<p>S1 and his best friend/future roommate visited their future college in the spring of senior yr. Best friend’s sister was a student there. The boys stayed (or said they did) at the sister’s apartment. They knew lots of kids from our h.s. at the college so I know they didn’t sit at the sis’s apt. watching tv. S returned home saying he had a great time, seemed none the worse for the experience and was very pumped up about attending the school. </p>
<p>S2 drove himself and two friends across the state for college orientation. They spent the night at S1’s crazy college house on the way. I actually came up with that plan.</p>
<p>Both my kids had “plastic” (debit and credit cards) when they were seniors in h.s. So they did have access to funds if an emergency arose.</p>
<p>wow I guess I am a bad mom. My oldest didn’t have a cell phone till she was a senior in college- and her sister didn’t have one till high school. But I let my 11 yr old visit her sister in college and wasn’t worried about her at all. ( I was also in town, but I was out enjoying my relative freedom! )
The next year ( or maybe it was later the same year) I took the train down with D2 and a friend and the next year, they took the train down by themselves.</p>
<p>True it was Portland Or, not Philadelphia or D.C., and my D2 has a look of doom that will stop bad guys in their tracks, but I knew D’1s friends in college and trusted them & it was a good experience</p>
<p>Marian, your concerns seem a little extreme. Anyone on a campus has access to campus security-- they can all hit that blue light, whether they’re enrolled or not. But the most important point is that they’re visiting a good friend that they trust. You can send your kid with your Visa, and a HS senior should already have a checking account and debit card, to which you can transfer money in case of emergency. And of course they have a cell phone (which they should keep in a pocket instead of in a purse or backpack, in case those get stolen/lost).</p>
<p>My senior D is off across the country next month to stay with a close friend at a college in Boston. That will be her home base while she looks at a couple of other schools. We know this girl well and know she won’t ditch our D, and we know our D won’t get blind drunk and be preyed upon by senior boys (she’s not an idiot). She will be on her own in a matter of months, and it’s an excellent chance to ease into the separation process and learn how to travel on her own. </p>
<p>Of course, every kid is different. If a particular HS senior has maturity issues and/or is defiant and pushing boundaries, it might be a little scary to turn them loose. But a responsible, hard-working, thoughtful senior is ready for such a trip, and indeed would greatly benefit from it.</p>
<p>If you think college is such a wild and scary place, how are you ever going to let her go off for good next year? Again you have to know your child. My d goes to high school in New York City, frequently takes Greyhound alone to various locations to visit friends, and has been to Europe and Africa without me, so yeah, a weekend trip to visit a friend at college is nothing. Sit down and talk to your d. Ask her what she would do in certain circumstances. Ask yourself what you are willing to do, too. My h has has to get up in the middle of the night to drive into the city to pick up older d when she missed the last train. Of course, everyone of us would rush to the rescue in case of a real emergency.</p>
<p>*D2 has a look of doom that will stop bad guys in their tracks,"</p>
<p>I wanna see!*</p>
<p>She has directed it at me in her younger days. Takes a while to recover from. I felt more confident about her traveling around the world knowing she had it though.</p>
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