OP - another Mom perspective. I have been on both ends of this. My parents restricted my distance to 3hrs, not for medical reasons, but for logistics/transportation. At the time, I was not thrilled, but accepted that they were paying the bills and still had the right to decide. Similar to you, we lived near a major city and were within a few hrs of another. My siblings and I all had more than enough choices. I ended up just under 2 hrs away. When I was away, I was away. When I wanted to come home for a holiday or just get away for a quick weekend, I did. Fast forward to this year. My son had some rough patches emotionally. We initially started looking within 5 hrs. As the year progressed, we had to persuade that him that he needed to be closer. It is very hard as a parent to have to limit your child in any way. Please talk to your Mom and listen. She has your best interests at heart. We have finally agreed on a school that is 90 mins away. Far enough to be away and close enough to provide support as needed. We are going to establish requirement regarding therapy, medication, etc. My son knows that with our funding of College come some parental rights. I want to give him as much room to grow as possible, while doing everything I can to help him be successful. Being a parent it hard sometimes.
FWIW the OP has not been back to CC since the day this was posted.
I’m sort of in the same situation as you except I don’t have a health condition or anything. My situation is that my mom doesn’t believe in the whole “going away” for college aspect, but honestly i think shes just worried for my well being you know like the normal stuff “security on campus” will we communicate will im gone… simple stuff like that. i have no idea how to bribe her into letting me go away.
To those who mentioned losing a whole semester of tuition, that is not necessary. For any parent of a kid with a health or mental health challenge, please purchase tuition refund insurance. And also have your child register with the disabilities office: though that is not necessary for tuition refund when a student leaves for medical or psychiatric reasons, it can be helpful in backing up the claim.
While the OP hasn’t return, this is a worthwhile discussion. Many parent don’t realize how often issues crop up with kids when they go to college. It is scary how many posts appear on this forum about these issues.
We also placed a soft limit on distance due to concerns about heath issues. As an result, instead of having to withdraw two semesters when heath issues flared up, we were able to provide enough support for her to finish the semesters. She did have to drop a course each time but it was better than withdrawing.
@compmom , not all schools offer tuition insurance, Ours does not and I was never able to find private insurance. If you know a source, please post.
We got ours from Dewars but it was offered by schools. I haven’t yet run into a school that doesn’t offer it, fortunately. I googled it and found this Allianz site https://www.allianztuitioninsurance.com/ and there were others. Hope that helps!
Be patient with terrified mothers. One rotten little twist of nature…is that many moms are going through peri-menopause when our little chicks fly the nest. It can be terrifying and feel devastating…and our emotions about your departure might be shocking…even to us. Be steady. Apply to every school you want to go to, and don’t even worry about the hard talk with mom until you get accepted and have an idea of if you can afford the school.
If you get all of your ducks in a row and can make good arguments for why a school is affordable and your best fit? Mom will eventually come around. If you show initiative by putting together a realistic plan of action, it will impress her that you’re ready.
Also…reassure her. It’s not your job to parent your mother…lol…but as your relationship transitions from child-adult to adult-adult…give her the same compassion and courtesy that you hope she’ll extend to you. Care about her concerns. Do what you can to alleviate them. Listen to her. But gently stand your ground.
I did get tuition insurance with my youngest (the one with anxiety)…however, they must be documented medically that they need to drop out before you will get reimbursed.
I never had medically or emotionally fragile kids to deal with, but I loved the fact that my sons went to college 50 miles from home. It was far enough away that they were “away at school” but close enough that we could easily visit and attend things like club lacrosse games and honors banquets. After his first semester, S1 seldom came home except for holidays. S2 came home a little more often since some of his friends were still in our city, but not every single weekend like I’ve known some kids to do.
Your mother’s blanket statement that she wants you to stay close to home is no more illogical than your blanket statement that you want to go to a different state. Why is your desire to get far away any more understandable?
I think you should focus on the school rather than the distance. I went to school about 40 miles from home and I never went home and my parents never came to visit. I could have been on Mars (except that the phone calls were local). My parents moved 2000 miles away while I was in school, and it didn’t make any difference - I still didn’t go home and they still didn’t visit. My nephew goes to this same school (same 40 miles from home) and he does come home more often (usually to get food) and his parents do visit occasionally, but the visits are for 3-4 hours, usually he gets a meal out of it, and everyone is happy.
I have kids going to school 150 miles away and 2000 miles away. I do see the ‘150’ more often (if you don’t count watching the ‘2000’ play her sport on video), but talk to them about the same amount, send them the same things, spend the same amount of time working on their FA, etc.
I don’t think your mother’s request that you stay close will severely limit your college experience. There are hundreds of schools near Pittsburgh; you can find one you like.
I strongly agree that your focus should be in identifying good “fits” for you - some within 3 hours, some further away (PA and OH are big states, you can be 5 hours away and still in the same state!)
If you can show a better fit for your goals at other universities and can also show you’re taking her wishes into consideration as far as distance go, you’ll have a stronger case.
Run the NPC: some private colleges offer “preferential packaging” to students who come from 400+ miles away as a way to maintain geographic diversity and a national presence. Some colleges also offer automatic scholarships for stats (like Carroll Montana, UMW in Virginia…) In both cases, if you can show your mom that you can have good academics at a lower price, and thus better value, you have a better point than just “I want to go away”. 
Take your bleepin’ meds. Seriously. If you’re a junior, you’re 16-17 and have some time to prove to your mom that you are respomsible.
My child initially wanted to leave the state but when the time came to make a decision one of the driving factors was medical. Having specialists with existing relationships at hand and us in the event of a problem became reassuring. It was a wise decision in retrospect. You can be close to home and feel a million miles away at school yet have that family safety net if need be.
I agree with PrivateConundrum. Prove yourself over the next few months. Take care of yourself.
Maybe ask if you can go take summer classes at one of the more distant schools, so you and your mom can see exactly what it’s like being far from home, studying and taking care of yourself. You have until senior year to decide where to apply, now is the time to make it happen.
The OP seems to have left the building…she hasn’t been back since she posted over 10 days ago.
@sarahpgh :
You’ve two things to do
- looK for affordable schools within 3-4 hours in case your mom doesn’t change her mind
- take your meds unprompted to prove to her that you’ll be responsible with your health even if far away and thus convince her it’s okay if you’re farther away than a half day care drive.
Run the net price calculator on all the colleges you look at.
I have no desire to go “far away”. Most liberal art schools in PA are either far too expensive, competitive, or both. I would love to be one or two hours away but I would sacrifice that for a school I would enjoy my time at more. My health condition is not serious and I am very good at identifying signals my body gives me to know how to medicate myself. Anyway, my mother has revealed to me that her anxiety is more about her being lonely without me. So, case closed.