I some parents that are not really folks that would end up on CC that don’t want their kids more than 1-2 hours away.
My D19 saw a girl that is a freshman in college that had been home like 5 times and that was toward the end of Oct.
My D 17 restricted herself: no big cities and no more than 3 hour drive one way). She ended up in a college town, 5 hours away (one way). A long drive but is doable for a one day round trip. Also, the the scenery is overall pretty.
I told my S, “Go East, young man,” and that’s where he is now. 
What does this mean? There are quite the variety of parents who post on this site.
I had a restriction on location for our kids. It was a little broader than 1-2 hours…but a restriction nonetheless.
@thumper1 I have never had a parent I know talk to me about college confidential.
I know some clueless people about the entire college process. I am sure there are some at my daughter’s school, but many probably don’t know that CC exists.
While we haven’t and won’t given our D20 location restrictions, we have asked her to keep location in mind when looking at schools. She has some medical conditions that cause her to be hospitalized about once a year with other significant bouts of illness in between. We hate the idea of her being really sick and not being able to get to her quickly, but ultimately we trust her to make good, safe decisions for herself (she’s a really responsible kid). She has already acknowledged that cold weather exacerbates breathing issues, so is ruling out huge geographical regions (which is a real shame, because there are so many wonderful schools in the NE that seem like they’d otherwise be a great fit).
@gpo613 two of D17’s roommates this year live 90 mins from school and this year (sophomores) both have cars. She said they both frequently go home on weekends which is a bummer for her. She wouldn’t have planned to live with them if she knew they’d be gone so often. OTOH, last year she was in a quad where she and one girl were East Coasters and the other two were an 8 hr drive from their home. None went home except for major holidays but being all in same room all the time she would’ve liked a break from them once in a while. This year she’s in an apt so has personal space but misses hanging out with her roommates on weekends when they go home. other roommate has off campus boyfriend and never there but she’s not friends with her anyway. So 2-3 weekends a month she has her apt all to herself.
No location restrictions for either high school or college.
No restrictions. Set out the facts. Son wanted to be as far away as possible. He narrowed down the schools by the program that he wanted, the cost, and the fit. Ended up a 12 hour drive away. He has no problem making the drive and will probably do it 3 times over Christmas break. He likes the drive better than flying. Luckily it is an easy flight from here. This was a son who was very independent, didn’t want to stay in his home state, and who is used to being away from home for up to 2 months at a time. I was comfortable with him away.
D is a different story. Mental illness, history of quitting what she starts. We told her to stay in the state when she graduated. She chose not to go to college. When she started again we said local CC until she could show is she could stick with college and handle a full class load. So far has passed on class, dropped one twice (well just quit going) and is about to finally finish that class to get rid of the bad marks. Taking 2 classes next semester (a remedial and regular jointed together so 6 credits but only 3 go towards anything). She is going to have geographical restrictions as long as we are paying.
Yes. We are on the east coast and said no west coast. Too expensive to travel. We have so many colleges and universities it just isn’t necessary.
No restriction. Just that it be in the US. Son applied to colleges from West Coast to East Coast and in-between. Ended up in-between (Chicago), about 200 miles from where we live. Daughter applied to colleges from midwest (Kansas City) to east (NY, Providence) to south (Savannah). She ended up in Providence, about 750 miles from where we live.
The “best fit” was not defined by distance from home. Travel was by planes, trains, and automobiles.
No restriction. D1 was 14 hours away by car or a 90 minute flight (plus about an hour on the bus)… D2 is a 3 hour drive away.
Our location criteria for our D was if the college is too far away to drive from our home, it had to be reasonably close (within 30 miles or so) of an airport with commercial airline service in order to make it affordable and convenient for use of either a college airport shuttle or a ride sharing service, such as Uber or Lyft. We live about 16 miles away from a major airport, so flying to and from college for our D is much more convenient for the universities that were her top three choices.
When I was an undergraduate, the college I attended was more than 1100 miles from home and on more than one occasion, I remember my car breaking down as I drove home from college, sometimes late at night, sometimes in rural areas, and needing to get my car towed and repaired far from home in unfamiliar areas.
I feel much better having our D fly to and from college. She is a college senior now and thankfully has only had to deal with one winter weather related flight cancellation, but fortunately, she didn’t miss any classes and the airline contacted me to reschedule her flight 24 hours before she was scheduled to depart from home on her return to campus after the Christmas/New Year break.
Of course, if your student relies on flying, it also presumes that the college campus is walkable and shopping and other off-campus activities are accessible by either a campus shuttle or a ride sharing service if the student will not have a car of his or her own. Our D hasn’t had her own car on campus and while she has occasionally traveled off campus with friends who have cars, it’s nice to have other ground transportation options, too.
We told our lads to stay East of the Mississippi. When we took middle son to visit WUSTL we joked that we would take him to the bridge east of the Mississippi River and he could walk from there. He ended up applying to and being accepted at Baylor as well, but his final choice (his choice) was to go merely 6 hours (one way) from home - making him our closest lad for his college days. Distance had nothing to do with it. He loved the school and it came in affordable.
That said, from working at school I can say that the vast majority of our high schoolers who head to college stick within 3 hours one way from home and it’s often the kids who want it that way. I suspect this is one reason some of the better offers can come from (private) schools further from home though. Many schools need to add to the pot to get students from as many of the states as they can.
Our S19 said 8 hour drive max. Only 2 of the schools he is looking at are over 5. Also no big cities. We have so many great schools close to us.
I had no restrictions other than academics and financial. D decided she wanted to be in the Northeast area but included PA. She wanted someplace she could ski (she’s been a total of once in 7 semesters lol so there’s that) and some other “wants” that in the end didn’t really matter. She ended up 5 hours drive away and its worked out fine.
We didn’t put restrictions, but now that D has been at her school for a year and a half, my spouse and I realize in retrospect that the locations of some of her choices would have been a royal PITA when it came to traveling back and forth. Fortunately her top choice is an easy trip. She’s over 1200 miles away, but a 10-minute Uber ride from a major international airport (and we live about 45 minutes from either NY airport). Some of her other choices would have been an hour away from an airport with no direct flights to New York. Or a very long drive.
Of course, being willing and able to spend all the extra $ on airfare is a factor. And I hate long car rides, so friends’ children who attend closer colleges but need their parents to drive four hours each way for every holiday and break…I don’t see that as “better”! But that’s just me. Call me a selfish parent but I love that D can get herself home and back to school and all it requires of me is a short drive to the airport.
Then, of course, there is the fact that my daughter had already spent five summers away from home, and she adapts well to new environments, makes friends easily, and knows to seek help when necessary. We’re lucky.
I did have a friend point out to me that one of her reasons for drawing a four-hour driving circle around their home and telling her kids that if they wanted to go to school outside that circle, they would have to convince her that there were no other schools within that circle that could compare, was that if they got very sick or injured, it was fairly easy to go and be with them. I understood her point but I feel that at some point our young adult children need to be able to get through these things without mom or dad anyway. And if it was something that serious I could always get on a plane. The flight is less than three hours.
So, it’s a pretty individual decision based on your own comfort level, your finances, and what you know about your child!
Our youngest didn’t apply to anywhere more than 6 hours away, but chose the one school that was 6 hours away.
We would have been open to schools that required a flight IF that school offered something closer schools did not offer orit the far away school was the “best” for their major. Since we live on the east coast there are plenty of great schools within driving/train/bus distance and there was no need to go farther. The issue to me was cost and hassle, not distance. Add in 4 round trip air fares (thanksgiving, winter, spring and the start and end of the year) plus the cost of getting to the airport, storage fees etc.and it ups the COA quite a bit. Two went to schools a 5 to 6 hour drive away, near an airport, but the cost of flights was always high so they took the train or got rides.
No distance restrictions. We wanted them to go to the best university for them not us. But both live realitivily close to home. My daughter was 2 hrs away but transferred to a school 1.5 hours away and easy access for her to take bus home also. I will tell you it’s very nice when they have a Saturday morning farmers market or school event that we can easily go there and be with her. We have also just did lunch with her and took her to the market and came home. Being close does have its advantages.
My son is 4.5 hours away and we both have our families 45 minutes away. We have gone up for football games and parents weekend etc. Sometimes I am just going to see my mother whose been ill and again it’s nice that I can just take him out to eat, go food shopping then leave . We are so glad he is not on the west coast or at an east coast school that would of taken like plane, train and automobile to get to (yes a movie reference) :).
Honestly we are very thankful for having them both an easy car ride away. They can both take a bus/Amtrack home and the trains are usually filled up with college kids. They both like this idea also.