<p>My advice would be for your son to go to the place that would best serve his desire to be a musician, better teachers, better overall program, etc. Obviously, to have anyone you know around you in a new situation is always comforting, and to have that with a romantic relationship seems ideal, it is facing the unknown together, but that may not be the best thing. For one thing, he will be adjusting to the music program and that is a lot of work and stress right there, and it IMO could hurt the relationship with the GF more if they were at the same school than not. Plus he might envision where he now is away from home and can spend a lot of time with her, without having to answer to parents and such, but I think he would find that the demands of music might make that a bit of a pipe dream:). </p>
<p>Long term relationships do come at a young age, I met my wife at 19 at college and we are together now 3 decades later, so it does happen. Given the flux that is college, he might regret choosing the GF if they break up and he went to the ‘wrong’ school, though I wouldn’t say that to him. What I would say to him is that he needs to make the choice that is best for his dream of doing music, and that if his GF cared about him and his dreams she would understand. It isn’t that I am not unsympathetic, with long distance relationships comes a lot of uncertainty, doubts and fears (will he/she meet someone better? Will I get a dear john/dear jane tweet/text/e-mail/ status change on Facebook? ), but what I would tell my own son is if they have that great a relationship, it will survive, and that in the end whatever happens with the relationship, he still wants to be a musician and given how hard that is, he has to choose what works best if that is his goal. </p>