<p>Metfan, Wisconsin is awesome. I love Madison. And let me tell you, whatever doubts you may have had will completely evaporate at 5:00 PM Central Time this Saturday, when the Wolverines come to town to spank your Badgers! hehe Go Blue baby!!! Let us face it, there is nothing that can match Big 10 football spirit. I will be watching the game in Dubai...2:00 AM-5:30 AM local time!</p>
<p>I agree with an earlier poster that people tend to try to validate their decisions. Be it State U or LAC, near or far, it is comforting to believe that you made the right choice. (And in most cases, more than one choice will work out just fine, so a lot of the decision anxiety was unnecessary in the first place).</p>
<p>
[quote]
"difference in grad rate from the in-state freshmen rate:
0. instate grad rate = starting point
1. no difference
2. -1.5%
3. -12% (big drop-off from about 400 to 600 miles)
4. -.5% (rebound)
5. -8%
6. -17%
7. -11%"
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I do not doubt this data ... it actually looks reasonable ... but the thing is I could care less what the average experience of a bunch of people I do not know is ... what I care about is how going to school close or far from home will effect my three kids ... each of which is quite unique from each other and would likely respond differentlt to being far from home for college. </p>
<p>In my opinion this is certainly a very important topic in the college selection process but it is a discussion that has to occur in a unique way with each unique person. How they value being close to family, close to friends, experiencing a new environment (weather, city/rural, country, etc) are all very personal thoughts which each kid will hopefully consider and come to their on decision on how to move into their college experience.</p>
<p>I just spoke with a student from DesMoines, Iowa. She, her dog, and her parents drove 16 hours to get to NYS, stopping overnight in Indiana. Her mother was originally from this part of NY and grandparents actually still live here. Her grandparents have a house near Rochester and a heated cabin in the Adirondack Mts (upstate NY). The distance did not seem too great to her at all because she has been visiting here since she was a kid and she has lots of family nearby.</p>
<p>Sometimes students feel at home in distant locations because they have family nearby or because they have visited with their family. Visiting can make the area feel like home.</p>
<p>Over winter break, she plans on driving home to Iowa with her dog, Then she is flying back to NY with her family to spend the holidays at her grandparents' cabin in the mountains (to someone from Iowa they are "mountains"), then flying back to Iowa, and then driving back to NY with her dog. </p>
<p>She is an expert on Iowa cattle brands...that's right...the designs on the ends of those hot poker things. It was a fun conversation. Yes, everybody's situation is unique. But, I am also interested in finding out what is generally true. If you know that distance lowers grad rates (at least at this one college), you might make a more informed decision for yourself.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Metfan, Wisconsin is awesome. I love Madison. And let me tell you, whatever doubts you may have had will completely evaporate at 5:00 PM Central Time this Saturday, when the Wolverines come to town to spank your Badgers! hehe Go Blue baby!!! Let us face it, there is nothing that can match Big 10 football spirit. I will be watching the game in Dubai...2:00 AM-5:30 AM local time!
[/quote]
</p>
<p>You do know that Michigan has lost it's last 5 road openers, right? And this is a road opener....</p>
<p>I don't think theres anything wrong with going far away from home for college. As my parents said, "With internet, cell phones, and Southwest, 3000 miles is just the same as 300!"</p>
<p>Also, the reason I'm going to the west coast is not for the sole reason of getting far away from home. First and foremost, I loved the school. Everything about it fit me perfectly and I knew it was the place for me. That is my big reason for going to the west coast. Yes, there is a small part of adventure, going to a faraway place to experience cities and wilderness that I haven't been able to experience here, but it wasn't a deciding factor. </p>
<p>Another thing is that the west coast school I will be going to if I'm accepted ED is cheaper than the east coast schools that I liked. Even when taking into account transportation costs, my parents will be paying less than they would be paying if I went to one of my favorite east coast schools.</p>
<p>My mom grew up in a small European country where her dad said two hours was too far away, so as a result she wasn't ready to let either me or my sibs go very far and pegged our radius at 4 hours from home (she also wasn't up for driving more than eight a day to come pick us up). As a result I wasn't allowed to apply to Caltech despite the INTENSIVE recruiting they did to get me to apply (it's really embarassing to say you're not applying because they're deemed "too far away" when they call your house, for the record) and I didn't apply to a school I was very interested in seven hours away either as a result.
Interestingly enough, I was the only one who stayed within the "four hour radius" rule at two and a half away from home; my sister is 5.5 hours away and my brother is pushing eight. But we digress...
When it comes down to it, I think not going too far away from home is a good idea if you're indifferent between two schools (by "too far" I'm saying "worth your while to sometimes buy a plane ticket to fly home"). This is because you really never know what might come up where it's a good thing to have your parents so close; for example I was in a bike accident a month into school last year and being able to just go home for the weekend was great! Not to mention how my brother and sister leave early Sunday mornings to catch their flights/ start the long drive after breaks, but I can hang out until late in the afternoon... ;)</p>
<p>Going far away for college was one of the best decisions I ever made. I think that it's really important for students to feel a sense of independence from their parents that allows them the flexibility to breathe and grow on their own. My friends who lived nearby and went home on the weekends didn't have the same "college" experience, and my friends whose parents lived 5 hours away and would drive in all the time for visits weren't too into it. </p>
<p>Go and do what is comfortable for you. If you're not ready to cut the cord, then stay closer to home. I love my family but I couldn't wait to get away and do my own thing and have a completely different experience from what I had grown up with.</p>
<p>Get yourself a map of USA. Draw circle that delineates 7 (could be 14 hours if someone drives roundtrip) hours drive time.
Then draw another circle that delineates a 7 hour flight time. </p>
<p>Repeat the process for cost of travel including motels meals, etc. </p>
<p>If you or your parents think that physical nearness equalates to ease of commute: You need to rethink the jet age vs automobile.</p>
<p>Newsgirl post: New Jersey (LaGuardia to PDX, a 3000mile trip), JetBlue makes it in a nonstop, 6 hours, redeye, daily. </p>
<p>Stanford Education did a recent study on acceptances to top tier schools. One conclusion is that the further you live from the school of choice, the better the chance of acceptance.</p>
<p>JetBlue - the same company that just had that plane malfunction?</p>
<p>JetBlue is an Airline Company NOT a plane manufacturer. The plane was an Airbus, a French plane. JetBlue buys/leases planes but doesn't build or design them.</p>
<p>you definetely wanna get as far away from Jersey as possible.</p>
<p>I dont quite follow the logic that being further way from home is some how broadening of either young minds or un-minted characters. There seems to be an assumption that a 19 year old will have worked through all that their own state or region has to offer; that diversity is better because it is over there diversity or that diversity is better because it is nothing more than numerically diverse in its distance.</p>
<p>Earlier, someone mentioned that there is a difference between traveling hundreds of miles away for a college like Dartmouth or taking the long trek to Podunk U. This is likely true, but not because of the distance but rather it is due to the uniqueness of the college itself. </p>
<p>There may also be a particularly specialized program offered far away that is not offered at a school within driving distance of your home (4-8 hrs), it may then make sense to travel for it (though it seems highly likely that a good program of any sort will be within a few hundred miles of most locales). But the idea that simply being far from home is somehow more-good because it is far away seems an unsupported assumption driven more by the un-ripened zeal involved in believing that the place is whats lacking rather than the person, that, come what may, distancing oneself from the familiar but uncultivated will make me a better person. </p>
<p>For the most part, the better person to-be will reveal themselves no matter where the school is locatedthe opposite position seems to stem from the fallacy that over there I will be better than I am over-here: you will be better because of what you are, not where you are.</p>
<p>Im taking my 7 year old son up to see his 18 year old sister this weekend: I dont think that either of them believes that there lives are markedly better lived in the absence of the others attentions and affections.</p>
<p>Funny, I never thought I'd post an article from my local community paper here, but this one's quite relevant.
[quote]
For Lower Merion High School graduate Andrew Reich, who recently started his freshman year at the University of Pennsylvania, "It's actually kind of nice to know that if I ever need anything, I can just hop on a train and be home in 15 minutes." Reich noted, however, that he hasn't visited yet, and has no intention of mooching off of his parents' laundry machine. "My parents and I have an agreement," he reported curtly. "They don't drop in on me unannounced, and I don't bring home large batches of laundry."
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I wanted to say that perhaps it makes a difference where you're coming from, Woodwork. I grew up in an agricultural state in a small town (considered large, though, for the state!). "Diversity" represented whether you grew up on a farm or were a town kid. </p>
<p>But you know, small towns in the midwest don't have a monopoly on provincialism. I've encountered it in people from all over. Going away to college isn't going to cure it in everyone, and it's not such an important value that it's worth basing your entire college choice on distance. But I think there is something to be gained, for many students. </p>
<p>I think I was a good person, and I believe I would have learned a lot if I stayed at the regional campus of our state university that was 6 blocks from home, or drove two hours to the flagship. But I remain convinced that there are things I gained and perspectives that were broadened by my moving 750 miles away that all the good intentions in the world wouldn't have provided me at home. I don't agree that it is solely a character issue--"where you are" can make a difference, too. At least it did for me, and in speaking with others I don't think I'm the sole person who has found this to be true.</p>
<p>"where you are" can make a difference, too"</p>
<p>Hoedown, where you are does make a difference, however I believe it is a nuanced difference which by no means represents a direct route to an improved difference--merely an incidental difference.</p>
<p>Moreover, the relevant content of that difference will be unknown while making a decision to locate in this place or that (other than broad sweeping generalizations) unless the place itself offers a substantive, qualitative opportunity that is reasonably desired and understood; as I said previously, if the school itself offers the desired effect (intellectually and culturally) it may be the wise choice, but that is different than making a choice based on traveling the greater distance.</p>
<p>If such a choice is made, it should be made all the while knowing that you are excited by a not yet experienced and known-quality (not quantity) over and above the qualities you are abandoning; that is, the place you are a part of is at best unfinished businessfamily, friends, local institutions, etc. </p>
<p>Its like the old well worn and liberal phrase: THINK globallyACT locally. Not the other way around.</p>
<p>My daughter is 5 ½ hours away at a school that she believed made a qualitative difference, I believe she made the right choiceIm not dogmatic on this point. However, many posting here have expressed the view that difference or diversity is, in itself, a value to be coveted, and yet, by any definition, neither one is, properly speaking, a value to begin with.</p>
<p>Peace, I really think that it depends totally on the child/family situation. There are 2 "goods" to be realized from going far away - increased independence because the student cannot come home or be visited as often, and secondly broadening of experience from living in a vastly different area of the country.
However, even these 2 "goods" may not operate for every family and every situation - Marite's son who can almost walk home, may not come home for weeks at a time, and make all his own decisions vs my daughter who is >1000 miles away, but with AIM and E-mail, converses with me almost every day. She is learning a lot about dealing with cold weather, but at the same time, many of her fellow students, although they come from vastly different backgrounds still have much "culture" in common with her, so that in some ways it is not so vastly different.</p>
<p>I do have a little bit different take on it than Woodwork - in our area, there aren't very many "national schools", and I do think there is much for a young person to learn in being exposed to peers from many different states, countries and experiences. The best way for DD to have that experience is to go far away to school. Now if she was in the position of Woodwork's daughter, to be able to go to a school like Dart or Harvard, and still be within driving distance of home - I think it is probably not true to say that she would have a much more enlightening experience if she went to Stanford or Duke.</p>
<p>Part of having a successful experience close to home is to pretend that it is far from home. My son lives at a school close enough to commute, but we haven't visited him there, nor do we intend to. We don't know what he is doing or how late he is out. It's best that way!</p>
<p>Cangel,</p>
<p>a little tough on Alabama:)...but well said</p>
<p>Still, as to 'broadening of experience, as that one time New England resident Henry Thoreau once said in this regard:</p>
<p>As with our colleges, so with a hundred "modern improvements"; there is an illusion about them; there is not always a positive advance. The devil goes on exacting compound interest to the last for his early share and numerous succeeding investments in them. Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end, an end which it was already but too easy to arrive at; as railroads lead to Boston or New York. We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate.</p>
<p>I often worry that in our youth we long to be the proverbial mile wide while forgetting that we are still but an inch deep and widening. </p>
<p>[recall, I madewith othersa bit of a distinction based on intellect and culture which I believe no doubt benefits your daughter as well as mine in their current humble, and distant, abode]</p>
<p>I get Mr. Thoreau's point, but today I think one of the most important things to be communicated from "Maine to Texas", or from the US to the rest of the world, is that we have as many similarities as people as we seem to have differences as nations - that she couldn't get from a school where 1/3rd of her senior classmates are right there with her.</p>
<p>And I am selling Alabama a little short - after all we build both Japanese and Korean cars, and with a little good luck, we will be building French airplanes - so there!;)</p>