Ok folks. 
If Texas isnāt your thing, donāt move there. The great thing is that there are 49 other states in the US to choose from! Thereās bound to be something for everybody SOMEWHERE, whether it be big city, small town, college town, suburb, right or left leaning politics or middle of the road, high taxes or low taxes or no state income tax at all, great public transportation or none at all or something in between, near mountains & hiking or out in the flatlands and Big Sky Country, walking distance to the beach, near a river or lake, or not near any body of water at all.
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Wow! I loved reading all of these responses! Thanks for all the discussionā¦ everyone!
Funnily enough, the one place that weāre now considering wasnāt mentioned at all - West Virginia. Over the past six months, weāve spent a lot of time looking at real estate, considering colleges, and thinking about what we really value.
Our middle son has recently decided he wants to study Mining Engineering, which is only offered at a very few schools. One being WVU. Looking at the list of schools with this major, WVU looks like it makes the most sense, from many perspectives. We went to visit a few weeks ago, and despite a couple of drawbacks to the campus, both sons really liked the school. We liked the cost of living, rural landscape, and proximity to a big city (Pittsburgh). Given how inexpensive in-state tuition is, along with cost of living, it seems like a good option for us! By moving, we would save approx $80k in out of pocket college expenses over a five year period for our DS2 & DS3. (compared to sending them to WVU OOS. more like $110k savings compared to in-state NJ schools if we stayed here)
Nowā¦ Iād love to hear the ādrawbacksā and ānegativesā about West Virginia. Weāre already aware of the political situation. Not ideal, but not a reason for us to discount moving there.
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WVU also offers scholarships to students and itās very possible you could live in a different state and costs at WVU would still be modest.
I went to college for a year in West Virginia. Itās a lovely place with many great people. But I would not want to live there. And I was about an hour from Pittsburgh.
Perhaps someone will comment on WVU scholarships. I know they are available.
If it were me, Iād live in Ohio, or PAā¦but probably not West Virginia.
My nephew goes to WVU but is a PA resident. Iām pretty sure he pays in-state tuition or close to it because of GPA/test scores. They used to have a GPA/SAT matrix for scholarships.
If youāre looking for property or looking to start a farmette WV is a good place. Some decent skiing. The New River gorge area is beautiful. Summersville Lake has some of the clearest water anywhere.
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Go to the WVU calculator. It tells u the scholarship. Or did as of a month ago
I was going to say that mining engineering seems like a declining field (coal plants are closing). But I did find this mention of small growth on Google search
Employment of mining and geological engineers is projected to grow 4 percent from 2020 to 2030, slower than the average for all occupations. Despite limited employment growth, about 400 openings for mining and geological engineers are projected each year, on average, over the decade. April 2022
The 400 openings does explain the limited number of programs.
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