<p>Hi, I am stuck in a tough choice for which college to attend next year. My time to decide is quickly decreasing and I am still stuck between 3 schools. They are:</p>
<p>Temple University (which has offered me their honors program and honors housing and 7k/yr scholarship)
University of Wisconsin - Madison (awarded no money to me)
University of Connecticut (awarded no money to me)</p>
<p>My top choice is UW Madison, as it is a much better school than the other two. I would hate to turn down such an opportunity at a very good school. However, this top choice may be problematic due it's distance from home. I live in Massachusetts and my parents seem to believe that I will be wanting to come home more than three times a year (thanksgiving, winter break, and spring break). Of course, my parents would like me to either go to UConn or Temple because they are so much closer...</p>
<p>So... is/has anyone on here going/gone to school far from home? What were the cons of being far away? I feel guilty to be requesting that I go so far away from my family, but I strongly believe that UW Madison is worth it. How often do you feel the need to go home? UW Madison is a gigantic school, and I can't see myself running out of things to do there. Lastly, is going to a better school far away worth it?</p>
<p>I live in CT, but go to school in Minnesota. I suppose the cons would be having to pay to fly home, but I only had to come home three times - for Thanksgiving/Christmas break (we have a long break so this is only one flight - I’m home Thanksgiving-New Year’s), for spring break, and presumably for the end of the year. I was a tiny bit homesick at the beginning, and I did miss my family; however, I got over that pretty quickly. In general, I like the feel of the mdiwest as compared to the East Coast, and I’m glad that I made the decision to experience living in a different part of the country for college. If you feel like Madison will be the best place for you, and will offer the most opportunities, then I’d recommend going there.</p>
<p>I am from AK and will be going to school in MN/IA/NE (most likely MN). For me, there really aren’t a lot of nearby choices. UMN would actually be quite close compared to most other schools because there are nonstop flights yearround.</p>
<p>Many of my son’s friends went to the east or west coasts (from Missouri). Few, if any, of them have ever come back for Thanksgiving. Winter break, spring break, maybe summer. For many of them, not even all of summer, because they get research jobs on campus for most of the summer.</p>
<p>I don’t want to discourage you from going to UW (I’m an alum), but you need to be realistic about how often you will be able to make a long trip home. Travel is pretty time consuming, and of course, costly. There really is a big difference with regards to how often you will be seeing your family.</p>
<p>Discover the magic of skyping. We talk to our kids, face to face about every other week and it’s a totally different experience from speaking by phone. Your parents may feel a lot better about you being far away if they can lay eyes on you once in a while and vice versa.</p>
<p>As for how often you want to go home, our experience is that the first semester is the hardest. Some people do get homesick (skype away…) But after that, it was a negotiation to get our kids home for the holidays. Seems like they always had invitations from friends or from the families of a girlfriend/boyfriend with whom we were sharing their time, or some school-organized program.</p>
<p>Ds are 1,000 miles away. I agree that Skype is a great resource, as are unlimited calling plans. Going to college in a different part of the country can be a wonderful developmental and growth opportunity. Wisconsin’s a great place - if you’re in-state for UConn that’d obviously be cheaper, but the difference between in-state at CT and OOS at WI is only about $13K per year - much less than many other in-state / OOS comparisons.</p>