I live on the east coast and am considering Pomona college, but I’m not sure about going to school so far from home. I was wondering if anyone has experience with that or had any advice.
Once you go from “driving distance” to “flying distance,” the difference between being a short flight away versus a long flight away are pretty minimal.
What are your concerns?
travel costs, moving/storage over the summer, and how often i would be able to go home
My kid went from the Midwest to one of the 5Cs. Here are some thoughts:
- Yes, travel costs could be an issue. My kid usually flew Southwest airlines, which goes in and out the Ontario airport close to campus. 2 bags free when you fly, too. :)
- My kid came home for winter break, and either home or someplace else for spring break. It is tough to go to the east coast for Thanksgiving, though, since classes are held on the 5Cs on Wednesday. I used to go to her that weekend and we would take a long weekend somewhere in southern CA. But I know there are kids who stay on campus and cook together for the Thanksgiving holiday, and some kids get invited home with their LA area friends.
- My kid's school had storage pods on campus for summer storage, which my kid used. I'm not sure all the 5Cs do, but I'm pretty sure they have some easy arrangement for you. My kid ended up working/researching on campus every summer anyway, so usually would fly home just for a couple of weeks at the beginning or end of the summer and just stored her stuff during that time. But she coudl have stored it all summer.
She LOVED the weather. 
And her school.
You need to understand that you won’t be going home much. My daughter whose school is 2.5 hours away comes home several time during the semester. My daughter whose school is 2000 miles away comes home at Christmas only, as she has a short Thanksgiving break and plays her sport over Spring Break. It actually doesn’t cost that much for her to fly home, but the time is the issue.
After first year, she stored her 3 bins of stuff 9she’s a minimalist) with a friend who had a house because she was living in the dorm again the next year. Since then, she’s rented a house so leaves her stuff there. That is truly a minor thing as if you are living in a dorm you don’t NEED a lot of stuff.
The thing that has been the hardest has been the inability of me to make it to her games. I miss being able to go. I’m very jealous of the parents who can go to every game (some live only an hour away but some live several states away and just fly up and down the east coast).
Other times where you might want your family close are art, theater, marching band, music performances. I have friends with kids with medical or learning issues and they like to be closer (one tried the 2000 miles away school, and it just didn’t work for her). I’m jealous of my sister because my nephew is only about 45 minutes away. She can go to his events, his fraternity mother/son weekend, take him to brunch on Sundays very easily. He can come home and wash his clothes, steal food, and be back at school in an afternoon. He doesn’t feel smothered and when they do see him it is not even a full weekend commitment like it was with my niece who went to school about 1000 miles away - quick plane trip but still a trip.
I think it’s harder on the parents.
^^ That. My son is 12 hours away. He will come home for Thanksgiving (fly) because they have the entire week off and will come home for Christmas (drive). My guess is next year he won’t come home for spring break or thanksgiving. He loves it where he is. For the summer the frat has places to store things. He is probably going to get an apartment and stay for the summers after this year. He had no trouble being far away.
One of my daughters went to a California school. Home for her then was (and for me, still is) the Midwest. She came home for Thanksgiving only once, her first year. She was very jet lagged. She never came home for spring break, which was in February at her university. She did come home at Christmas and in the summer each year. I can’t speak for her, but I know what was hard for me: 1) It was too expensive for me to visit, so I saw her university only twice: when she moved in before first year and at graduation. 2) We couldn’t easily get to her when some bad stuff happened (e.g., when someone stole a bunch of stuff from her dorm room at the end of the year).
Despite these negatives for me, I’m glad she went to this school. It changed her life, in very good ways.
There are many students at Pomona from the East Coast or a foreign country. Over 35% of the student body. The college knows homesickness can result from being so far away from home and does a lot to ensure students find a community from the moment they step on campus (actually, well before that through virtual contact).
Pomona is in a major urban area serviced by multiple airports. The two most used ones are LAX and Ontario, both which serve the entire country. The costs are fair if you purchase in advance. For instance, a non-stop round trip to Boston from LA for winter break of this year (Dec 15- Jan 20, when the semester ends and begins) is showing up for $250, and it isn’t a red-eye. Southwest is a popular option since they cover two free checked bags and have many promotions. Anticipate spending around $1000 in ticket costs/baggage fees/transportation to the airport for three round trips, which would cover getting to campus and leaving for the summer, going home for winter break, and visiting home for Thanksgiving Break (in my experience, most Pomona students do go home to visit their families). There is a Family Weekend held in February as well if your parents want to visit- this is the ideal opportunity for connecting with them in the second semester. Most students don’t go home for Spring Break but rather do a Spring Break trip with their friends (San Francisco, Las Vegas, San Diego, Tijuana, Malibu, natural parks like Yosemite or Zion, etc.).
You would do most of your shopping in SoCal, so it’s recommended you pack light. The college organizes numerous shopping trips and many upperclassmen have cars to take students to places around the area. Any national retailer you can think of is near campus- Bed Bath & Beyond, IKEA, Walmart, Target, etc. The college allows students to ship materials directly to them at least 2 weeks before move-in starts, so if you purchase something online you can have it sent directly to campus instead of having to carry it yourself.
For summer, the college has storage available in most dorms. You purchase a sticker for $10 which you affix to a box of any size (or a bike), and the college stores it for you. Many students live on campus during the summer for research and can host property for friends not staying. As intparent mentioned, storage pods are available as well.
Traveling across the country can feel intimidating and stressful, but it’s definitely doable!
We live in FL. Most kids stay in state and are a few hours drive away. My S went out of state. Neither is good or bad but ask yourself what type of experience you want. For my son’s FL friends, they come home several times a semester. Feels like every time we turn around. My S will come home for Thanksgiving and Christmas, that’s it. Too expensive, not enough time, and HE WOULDN’T WANT TO! That’s the difference. He went away for a college experience and is getting it, meeting new people, learning how to take care of himself. His high school friends are also enjoying their college experience, but again, it’s very different.
Ask yourself what you want college to be and you’ll figure out the best scenario.
my kid:
So Cal to Upstate NY
Southwest for xmas, spring break and summer (<$150 RT if we planned 3 months in advance, $50 to change the ticket dates)
Summer storage bins for $25 per summer. Including refrigerators.
It’s not the distance, itself, but how complicated the travel is. There was that great college in the midwest that would have required us to get to the airport in time for TSA, she would have flown to Chicago, transferred to a plane to the closest college airport, taken a 45 minute bus ride to the campus town, then figured out a bus or taxi to campus. And if something happened and we had to go to her, same problem. Contrast that to just fying into LAX or Ontario and taking a shuttle to campus.
You’re likely to go home more often in your freshman year… after that many students skip going home for Thanksgiving and even spring break. They often do summer internships near their college, too. As for your stuff, it depends on whether you live in university housing or in an off-campus apartment. My daughter was able to store things with a friend who lived near her campus; later, when she accumulated more stuff, she paid for storage.
If you love the school you will make it work, but being a flight away is definitely more difficult than if you live within say 3 to 5 hours of your school. We live in the Northeast and have one DC on the west coast and other in the mid-west.
I agree with @lookingforward - consider how complicated travel will be. For example, if you live near Boston there are many flights to Ontario, CA, but non appear to be direct/non-stop. You can fly non-stop to Long Beach or LAX, but then have to deal with transportation. If there are shuttles that don’t run often you may end up having to wait hours in the airport, and keep in mind that shuttles aren’t free, adding another cost to include in your budget.
Most SW flights aren’t non-stop, but that has been no big deal for my kids. Also, there are no change fees to switch your flights (just paying more or getting a credit if you pick a ticket with a different cost).
Supershuttle never seems to have a long wait.
Aiui, you can still call and pre-reserve Super Shuttle.
This was a lot of years ago (as in, before airlines were deregulated so it was very expensive to fly) and I went to college 3000 miles away from my home in California. (Also one I hadn’t visited before I set foot there freshman fall, which wasn’t that unusual back then.) And I loved it! For Thanksgiving I’d go to a friend’s or my boyfriend’s home and the same thing for spring break, or we’d travel someplace, which was really fun. So I’d go home for Christmas and the summer, or a portion of the summer, depending on what I was doing. I was close to my family, but I was having the time of my life in college, and didn’t feel a need to be home a lot. And this was pre-cell phone days–now with Facetime, Skyping and texting, it’s possible to be in touch with loved ones all the time (as opposed to the single phone on the dorm floor where everyone could hear your business.)
As for moving, we shipped a bunch of stuff and then stored it the dorm basement over the summer. That’s pretty much what everybody did.
Anyway, I guess I’d ask yourself if you feel ready to be away from your family/hometown for much of the year. If you’re hesitant, then maybe you’re not quite ready to be that far. For me, it was a brand new adventure and I loved it. The simply weren’t a big deal.
DD went to PA from MN and only comes home for Christmas. We’ve got family a few hours from campus for Thanksgiving/Easter and she finds stuff to do over spring break. She splits a storage locker with another out of state teammate for the summers. We can watch her games on the internet (Yeah!) but we almost never go out there. My last time on campus was fall of freshman year and my wife went out this Oct (for the first time!) for a visit in soph year.
If your kid can handle being away then it’s not a huge deal. At a school like Pomona where there are a bunch of intl and non-locals there will be a good network in place. And there will be moments when the out of state gang needs to support one another. My DD has found a good group to draw on, and her local teammates have been awesome about adopting her in those situations where most girls have their parents around. .