<p>I live on the East Coast and the farthest schools I'm applying to are about a 14 hour drive or 2-3 hour flight (Midwest and South) from the nearest airport, which is an hour away. I'm concerned about going to college far away because of a much younger sibling I'd like to visit at least once every couple of months to stay close to.</p>
<p>So, for those of you whose colleges are far enough from home that you take a plane, how often do you go home? And is it a huge hassle to visit your family (ticket costs, taxi or shuttle, travel time, etc.)?</p>
<p>I'd prefer answers from people who genuinely love their families (i.e. Don't say "I hate them so I never visit" or anything like that).</p>
<p>I’m just a freshman, so don’t count me too much…but…</p>
<p>I live in Houston, while going to school in Connecticut at UConn. It’s a 4.5hr flight, with roughly 1.5hr in connection time. I plan on going home only during Winter break. I’m staying home during Thanksgiving break and Spring break (luckily, UConn have a huge spring party during the week). Of course, I will have to be home during the summer (unless I’m interning or working somewhere).</p>
<p>14 hours isn’t awful, you may want to consider driving to save a lot of money.</p>
<p>I have no personal experience, but one of my friends lives in NC and goes to college in Fairbanks, Alaska. So driving home is out of the question for her. The only time she came home during the school year was over Christmas Break, and even then only because the residence halls close. She said that if she gets an off-campus apartment she may not even do that.</p>
<p>I live in San Antonio and go to school in Minneapolis, MN. It’s about a 2 or 2 1/2 hour flight. I’m only a sophomore, but last year I went home for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Spring Break. Then spent May/June/July in MN and came back to TX for August. The only time I ever had problems with it being overly expensive was around Christmas. I flew home on Christmas Eve and booked my ticket like 2 days before. It was like $1300 round trip. :-(</p>
<p>Ouch, Radical! What happened that you had to get a ticket at such short notice?</p>
<p>My parents are in Singapore and I’m in NJ. It takes around 24 hours of flights/transfers/waiting to get home, not to mention that I’d be lucky to get a ticket that costs under $1500, so I typically visit once a year over winter break. Summer breaks are reserved for work experience and to earn enough to cover the next ticket lol.</p>
<p>I don’t find it a hassle because I love flying and the airport is barely a 20 minute train ride away. It’s also one time of the year where I can just sit back and relax, because I have no other choice ;)</p>
<p>I’m the same situation as your farthest schools (East Coast–>Midwest) and I only went home for major breaks (i.e. Thanksgiving, Christmas, Spring Break). We booked tickets far in advance and had an alert set up on all the websites so we could get the cheapest possible tickets. When thinking about breaks, keep in mind though that some schools may require you to pay if you plan on staying over breaks when residence halls usually close, and that could potentially even equal the cost of a round-trip ticket depending on the length of the break. Check the schools’ policies; I’m not sure if every school does this, but I know mine does.</p>
<p>Not relevant to me personally, but one of my best friends at school is about an 8 hour drive away, her parents drive her at the start and end of the year. In between, she flies home on Thanksgiving, winter, and spring breaks. Then I know a few people from Florida, California, and the like (I’m in the NY) and a lot of them only go home for winter break and stay at school for Thanksgiving and spring breaks. Sometimes they’ll go to stay with friends who live closer to campus so as not to be all alone in the dorms for the week.</p>
<p>I live in San Jose and go to college in LA so it’s a nice, quick 1 hour flight away. I just finished my freshman year so I need to see how the next few years pan out, but I go home for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Spring break for sure. Ideally I’d like to stay home every summer, especially since the Bay Area has great internship opportunities, but if I got a great offer somewhere else (like in LA) I’d probably stay there for the summer and come up once or twice or something.</p>
<p>I’m an 8 hr drive away, and plan on using Megabus to visit home and such. If you book early enough, you can get a $1 ticket. I always go for the overnight trip, which leaves around 11pm and arrives at 8, so a 14 hr ride could feasibly leave at 8pm and arrive at 10am, wasting little of your time.</p>
<p>I go home for Christmas. For Thanksgiving and spring break, I’ve flown to meet my parents elsewhere (most of my family isn’t located near home).</p>
<p>I live in NM and am going to CT for school. I can only visit for winter break and mid summer break (probably taking summer courses). It’s going to be weird not having thanksgiving with my parents for the first time in 18 years…</p>
<p>I live in MN and go to school in IL, about 2 hours southwest of Chicago. It’s about an 8 hour drive, or an hour flight if I can get a direct flight.</p>
<p>We drive for moving in and out, because of all my stuff. </p>
<p>During the school year, I fly home for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and spring break. I don’t go home for labor day weekend, fall break, etc. short breaks like that, or any other random weekends.</p>
<p>There’s a small airport near my school, like 5 miles away so it’s convenient. If I can get a direct flight, it’s an hour, and then drive home about 30-45 minutes usually from home airport to our house depending on traffic. If it’s not a direct flight, I’ve ended up with an hour flight to Detroit, 3 hour layover, then another flight home from there, so that takes longer.</p>
<p>At the schools I attended the vast majority of students when home for school breaks … the ones who did not tended to be students who flew; the limitation being either time of cost.</p>
<p>In the middle of terms in my experience the folks who flew to school virtually never went home for an extra weekend just because … again because of the limitations of time and money. You’d either be skipping classes or leaving Friday afternoon/evening and coming back on Sunday afternoon … so it’s lots of travel time for not much time at home … and depending on where you live this weekend visit could cost hundreds of dollars (an extra expense tough for most families).</p>
<p>All that said of all the kids I went to school with whether they drove or flew had little affect on the number of times they went home. The vast majority of students stayed on campus other than school breaks then the vast majority of students left … this was true for all students … although among the few stay on campus folks were more were kids who needed to fly home (especially international students). (PS - often more local students tried to “adopt” the stranded students and offered to bring them to their homes for their breaks). My experiences were at highly selective schools where very few kids took off for the weekends.</p>