@ucbalumnus “Could this be related to how good/bad in-state financial aid is in each state?”
Possibly that is a contributing factor.
I think that a lot of it is because Michigan has two state flagships (Michigan and Michigan State) and residents and alums seem to feel more attached to these schools than in Illinois. Also the directionals in Michigan seem to more respected than in Illinois. Also, Illinois parents learn more about out of state options from other parents.
My impression from being in Michigan is that it is a combination of the quality of the state flagships, especially UM, as well as the cost. A lot of parents I’ve talked to don’t see any reason to pay OOS or private school costs when the state flagship school is an elite institution at the level of UM. Loyalty from alumni parents plays into it as well with many kids dreaming their whole lives of attending either UM or MSU like their parents did.
As far as the OP, I’m wondering if the mom was asking about school recommendations in a fishing kind of way, hoping that BGSU will be among those recommended and she will be verified in what she already wants for her child.
“Also, Illinois parents learn more about out of state options from other parents.”
North Shore, Hinsdale, Oak Brook, Naperville, Lincolnshire, etc parents, perhaps. I think you may be extrapolating your affluent suburban milieu (Glenbrook? Stevenson?) to Illinois as a whole.
@Pizzagirl “North Shore, Hinsdale, Oak Brook, Naperville, Lincolnshire, etc parents, perhaps. I think you may be extrapolating your affluent suburban milieu (Glenbrook? Stevenson?) to Illinois as a whole.”
That is a good guess, but I am specifically thinking about Illinois being a state that has one of the largest net outflows of college students. Certainly the areas you listed have very high rates of students leaving the state, but there are a fair number in other districts too.
Another driver is U of I’s need to admit increasing numbers of OOS and International students. That reduces the places available for in-state students.
We have the Midwesterners’ perspective going on here. Wisconsin also has a great flagship so students tend to ignore OOS schools (with the exception of Minnesota because of reciprocity). I see no reason the student needs to leave his state but I also see that a few hours’ drive should not be a barrier. I only got 8 miles from home (fortunately for me no reciprocity back then as UW had much more up to date chemistry facilities back in my day than U of M) but was a world apart. I never went home- why do so when I would want to be back in the campus area to socialize? Took 2 1/2 hours for son’s college trips but easily doable (that’s where he ended up, not because we insisted he stay close).
Illinois students who can afford it often choose Wisconsin- the campus is so much different than the cornfields of central Illinois! Minnesota/Wisconsin kids often choose to leave town, or the distances are similar. Michigan/Wisconsin kids don’t seem to consider the other state in many numbers- could be the lake between us (or driving through Chicagoland) and similar opportunities for each.
The main issue here is that the parents need more flexibility so the student ends up at the best academic fit for his abilities instead of staying closer to home. The mother needs a reality check regarding her son’s college lifestyle. He won’t be home except for some weekends and then should be staying on campus to benefit from that regardless of the distance involved. Stretching the time limits to perhaps 3 hours should definitely be done. That would provide some top caliber choices instead of lesser schools.
Good points. I agree WI is a very popular choice in Chicagoland, for good reason.
Heck my kid was 45 min from home and he only came home for TG, Xmas, spring break just like his twin 1000 miles away.
My daughter toured the Chicago schools and even liked one quite a bit. But ultimately the “too close to home” factor was a definite check in the minus column for any school within a 500 mile radius of Chicago. I think she’s gained something from going to a school that’s a good distance from where we live and where she grew up—it’s HER home, someplace totally separate from her father and me. And that’s a good thing, IMO. For all of us.
I agree. Proximity was a logistical upside, but a conceptual downside. Especially after all the $ spent to tour the country 
It’s no secret that UIUC is one of the more costly public universities for instate students…and the school does not guarantee to meet full need for all acceoted students.
University of Michigan meets full financial need for all accepted instate students.
Another Midwesterner here…from Ohio. In my class of 1100 or so HS classmates back in the Stone Age…MOST went to college in Ohio…and to one of the many public universities. Some went to Michigan or Wisconsin…or Purdue. Some to Pitt. A smattering went to schools on the east coast…MIT, Harvard, Brandeis, for example. Many went to smaller colleges in Ohio…Oberlin, Denison, Ashland, Otterbein, Ohio Wesleyan,
Affluent suburban school. 95% went to college of some kind, and of the remaining…I think most went into the military.
There could be several reasons why the family hasn’t considered schools outside of their region. Maybe they can’t afford to pay for their kids to dorm. Not all families can. If there are other chidren, they may be concerned with fairness. If they can’t pay for all their children to dorm they may not want to let any, even if they earn scholarships that help pay for it.
The student may not want to go away. My son’s top choice was our local public because he loves the area (it has mountains, hiking trails, rivers, ski areas, and easy access to NYC), and students can cross register at 2 very good private colleges. He applied to a dozen schools all over the country, got into all of them, and seriously considered several, but this was the one he wanted.
Students who want to stay in state and not spend a lot don’t always want to dorm. Our son didn’t. We offered to pay for him to dorm last year (as a freshman) but he chose to live at home because he wanted to spend money on traveling instead. Not dorming somewhere hasn’t hurt his social life any. He and his friends went out of the country once this summer and are getting ready to take their third OOS trip. They’re already discussing a trip to Europe next summer and planning how to fit it in around internships.
I would give the family information if they ask, mention the NPCs, and tell them about scholarships if you think their son may qualify. Otherwise, I’d leave them alone to make the decision that works best for their family.
A lot of people simply have no interest in living elsewhere. Their families are here, and they’re not drooling over supposed opportunities elsewhere. I think the point made upthread about kids in Nebraska not feeling sad that they don’t live in a shipping container in SF is a very good one.
My son had a classmate who was a NMF, high GPA kid. He wanted a college that he could commute to so that he could live at home. It wasn’t a financial thing (his mother is a physician). He just wasn’t ready to live on campus. He also didn’t want a CC. He wound up at Gordon College, a small Christian LAC where he is thriving.
The valedictorian of my son’s high school class insisted on living at home for college. He was the oldest child in an immigrant family, very religious and tied to his specific immigrant religious community. He had no interest in living on any campus, anywhere. He got a full tuition merit scholarship at the main local public, and that was that. The school’s administration, which really liked to count Ivy coup, tore its hair out, but they couldn’t convince him to apply anywhere else. (Lower ranked classmates went to Harvard, Yale, Penn, Brown, MIT, Smith, Swarthmore, Haverford, and Chicago.)
Those of us who thought it was normal for kids to go relatively far away to college can run into a problem my wife and I are facing now: A child goes to college 800 miles away, and winds up getting married to a classmate who has never lived more than a 30-minute drive from her parents’ house (and doesn’t intend to start now). Not fair!
Was it ever normal in the last 70 years or so to go far away to college?
When I graduated from high school, about a third went to four year colleges, while many of the rest went to the local community college. Of those going to four year colleges, most went to in-state publics, mainly ones within the region. However, a large percentage did live on or near campus, since the universities were not that convenient to commute to (unlike the community college). A small number did scatter to distant out-of-state colleges; seems that the biggest concentration was LDS members going to BYU.
Then again, the definition of “far away” to college may have changed with transportation technology and cost. A generation ago, airplane travel was more expensive, and cars were less pleasant and less reliable for long drives. And finding out about a college took a lot more effort and lead time than looking around on its web site.
Another issue with Illinois kids is that frequently the parents want to move out as well. We know several parents who intend to relocate from from the state as soon as their last child is packed off to college. They don’t see the point in staying on a sinking ship, so their kids don’t have a strong interest in staying either.
I guess when I think of far away, I think of out of state at least. I mean really…Ohio is way smaller than say…Texas or California where you canneasilynbe a LONG drive from home. LONG,
I lived in NE Ohio and went to Ohio University…about a 3 1/2 hour drive. It never seemed like a long way…and even back in the Stone Age, there were buses one could take.
It sounds like this family lives in NW Ohio someplace if Bowling Green is very near home for them. Maybe some time with mapquest and the college addresses will help,them know just how far or not far away some of these schools are.
Then again…if it’s a financial issue…that is another story. But even with that…it’s possible,that the net cost for a,college further away than BG could be less.
And to a poster above…Bowling Green is a full university with many, many majors. It is NOT a teachers college.
@ucbalumnus : In my [preppy private day] school graduating class, 100% of the kids went to college, and exactly one went to the local flagship public research university. A couple of others went to local Catholic colleges. My school had just purchased a failing Catholic girls’ school, lock, stock, and nuns, and my class was the first combined class. The three or four kids who stayed local were all girls who had been at the Catholic school. The boys didn’t necessarily go so far away – the most popular colleges in my class were LACs that were 3-4 hours away by car, although lots of kids went farther than that.
Thinking back, I realize that my parents imposed a geographical limit on me, although it was more in terms of “There’s nothing you can get at Stanford or Berkeley that you can’t get at Harvard or Yale that we’re willing to pay for” than “You have to stay within 200 miles of home.” (If my parents had had their way, they would have told me I had to go to college within half a mile of the Widener Library.) I forget that, because my sisters went to Stanford and Arizona, so obviously the limit got lifted for them. I didn’t really feel geographically limited, since all of the colleges I was interested in (besides the ones in California) were going to be OK, and they were plenty far from home.
My wife also had an explicit geographical limit, closer to the three-hour drive. But because her family lived in Western Massachusetts at the time, whatever the limit was included Ithaca, New York City, Providence, and Boston, so she didn’t exactly feel constrained, either. In her family, as it turned out, everyone settled near her terminal educational institution, college or graduate school, depending. In my family, only my Stanford sister settled near her college. The rest of my siblings and I, and indeed my parents, too, all ended up living pretty far from our colleges/grad schools.
I think it is different for every family. And a lot depends on whether the parents can let go.
We live in the Chicago area and had an abundance of near by choices when DS was looking. He chose a school 600 miles away. I cried and cried and cried (not showing him those tears), but I knew it was the best school for him.
When he graduated he wrote me a letter. Among many things, he thanked me for allowing him the freedom to go to that school.
"Those of us who thought it was normal for kids to go relatively far away to college
Was it ever normal in the last 70 years or so to go far away to college?"
My college search 30 years ago wasn’t appreciably different from my kids’ insofar as my parents took me to other parts of the country. It so happened it was a driving trip rather than a flying trip but that was just a function of the specific colleges I was visiting, not because we couldn’t afford or were intimidated by flying. Honestly I think this is socioeconomic. My Missouri high school sent plenty of kids to the east and west coasts, because it had generally well to do parents sending them. Likewise, while my spouse wound up going to college in the same geographic area, his siblings went far away.
The expense of travel is something to consider…that has to be added to the budget…also there is additional stress trying to get home for Thanksgiving…
My older DD looked in a 4 hour driving radius (Northeast). My youngest looked in a 2 hour radius as SHE didn’t want to be that far from home. She has some anxiety issues so it made sense for her.
But I wanted both to gain independence in a way that was good for them.
I do see people on CC who encourage their kids to apply anywhere in the USA…even though there are equivelent schools nearer…it seems “cool”…but then later when their kid can’t make it home for Thanksgiving or barely makes Christmas flights because of the snow it isn’t so cool.
On the other hand, I don’t think it is good to keep a kid close just because you want to control them.