So I got into a school that is a 24 hour drive away from my home. It’s the University of San Diego, and I really loved it, but I don’t know what it will be like to not live in driving distance from my home. Any advice?
You can fly. Look it up.
They have a very nice airport.
Of course you can drive 24 hours (2-3 days) away to school, but very few people do it. My niece went to USD from Denver. First two years she did not take a car,(although her roommate and BF did). The other years her father drove her car out, and he flew back. If she went home for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, she flew.
USD has Zip cars.
Unless you are going to school within 200 miles of your home, it is almost always going to be faster to fly home. If you are worried about contact with your family, there are phones and Skype and emails and even snail mail. I always think of the movie A River Runs Through It when the subject of going ‘away’ to school comes up. He got on a train in Montana and headed to Dartmouth, a school he had never set eyes on. He said he rarely went home in all his years there. Letters were the method of communication, maybe an occasional telegram or phone call. Now you can communication instantaneously.
My kids both went far away. One of them gets homesick sometimes. Facetime helps as does packages from home.
Will your parents be able to afford coming for Parents Weekend? Even if it is just the first year it helps us, the parents, with our homesickness for you!
If your college has a fall break, perhaps a four day weekend, make sure that students can stay on campus. Will there be a charge for staying on campus? Can your parents afford to fly you home at Thanksgiving? If they purchase the tickets by September they will get the best prices.
The logistics of what to do with your stuff over summer will need to be worked out. One kid and her friends used a rented storage for the summers. That was a little bit of a pain but they worked it out. Other kid’s college has ample storage as long as it is not an item like furniture.
An upside to going to school far from home is that you get to experience a different part of the country. Even though you will be in the US, regional foods will be different, attitudes to cultural issues may emphasize aspects you hadn’t considered before, local environmental issues will be different. Layout how many miles it is over a map of Europe - no one expects Italy to be the same as Portugal. Understanding other parts of the country is important, especially in today’s political climate.
We have one that is 3.5 hours away, and she only comes home for breaks. We have another that is 7.5 hours away, and she has been home more often, either by ride share or flying. It’s not to see us though, it’s to see her boyfriend.
@Snowball City has brought up some good points to consider.
Are you the type of person to get homesick?