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<p>I definitely have thought about that. I don’t mind when it gets cold here, but it’s almost never below freezing. I know it would be cold in MN, but would it ever get to the point of being intolerable?</p>
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<p>No, you have to stop in Chicago-Midway. However, getting a nonstop flight is quite a lot more expensive on an airline like Delta, so I don’t really know if it would be worth the cost.</p>
<p>ucbalumnus–limited gates and they fly out of the small terminal in Minneapolis–smaller airline.</p>
<p>Move in day at the University of MN, you pull your car up at your appointed time, people swarm your vehicle, grabbing everything you need brought up, you move your car out of the parking spot, moved in in 15 minutes–20 if you have to go WAY to the top of the dorm. It’s pretty easy. Rent a car here when you get to town, drive to any 100 Target stores in the general area, buy what you need, see above…</p>
<p>My D goes to MCAD (the art school in the Minneapolis) and has had no problem with the winters. And this a girl who grew up in Florida. They have apartments there, so we had extra stuff to bring up. We rented a van, took our vacation and drove her up. During the summer, her and a friend split a storage space (50/mo). She comes home at Christmas and summers, spends Thanksgiving at the school where they have a special dinner and spent spring break at her friends in Nebraska.</p>
<p>This was not her (our) cheapest option, but her first choice school, so we didn’t bat an eye. It had the program she wanted and the big city provides good opportunity for internships, networking, etc. The program should be the most important thing. </p>
<p>During the winter, they go snow-tubing, ice fishing, snow boarding, etc. I have not heard her complain once about how cold it was!</p>
<p>I did have a kiddo who ended up in the hospital and needed surgery while we remained 3 plane rides away. It’s interesting but kiddo learned the value of that silly insurance card we gave him, he learned about signing HIPPA papers so we could “talk” to the people at the hospital and the physician and he learned how to ask friends for help. All in all it wasn’t too anguishing for me. I ended up in a hospital for a week in Europe when I was 20 and I’m sure my parents were tearing their hair out and this was before HIPPA and with a language barrier on my parents part. We all survive from these things. We all grow from these things.</p>
<p>One of the reasons why I told my son to limit himself to colleges within a 5 hour drive was because of emergencies. I want to be able to jump in a car and be there in 5 hours, without having to wait for a flight, etc. </p>
<p>(I remember when a good friend of mine had a mental breakdown in college and his parents raced 6 hours to drive to the college to put him in a mental hospital.)</p>
<p>The “deal” we made with our kids…they could apply to any school that was within a three hour drive from home OR within an hours travel from a close relative or friend. It was for the mom’s (that’s me) peace of mind. We have a pretty big family and they are all over the place.</p>
<p>DS went to school a 2 hour drive away from home.</p>
<p>DD went 3000 miles away from home but to a school within an hour of a close relative AND in the same place as a very close friend worked. AND good thing. She had a health emergency that required early morning emergency surgery and both the friend and relative were able to be there…but there was no way we parents could have been. I know this the exception to the rule…and most kids don’t have this happen. My kids both whined about this requirement of mine until DD had that surgery and then she understood completely…and was VERY happy to have two responsible adults there immediately.</p>
<p>Seems like the distance limits that people here are mentioning may not work very well for someone who lives in Hawaii but is considering an out of state school.</p>
<p>Oh wait…I didn’t know we were including mental breakdowns…nothing that required hospitalization, but I forgot to mention my sister lives in the city where D attends, and my brother lives in the city where S attends. Funny how that worked out. We did not make it a rule, but ended up looking at schools when visiting family.</p>
<p>BTW; UNC ahead of Duke at half time.</p>
<p>ipepper94, I bet your mother’s main concern is basically the same as DeskPotato’s: how is she going to get there if you are in some kind of emergency? Now, I went to college half a continent away from my parents, and I’ll say that I survived it–even when I had mono, or really bad flu–but it wasn’t always easy. I’m sure, in hindsight, it wasn’t always easy for my mom, either.</p>
<p>I’ll add that there are a lot of hidden expenses in having your kid go a long way away for college. If you go to college in the Twin Cities, every time they visit you is going to involve air fare, parking at the airport in Virginia, hotel, rental car, restaurant meals. And it’s going to mean more time away from the office if it takes most of a day just to travel. Which it will, by the time you get to the airport two hours early and fly all the way to MSP. And, as others have noted, travel at school breaks will be expensive, too, and the travel time may cut into the amount of time your family can actually spend with you. After I went 1600 miles from home for college, I didn’t have Thanksgiving with my parents again until I was out of college and married.</p>
<p>Neither of these would be enough reason for me to stop my kid from going to a university that was otherwise a great option for him or her, but they aren’t completely illegitimate concerns, either.</p>
<p>“Transport should not be the biggest issue” - Agree. It just needs to be one of the factors, weighed carefully along with the many other factors. </p>
<p>In our case, DS’s favorite schools were all a plane ride away. It’s hard for me to be 2000 miles apart, but he is fine with it. The distance is mitigated by easy travel (lots of direct flights DEN to BOS) and nearby relatives (a warm fuzzy if there were to be health emergencies_. We’ll get to see him this summer during our vacation to visit relatives even if he ends up doing a campus internship.</p>
<p>Sounds like Minnesota might be a good school for you. MSP is full of great people, and it’s a nice city; you could definitely end up in worse places! But not all students are OK with long distance commutes… our son had spent 18 yrs flying to the midwest a few times a year for extended family visits and was well-acquainted with the hassles of travel. He said “no thanks, too much carbon footprint for me,” and opted to stay in the area. Gotta say, from the parents’ standpoint, this couldn’t be a better arrangement, for logistics and cost-savings. And he gets a jump on the summer jobs too.</p>
<p>When D1 went to college she was 3.5 driving hours away. We didn’t have to worry about booking flights for her during the busy holiday seasons. We were able to go up for her dance recitals. I went up a few times for a girls’ spa weekend with her. She got very sick twice while in school. I was able to drive up to bring her home. </p>
<p>Now D2 will be going to the same school, but we maybe thousands of miles away. We may not have the option of driving distance away. D2 may not come home for every break, but her older sister will be 4 hours away. For parents weekend, her older sister may have to go. I will have to plan out her travel more carefully. She wouldn’t be able to just leave after her exams. It won’t be the end of world for her, but if we had other options, I would have preferred to be a driving distance away.</p>
<p>To OP, if you think U of MN is a much better option than U of Deleware, then go there. But if they are comparable, there is something to be said to be a driving distance away from home. When you are stuck at an airport over Thanksgiving, or one of few people staying behind over a mid term break, you would appreciate proximity of your home.</p>
<p>“too much carbon footprint” those planes are going with or without him. Just sayin’</p>
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<p>Actually, there is already a light rail line that goes to the airport from downtown Mpls, and stops at U of MN’s West Bank (have taken it many times over the past 6 yrs); the line opening in 2014 will connect Mpls and St Paul (and will also have stops at U of MN which by the way, is just a few minutes away from downtown Mpls).</p>
<p>Obviously, travel time/costs is an important consideration and must be considered in the overall picture. Although for some of us it may not be the most important. DS, also a ChemE major, chose NOT to attend instate U of MN which would have been less expensive, 20 minutes from home, higher ranked, and chose a second tier/lower ranked large (but smaller than U of MN) private university on the east coast, more expensive even after merit aid (he got none from U of MN, we’ll assume he had lower stats than OP). </p>
<p>I think I’ve been out there all of 4 times, twice before he even started (admitted students day and orientation), move-in at beginning of freshman yr, and graduation last May. DS has come home a little more often for visits, which also helped him stay connected with friends from hs - something I wanted to make sure of in case he returned to MN after graduation esp since he also has Aspergers (needless to say ours is not exactly a warm/fuzzy relationship so we perhaps do not need frequent visits). And as a single parent who does not have a 6 digit income I could not afford visits to school on top of his visits home but that was a choice I made and it has not harmed us at all, if anything we have a much stronger and closer relationship today. All families are different and find their own ways of making things work out. This worked for us. </p>
<p>And yes, he is still out east and no serious emergencies or illnesses so far that required the presence of a family member. Just LOTS of phone calls and emails :)</p>
<p>Your mom’s other possible concern has been briefly mentioned here, but it’s worth mentioning again - a fear that if you go far away, you won’t come back.</p>
<p>We live in MA, and my son attended college in eastern PA. He made great friends - all of whom are from NJ/NY/Philly. He ended up taking a job in NYC after graduation, and wants to stay in that area because that’s where his friends are.</p>
<p>My D is in NC. She loves the weather and lower cost of living. Will she return home after graduation? It’s too soon to tell.</p>
<p>People move all over the place. Neither H nor I went to school in MA, yet we have settled here. BUT… a lot of people I know in the Boston area originally came here for college, and just never left. It does happen. When there are employers recruiting on campus, they tend to be from companies generally located in that area/region. Not a hard and fast rule, but it’s a tendency.</p>
<p>Living in the midatlantic our gc suggested that kids not go farther than 4 hrs away unless there is a compelling reason to do so.</p>
<p>Distance is something I think about, and more than the emergencies, but the notion that had my son chosen the instate school he could have popped home to do laundry, check in, and internships could have been around home. </p>
<p>He’ll be a 7 - 8 hour car ride away, I’ll let you know in August, but there are direct flights that are only an hour or so. One thing I checked was the price and frequency of flights, and they have them all day and currently at 170 r/t. However, we will be at the mercy of airlines and weather for trips home.</p>
<p>My concern about the distance - if he gets sick, he’ll have to stay there, he won’t be home for any weekends, chances are internships/co-ops may not include this area, and of course he may choose not to come back here after college.</p>
<p>If there was a school that fit as well, I would choose closer over farther.</p>
<p>A question for parents who put distance limits on the kids’ college choices: would you let your kid spend a semester abroad? If so, what is the difference between allowing that and allowing your kid from, say, NJ to go to school in California? </p>
<p>I ask this because I know a family who put the 5-hour drive restriction on their kids, yet the kids did study-abroad programs in Singapore and Argentina. So this distance restriction made no sense to me and still does not.</p>
<p>Edit: I could understand the distance restriction if your kid had a chronic illness or if transportation costs were a real issue. But otherwise, I don’t understand it.</p>
<p>Study abroad is for a short term. It is given that the kid would have one round trip ticket, bought in the beginning. Most of the time kids study abroad junior year, not freshman year.</p>
<p>But the kid could still have a sudden emergency abroad just as easily as on the domestic campus. The rationale for distance restrictions often given is, “I need to get there quickly in case my kid needs me.” But unless there is a higher-than average chance of that happening, it seems like parents put their own psychological comfort over their childrens’ opportunity.</p>
<p>We’re sending our kids to a college campus, not Oregon Territory. It’s not as if there won’t be people around should an emergency occur. And part of learning to cope as an adult is, well, coping without Mommy in various ordinary life challenges such as doing laundry and getting the flu.</p>
<p>And in this age of Skyping and texting, it’s so easy to keep in touch with your home even if you are far away. </p>
<p>People in my family have been going away to school and college for generations (even before the internet age) and nothing horrible has yet happened. Our family has not disintegrated and no one has died because Mom could not get there in a day:)</p>
<p>One other thing to keep in mind: Just because cheap convenient flights are available today to reach a college, does not mean they will continue to be available over the next several years. The airline industry is in a period of tremendous changes, and destinations are being dropped from some small and medium sized airports. </p>
<p>In the past, the entry of Southwest into a market greatly dropped prices in that market. What happens to pricing if Southwest or another discount airline drops out of a market, and a monopoly exists?</p>