Six miles away.
D1 was 800 miles away. We drove out for move in/move out. Otherwise she flew.
D2 is 3 hours away by car
@thumper1 I meant that since my kids got merit scholarships, much of the money we saved for college isn’t needed for undergrad. (One kid got a full ride, one kid almost but not quite full ride.). So having them far away didn’t become a decision point for us- the few times they’ll fly home each year aren’t a huge additional financial hit.
If they hadn’t received merit, they’d be attending instate universities. Travel costs would have been minimal but the room and board costs would have been substantial.
I went to college 1000 miles from home. I had never seen it before I arrived on campus for orientation, after a long train ride. I took my first ever plane ride home for the Christmas holidays. (I shared car rides on most trips between home and school.) My parents wrote me a few letters (wish I’d saved them). Maybe there was one phone call. It all worked out fine; this is a fine fine college and I got a spectacular education. My parents drove the 1000 miles to my campus for my graduation – their first visit. I shared the driving on the way back, and got my first-ever ticket (speed trap!!!) while driving my parents home.
Times have changed. My kids went to college 200 miles and 675 miles away from home. We drove them to college. Great colleges. We communicated by email and telephone. We visited once or twice during the school year (on “parents day”). They came home for the holidays (I drove to pick up the one whose college was 200 mi. from home; the other one traveled by plane). They both graduated in 4 years. They grew up. They’ve gone on to interesting careers.
In sum: distance from home to college isn’t important. The quality of the college, and the fit to your children’s interests are extremely important.
Son is 5-6 hours away (depending on how much traffic at customs at the border). Came home for Fall break (got a ride home; flew back) and winter break (flew). Flights are about $100 each way. Will probably come home for Spring break as well. I suspect next year we won’t see him at Fall Break. For Thanksgiving, we drove to him…turkey and all (since it wasn’t Thanksgiving in Montreal).
My kid was 4 hours driving from home. There was no public transportation. There were only cars and highways. If I knew then what I know now I would have insisted on a school easier to get to and from.
One daughter is a 4-hour drive away, the other is a 6-hour drive away.
When we visit the first college, we stay for one night. When we visit the second one, we take two nights (which means we take either Friday or Monday off) but only because DH has some back issues and can’t stay in the car for six hours straight so it takes us 7-8 hours instead of 6.
The student who is 6 hours away doesn’t have a car and uses a bus. She can’t come home for the short fall break or long weekends (too much travel time and $) but for the major breaks, her school has buses which take students directly from campus to a few central destinations for a very reasonable cost. Her stop is 30 min from home where we pick her up. It takes her about nine hours total door-to-door to get home and back. She doesn’t love the bus ride but loves the school so it is has been worth it to her. She is not going to have a car next year either but flying is a possible option.
I know many parents who wouldn’t consider a school that is more than 3 hours away. The way we look at it, we drive to each school about 3-4 times per year (move in/out, family weekend, concert) and the kids travel three times on their own (Thanksgiving, Christmas, Spring Break) so an extra hour or two or even three are not that important. It is however important to us to be able to get there in case of emergency; for that reason, it is good to know that we are within a driving distance.
It’s not just the distance in mileage, it’s the accessibility. We insisted that if they were going far away the school needed to be fairly accessible to an airport. We also made certain they did the trip at least once before enrolling. My older Ds eliminated schools when they saw how long it would take to travel home, especially at locations with no direct flights. One was looking at a small school in Iowa, she would have had to fly through Chicago every single time. Another was accepted to Florida State but you can’t get a direct flight to Tallahassee from Newark. Off the list. My S is looking at schools a plane ride away but they are all in or near major cities with direct flights. If he attends one of them it will probably be less travel time for him than a “closer” school that is driving distance.
Even locally, accessibility mattered. My D was looking at a small school about 4 hours away, but in the middle of nowhere. We would have had to drive to/from for every holiday to get her. Crossed it off our list. For us, the schools need to be somewhat accessible by bus/train/plane.
This thread has been very helpful… and depressing. Dd has 5 schools remaining on her list. Two of them are near each other and about a 4-hour drive away. The remaining 3 are scattered and range from 445-607 miles away. The closest of those requires driving through Chicago there and back - yuck! The middle one would mean driving through Kansas City, and the farthest one would require driving through part of St. Louis, but it’s just the west side and honestly the overall drive seemed the easiest of all of them, even though it’s the farthest. The only one close-ish to a good airport is the middle one (it’s on the north side of Oklahoma City - in Edmond, and would be full-ride). No direct flights from there to Des Moines, but she could fly SW which would be awesome (2 free bags would come in handy for a college kid). No other school is near an airport. My preference would be to keep her in state at one of the schools that are 4 hours away by car. I don’t know if they’ll come through with the money though, to make them affordable enough compared to the other schools (could be thousands of dollars difference there).
This is a tough call, just based on transportation issues. The best fit school is probably the one that would require driving through Chicago (it’s possible to go around, but that takes WAY longer). I see there’s an option for her to take a Greyhound though, or possibly Amtrak (the nearest station is about an hour north of the college). She is definitely NOT terribly independent yet, so I know she would be resistant to using a bus or train unless someone went with her the first time. I really hope the in-state schools are affordable enough.
@iahomeschoolmom hmm, some of this sounds familiar. We are in Iowa and our far away one requires driving past the west side of St. Louis too (SEMO)…and if she were a flight away, we would be using SW to Des Moines 
I don’t know what part of Iowa you’re in, but for closer ones we’re looking at University of South Dakota (in-state rates for Iowa), University of Nebraska- Kearney (full tuition at 29 ACT). I’m curious where you are considering?
After reading this, I’m sure she would want to come home more than Christmas and summer, so the far away/not convenient to airport one will probably go by the wayside.
Oh I would also add if it was a complete full ride I would be more inclined to consider some travel difficulty!
@bjscheel She’s looking at private Christian colleges: Dordt and Northwestern (NW Iowa), Oklahoma Christian University (Edmond, OK), Grace College (Winona Lake, IN), and Union University (Jackson, TN). She’s hoping to be named a National Merit Finalist in the next month, which would give her a full ride to Ok. Christ. Univ., full tuition to Grace, and smaller scholarships to NWC and Dordt. Union has a separate scholarship competition she’ll participate in next month and we’ll have to see how that comes out.
@iahomeschoolmom Okay, good luck to her! We’ve kind of stopped looking at private Christian (though she’d love to go to one) as the COA with max automatic merit is still expensive. I don’t expect she will get any of the competitive scholarships, though who knows, so we’ve started looking at smaller publics. She may apply to University of Sioux Falls (which is private/Christian) and just see if anything fantastic is awarded. I’m hoping for at least a 29 on ACT next month so we’ll at least have Kearney as an affordable choice at a doable distance.
Yeah, even with the Iowa Tuition Grant I’m not hopeful that NWC or Dordt will come anywhere close for us. Even the legacy grant at NWC (dh and I are alumni) doesn’t help much overall. We have no savings to help her out, so I’m really thankful she has good scholarship opportunities!
I went to college 6 1/2 hours away from home. That did not stop me from going home more than just vacations. We were young, we all got used to the drive and once in a while would even go home for just a weekend. Two that I can remember for sure were Head of the Charles weekend (big boat race in Boston that is a huge social gathering weekend) and when I wanted my parents to meet my boyfriend (now husband) so they would say yes to letting me live with his family for the summer. The good thing about it was that for years any shorter drive felt like nothing. Wanted to go skiing 4 hours away or go to NYC to see friends for the weekend but it is 3 hours away? - that was nothing!
My parents were worried when I wold drive alone so they had a car phone installed. Turned out it was kind of useless because most of the drive was through the Adirondack mountains so there was no reception.
DS’s school is normally a 16 hour drive . However, though it is long, it is an easy drive from the Northeast to Tuscaloosa, AL. Roll Tide!
Also, the school had a break shuttle to get the kids to Birmingham airport, about an hour. Flights were fairly cheap if booked early, and we had a short drive to pick him up on arrival. The ease of transportation is one of the reasons I allowed him to attend.
The first time he ever flew was when he started college, so he has really become a seasoned traveler very quickly. So far, he has not had any major issues w/ delays, cancellations, or lost luggage as he only takes carry on. I am glad he has gained this experience, but do miss not having him home come home as much as some of my friends’ kids.
Youngest is not going to be too far away, as I would like the option of bringing her home last minute if possible. However, she could attend locally for much cheaper, so if she wants that dorming experience then she will be on campus & will not be coming home other than Thanksgiving, Christmas, & spring break.
Approximately 1,500 miles. Houston to central NY state. Most flights on SW are one stop, leading to a 6-8 hours of air travel. The few non-stops are way too early and turn DS into a zombie.
Yes, accessibility is key. I was disappointed to see that SW doesn’t fly to Waco, home of Baylor University. (DD#1 is considering Baylor.) I’d rather fly than drive if driving is more than 2 hours.
I might be forced to consider other airlines.
Kid is from Northern California going to school in Missouri. The flight is roughly 3 1/2 hours so no issues with distance.
A friend of his drove back to California after break and it was roughly a 2 day drive.
Mom and dad were expecting some time for son to adjust, but he is enjoying his new home.
I went to college a 2.5-3-hour flight from home; we lived a minimal drive from my home airport; the “college” airport was maybe 30 minutes away from the university. My freshman-year roommate was from the town the university was located in. For that reason and because it was a state flagship, I don’t remember ever having problems getting to/from the airport, and as I moved through my college years, I went home less and less. I don’t remember it being a problem at all.
For our D19, my preference is that she go to college far from home. (If it’s not her preference, so be it, but most of the colleges she’s expressed an interest in are, in fact, far from home.) She has flown to Europe by herself (meeting someone there), so I’m not worried about her ability to negotiate airports, etc. I trust that any university that is in a somewhat rural/isolated area has figured out the basics of getting their students to/from their school and the nearest airport. (Though I should check that out, obviously.) From a purely selfish perspective, it’s frankly easier to think about the college 1,200 miles and a 3-hour flight from home than someplace that’s, say, a 5.5-hour drive where we’d have to make the decision of driving versus flying.
Roughly 2,000 miles. Top tips include:
Travel light. If you keep clothes at home you only need to travel with a backpack/small bag for breaks.
TSA pre check is worth the money as it makes for a faster trip through security.
Avoid connecting through Chicago as it often involves delays due to bad weather.
Southwest is awesome due to ease of changing flight arrangements without penalty, and allowing two suitcases free per person.
Make sure there is a reliable shuttle/alternate transportation (running into night hours if necessary) from airport to campus.
If possible get your student a credit card as it will give you peace of mind in case a flight is delayed overnight and a hotel is needed.