<p>So I live in California and eventually plan to move to the east coast or even out of the country. I was looking at a couple colleges in Florida and was wondering what you would suggest. Should I try for them and worry about distance later?</p>
<p>Also I don't really plan on coming home anyways so yeah.</p>
<p>Sure, it doesn’t hurt to apply. Make sure you also have safety schools, which must meet three criteria: you have be able to get in, pay for it, and like it. In most (but not all) cases, your safeties will be in-state.</p>
<p>Just make sure when you are figuring the costs of the school of that distance that you budget for transportation and make sure the schools are easy to get to from an airport. </p>
<p>Its very easy to think that XYZ school is near the airport just by looking at the school’s website, when in reality it is a few hours away.</p>
<p>Also, figure out how you’re gonna transfer your dorm stuff back and forth. There’s a lot of logistics to this.</p>
<p>Most Californians at my Georgian college end up renting a storage space and putting their stuff in it over the summer. Cost of shipping, assuming you don’t want to ship a mini fridge, is usually less than $200 one way, and less on the way back as there’s usually less stuff. </p>
<p>I’d recommend looking at schools only one plane ride away, unless the cost or academic difference is such that taking two flights makes sense. For instance, if you earned one of Alabama’s top scholarships, then by all means, take the connecting flight to Birmingham. Similarly if you got into Amherst and can afford it, go to Amherst. </p>
<p>Many schools run shuttles to the nearest major airport to help get their OOS students to the school. For instance, my high school friend goes to University of Wyoming and the school runs shuttles at the beginning of the school year, and during breaks to the Denver airport. So even though she’s out in the least populated state in the nation, she’s never had an issue of going home for breaks. </p>
<p>As I previously mentioned, I’m from California and went back east for college. The only real issues I’ve encoutered are that I can basically only go home twice a year. Once for winter break and once for summer vacation. Other than that, it’s not worth it to go back home. Fortunately, only about 1/4 of the students are in-state, so the school runs free or low cost programs during breaks, so it’s not as big of an issue as it would be if I went to a school that was 90% in state students.</p>