<p>As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I think I win the prize in the ‘student furthest from home’ category, at least in the crop of CC parents who had a student entering college fall 2006. Airfare was $1100 last year for two trips (the third and fourth ones were paid for by my son’s a cappella group) and will be more this year - I think about $1400 - not nearly as high as it could be, because very inexpensive one-way flights offered by Air-Hitch from the UK to the US can be bookended by reasonable Student Universe one-way flights from here to the UK. </p>
<p>The expense is more than offset by the lower room and board costs, thus the annual TCA relative to an expensive US private college is still lower. (Just don’t talk to me about the lousy current exchange rate - the falling dollar has affected our annual tuition payment due in September - what help is a terrorist scare [from the standpoint of an ill wind that blows nobody good] if no one loses confidence in the pound?). </p>
<p>Since the plot was revealed, though, it does feel a big riskier to send him back and forth across “Crash-Kerboom Alley” - a new nickname for The Pond. Reminds me of Beaudant, a French master in the training of dressage horses, when he quoted a cavalary officer who was “…killed at the racecouse at Samur: ‘Only those who do not ride, do not fall. You will not go until your time has come.’” Thus, fly he will.</p>
<p>And as for leaving the family stomping grounds permanently, that can be a blessing, depending on your family’s situation. I am half hoping he decides to relocate in the UK after college, as I’d like to live there myself.</p>
<p>Well, we just got back from California, which is 3,000 (or, according to the airline, only 2,400+). A couple of random thoughts:</p>
<p>1) No one in California seems to have university stickers on their back windshields. Half the people in the east do. Why is that?</p>
<p>2) I never in a million years imagined a place where you have a light governing how you get from the ramp onto the freeway. Wow.</p>
<p>But a couple of comments actually on our point: blucroo, sure, some of us bemoan our kids going away so far to school. And we don’t like the cost or the travel time - which is huge. But we let them go, didn’t we? It’s not so much about our being able to cut them loose. Sometimes our venting about this is just a survival technique of our own, a way of coping with the fact that we have been able to cut them loose to follow the lives, as we wipe a tear away because we love them, and loved having them live with us. </p>
<p>But independence is not measured in mileage. Like weenie’s, many kids go to school close by, and gain independence from the experience. My H went to the local state university because his parents felt college was just an excuse not to get a job at the local factory like everyone else’s kid. So he had to live at home, pay rent, and pay 100% of his tuition, while working full time to pay for all that. A few miles, but more than a full generation’s distance from his parents. Many other kids will be the same way, whether they choose the local school for money’s sake, or just because they like it and it’s a good fit.</p>
<p>karthikkito - if the lights make merging less risky, then thank the lord for the lights. When we arrived back at our home airport this afternoon, I half-way expected to go through customs !</p>
<p>hayden:
Just for truthfulness, my son is 350 miles away and not at a public. But that doesn’t stop me from trying to remind people about some basic facts for most families. Also, given that my son depends on us for just about everything, I would never suggest that he is “independent” – at least not in any way that really counts. (Like money. Ha!)</p>
Ha!)</p>