then.

Arrival by car
Parents who are arriving by car may drop off their students between 2pm and 6pm on Sunday.  Most parents arrive around 4pm to give their students time to move into their rooms and receive a tour of the Olin College grounds before dinner. Parents who are picking up by car must pick up their students by 10am on the Saturday after their student’s program ends..

Arrival by plane
The Boston Leadership Institute offers a ground transportation package for students flying in and out of Logan Airport. For residential students, our staff will meet your student at the airport and assemble small groups of students who will share a ride in a limousine driven by Wellesley Transportation to our program and we will also organize return limousine transportation for students following the program.  The ground transportation fee is $99 for this service which includes the round trip transit, which is less than a round-trip price for a cab fare. 
Restrictions and disclaimers apply:  the student must arrive and depart at specified hours from Logan Airport and the limousine company is a separate entirely unaffiliated with the Boston Leadership Institute with separate liability and insurance. 

**DO NOT book your student on an airline that considers them to be an “unaccompanied minor.” Airlines require “unaccompanied minors” to have an escort who will wait with them at the departure gate until the plane is in the air and they do not provide this service as part of the “unaccompanied minor” fee.  The Boston Leadership Institute does not have the staff to provide, nor does the ground transportation package cover, an escort to meet students at, or accompany students to, the gate and wait, potentially hours, until the plane is in the air. Airline policies concerning the age at which a child is considered an unaccompanied minor vary widely.  Most airlines require no escort for students who are 15 and over.  Policies for students 12-14, however, vary widely by airline with some requiring no chaperones and other charging as much as $150 one-way for this service. Please check the policy of your airline in detail before booking.**

Arrival students must arrive at Logan Airport between 1pm and 6pm on the Sunday before their programs. They will meet a BLI employee at the baggage claim area. Staff cannot meet students at the arrival/departure gate. Students cannot arrive later than 6pm on the Sunday prior to programs. Parents may allow students arriving before noon to await our staff member’s arrival at noon, but BLI cannot be responsible for the students’ care before noon.

Return trip, the flight must leave no earlier than 7am on the final Saturday of the program. The last transportation service will be departing at 10 am. Students will depart in groups and will be dropped off at the airport, and are responsible for independently getting to the departure gate. 

Please keep in mind that Logan is a major airport and there is considerable distance from security check-points to some of the flight gates.  Moreover, our programs are around 35-45 minutes from the airport even with good traffic and no construction or weather delays.   (Hence a 6am flight might mean leaving our program at 4am and waking at 3:30 am—the limousine company imposes a surcharge for early morning flights and we may be unable to arrange groups that early in the morning.)

Parents are always welcome to arrange cabs on their own for students arriving and departing at flight times for which the ground transportation package cannot be offered.  Parents in the past have used Wellesley Transportation, (781) 235-2200.  The  owner reports to the Boston Leadership Institute that they have been under the same ownership for 20 years, that all drivers have worked for the company for at least 10 years and live in Wellesley, and that past contracts have included Dana Hall School and Wellesley College.

The ground transportation fee can be paid for on our website here.

PLEASE ENTER YOUR FLIGHT INFORMATION ON YOUR CAMPMINDER ACCOUNT