Thank you for all the feedback. I told him it’s ultimately his choice, but he says he just isn’t sure about going so far away from home. I think that’s more of a factor than I realized previously. Having never been away from home on his own, he says he literally has no idea how he would adjust to being away. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, he wasn’t able to do an overnight visit at any of the Accepted Students’ events, so he hasn’t even set foot in a dorm. He’s so very different from me when I was his age- I couldn’t WAIT to get away from home, live on my own, be independent, etc. If I had gotten in to any one of those LAC’s and it were affordable, I would have committed in a heartbeat! Of course, I wasn’t just coming off 2 years of isolation during a global pandemic, either, so that has certainly had a major impact developmentally.
So since he can’t decide, it looks like he is most likely going to take the “safe” option, with state flagship honors program 3 hours away. He can live in the Honors dorm, come home weekends if he gets homesick (or not!), we can attend his musical performances, come to parent weekend, etc. And he won’t have to retake the 60 credit hours of dual enrollment transfer credit, so that will give him some latitude to explore academically. I’ll admit there will likely always be an element of regret in turning down these amazing opportunities, but alas, that’s life. And there really isn’t a bad choice here either way, so he is very fortunate to have these options. Thanks again for all the feedback and good luck to all!
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