<p>All my friends want to attend a college close home, but I want a change of scenery and to experience a new place. </p>
<p>Can someone who has left all they knew and ventured into unknown territory give me some insight into what it is like?</p>
<p>I’m going to college 900 miles away from my home (1100 miles driving distance).</p>
<p>Although I have only been in college for a week (and thus away from home), it is a freeing experience. Not in the sense that you can do whatever you want since your parents are not there (although this applies to most people), but more so in that you can become more independent and rely on the new environment to help develop a strong sense of self-identity. As humans, we grow the most when we are in unfamiliar settings</p>
<p>I commute to college and I actually love it because I get my own room (Dont have to worry about snotty roommates!) and home cooked meals whenever I want. I dont think its restraining at all because half the time I’m on campus, I’m in my friends dorms and stuff.</p>
<p>A lot of my friends who went off to Ivy schools or Stanford, Caltech, MIT type schools ended up staying there just because its so hard to actually get in. Mostly everyone else I know who left the state to attend a “regular” (non competitive) college came back after the first one or two years.</p>
<p>It’s fun, but disorienting at first. A new culture always requires some adjustment. Even if the new culture is actually more compatible with your outlook than the old one, it still requires adjustment!</p>
<p>(I was very taken aback at how disorienting it was to be in the political majority for the first time in my life. And to have many other atheists around. I thought it would be completely easy and natural!)</p>
<p>Depending on where you are and where you’re going, you will have to adjust to a new climate. That can take a while. :)</p>
<p>Plan to go to college away from home, have only been in a living nightmare where I currently reside.</p>
<p>I left a small California town and went to Penn. It was probably the most important thing I’ve ever done. Almost all of my peers stayed local. There was a whole world I didn’t know existed. There were classmates from all over the planet that had so much to teach each other.</p>
<p>After a little intital homesickness, it was a blast. I could not believe all of the wonderful possibilities no one knew about in my home town.</p>
<p>I ended up with a career and a life I would never have dreamed of had I stayed close to home.</p>
<p>Distance is something we are struggling with here. Half a day’s drive from Seattle can land one in completely different physical, cultural, and political climate (as well as another state and country, for that matter). How much additional stress is added by the planes-trains-and-automobiles factor in going to distant states? I’ve read statistics in a college admissions book confirming Sofie’s anecdote about many people returning home after starting at far OOS schools.</p>
<p>Thanks for the input!</p>
<p>My situation is I most likely will not get into UT and I do not like the culture of A&M so I am almost being forced OOS. I guess it will be a learning experience, huh?</p>
<p>I’m not planning on going to far away. I’m from New Jersey, all the colleges I am applying to are in the Mid-Atlantic and New England area. A long car ride away is as far as I’ll go.</p>
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<p>^ ya you guys in the northeast are lucky!</p>
<p>Can anyone else who has gone far away tell me about their experience?</p>
<p>bump please</p>
<p>Well I’m about to head from Oklahoma to New Hampshire, so I think the culture difference will be pretty extreme, But I’m very exciting for it! I’ll let you know more once I can fully analyze it :)</p>
<p>thanks bump</p>
<p>You already know what’s at home… why not try something new, find out whats out there. At the very worst, you can always go back.
My S has traveled 10,000 miles from home to attend college. It was certainly different and difficult at times, but he comes home for winter break and we see him during the summer. We have some family 300 miles from him so he went there for Thanksgiving with another friend who was far away from home.He loves it.
You can chat on line, skype, etc with friends and family all the time and still have a world of new experiences.</p>
<p>Two Ds from Georgia, both in school in Massachusetts. The personal growth experience of a different culture, a different setting, peers from around the country and the world - it’s been as valuable as the college experience itself.</p>