And truly, most college experiences or “fits” will be neither 100% perfect nor 100% nightmare.
It’s like marriages or jobs. I don’t believe that each person has one soul mate in the world, whom you either find and settle down with or spend the rest of your life unfulfilled. I’ve also had jobs that morphed to where they barely resembled the opportunity or environment of the first day, but there were kernels of the experience that are still valuable today. One door closes, another opens.
The young woman I described in post #100 may have some great friends or experiences from her two years out of state that she wouldn’t have had otherwise. Or perhaps that orbit kept her from meeting and getting involved with the wrong guy too young. Or made her appreciate her home state more. That’s all valid and some good things are just intangible. Maybe they balanced out the dollar cost, maybe not.
ETA: Just making the point in that post that starting out at one school is no guarantee that the student will complete their degree there. I suspect a fair number of students, parents, and other stakeholders at this juncture in the decision process think it “can’t happen to them,” or haven’t even considered that scenario.