<p>Well, I have a big decision to make soon and I need some advice.</p>
<p>I got accepted into the perfect school for me
It has a great physical therapy program, I can run for them and it has a good mix of people which I was looking for, but the only problem is that it's only 10 minutes away from home.</p>
<p>Im afraid that it being so close to home that it will feel like a bigger version of high school, and I'd be missing out on the actual experience of having a roommate and exploring a new city and state.</p>
<p>So my question is for those that stayed home for college did you regret it?</p>
<p>I can give you a different sort of perspective--I went to school 10 hours (by car) from my home. I realize that this isn't extremely far away, but it still have given me an opportunity to experience a different part of the country and one that I have grown to love. When I graduate I know I will either be living in NC or VA or perhaps DC metro area, but NOT New Jersey. Experience something different, that is what college is for. <em>steps off of soap box</em></p>
<p>It depends on you - do you want to go away from home? explore a new city? live independently? is your college in a small town, where there's not much to explore, or is it a big city - I grew up outside NYC and go to college here, and there's still new stuff to do/see all the time. I'm still getting a new experience because i grew up in the suburbs and go to college in Manhattan. You say this is your dream college, so you have to decide if it's worth it. 10 mins away is practically on campus anyhow. </p>
<p>I commute from like an hour away and I hate it. i spend like 2 hours a day traveling, it sucks, but I feel like it's not worth the money to dorm, because my college isn't a traditional college - we have no campus, even those who dorm are scattered in random apartments throughout the city, even if you "dorm" you end up commuting after freshman year. I actually hate a lot of things about my college which is why i'm transferring out.</p>
<p>I go to school farther away. I love almost every aspect about being away from home with maybe the exception that when my dog became ill it was a long drive to visit her. I still did, but it was inconvenient and I wish I could have saw her more until she finally passed</p>
<p>I have many friends that decided to stay home for college. While they enjoy their experience I feel like they still have that HS immaturity to them, because they still rely so heavily on their parents, and are still forced live by their parents rules. But they have made new friends in the college that they do attend and like their experience.</p>
<p>So it depends. Like I said, I would have loved to be closer when my dog was sick, but thats the only time I would have wanted to go to college closer to home.</p>
<p>Also, I'm not the best at being social so being far away from all my friends helped force me into making new friends. I think that I would have just had the same friends in HS if I stayed home to go to college because I would have remained in my comfort zone.</p>
<p>If you really like the college, it may be worth it though, especially if you're getting a lot of money from them. You may only be ten minutes away, but perhaps you could still dorm there? I knew a couple of people who went to college nearby their parents but opted to dorm and they kind of had the best of both worlds...</p>
<p>Our S will apply to USC next year. We live just ten minutes away. His Dad is on faculty there so if he's admitted, there will be tuition remission. The deal we made with him is that he can live away from home. We recommend it. When his Dad attended the UW as an undergrad, he was living in Seattle at the time but lived in the dorms. An important part of the arrangement, whether the student is living away from home ten minutes or ten hours away is that the parents respect their space and independence (e.g. no unnanounced visits except in cases of emergency.)</p>
<p>Honestly, no matter where you go, many aspects of college are going to be similar to high school. College is like high school if you lived in dorms. The freshman are typically immature, and the first part of college is a bunch of nervous freshman trying to find their group, and then looser cliques develop. It's not bad, its just the social setup isn't much different. Just don't go into college thinking it's going to be completely different from high school. I don't think distance really matters, I think it's most important to attend a school that you like and get a good vibe from.
I go to school 2.5 hours away, which for me is a perfect distance in that I get to experience another city but can get home if I need to.</p>
<p>I went to school 25 minutes from home and love it. My dream was to get out of my state, I applied to 3 schools on the West Coast (I'm from MD) and 2 in PA...and ended up at UMD, the only in-state school I applied to. College is a different world from high school, and as long as your pour yourself into campus (especially if you live on campus), it won't register that you're so close to home.</p>
<p>And in the end, living close to home is really convenient. I live on campus (which for me is the biggest thing; it's not how close to home you are, it's if you still live at home or not)--I go home about two times a month to grab some free food and just get away from campus for a bit. It's also nice to have a place off campus that your friends who aren't from the area can go. I've had people over more than a few times at my house for dinner and stuff.</p>