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<p>Well, that’s a shocker! (Not.) Friendships change during college? Of courses they do. Distance doesn’t matter? I get that, too. None of this is tantamount to “your best friends in HS become your enemies in college.” I imagine most people do not come out of college with the same set of friends they had going in. I imagine this is especially the case for people who go to colleges with undergraduate enrollments in the tens of thousands. That doesn’t mean it’s a BAD idea to choose a GOOD school that is closer to home where you start with a core group of friends if that’s important to you. I would imagine you’d have to work rather hard to cocoon yourself within your high school clique at a school like Penn State. If the OP said he or she were considering a school ONLY because his or her friends were going, I’d be more concerned.</p>