As I hear from more and more colleges it looks like I am going to have to go out of state. I originally wanted to stay in state, but it doesn’t look like I have that choice. Therefore, I was wondering what it’s like going out of state? I’ve heard that people don’t like it.
I go out of state and I love it. I’m a couple of states away (5 hour drive or so) and I have very few complaints. I miss my dog terribly but I go to a school that has a very significant resident population and I have a good group of friends. I only go home for the breaks (Thanksgiving, Christmas, Spring) and it’s perfect. Get to spend enough time with family when I’m home but not enough to get sick of them.
I think the state boundaries are far less important than the actual travel time.
My son is looking at mostly schools that are out of state-- the schools within NY that are likely contenders are simply too far away.
Distance is a concern. My mom is 84–healthy as a horse now, but there’s no guarantee that she’ll continue to be so for the next 5 years. And he’ll want to be home for Thanksgiving and for homecoming at his high school.
We want him to be able to get home if he wants to, and for us to have the ability to get to him quickly if he needs us there, without having to deal with air travel.
So, for us, a 240ish mile radius covers a region roughly from Boston to Baltimore, and west past Scranton. Lots of different states, but still within about 4 hours.
My oldest D went to college in Florida. It is an easy 2 hour non-stop flight from here and she is going against the “traffic”, meaning people fly to Florida for the holidays whereas she is flying north. I’ve gotten really good fares where she could fly home on a Thursday night (no Friday classes) and return on Sunday night for a quickie weekend at home. She was also interested in a schools in western PA, Indiana and North Carolina, but the drive from some would be from 8-12 hours by car (if she even had one on campus) and airfare as much as $400 or more.
On the other hand, younger D is staying in-state and I’m thrilled.