<p>Our only restriction was the 300 mile rule and both kids knew it well in advance. We took a map and drew a 300 mile circle with our house at the center. They had to choose a college that fell outside the circle. We wanted them well “away” at college. It almost worked: S1 was 2500 miles away and S2 only made it 200 miles away. But he understood that we only wanted to see him back at school breaks and summer.</p>
<p>When I saw “300 mile rule”, I thought you would be talking about needing to be inside that circle, not outside! Most kids do go within a couple of hundred miles of their home to college so that is an interesting restriction. Since S2 did not choose a college that met that restriction, it sounds like it was not a hard and fast rule.</p>
<p>My kids each only applied to UW-Madison.</p>
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<p>I take it financial or other concerns that may make in-state public schools attractive choices were not a problem for your family (or you live in a place like PA where the in-state public schools are expensive with poor financial aid)?</p>
<p>We don’t want our kid to attend any school where excellent healthcare for her condition is not readily available. So, she needs to be in a fairly big city. Large cities and towns also fit her personality. </p>
<p>However, it’s now looking like she’ll have to live at home (in a big city) while attending college, as we’re using up all our money for her high school, pretty much, and we wouldn’t want her to take on loans for room and board, given her need for grad school and her low-pay career choice. </p>
<p>Oh, and she needs to attend a school through the tuition exchange program where she would not have to pay tuition. </p>
<p>No restrictions on location with first son, but boy am I glad he did not end up on the opposite coas or on the same coast but miles from a regional airport. He is in the next timezone with easy access to an airport, 2 hour nonstop flight. Younger brother wants to stay closer so it won’t be an issue, but travel logistics and cost are something I would think about. </p>
<p>Oh the one restriction was the school had to have a good, well maintained library. That tells me something about the school’s priorities.</p>
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<p>Couldn’t these limitations be simplified to “net price must be less than $X” (for a presumably small $X)? Presumably, you would not mind if she got a non-Tuition-Exchange full ride (including room and board) to a school outside of commuting range (but in a place that meets the other constraint of availability of needed medical services), right?</p>
<p>There is no way on Earth she’s getting a fullride for merit or need, so we’re hoping for the TE. </p>
<p>We have told S that it can be anywhere east of the Mississippi as long as he can get In-state tuition (scholarships to cover OOS costs). It has to be Accredited in his desired major. His restrictions are no where that has snow all winter.</p>
<p>A couple of points: don’t base your strategy on what the guidance department at Choate does unless you are attending a high school like Choate. For kids attending public high schools and who are looking at highly selective schools, having only three reaches can be a very poor strategy.</p>
<p>Also, I see a number of comments like this:
Do you really mean this? And if you’re just sort of kidding, do your kids know whether you’re serious about it or not? (My question is directed to anybody who’s made such statements.)</p>
<p>My kids have known since birth that they can go anywhere they want except WVU, if that’s what you mean. 
But if one of them had had his heart set on it, we would have gotten over it. </p>
<p>When I was a teen, I wanted to go to UCLA (we live in PA). At the time, UCLA was not impossible to get into, and not expensive for out of state (it was still free tuition for CA residents - yes, I’m old). So add in a few plane trips, and it still would have been no more expensive than the private schools I applied to and my parents were willing to pay for. Yet my mom wouldn’t let me apply to UCLA. Said “if you go there, you’ll end up living there!” To which I said "Duh … " </p>
<p>I would never have put that restriction on my daughter. This is a time to explore. I always told her that she could go to any college A) She could get in B) We could afford. However, her grades/scores are fairly low, and UCLA is, what, $50,000 a year for OOS? So she’s applying to the regional state colleges she has a chance of getting into. I wish she did have the choice of going further away to more exciting places, but that’s the way it is. </p>
<p>@SansSerif, are you sure there aren’t options for your daughter beyond regional state colleges (not that there’s anything wrong with them)? I know a couple of kids with pretty significant learning disabilities who I’m quite certain either scored fairly low on standardized tests or only applied to schools that are test-optional, but both are headed to really nice OOS LACs. </p>
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<p>For that particular restriction, I’d guess about two-thirds of the folks who say it are (sort of) joking and the other third are deadly serious. And virtually none of 'em have to act on it because the kids were raised to think that “GOTOHELLDUKE” is the full name of the school. </p>
<p>@LucietheLakie I did do a thread in the College Search forum not too long ago. And there really wasn’t much else in the way of options. (Search for the thread “College suggestions for my daughter? (Not a great student”)" )
I don’t want to hijack this thread, so if anyone has any other ideas for my daughter, please message me. Thanks!</p>
<p>@SansSerif, I’ll try to read through that thread and if I have any ideas for your daughter I’ll PM you!</p>
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My H is like this. He thinks the world will come to an end if either of our kids moves more than an hour or two away. Me, I would like for them to stay around, but not if they have to spend the rest of their lives in BS $30,000.00-a-year jobs. </p>
<p>I had a cousin who was strongly pressured to stay in state for college. She met a guy who was from another state and moved there with him after college.</p>
<p>John McKay would not allow his son to apply to Stanford (he thought that the Stanford students were the worst when it came to how opposing fans treated his USC players). The son went to Princeton instead.</p>
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For our kids, it was WVUSUCKS! 
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