Did you go far away to college?

Parent Cafe
21

<p>My older son went to college 600 miles away and now has a job on the opposite coast - that job would have been his dream job no matter how close or far away I went to college.</p>

<p>When I went to college on the east coast my parents were in Africa. Home base was DC. I did have relatives in the Boston area who were very nice about taking me out to dinner about once a semester. My younger son is in school in Boston, but his local relatives aren’t as social. (And their kids are younger.) He’s so busy he’s fine with not seeing them.</p>

22

<p>I understand and support (FWIW) your desire to spread your wings.</p>

<p>One real-life fact, given this:

is that living farther away could limit your ability to get home and your parents’ ability to get to you. (our son is now a $450 plane ride away)</p>

<p>Only you can put this fact into the proper context for you. The farther-away choice was a good one, despite these (for us) constraints.</p>

23

<p>alwaysleah: I live in New England, so my kids feel like they have many great choices here, within a good 5 hour drive or closer. My older S is in college an hour and a half away, which has proven to be perfect. He doesn’t come home very often at all, but has had the opportunity to come home for a few long weekends, like the Passover/Easter one we just had. If he were a plane ride away, he would probably have stayed on campus. He feels that he is completely on his own, but close enough too. We don’t bother him at all at school and would never show up unannounced. If we lived in CA, we might have had a more difficult predicament.</p>

<p>My S has already had lots of travel experience with us and on his own. My younger S will also stay relatively close to home. Since they both have had a lot of travel experience on their own and with their parents, they are both choosing to stay relatively close to home for college. The older one wants to go “anywhere” for grad school…his dream location for grad. school would be Europe!</p>

<p>My own viewpoint has been: Closer to home for undergrad…anyway you want for grad…we have cousins in CA that are from Maryland originally. He went to Stanford. His son didn’t even look at Stanford, too close to home. He’s now a senior at UPenn. His sister is also looking at east coast schools.</p>

<p>I’m just happy & lucky that we can save the airplane money now…and use it during grad school! :)</p>