Right now some of the top schools on my list are USC(A) and Purdue. Both are far away from my hometown (Northeast) but both have fantastic cybersecurity programs that I am interested in. They are perfect, but airline tickets are expensive and moving in/out is a hassle. Before considering this I was sold on both colleges, but now I’m not sure. It would be nice to get away from home and discover something new, but the logistics are holding me back.
Does anybody else have this problem? People who do go to college far away from home, how is it? Any tips?
You have plenty of choices of airports in the northeast, so you can cut costs a bit by driving a bit farther to a different airport. Once at school, you will meet other students who are also not from the area, as well as locals. You won’t go home as often, but that doesn’t have to be a big deal. We’re in CT, and my daughter went to Colorado College. She returned home for Christmas each year, but not for Thanksgiving, because it didn’t make much sense. The first year her advisor invited her to dinner, the next two years a group in her dorm made a community dinner, and last year she spent Thanksgiving break working in a wolf sanctuary - something she wouldn’t have done if she had stayed near home. There are ways to make it work
It really depends on your family’s finances and vacation schedule. It’s much easier to move in to a dorm if you can drive there rather than fly there, but your family may discover a deeply buried yearning to do a final cross-country road trip as a family. This may or may not be very fun.
Or if you’re well off enough that you can buy a lot of the clothes and dorm essentials nearby, it’s not such a big deal to fly out early and rent a car and gather things together before move-in day.
Going farther away means that you have more logistics to deal with, but one secret to successful logistics is extra time.
Plenty of people go to school internationally. Often they have an early move-in for these folks, so that they can do the gathering thing and there’s time for the stuff they shipped to get there. If you’re going bicoastal, you might ask the school if you can come in with the international contingent.
Check into Southwest Airlines. They fly into place close to both of the schools you are looking at and you get two checked bags free. SWA also offers a really great airlines reward credit card. We pay every bill possible on that credit card to rack up miles - I even buy groceries with it. We treat it like a bank/checking account card and pay it off every month. This would be something your parents would have to be willing to do. Also you can ship things to your school and a lot of schools are now offering services where you can buy packages of dorm necessities (bedding, storage units, etc…) and they will be waiting for you in your dorm room. When you are looking at airline prices make sure you are not looking at next day prices - right now I would check to see when those colleges start their Winter Break and price those tickets. You will know these in advanced, so you can look for the best deals.
You really don't need that much stuff in a dorm, so moving costs should be minimal. Keep it light and easy! Schools offer storage over the summers for small fees. Amazon now ships stuff to your dorm.
Don't go home for smaller holidays. It's okay to miss a few. You might get invited home with friends from campus instead.
Or you can stay in faculty homes or those of fellow students while they are away, house sitting or pet sitting. This is a great idea for when you need to focus on your senior project.
Your family can come to you every so often. They would like the new destination sometimes.
As you get older, you will prob spend summers working in a 3rd location anyway, for internships
You can offer to help drive people back to the east coast. Lots of people head that way and you would get adventure, cheap transport home, and maybe some pay.
I did all of these things and more because I coldn’t go home from college. It was fine.
Compared to little things like out-of-state tuition, airline tickets and moving are cheap. We used “Moving Help” from Uhaul to get professional moving people to move stuff out onto our rented Uhaul trucks for my daughters’ apartments. I’ve done this like 4 times now. Much cheaper than backs, fingers, furniture, and wall repairs.
I didn’t even consider some of the things you all have. All the suggestions you all have mentioned are making me feel better about leaving the area Thank you.
You need to know how much your parents can pay for college. Have you run the Net Price Calculators for the schools you’re interested in? Do you have financial safeties on your list? Traveling is part of the college expense. If it’s going to be a challenge to come up with the money for transportation, you may be stretching the budget too thin and may need to consider less expensive schools. What are your parents saying?
D is attending Purdue and we live in the Boston area. We’ve done the Boston to West Lafayette road trip annually. I purchased tickets for Columbus Day weekend in August. Have mom or dad check Southwest frequently for good fares. Indianapolis airport is the most convenient as there are shuttles running from campus. You can also fly in and out of O’Hare (SW does not operate at O’Hare) but the shuttle is more expensive and it really adds to your travel time. D uses Midway Airport as well but it can be difficult to get to without a car as there is no shuttle service available. She used campus movers to get her into her apartment junior year & they were very reasonable. That said, it is difficult to be so far from home, especially when you get sick. Can’t jump on a plane at the last minute or get into see your regular doctor. Once d left for sophomore year, she has only been home for short breaks here and there as out of state internships and study abroad opportunities dictate the schedule. All good things but a little tough at times (perhaps more so for mom). Best of luck to you!
@mom2collegekids, In another thread OP said he’s applying to USC in CA. I suspect the “USC(A)” in the original post here was supposed to be USC(CA). Do they give aid to OOS students with a 32 ACT and 3.65 GPA?
OP, Did you apply to any financial safeties? If you’re at a competitive high school in MA then some state schools should be on your list. Can your parents afford the schools on your list without borrowing? Do you have to take the federal student loan and work summers to afford them? Generally, I’d advise students to earmark their loan for travel or to get a job to cover the expenses if they need the loan to cover direct costs. But if you need to apply the loan and work earnings to direct costs then your parents will have to cover your travel. Can they afford to do that?
Sorry I’m a little late to get back- yeah I was trying to differentiate b/w U Southern Carolina and U Southern California so I put USC(A) (like CA) I don’t think I could get any merit there.
My financial safeties are UMass Amherst and Holy Cross, but it’d be nice if I got merit/aid from Purdue (I’m OOS though) and Providence. They are willing to put up some money, but I’m planning on doing ROTC (preferably AFROTC for a more computer-based position) to help cover the costs.
USoCal is VERY expensive BUT they do give generous merit and FAid for students they want. I’d consider it a financial reach if your family isn’t ready to pay everything out of pocket. They get tons of applicants, especially now that they have the common app.
They are a private U so award according to what they want and aren’t bound by whether a student is a CA resident or not. Both my kids are USC alums. It was very expensive, as tho S got generous merit, D got none.
To be honest, my parents have been giving me mixed-signals about paying for college. My dad told me not to worry about the cost but my mom is encouraging me to be more frugal.
And I would really love to go to USC but without a scholarship, I might wanna stay closer to home.
Thank you.