Does your child go to a school that "you can't get to from here"?

[natty1988]

@CollegeNerd67

@1NJParent

The extra cost of travel is an issue for many families, but shouldn’t that extra cost be included in the overall cost of attendance when comparing colleges, rather than separately?

Ideally, yes - but I don’t think many people factor it in until they’ve chosen the college - or they think about it but don’t consider the whole planes-trains-automobiles of it all. I’m always shocked at the number of parents on my daughter’s college page who, after accepting the offer to attend, ask how they are supposed to get their kid there from the other side of the country. Some don’t even realize the only airport options and 1-hour and 3-hours away from campus, and that the college doesn’t provide transportation to and from. Plus, the college is subject to winter weather (as are the airports), which throws a wrench into travel right around the busiest holiday travel.

When we were looking at colleges, we factored in the costs of getting to and from campus best we could. There were some hard to get to colleges that our kids crossed off their lists, but that was mostly because they felt the town was too small and there wasn’t enough to do…