I guess this question is kind of close to me because my cousin who lives in Minnesota is a rising senior and he won’t go anywhere out of the Midwest of all places. I live in NJ, a rising junior, and want to go far and see another part of the country. USC, Texas, and U of Miami are my top choices. Why do people want to be confined in their college search and not go out to see new places and experience new things? Its not just my cousin either. Everyone is shocked when I say I want to go far from home and my parents don’t think ill be able to handle it. Is it just me or is it stupid to want to go to school close to home?
It is a lot more expensive and inconvenient to travel further.
It’s not the same for every person. Some people want to stay close to home because it will be easier to visit friends and family. For others it is much cheaper to go to school instate. There are some states that have really great public education systems that are really good at what they do that there really is no need to go out of state.
In addition, it is just easier for many families to stay instate because of the proximity. Move in days are much easier if you live closer to the school as well as coming home for breaks. Students that go away for college tend to find jobs near that area after graduation and others want to stay near the area (in your cousin’s case perhaps the Midwest). While I agree that it is great to experience new things, others choose to experience this during study abroad. Not everyone wants to or has the opportunity to go far away for college because of financial reasons
Why are you so close-minded about others’ preferences to the point that you can’t see that their desire to stay close to home is as equally valid as your desire to go far from home? Really, the tone this was posted in is just kind of obnoxious. Distance from home is a preference just like college size; it varies by person and can have many different motivations, none of which make it a ‘better’ or ‘worse’ choice to go close or far from home.
As mentioned above, the cost to travel, particularly “one way” tix in fall and spring, and round-trip tix at Christmas time can be VERY expensive. For those whose budgets are just covering the “college essentials,” there may not be any/many dollars for anything but car travel within a few hours.
@MegaMetalHead Have your parents said that they’ll pay all your costs including travel back and forth? If so, then super. Not every family can do that.
Why do some people prefer beach and other people prefer camping?
I agree that college can be a great opportunity for exploration. Sometimes, though, it’s possible to make a move to a new region without traveling particularly far; the simple move from a suburban environment to a rural or urban one, for example, can for some provide a similar sense of newness to that which you are seeking. Going farther can add to this, but it’s not necessarily the only way to arrive at a place that’s different.
First, the overwhelming majority of students go to their state schools. Unless they live in a state like Texas, Alaska, or California it’s almost impossible for the average student to go more than 500 miles away from home while still paying in state rates. Then there’s the fact that travelling long distances can be difficult. Case in point, I’m from CA and attend(ed) school in GA and OK. I can’t go home on long weekends or Thanksgiving. In fact the only reason I flew back for Spring Break was due to the fact that I’m taking an out of state internship this summer and figured I wouldn’t see my family until the end of December. Those flights take time and cost a great deal of money. Shipping costs are also much higher for students who fly versus drive.
Experiencing a new part of the country can happen during a variety of times. After college a student might get an offer in a different part of the country. During the summers s/he may choose to work in a different region. When I worked in Yellowstone I only knew a few people from WY, MT, or ID. Everyone else was either from a different state or country. Then there’s study abroad. Frankly the cities of LA and Atlanta aren’t very different. However there’s a world of difference between Jakarta and Philadelphia.
The great thing is that people can choose to do what they want and feel comfortable with.
I wouldn’t say I’m close minded, I’m actually really open minded about most things. It’s just, I guess I don’t like NJ that much. It’s too urban sprawl where I live. Idk maybe he likes Minnesota.
I think they said they would if they approve of the school and major. Im only allowed to major in Business, hard science, or engineering but I guess that’s a pretty sweet deal if it means free college.
I am from NJ and went to grad and undergraduate in the Midwest. The Big Ten culture is justifiably strong and the quality in all aspects puts eastern publics to shame. Look at the rankings in science and engineering.
Also I would bet more NJ students stay closer to home even if they go to another state than kids from Wisconsin, Michigan or Minnesota because the states are so much larger.
People are different. When I applied to school I didn’t even look at those in my home state. I wanted to get away. My husband, on the other hand, didn’t even consider schools out of his home state because he wanted to get home often to see family and friends. My daughter is now looking at schools and has the same inclination that I had. My husband is very puzzled by this. He can’t understand why anyone would want to to be far away from home. It can just comes down to different personalities. Yes money can cause people to limit choices too but I think some people wouldn’t leave even if they had a lot of money.
OP, like you I was dying to get out and see a little bit of the world. I was a small town girl. I couldn’t believe that others wanted to stay home. It was the right choice for me.
As an adult I continue to be astonished by the number of kids who stick close to home, kids who could go anywhere. Intellectually I understand it: cost, convenience, family ties. As an adult I even appreciate my old home town better than I did as a kid. But man, I was ready to leave home at eighteen!
FWIW I was talking to a senior this year at my kids’ high school. He was an unusually mature and well spoken guy. When he told me he was staying in town for college he explained that everyone he cared about was here, so why leave. What a different point of view!
Cut the OP some slack. This is a totally reasonable and rational question question for someone who grew up in NJ, since that is all the OP knows. MegaMetalHead, a lot of us who grew up in NJ could not wait to get the heck out of dodge. That was the natural reaction for many NJ natives I know. Among 8 children in my family and my cousin 's family who grew up in NJ, only 1 lives there. We all grew up in pretty and wealthy parts of the state. And you could not pay any of us enough money to go back.
So support those who want to stay closer to home and be grateful you have the chance to go to school in another part of the country. You will suffer some culture shock and grow as a person in unexpected ways but hopefully you will come to love it. Your desire to leave is not crazy and do not concern yourself with other people’s choices.
I know a lot of parents who want to keep their children close by for college. I understand that desire if it is based out of financial or practical concerns (can’t afford the transportation, ailing grandpa who child needs to visit, etc.) but often it seems to be more of an inability for the parent to let the child go. Some children can push past that and still cut those apron springs, but I think there are others who would benefit from being encouraged to leave the nest and fly. Colleges routinely complain about students who are fundamentally unable to thrive on their own these days and some of the same parents I know who want their children close by for college might be the ones contributing to this lack of self-reliance.
The Big Ten conference includes Rutgers in New Jersey, which is a respectable school if you ask people not from New Jersey. It does seem that many students from New Jersey can’t wait to get away from New Jersey (or its state universities) for some reason.
But the answer about why many students stay close to home comes down to cost. Many students find that in-state public universities are among their most affordable choices – it is mainly the few at the top end of the scale who can get the big merit scholarships or admission to the most selective schools with the best need-based financial aid. Travel costs and logistics can also be a consideration.
Those in the northeast may be more prone to wanting to go out of state because (a) the northeast states are smaller, so going out of state is not that big a deal in terms of distance, (b) those in the northeast often consider their in-state public schools to be unattractive for some reason, (c) income and wealth levels are higher in the northeast than in many other parts of the country.
I definitely understand where you’re coming from. I used to want to get as far away from home as possible (e.g. California) because I really hated where I lived (even though I live in a city, it is a small one, and I HATED it). I’ve now learned to bear my home town, although I still want to go to school in a big city. Since I know I will miss my parents a lot, I’m hoping to go to school about 3 hours from home, which works out well because both Boston and NYC are that far. But really for me, the city is more important than my proximity to home, and I primarily just want to live in a place that has a lot to offer.
I just want to say that you can go out and see new things and have new experience even if you stay relatively close to home. I went to college about a 20-30 minute drive from my parents’ house, but it was in the city center of the large city we lived in the suburbs of. I only went home occasionally, met lots of new people, and discovered lots of new things about the city I grew up outside of.
As a high school student who lives in a college town of one of the best public schools in the country, it’s always interesting to talk to people and hear their opinions on this question. Here, it’s split about 50/50. Some people have grown up emerseed in the small college town atmosphere and love it. They have no desire to ever leave their hometown (I am one of these people. I would give almost anything to be able to stay here and go to college). Others are ready to crawl across the country by the time high school ends. They have no interest in staying. It really depends on the people, and I think it also really depends on the location.