We are from New England and she had never really seen herself going far away for school. She applied to all the typical state schools up here and a few others where she knew she would get decent merit being OOS. Stetson was one of the first schools to find her after PSATs and continued communication. After she finished her Common App and started clicking away at applications, I encouraged her to apply to Stetson just to see what happens as it was free to apply. Lo and behold they came back with a very generous package. Still, they were in FL and at that time her going there was as likely as sending her to the moon.
As it turned out, in Feb we were already going to be in FL for a different reason and she asked if we could attend their open house to justify why she was turning them down. After 20+ college tours I was getting good at finding red flags so I figured this would be easy and we prob wouldn’t even make it to the tour after the presentation. I was wrong. From the moment we stepped on campus we knew it was different from any school we had visited (the 60+ degree weather when it was below zero at home helped too 
) Campus is not huge but is not suffocating. Tons of opportunities for those that want to get involved. Everyone we met was genuinely happy and my daughter immediately felt comfortable and excited for the possibility of going there. That had not happened at any of the other tours we went on. Her greatest fear is that I would tell her that it was too far. I told her that she needed to go where she was comfortable and excited to be there. I told her that I would not miss her any less if she was going to the college in the town next door or 1200 miles away. But not taking advantage of an amazing opportunity because of fear of hurting someone else’s feelings is no way to live.
Could she have been happy at a school back in NE? Most certainly. She is the type of kid that would make the best of any situation. But your college years go so fast. Some opportunities only come around once. And I told her if it didn’t work out, there were several flights leaving Orlando everyday to New England. No questions asked.