<p>I will be a rising senior next year and as I look at colleges, one that interests me possibly more than any other is one in Portland, where I've lived my entire life. Whenever people ask me what I want in a college, I say I want it to be at least an hour away but still in the West. However, other colleges seem a little bit off because they don't have the strong liberal atmosphere that I've grown up in (and love). My question is, if i ended up attending a college in the city I have always lived in, will I regret it? I never planned on staying in the city not because I don't love it but because I want to be able to experience new things.</p>
<p>It’s absolutely normal to attend college in the same city you grew up in. Portland definitely does have a desirable atmosphere. However, there are plenty of other liberal areas of the country: Seattle, San Francisco, Washington DC, New York City, Philadelphia, etc. Also, look into the liberal college towns, namely Chapel Hill, Ithaca, and Ann Arbor (there are dozens more).</p>
<p>I know that there are other liberal areas! I’ve visited a lot of them. However, it seems what I want for my college experience can only be filled by a small number of schools. The thing is, I want to be out of Portland, but also close. Not on the east coast and preferably in Oregon, Washington, or California. That coupled with what I want in a school there are only a few. On top of that, they are difficult to get into. I guess I will either need to broaden my criteria or settle for something that isn’t perfect. I may learn in a few months that some of the criteria I have are no longer valid.</p>
<p>There is no reason to rule out Portland. Are you looking at LACs? There are some comparable ones outside Portland and in WA like Whitman.</p>
<p>After an extensive college search, it turned out that my S’s dream school was close to our home. During his four years of college, he loved being a part of the city after growing up in the suburbs. We did sit down and talk before he made a final college choice --basically we promised to treat my S as if he were hours away – we never “stopped by because we were in the neighborhood”, we did not expect him to come home for random birthdays, etc. Although he was physically close, he needed his independence. However, when his computer broke, he was happy when I could stop by and bring him our extra one to use until his was repaired! He graduated this spring and his college experience was wonderful. And he is going to grad school two plane rides away from home next year.</p>
<p>going away to college is a major part of helping you grow up! needing to be in a liberal setting because a "strong liberal atmosphere that I’ve grown up in(and love) " means you most defintely need to get out their and grow as a person. you might wind up with the same belief system and yearning to return to portland after college,more likely you will benefit from being challenged!</p>
<p>Yeah the school I am talking about is Reed. I have been looking at similar schools like Whitman, Pitzer, and Willamette. I guess I will just have to visit and see for myself. Reed is about 20-30 minutes from my house so it isn’t as if I will be in the same neighborhood. However, I do live close to downtown and not in a suburb. I guess there are advantages and disadvantages to living far away and close.</p>
<p>Nothing wrong with staying close to home. As others have said it is completely normal. My folks both grew up in NY City and went to school in NY City. Then my Dad got drafted into the army and they never lived in NY City again. You have the rest of your life to live away from home.</p>
<p>Reed is a really cool school as are the other schools you mention. Believe me, I am in LA and many kids go to school locally at UCLA, USC, Loyola, etc. Few of them come home everyday unless they commute. If you live on campus you will be very independent and have that going away feel that you want and everything else.</p>
<p>My opinion on this is that if it’s a large city, you can DEFINITELY make it a brand new experience. Do you know where college students hang out? And if so, have you been to those places? If the answer is no, you will be having new experiences. You’ll go to new places, be among thousands of people you didn’t know, and have a new world of on-campus options and going places you never explored with new people that you’ve met.</p>
<p>I highly recommend living on-campus. A friend of mine went to Wake Forest, here in Winston-Salem, and chose to live at home with her parents. She was miserable, to the point where she seriously considered making up a story about hating Wake (she loved the school) and transferring. For her second semester, she was able to get a space in a dorm, and it totally turned her experience around. She made a lot of friends and is a lot happier.</p>
<p>I’ve known several people from this city who went to Wake, and none of them have felt like it wasn’t a new experience. And Portland is an even bigger city, with more to explore. If you feel at home at a college, go for it. Make new friends and get involved with campus life, and I don’t think you’ll regret it at all.</p>
<p>It sounds like you really enjoy the city you live in. You should stay there. I lived on campus my first year, and commuted my second and both provided really different, but important, experiences. </p>
<p>I can’t say if you’ll regret it or not. Only you can really know how you feel about it. I can tell you that i don’t regret it, and if i had to do it again, i would.</p>
<p>Hmm, this is a tough question. You will undoubtedly have lots of amazing experiences at Reed, regardless of your proximity to your parents. I agree that you should not live at home; Northwestern kids I know who decided not to dorm have no social lives and (in my opinion) aren’t getting the full college experience, whatever that means. I do agree with what others have said, that you should consider similar schools (Whitman, Pitzer, etc.), though it will be a challenge finding schools as liberal or eccentric as Reed.</p>
<p>Nationwide, many, many more students commute to college than go away from home for their educations. This means that studying in the same town as you live in is actually the norm. It really truly is OK to stay in your home city for college.</p>
<p>Reed is going to be a reach for you so make sure you look at other schools as well. Have you looked at L&C?</p>
<p>Many years ago, I went to college 15 minutes away from my home and from my high school. I lived on campus and I might as well have been hours away – I came home for vacation and otherwise lived separately and independently. Simply going to college in the community you grew up in is not a problem if you approach it with as a new experience, not a continuation of life at home with your parents and high school friends. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>The college I attended my freshman and sophomore years was almost exactly as far away from my parents’ house as my office is from my own house. a high school teacher advised me to wait until Thanksgiving to go home for a visit; I essentially followed her advise (except for a two-hour round trip to vote).</p>
<p>It’s important to have some emotional separation from your parents while you’re establishing your adult identity, but you don’t have to go far to achieve that.</p>
<p>After I transferred to a school three time ones away my junior year, I gained an appreciation for the advantages of proximity to your parents. (Like a lot of people, I ended up settling permanently in the metropolitan area where I finished my education. As my parents enter their dotage, I find myself wishing I had found a way to live closer to them.)</p>
<p>@Erin’s dad- I am not sure why you would say it is a reach for me as you don’t have any stats or anything… However L&C could practically be my backyard so I am pretty much ruling that out.</p>
<p>If I went to Reed, I would definitely live in a dorm. It’s across town from me and my parents already give me a lot of freedom, so I don’t think they would expect to be seeing me much. The only thing is that I will probably want to live in portland/go to OHSU for med school (really looking into the future now) but I don’t think living in the same city until you’re 30 allows you the same experience as going elsewhere would be. It is just something to consider.</p>
<p>For the people commenting that you went to college in your hometown, do you live there now or elsewhere?</p>
<p>I meant to say, “three time zones away” not “three ones away”.</p>
<p>I no longer live in my home town. I grew up just outside a small city with a shrinking population. All of my high school friends live elsewhere now, except for one who moved back for family reasons years later.</p>
<p>I’d guess that in city like Portland, a much higher percentage of your high school friends will stay, or return after college.</p>
<p>I attend college in the same city I lived in since I was 12. The school was 20 minutes away from m house. I have no regrets. I love Atlanta and I want to move back there when I am finished my graduate education. I moved away for graduate school, but actually my second-choice grad school was in Atlanta as well, and the company I would really love to work for is headquartered in Atlanta.</p>
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<p>I still live here. Granted, though, i’ve only recently graduated (I <em>officially</em> finished about a week ago) and i was commuting this year from home. </p>
<p>I live in a great city, full of amazing friends, and this is where i want to spend the rest of my life. Granted though, there’s still much i need to experience, many places i need to travel. Perhaps, in the future, i might find myself in a city i love far more than Los Angeles. It’s very possible since i’ll likely go to graduate school in the east coast. That’s all to be determined i suppose…</p>
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You mentioned some of your stats on another thread. My DD1 was waitlisted at Reed as a NMF with a 3.95 GPA.</p>