<p>In your mind, what is the perfect distance for a college to be from home? Say, you could plop your dream school any distance from home you'd like, how far away would it be?</p>
<p>Would you want to have to hop on a plane?
Be a long drive away?
Be a few hours from home?
Be right next door?</p>
<p>??
Just curious. :)</p>
<p>It depends. I wouldn’t want to go to a school that is less than an hour from home. I’m not crazy about the Southeast, so it’s not about getting away from the parents. I lived in Florida (I don’t consider it the South) and I would consider going to college there and we use to live there. It really depends on the school and the places I’ve always wanted to live (NY, LA) have never been because my parents live far away. I just would love to live there and my parents happen to live far away. If I go Northeast, I could drive home so it’s not a big deal. It’s not a concern when I look at schools for me.</p>
<p>My ideal distance is two to eight hours by car. Unfortunately, most of the schools with the best financial aid are far outside of this distance.</p>
<p>Um, close enough that you can get home but far enough away that parents won’t visit? In our family that was four to five hours. YMMV.</p>
<p>After thinking about it for a long time, I’d say 4-6 hrs by car.</p>
<p>Then again, I only applied to two (of twelve) schools that weren’t a plane trip away, so what do I know? I am going to school half-way across the country!</p>
<p>Michigan State University was once my top choice ( no longer have one) but I couldn’t see any longer how it could due to only being 10 minutes from my house… horrible. This distant was not near perfect at all… I’m not sure of perfect distance, though 1 hour sounds much better than 10 minutes, while 4-8 hours sounds even better. Usually with perfect distance it’s nearly impossible that you would be shopping at the same name brand stores as your relatives, not likely to run into them or they pass by you, no surprise visits, feel another grade of independence etc… Though I would like a distance where I could drive home when needed, and at max… would not take more than 24 hours to drive home and back. Bad distance is being able to easily ride a bike home, or relatives ride to you.</p>
<p>Yeah… my ideal distance would be 2-3 hours. I hate long drives, and my parents generally don’t go far from home, ha… so I’m fairly sure I wouldn’t run into them or have any surprise visits, but I could get home and back pretty easily.</p>
<p>5 hours.</p>
<p>That way, going home is an easy weekend trip, yet you can remain independent and there is a “distance barrier”</p>
<p>2-3 hour flight. I’m a bit sick of long car rides, and I don’t want to stay closer than 3-4 hours driving distance.</p>
<p>but flights are so expensive! and the airport is kind of a pain in my opinion… maybe…</p>
<p>5 hour flight or more.</p>
<p>I like to be alone, I hate living with my parents.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t mind hopping on a plane, so long as I don’t have to get on a second. A direct flight away would be ideal.</p>
<p>Less than 5 hours by car, or direct flight.</p>
<p>my perfect distance is however long it takes haha</p>
<p>I take a 24 hour flight to Hong Kong in the summer to visit family so I’m used to travelling long distances.</p>
<p>I’m currently 90 miles from home, which gives me the ability to feel like I am away but be close enough to get back in an emergency. I was about two hundred twenty miles before I transferred and that therefore I went home once the semester. The 90-120 mile range seems great IMO.</p>
<p>My ideal distance (I’m a parent): 1-2 hours by car. Far enough that I would never just drop in, but near enough that D could easily get home for the weekend as often as desired.</p>
<p>D’s ideal distance: 1800 miles, 6 hours flight time, with 1 stop.</p>
<p>D won this argument.</p>
<p>3 hour drive would be my perfect distance. The school I’m going to is 5 hours away though… :(</p>
<p>1-hour drive.</p>
<p>4-5 hour flight. Far enough to be on your own, but close enough where you can leave in the morning and be home by noon</p>
<p>More than 7 hours (connections included) by air, or a week of driving away. That’s how long it takes to get “away” enough, and to another part of the country/Canada. Remoteness ftw!</p>