<p>My son has had a chronic, minor health condition that we were not expecting to deal with. It has required 3 visits this semester to medical specialists because this is not a situation that can be treated properly through the college's health center. I feel so blessed that my son has chosen a school that is not rural. He has fairly easy access to the medical care that he needs, and our health care insurance has wonderful in network OOS coverage in the area where he is going to school. He does not have a car at college. It would have been so difficult not having a car if he had chosen a rural school and needed ongoing medical treatment, not to mention the traveling to someone in network with our insurance plan. </p>
<p>I am posting this because I believe that it is really something for parents and students to keep in mind when they are applying and making a college choice.</p>
<p>Thank you, northeastmom!! You bring up a very important point. In our case, son needed an urgent repair on a tech item & it would have been a real hassle if a repair store was not nearby. This is a problem, because there are so many great rural campuses - parents & kids - how do you deal with these issues?</p>
<p>Daughter attended a rural school that also had a med school and large medical center.Also had no major health issues while at college. Tech support for PC and Mac were both on campus. Under most warranties, if they cannot fix your computer you can usually be shipped a new on in 24 hours.</p>
<p>We have a generally perfectly healthy child who had an unexpected medical problem that dragged out for several month (was initially misdiagnosed, etc. - despite easy access to world-class medical center one bus stop from the campus). This was not something we took into account when we looked at schools, but it would have been a real problem if there was no specialist near by…</p>
<p>One particular piece of advice I would give other parents is to see if you can go to another option on insurance for your child away at college versus the family members who live together. With our insurance, we were able to do this and we had to put our son on standard insurance while we were still on a PPO type insurance. THat was because he did go to college in a small town and there were no providers within 20 miles of his location. </p>
<p>With d who is a senior this year, we are checking out the availability of specialists in a given college’s area. SHe currently sees a cardiologist, a neurologist, and a few more specialists. I don’t want her far away from physicians even though she will have a car most likely because I want her in college to be going to classes and studying, not taking long trips to see specialists.</p>
<p>I ran into my son’s friend’s aunt after my initial post. My son’s friend is a freshman at a rural school. The school is probably 3 hours each way from home. The parents have driven there and back for Thanksgiving (this is 2 RTs for them) and will do this again for winter break (they might have found a carpool, but are not sure). Apparently there isn’t a convenient public bus, or a chartered bus through the school. This is another thing to consider. At least my son’s friend is very happy at the school he chose to attend.</p>
<p>I think that what you describe is our situation. We are in a PPO and our insurance has a list of providers that may be used in all states (ie: if we are ill when traveling and would like to see a physician, or for a college student). I checked the list doctors before my son left to go to college. He really has a lot of in network doctors to choose from where he is going to school. That was not the case when I looked at the list of in network doctors near some schools in more rural locations. It might have been a 30 minute car ride each way (perhaps longer) to see an in network specialist at some locations.</p>
<p>I think you all make excellent points. I won’t disagree.</p>
<p>I will say that my DS is at a rural campus. He did need a specialist and was able to find one nearby. Frosh year his JA’s (junior advisors – student dorm parents) had a car and drove him, soph friends could and junior year he had a car himself.</p>
<p>There were plenty of residents in the area for local residents and a bus system, but it is not as convenient as other locations. It has been a spectacular experience for him, and I’m so glad he’s had it, notwithstanding the points made above.</p>
<p>We did go back and forth to get him the first two years and have missed it sorely since we gave him my old car, LOL.</p>
<p>OTOH nothing beats my D taking her broken laptop to the Apple Store after 11 pm on a weeknight. That was great – went far past what technical support can provide. But then I had to have the agita of her out and about NYC late at night. I did spring for the cap. The dear girl wanted to save money on the subway. Earlier in the evening, subway all the way. One in the morning? Not. Well, now she’s 23, and I’m pretty sure she takes the subway at that time, but I’ve given up worrying. Sort of.</p>
<p>S1 developed a severe corneal ulcer during his soph. year. It tooks six weeks of visits to an opthamologist to resolve it. His univ. is in a city. He was able to squeeze the appts in between classes. It would have been a big problem if he had been in a very rural area with no specialist nearby.</p>
<p>Most colleges require students to carry their health insurance (about $2000/year) or have coverage through parents. There are some situations where the campus plan will make sense, especially if parent plan is expensive and/or no network doctors near campus. </p>
<p>Although city colleges have pros/cons, for my son Boston has been great. He can take the T to volunteer work, movies, airport etc. Interestingly when I asked our music store about the best way to transport son’s tenor sax to college, one suggestion was to ship it to a great Boston repair shop he knew of… and by incredible coincidence it is just a few blocks from son’s dorm. (We opted to get permission from Jet Blue for carry-on. But we laughed to see that the shop was adjacent to our motel for Parent Weekend. Small world.)</p>
<p>Hugs to all whose kids have had health problems.
My daughter attended a large state university in a rural area with a very tiny airport with exorbitant air fares. It was only three hours away from home with regular bus service. She wanted to come home for a funeral (not a family member, but she wanted to attend nevertheless) and there was an ice storm; Greyhound stopped running for several days. She could not come home. If she had been somewhere with a larger airport, she would have been able to come home.</p>
<p>levirm, you make another good point. Airline and train prices, as well as available bus service may matter to some families. It did to our family.</p>
<p>I really would not have minded my son going to a rural school, IF the health or student center would have provided transportation (even for a fee) when my son would have had to seek medical attention. Some schools do this, and others do not. Being able to get to a pharmacy without jumping through too many hoops is another thing some might consider important.</p>
<p>S is attending Northwestern so great medical service is conveniently close. Happily, our health insurance had OOS coverage in IL. So we set this up before S left. What I spaced on was his selection of a network physician before the health insurance truly “turned on.” Luckily he had more brains than I on this and brought the materials on THanksgiving and asked how the heck he was supposed to chose a physician. So we spent about an hour on line researching and then he selected one.</p>
<p>My hassle with him now is to get him to give me a copy of his next quarter’s class registration, which I need to provide to the health insurance company so they will continue with OOS. I have reminded him that we’ll have to do this each quarter. Then, I am wondering of the hassle if we should choose to move it back to CA if he comes back during the summer, or just leave it in IL?? He’s generally very healthy, just had some prescriptions for his acne, and follow up otho appointments.</p>