Should a student, in general go to a college in the state/area where they want to end up?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. She will most likely not go to grad school. She is an average student and will most likely to go just undergrad. We don't live in DC any longer - moved out of state 5 years ago for a job and don't like it here, so she doesn't reallly want to stay in state, and I am fine with that.

At first she thought she wanted to go to school in Florida and teaching is one career possibility, but when I thought about it, it doesn't make sense to go to Florida for a teaching degree unless you want to stay in Florida. I doubt she knows where she wants to live after college.

We were also thinking of schools in the mid-atlantic (from PA to VA) because that's where we're from but I looked at Towson's website, and of course, if you go there, they prepare you for the Maryland teaching requirements. That's what made me post the questions.

Thanks for the responses so far.

For teaching, yes - you should probably think about wanting to maybe work there. Just because you will intern in some schools in the area. That said, Florida pays their teachers terribly and they have a massive shortage. I would reconsider. Truly looking into cost of living vs wages earned.

Thanks for this response. Those were my thoughts about the student teaching/state teaching requirements. We are keeping a broad area of states to look at, and maybe once we start visiting (this spring break!), I hope it will be clearer. But I will bring up whether she sees herself staying in that area after college at least for a bit. If she decides on teaching, I hope it will springboard her into other careers or even grad school, possibly, down the road, but even for low pay, I'll be glad that she has a job after graduation!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe if you are talking about grad school. Not college. It's a lot for a 17-18 year old to know where they might want to end up and choose a college accordingly. You're still pretty young to have a good idea.

I had a good idea 30+ years ago and I am still here!

Same - we had relatives in VA that we visited a lot and I wanted to move here from CA for college. Was accepted at W&M and Georgetown but they were not affordable so I went to a CA university, worked in LA for a few years and then used that experience to get a job in DC. Would have been nice to have my college network here rather than mostly in CA but it hasn't been an issue for my career.

Now, of course, DS want's to do the opposite -- go to college and potentially settle in CA. We'll see. I do have concerns about how expensive it is to live there but have told him he's welcome to apply to CA schools and if he can get one to fit our budget that's fine. Otherwise, he'll likely end up at a VA state U. I do think if your long-term goals are to move OOS, then you should put more weight on national name recognition for the college. For DS, who likes JMU and VA Tech, that means I'd say he should pick VA Tech since, IME, more people on the West coast have heard of that while nobody knows JMU.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe if you are talking about grad school. Not college. It's a lot for a 17-18 year old to know where they might want to end up and choose a college accordingly. You're still pretty young to have a good idea.

I had a good idea 30+ years ago and I am still here!

And it sucks

[Anonymous]

OP - I think full time local opportunities are easier to access and close around the college but that won't stop a motivated grad from opportunities elsewhere. I do think the surrounding area has more to do with how easy or hard it is to access quality internships. That's what ultimately contributes greatly to the resume for full time anywhere. It was not something thought through but going to a city university certainly turned out to be an advantage in terms being able to select from multiple offers.

[Anonymous]

I worked in admissions before grad school and people are clueless about just how low admissions will stoop for minority kids. It was shocking. And the biggest beneficiaries are well off minorities with six-figure income parents, who attended good high schools.

Michelle Obama’s dad made six figures. As did AOC’s dad.

[Anonymous]

Totally doesn't matter.

I went to college in Jersey. Then moved to Georgia for five years. Then moved to Washington state for 13 years. Now in MD. Where I went to college has nothing to do with anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For DS, who likes JMU and VA Tech, that means I'd say he should pick VA Tech since, IME, more people on the West coast have heard of that while nobody knows JMU.

Nobody out West knows about VA Tech, either. Choose Tech over JMU because it is a better school not because more people far away have supposedly heard of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. She should go somewhere new if you can afford it.

Keeping kids close is just an odd way for parents who are too attached to keep control over their kids.

Teachers/nurses can work anywhere... let her explore for her 20's.

OP again. I'm not sure you read my post carefully. I'm not trying to keep control over her. I am encouraging her to apply out of state because we don't like where we live (and DH and I will be out of here in about 6 years anyway). It's more of a question of where should she look - does it make sense to go to school in a particular state, even if she doesn't want to end up in that state after graduation, specifically if she decides she wants to go to school for teaching? Obviously, if she were going to law school, it doesn't matter the state for undergrad.

No. She does not need to get a teaching degree in the state that she eventually teaches in.

[Anonymous]

OP, you say she won't go to grad school, but if she wants to be a teacher then an MA is a good idea. She should probably pick a grad program in the state where she wants to work, rather than picking undergrad based on the state where she wants to work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For DS, who likes JMU and VA Tech, that means I'd say he should pick VA Tech since, IME, more people on the West coast have heard of that while nobody knows JMU.

Nobody out West knows about VA Tech, either. Choose Tech over JMU because it is a better school not because more people far away have supposedly heard of it.

I am an engineer based in Seattle, and we definitely know about VT. It’s a top target school.

[Anonymous]

Op people do tend to put down roots where they went to college. Not everyone of course. College is a way to get started in another area of the country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe if you are talking about grad school. Not college. It's a lot for a 17-18 year old to know where they might want to end up and choose a college accordingly. You're still pretty young to have a good idea.

I had a good idea 30+ years ago and I am still here!

And it sucks

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op people do tend to put down roots where they went to college. Not everyone of course. College is a way to get started in another area of the country.

Depends on where they went to school, of course.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all of the replies, everyone!

[Anonymous]

In my family college and work locations are not correlated. DD and I went to colleges in the Midwest and we are in DC and Boston. DH and DD went to school in PA and ended up in DC and overseas. But that’s not teaching. The recent teachers I know are not in the place they went to school. And as I think back to the teachers my kids had in HS not many went to MD schools.