<p>I’m out of college now (my username is the year I graduated college; not the year I started college). I went to college far away from home. I grew up on the East Coast and didn’t really like it. So I picked a college in the West, as that was where I wanted to spend my adult life. I figured it would be easier to establish my adult life in the West if I was already there upon college graduation. </p>
<p>But as much as I disliked the place I grew up, I admit there were certain aspects I liked, as well as certain people who were very special to me. It can be hard to move away from everything and everyone you know, even if the move is something you want to do. </p>
<p>Anyway, I’ve noticed some people who go far away for college but for different reasons than me. These people have every intention of returning home after college (which means they must like their home state). Frankly I don’t understand why they’d go far away in the first place. The move would be even harder for someone that likes the place they’re moving away from. If you like where you are, why wouldn’t you just stay for college? If you like where you are, why would you go to the trouble of leaving behind everything and everyone you know, only to return after 4 years? </p>
<p>I know people are ultimately free to pick whatever college they want, but I just don’t understand why you’d go far away when you’re happy where you are.</p>
<p>Even if you love where you live, at 18 it might be the only place you really know. College is one of the easiest times in life where you can just pick up and go live somewhere totally different than what you’re used to. That’s a learning experience in itself. You find out if what you thought you loved is really best for you. You have something to compare it to. Heck, that’s what you did - you thought you wanted to get away from the East Coast, but by comparing it to somewhere else, you realized there were things you liked about it. </p>
<p>It’s just an adventure to travel and get outside your frame of reference. And of course, some people pick a particular school because of its academic reputation and/or reputation for their field of study.</p>
<p>Maybe they liked where they lived but did not like any colleges that were near by. Sometimes people experience something different, in a different area, and ultimately find out they either love or hate this new area. The best laid plans can go astray at times.</p>
<p>It is at times paradoxical and perplexing. However, everyone has a different agenda, a different set of circumstances and change at different times in their lives. The one constant of life is change. </p>
<p>We can have the best laid plans, only to have a new opportunity or setback thwart them and cause redirection or retreat. Get used to it.</p>
<p>Some kids go to college and never look back. Some never grow up. :-)</p>
<p>Some are homebodies. Some are wanderlust. Some are open to change and others narrow minded and petty and dependent on mom’s cooking and dad’s purse strings (wallet.) </p>
<p>Sometimes jobs dictate where we go and what we do. Some cant see past their noses and wouldnt recognize opportunity for growth and development or career advancement if you had a neon sign on their front lawns. </p>
<p>Some have weird notions that the only opportunity is in, e.g. New York, which of course is as wrong headed as a three nosed hog. </p>
<p>So worry not about others. Focus on an inventory of YOUR skills and YOUR dreams and YOUR methods. Live and let live and just blow by the others who are too confused or bucolic to see the benefit of a new horizon. Not to suggest that returning home is always narrow minded and petty and bad…sometimes that is a good choice, even for a career decision. Parents want their kids home or near home most of the time. Its normal. But a real parent wants their kids to grow up and become independent and grab the gusto of life, even if its painful to see them fly off. My view is I want my kids within one day driving distance if possible, but really independent, hard working, productive and GRATEFUL for their childhood and hometown, but not tied down in chains of guilt or silly notions of self serving rationalizations of why living next door is the best answer for all. This applies to the inlaws as well! :-)</p>
<p>I live in New York and a lot of people in my town go away to a school where they can get a true “college experience” at schools like Duke, Michigan, Vanderbilt, USC, Notre Dame, etc. However, many are interested in fields like finance and return back to NYC after college.</p>
<p>In general, most people in my area who apply to schools out of region are applying to top privates. Michigan and UVA are the only popular publics that get a lot of applicants. Also, in general few people apply to LACs out of region. Aside from the schools listed below, everyone stays mostly in the east coast.</p>
<p>-
West Coast:
Many Applicants – Stanford, USC
Some Applicants – Claremont Colleges, Caltech, Pepperdine, UC-Boulder</p>
<p>South:
Many Applicants – Duke, Vanderbilt, UVA, Wake Forest
Some Applicants – Davidson, W&L, UNC, Georgia Tech, Emory, Tulane, W&M</p>
<p>Midwest –
Many Applicants – Michigan, Northwestern, Notre Dame
Some Applicants – WashU, Chicago, Wisconsin</p>
<p>College is a really good chance to grow and explore oneself. Moving across the country is a huge change and a great adventure a lot of people are denied. If college brings one an opportunity to move far away, it doesn’t matter if they will end up at home. Putting financial reasons aside, it’s a good change of pace especially since many people stay in one state for their entire lives. A good way to expand and broaden horizons. </p>
<p>There’s a lot of reasons to move but I don’t see a problem in going far away and coming back. Some people just want that little travel excuse (what better than college?) before they know they have to move back home, save up for an apt or house, and work.</p>
<p>" If you like where you are, why wouldn’t you just stay for college? If you like where you are, why would you go to the trouble of leaving behind everything and everyone you know, only to return after 4 years? "</p>
<p>The simple answer is they’re curious. Even if you like where you grew up, that’s just one place. How do you know you won’t like other places just as much? Once you’ve been someplace else, then you can decide whether or not you prefer your hometown. How can you possibly know the hometown is best for you unless you have at least one other place for comparison?</p>
<p>Going away to college is the easiest way to try out a new place.</p>
<p>I once had a friend who I thought really liked steak and every time we ate out on business trips together, he would only order steak. I, on the other hand would always order something I had never had before. </p>
<p>He wondered how I could do that, how do I know what to order and how would I know I would like it? I replied that I didn’t know, I just took what I knew I liked and didn’t like and extended it to what was new. Sometimes it was great, other times so-so, but it was rarely boring. </p>
<p>I also asked him why he never ordered anything else but steak. He replied that if he ordered something else, he might not like it, and then he would just be hungry. So it wasn’t that he liked steak that much, but rather it was the safe choice.</p>
<p>It’s all about whether you want to take a chance or play it safe. You need a little of both in life, college is just one of those decision points that merely change the rest of your life. Or, as some say, the dying rarely regret the things they did, rather, they regret the things they didn’t do.</p>