@circuitrider No. Not everything is walkable but most big companies are right there in downtown so still everything within 1/2 hour. As far as having a hospital nearby or having nation’s largest medical district and medical/dental/nursing schools next door are a bit different when it comes to opportunities. If we keep on Houston’s example as I’m from Texas. It has a plethora of companies including 2 dozen Fortune 500 headquarters.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companies_in_Houston
@lookingforward If he prefers smaller schools and urban setting then let him look at smaller schools in biggger cities. It doesn’t have to be a wholesale experience at a mega college.
@SoapScholar My kid goes to a LAC in a small rural town located about an hour from a city. Midway into her fourth semester, she hasn’t lacked for things to do. She also does not party, although many students at her school do. Her college has a vibrant theater, music, and arts scene, which matches her extracurricular interests, and she also volunteers in the community. If you are concerned about being bored at a LAC, check out the student organizations on campus to see if the activities sound interesting to you. Also check out the career center to see what kind of support is offered.
@Coloradomama “You cannot study 24/7. If you are not a college varsity athlete, how do you plan to fill your time? Its actually a problem to think about”. A problem?
Plenty of kids grow up in rural environments without turning into deadbeats, drunks or hook-up partners lol. My D is at an upstate NY college in a rural area. Hmm, she studies alot, yes, but she also works 15+ hours week, works out in the gym, is a Big Sister on Saturdays, tutors freshmen and sophomore math, goes to the movies, goes out for crepes or lattes, goes to all the shows at the campus theatre, joins in yoga and zumba clubs, among other things. If a kid doesn’t know what to do with their time without excessive drinking, hooking up or otherwise partying, the problem is much bigger than where they are located.
Learning to do nothing sometimes is also key to good health.
My son is in a large university in a small college town. Lots of their activities are on campus and in the small town (quite a bit to do around it). There is so much to do that they don’t have to leave but there a is very big city 2 hours away and the kids go there for major league sports, concerts, parties, etc. No one feels it is that far. There is another big city an hour away but they usually only go there for shopping trips. His campus is extremely friendly and close. He is totally happy to be there most of the time.
It is all what you look for. We are from TX and driving 2 hours is not a big deal at all (barely gets us to the other side of town). Most of the kids he is with are from the plains states and they think nothing of going that far either.
If you want everything including the museums, major league sports, huge concerts, etc. nearby maybe a larger city is better.
My son is from a large city and has had no problems with the transition but it all depends on the student!
A rural school can be a more supportive environment for low income students. There aren’t many opportunities to spend money in the sticks, so it isn’t so obvious who the rich kids are; as a result the kids without the $ to eat out/go clubbing have fewer episodes of feeling “left out”.
There are hundreds and hundreds of options between the extremes, say BU/NYU and Grinell/St Lawrence (all super btw) as examples — happy mediums exist all over the country.
A lot of those great internships the kids are expecting are based more on the school’s relationship with certain companies than on any physical proximity. A well-placed alum 75 miles away is worth a lot more than having NBC be only three stops down from campus. And in smaller towns the local hospitals and companies are often very closely aligned with local schools because the small communities thrust everyone together (in a good way.)
Another consideration is the car. My DD is in a suburban PA school that’s only 90 minutes from NYC and not much further from DC. They pile into someone’s car and head into town for a day or a weekend and it doesn’t cost a ton or require immense planning.
But honestly this whole thing comes down to who the individual kid is and what they want to experience. There are bubbles on every campus all over the country, and there are kids who need to get off the campus of every one of those same schools. There are touring bands and comedians, on-campus theater and parties, movies in public space and a ton of stuff online, so in many respects most schools can be pretty similar. If you must see tall buildings or eat at a variety of restaurants or Shop then you may need to be nearer a big city. I might quietly point out that kids who need those things might not be getting the entire point of college since all of that stuff will be there when they graduate.
I think students who do spend time exploring the city do so with other students from their school, so they’re still socializing with school mates.
Agree that finances are a big factor. I attended two urban schools, and the varying ability of students within friend-groups to afford meals out and other urban recreation was a constant issue. It can be a “water water everywhere nor any drop to drink” experience if you don’t have significant pocket money. Students at more self-contained suburban and rural schools are much more likely to spend there time on-campus enjoying low-cost or free activities that are part of the COA “bundle.” (Though this varies from campuses like make an explicit effort to be cash-free, to ones that can be more nickel-and-dime-y - it’s a good thing to research if those nickels and dimes would be a barrier.)
Finding cheap activities in large urban centers is actually easier than in small campus towns. Chicago has free museum days and steep discounts for students. There are plenty of fairly cheap independent coffee shops, if that’s your thing, and nice, but cheap bars, if that’s what you like. there are always plenty of cheap eating possibilities, from small eateries to taco trucks, and hot-dog vendors (Chicago style, of course). There are very cheap small shows in the artsy parts of town, and places for free walking tours. Large cities are wonderful places for shoe-string budget activities.
Small college towns, on the other hand, are often filled with places which cater to rich students looking for the Deluxe Student Experience, especially those around the more “Elite” colleges, like large state flagship universities, private universities, etc. The cheap eating places tend to be fast food chains, and even cheap shows can be expensive.
I experiences this exact thing, when I spent 7 years in Champaign-Urbana, which isn’t all that great a place for kids who came from low income families. The median income of UIUC student families is $109,000, and 50% come from the top 20% by income, with only 6% coming from poor families. Campus Town reflects this. The cheap places were in locations that were fairly far from campus, in areas that were almost never frequented by undergraduates, which was good, since graduate students were a lot poorer than the undergraduates.
Agree that finances are a big factor, but I think there’s ways to navigate both situations differently. You can still go out with classmates in a big city and find cheap activities, while the opposite can be done in smaller, more intimate communities.
My kid at Pitt is having an entirely different experience than I did at Texas A&M back in the day. I was never a partier and am not a huge football fan. So if you don’t do those things there isn’t a lot to do in College Station. I made do with seeing movies with friends or going out to dinner or just hanging out.
My daughter is a lot like me so she doesn’t really party and hasn’t caught a single football game at Pitt. She catches concerts, musicals, festivals frequently with friends. Her first weekend at Pitt she went museum hopping with a new friend. They can hop on a bus and go anywhere in the city. Sure sometimes they just hang out in the dorm and she does study a lot but she has so much else she can go do than I did. Frankly I’m jealous of all that she gets to do and it is very much a different experience.
She has an engineering co-op with a major engineering firm in town and many of her friends have signed on with companies in Pittsburgh as well.
Thanks everyone for your input. It seems there are plenty of opportunities and things to do regardless of the size or location of the school. Honestly I do not foresee myself partying much, but I do want to get involved on campus. Social interactions are important to me. Having lived in a more rural town, I sometimes get cabin fever.
I don’t mind a more rural environment, but I think I’d like to have access to something more urban. I suppose a fair compromise would be to keep colleges located within a reasonable distance (one hour or so) within a downtown area. I would be comfortable so long as I can hop on a bus or train (or possibly drive, not sure if I will have a car yet). Again, this is partly for having something to do, but also to have access to interviews and networking down the road.
@SoapScholar My son took the approach you’re describing, which I think is a good one. He decided on Denison, which is in a lovely small town about a half hour outside Columbus, Ohio, the state capital. Bates and Bowdoin are also in this category, less than an hour from Portland, Maine (and Bates is actually located in the smaller city of Lewiston), as is Davidson, less than an hour from from Charlotte, North Carolina. Even schools like Trinity University in San Antonio and Occidental in Los Angeles are not really in the middle of their cities and have a more suburban feel. There are lots of others as well, at least in the LAC category. (My son didn’t look at any larger schools, so I’m less familiar with the situation there.) We didn’t look at schools that are really in the middle of nowhere.