Hi I’m going to be a Freshman next year. I attend a boarding school because both of my parents live abroad for work. So I better take care of myself. I stay with my parents during break. I travel a lot and I have to use the big city airports. we don’t have a actual house in the States. Here is the story. My boarding school is middle of nowhere and I had hard time with my life here in rural New England. I don’t like sports nor be social so I would be better off having life of my own. I think the anti social thing came from genetics. (Both of my parents were “weirdos” at the school. Well they didn’t have big problems because they redeemed themselves by becoming the best academic students in their high school. That’s not going to happen to me. I got lot of hazing in the school. my grades crashed to the trenches. I can’t tell to the teachers because they are scared of my depression symptoms(not participating in school). I guess the 100yr old private school has never seen a kid with seasonal affective disorder. Fortunately my SATs were better than or equal to other students. Anyways I spent a LOT of attention to the nearby environment. I dropped lot of good in the schools (especially upstate NY) on my list because of the location. I am not going to drive a car because I don’t want to be responsible for car accident. Also, I need a five minute walk to a grocery store. So that leaves me with schools in the big city. I want to avoid New England because of its infamous weather. I looked up the colleges in the West coast and the South.
What do you guys think of my situation right now?
Have you spoken with your counselor at all about the SAD? You still have to get through the coming winter.
What kind of budget do you have?
What might you major in?
Would Philadelphia be far enough south for your SAD to be better? Temple and Drexel are in the middle of the city and have good access to public transportation. There also are a bumch of decent options in the general Baltimore area Including Towson U and Goucher that are both walking distance to shopping and have decent bus connections.
Since you want access to public transit, you might be best off identifying cities with that (so probably not the west coast), and then finding out which colleges are located in those cities.
If cost isn’t an issue, the state flagships are like cities unto themselves. Think of Ohio State or U of Texas. You could spend your whole 4 years without getting into a car.
I would suggest to look at some of the LAC’s in the South/South East. College of Charleston, Rhodes College, Eckerd College, New College in Florida.
Please make sure you have been correctly diagnosed with SAD and are being followed by a physician.
Rhodes College I would not consider a walkable area neither is New College in Florida. Look at state flagships as they may not be in a big city but are usually quite vibrant with everything close by.
It’s hard to say without knowing much about your stats, etc. Maybe Santa Clara University. It’s very close to the airport. I don’t know much about the surrounding neighborhood though. Campus is beautiful. Weather could not be nicer.
I also think some of the state flagships might work. I haven’t been to Lawrence, Kansas (going soon though). But I know some profs who work there. They said it’s a great, vibrant, hi-tech town with lots of different kinds of restaurants. I wouldn’t have really thought of it, but it sounds like maybe something like you are looking for.
Elon University is another one where you can walk to restaurants, etc. The campus if very nice, and weather is great I"d say the same about James Madison University, which is very popular with Northern Virginia students and draws terrific in-state students. Every alum I’ve know loved their experience there. Good luck!
Probably not as far south as you would like, but Dickinson has a very nice thing going with Carlisle, and the kids seemed really friendly.
And how about the University of San Diego? Maybe someone who knows the school well could offer their opinion. Also spectacular weather, beautiful campus. Looks walkable to restaurants, etc. Airport is very close too. We only visited UCSD when we were briefly around San Diego. That also might be an option. I don’t know much about San Diego State.
We didn’t find USD that walkable to a lot of things (on top of giant hill) and there wasn’t a whole lot at the bottom of the hill, but don’t forget with Uber and Lyft, college kids can get anywhere these days, pretty reasonably. Schools like USC have paid for Uber rides (think it is Lyft now) for last few years within a couple miles of campus. Not only good for safety at an urban campus but it also opens up a lot of places to get to for free. Other schools may do the same.
There’s a lot of schools that have grocery stores that are a short walk, you don’t have to be in a city to get that. Need more info on your grades to understand better schools that may fit and have the weather you want.