<p>I know my kids will not end up in the area where they grew up. One, at least will stay in the area that I was born and raised and where much of our extended family still resides. </p>
<p>The other will likely have to move to the West Coast , which is causing a bit of anxiety for her. Just like some posters whose children cannot wait to get back to the west coast, mine has an aversion to it, as I can undersand.</p>
<p>I went away to a school closer to where I wanted to work eventually. It made it easier to find a good job after graduation. No longer live there but that's another story.</p>
<p>This is a great question...I first saw it raised on CC about 2 years ago, and it's been in the back of my mind ever since (child likely to meet spouse in college & end up settling there). I wonder if there have been any long-term studies on this? (son has applied to schools on opposite coast...I've been willfully ignoring this possibility! lol)</p>
<p>Job offers lead to long-term relocation.</p>
<p>i am applying to mostly east coast schools....and im here in idaho...so a long ways away
the east coast is cool and all but i see myself coming back to the west coast
there is just something magical about the big skies and the huge mountains
im originally from california....i can see my self ending up there
both water and big mountains</p>
<p>I had seen friend's kids who stayed in the vicinity of their distant college after graduation and was pleased when my daughter chose one that was 2 1/2 hours away and for which our city was one of two big cities to which the student gravitated.</p>
<p>She met a wonderful Army ROTC student and, during his career, lived in three other states and two other countries.</p>
<p>The economy is fine here...but the cost of living is excessive. I don't think either of my kids will move back here for that reason. My guess is that both will go where the jobs (and therefore, the money) are once they are done with school. But I also know both would like to live in an area where the cost of living isn't quite so high. Both would like, for example, to be able to rent a decent place to live without breaking the bank.</p>
<p>I'd prefer my kids did settle elsewhere, and in college hopefully get to meet people from other parts of the country. As with the above poster, the cost of living is way too high, there are too damn many people and cars, and we're bottlenecked here (on L.I.) making it a pain to get on or off the island. I would love for them to see other parts of the country and choose for themselves. If they decide this is the place for them, then fine. If not, even better.
That said, I love my home and town. But-- except for my undergrad years I've never lived further than 15 minutes from where I grew up. I love New England and parts of the Midwest, and have yet to see the West coast. Will get there eventually!</p>
<p>Since S's graduation in 2005, he's continued to live in Los Angeles mainly because the jobs (design) are there. D graduates this spring out on the West Coast and is considering jobs all over the US including MA as well as a traveling fellowship that will keep her out of the US for 12 months. I grew up and attended college in MA, but did live out of state (ID, KS, IA, MD) for ten years before returning. I never would have predicted that, so I don't place any expectations on my kids to return home. It's important to see as much of the country while one can, just to get a better sense of this land we call "home."</p>
<p>My sister moved several states away to attend college where she met another out of state student who eventually became her husband. They have never, will never, leave the area. Many of their friends came to that area the same way. </p>
<p>Thinking it over, there are towns that have a reputation of students going to college there and either never leaving or returning later in life. On the other hand, I live in a small city in Texas. I cannot count the number of people I know who grew up here, went to Austin or Dallas or Houston for college, lived there for awhile and then moved back here once they had children.</p>
<p>Frankly, I am hoping that my son will attend college in New England and settle there. We plan on settling there once the military gig is over and it would be so nice to wind up at least somewhat close to each other. Hey, a mom can dream, right?</p>
<p>There's a bit of "the grass is greener" when a young person begins to select schools. In our case, our daughter, having been raised in a small town in rural northern MN, said "I want to attend a college near a coast." Which she did, eventually landing in Portland OR. After graduation it was easy to continue renting a house with fellow graduates, find a local job, then get attached to a local boyfriend....they just bought a house together in a Portland suburb. Which is fine with us because we love visiting the Northwest. But Florida would have been a nice alternative.....</p>
<p>I've been a MN resident ever since attending a MN college, with no desire to ever return to my Chicago hometown. So, yes, pay attention to geography when your child begins to look at schools. Since we are a nation of restless immigrants mobility is in our genes.</p>
<p>From my experience, it depends on whether the kid is moving to the East Coast or the West Coast for college (I don't have much experience with the Midwest). I think many people wind up on the West Coast, either if they grew up there or if they went to college there. Many kids from the East find California and other areas very freeing because there are fewer social rules, everyone is friendly, the weather is great, etc. I think it's much harder for Westerners to move east because they grew up in a very diverse, welcoming place. For better or for worse, society is more rigid on the East Coast. It is great for social networking and what not, but a little harder to live with, I think.</p>
<p>My wife and I like to play in the dirt. Our DS likes to play on concrete. Dirt and grass are foreign to him unless hiking and picture taking.</p>
<p>Who knows? My daughter graduated college in 2007, lived in China for a year and is now living at home. Who knows where she will be next year or in five years. :)</p>
<p>I'm one of those long-term relocators -- I grew up in Ohio and moved out to Massachusetts for undergrad. I stayed for grad school and married one of the natives, so I'm planning to be here for the long haul.</p>
<p>My family (all of whom live in the same county in which they were all born) does not like having me so far away and are constantly in the process of trying to lure me and my husband to Ohio. :)</p>
<p>Although I can't speak from experience, this is what I'm kind of afraid of. As a HS senior in MA, I'm not applying to any schools that are less than a 4 hour drive away - and I'm applying to USC as well! I want to get out of MA for my college experience, but ideally I would love to live in Boston after graduation. I'm a little terrified that I'll go to school far away and never want to return. And my mom is most certainly afraid of the same exact thing!</p>
<p>Weighing in with our extended families. My parents (obviously) & all my 6 sibs & I have all ended up living in HI. This is in spite of the fact that my parents went to college & grad school in the midwest, 5 of my sibs & I all got our terminal degrees thousands of miles from HI--CA, MI, MA, OR. This is also in spite of the fact that some of my sibs even purchased homes & began their families in other states. None have left once they returned to HI & re-established their roots here. </p>
<p>Hubby's sibs both moved to SF, where they lived for a while. Both separately went to grad school in the midwest & both have ended up living in SF.</p>
<p>Lots of people have so many reasons for choosing where they want to live & plant roots. My S has said he really wants to move back to HI someday but imagines he will probably need to get experience in his field (engineering) in CA or similar first so he will be able to get a better job. The economy is really rocky in HI & the housing prices remain very high. My D isn't sure but thinks she may also want to live in HI but isn't sure whether there will be a job or housing she can afford here. A lot depends on the economy, how "rooted" your kid is to where s/he grew up, what happens to them when they're in college, and factors unknown. We did travel quite a bit (in the US) with our kids from the time they were 6 months old & they are very fond of their extended family, all of whom live in HI.</p>
<p>My friend's D has been bitten by the travel bug & she's currently a HS junior, having a year in Italy! The friend expects that she'll be travelling the world. Her S has enlisted & will likely be deployed, so he'll be travelling too.</p>
<p>Bill Clinton went to Georgetown, did eventually go back to Arkansas but you couldn't keep him away from DC for long...and looks like he may be going bact to DC yet again. (please don't bump this thread into the politics subforum!).</p>
<p>In my own family, we recently moved out west from the NY metro area and our D plans to go back east for college...and quite possibly will stay there. If she does that, then she will be making a 'faraway' college choice with respect to the parents but it will be a return home of sorts.</p>
<p>Oh My Heart. Son was senior in h.s. when I first saw this question on cc. He went to, and graduated from, college 5,000 miles away four years later. I knew it might mean the end of him living in his birth town (and mine), but also knew the college was the best fit for him. Yes, his long term relationship from high school finally dissolved and yes he and his girlfriend from college are still in the college town. She is not from Cambridge either, but they have found work and a life together there.</p>
<p>I appreciated very much the advance warning from CC those many years ago, that going to a college far away might mean a new life partner with associated choices.</p>
<p>His opportunities and opening up a new world were more important to me than trying to hold him closer to home. He was not born to his parents to keep us company and be our little pet. He knows we love him very much and miss him terribly, but he is free to discover his own path. </p>
<p>Sniff. Even if it is so very far away....</p>
<p>I graduated from a school in NYC, but moved back to the DC area almost seconds after my last class was over; didn't make it to graduation, even. I wanted to be near my grandmother; if it hadn't been for her, perhaps I'd have stayed in NYC. Perhaps not....</p>
<p>My mother grew up in DC and graduated from GW; her father came to DC for law school (G'town) from New England, and stayed on after college. </p>
<p>My husband's family moved around a few times when he was growing up, from MA to IL, and eventually to FL (so his parents retired to TN, since they'd already done time in FL :D); H got his bachelor's in FL, but then went off to grad school in Ithaca (MA at IC, PhD at Cornell) and stayed there for 30 years before moving here last year to marry me (poor sod!). His brother got his PhD in Colorado, and sure enough, is still there all these years later. </p>
<p>My one and only kid is itching to get out of this area, and even the country, already, and frankly, I'm ready for him to go off to see the world (when he's old enogh), because he just doesn't get how good he has it where he is!</p>
<p>Once my H and I retire, we want to live in Europe for a while (Croatia or Slovenia, perhaps) and then after that, who knows? Maybe a summer home in Ithaca, and a winter home someplace, anyplace, else!</p>