Pros/Cons of staying instate for college

<p>What are the pros and cons for staying instate for college (other than tuition)? Is it better to leave where you've been growing up all along to experience true independence? Or, is it better to stay instate and just wait until you finish all your education to move away? Is it worth staying instate for someone? Or, is that a stupid reason?</p>

<p>depends on what state you're in. if you're at texas, michigan, virginia, california, or north carolina its generally best to stay.</p>

<p>I live in Washington State.</p>

<p>i live in ny. we have crappy public schools. its good to leave unless you go to one of the good private schools like NYU, Cornell, Columbia, URochester. </p>

<p>also, owning a car would make more sense if you lived in state. you could drive home</p>

<p>Ah, the question that's on everybody's mind. I live in Maryland; the University of Maryland has a decent campus, and a beautiful, intensive journalism school. It also has a unique honors program for which I am a likely candidate. I have no doubt that at my state university, I will be academically challenged and graduate prepared for a career. And I will leave without a penny of debt. Other universities I'm considering don't even have a journalism school! And still at others I will pale in comparison to the kids who graduate with honors. Most are upwards of 40 grand a year. It seems like Maryland is the perfect school for me...except... </p>

<p>Too bad when I visited, everywhere I looked was a kid I knew. In the foodcourt I saw John's brother. Outside the music building was the former principal sax of our wind ensemble. The tour guide was in the school play last year. It was basically downright sickening. College is a place to start over, to be surrounded by people you don't know and who don't know you. It's a place where you don't have to be what everybody expects you to be based on who you were and who you hung out with in the fifth grade. I tried to escape the familiar faces, but just sunk further into my depression when I realized I knew the campus like the back of my hand. How many times had I been there for sports events? How many times had I perused the library for books to help me write school papers? It is already like a second home to me.</p>

<p>But is that romantic notion of starting over worth sacrificing what seems like a perfect fit? If I knew I probably wouldn't be freaking out so much!</p>

<p>So, there you have it: my pros and cons. I guess my best advice is to apply to diverse schools (but still good matches!), visit, and see where you fit in best. If that school is your state school, maybe it would be silly to move away to experience "true independence". After all, your parents won't just decide to drop by. You don't have to go home on the weekends. You will meet tons of new people. College will still be an incredibly unique experience. There is only a small window to aquire a great education and lifelong friends in a community where you feel like you belong; you have the rest of your life to go globe-trotting! If your state school is not your best fit, the decision is a lot easier!</p>

<p>It is worth staying instate for someone - if staying instate is also a good option for other reasons. But I still standby the ideal that college is a time to start fresh, not cling onto old highschool buddies. My parents went to schools in different states after being highschool sweethearts. So if that somebody is your soulmate, the long distance relationship might be the true test.</p>

<p>I lived in the Philadelphia suburbs and now I go to Penn. There are probably a dozen kids here from my high school...but that is a dozen out of 10,000 undergrads. I can (and do) go weeks without even seeing them, let alone talking to them.</p>

<p>And even though home is only 20 minutes away, it feels as far away as I want it to be. So don't turn down the ideal school just because it is close to home.</p>

<p>I know probably about 30 kids from my hometown here...but thats only 30 out of 11,000....like the above poster said, I can go days without seeing any of them and have far more new friends that just know me from college. </p>

<p>Its not a big deal....typically everyone is trying to be different than they were in high school, so they're not going to group around their old friends right away. </p>

<p>Home is still 5 hours away for me, so I feel plenty independent. Instate is worth having less debt.</p>

<p>For me there are no pros to staying in Florida for college. I've never liked living here, so now that I have a chance to leave I'm taking full advantage of that. On top of that, I don't like any of the public schools and I wasn't interested in attending a private school.</p>

<p>if u hated your high school and where you lived, go out of state...if you like your environment, stay instate</p>

<p>NJ is very concerned with "brain drain"...many top students head out of state for college. They've increased incentives to try to bribe students to stay in-state. I could go to TCNJ pretty much without paying a dime.</p>

<p>Students at TCNJ are almost all from NJ. My school sends at least a dozen each year. TCNJ has a reputation, true or untrue, of emptying out on weekends as people visit home. That isn't really what I want - I want more geographic diversity than that. I am not the type to visit home often, and (sweeping generalization coming) don't really want to be around people who do want to be home every weekend. I want a more residential community.</p>

<p>NJ is a small state and it didn't have what I looked for in a college. I'll take these next four years as an opportunity to get out and live somewhere a little different. I love NJ and may someday return, but for now I'll try something new. If I lived in a larger state with more options, my choice might be different. Like ndcountrygirl said - she's 5 hours away from home in-state, and I'll be 5 hours away but out of state.</p>

<p>It had also always been assumed (parental pressure or whatnot, which I'm fine with) that I'd be attending a private college, so in state vs out of state tuition was never a consideration.</p>

<p>U Washington is a really good school; in fact, I thought about applying there, because I liked the look/atmosphere of the school and I love Seattle so much. I do understand that it is a somewhat commuter school, though. But it's the second largest school in the country after University of Texas-Austin, isn't it? How big was your high school? I doubt you'd run into that many people you know in a school of 25,000 or so. It all depends on your career plans. . . do you want to be a doctor? If so, great place to knock out your requirements for med school, on the cheap, too. Are you a good candidate for scholarships/honors program?</p>

<p>I didn't even apply to our state U, LSU, because the football and beer scene is way too much for me, and I hate Baton Rouge. However, they do have a fantastic Honors College where there are actually <em>some</em> serious students. In Louisiana, we are also concerned about brain drain (especially after last year's hurricane season!) and have a ton of incentives for students who choose to stay in-state.</p>

<p>It depends on what your end goals are. If you would like to remain living in the same area as an adult, going to school in state can provide a lot of good networking opportunitites. However, if you're wanting to end up living across the country or just in a completely different area of the country, then those benefits are lost a little.</p>

<p>If money isn't an issue, I ouldn't imagine going to a State school. The thought of going to a school where the mjority of kids come from one place seems so limiting. College is a time for meeting peoplre from sll over the world, seeing ne perspectives, going home on breaks with friends to see how people live in their part of the Country. You can always go home, but you may not want to after seeing much more of the world. And unless your State school is Mich or UVA (and a few others), companies recruiting on campus are likely to be local.</p>

<p>If you decide to stay in state... UW, Whitman, and Seattle U are excellent schools</p>

<p>Don't forget Reed. In Oregon, but very close to WA. </p>

<p>Out of the 8 schools I applied to, 5 were in-state. North Carolinians are blessed with a multitude of good schools, public and private, so I had good options. I chose to remain in-state and haven't regretted it at all. There's only one or two other people from my high school here, so I had to make a bunch of new friends (always a good thing IMO). Although home is only 2-2 1/2 hours away, I haven't gone home at all except for fall break and winter break (and spring break in about two weeks). There's such a good mix of people I really can't tell I'm in-state. You can definitely exert "independence" in-state; you don't have to travel across the country. </p>

<p>If you're planning to go on to further education (grad school, med school), there's no hurry to go across the country if you don't want to. My geology TA did her undergrad at U Washington and is now at grad school at Duke, completely across the country.</p>

<p>not to hijack the thread....but what if you love the place where you live (environment/weather wise) but didn't like the people?</p>

<p>Then go to another school...? I wanted to remain in-state, but I wanted a new experience, so I avoided UNC Chapel Hill.</p>

<p>All right, thank you everyone for your input. </p>

<p>I guess my question ultimately came down to this - Is it really worth it to stay in state for someone? I'd be going to UW if I chose that. Is it really worth doing that, and giving up the dream of leaving to a school across the country that you've had for 3 years?</p>

<p>NO
It is not worth it. Go where you want to go, especially if it's your dream school.</p>

<p>But what if it isn't exactly your 'dream school'? I want to go there, and they gave me scholarship money to help me out with the costs... its just that i've always (ever since 10th grade) dreamt of leaving my hometown of 18 years to go somewhere in the east.</p>

<p>Why isn't it worth it?</p>