Going West for College

[Anonymous]

I know parents whose college kids are local and they never see them. The students don't live at home. Parents never see them. The parents, I think, feel more hurt. They feel more hurt than if they saw their kids at holidays, only, when they made a special effort.

[Anonymous]

Tell you daughter that not pursuing her dream just because she’s afraid will be her lifelong regret.

I was like your daughter. My parents took a map and drew a radius around my hometown of about 600 miles, and told me I couldn’t attend college in that radius. I went to college in California and it was the best thing I have ever done. I’m still so grateful to my parents for pushing me out and away. We’re still extremely close.

[Anonymous]

This is something she has to figure out for herself and you be supportive and make the best out of what she does.

I chose to go away for school. In retrospect, though I had a great time, I wish I had gone closer to home, not because of family things, but I missed out on building a connection for networking with peers in my geographic area. Looking back I should have stayed closer to home for the bulk of school, and maybe done a semester or 2 abroad to scratch my I want out of my small town itch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter applied to a ton of colleges on the West Coast. She really loves it and I know she feels at home when we've been there. Obviously, I have some concerns about her being so far but I trust her and think it would be great for her to explore new environments. We've lived in Mount Kisco, Bethesda, and Villanova so that plus the adjacent cities have been her whole world. However, she's beginning to have some concerns. We have a huge, tight knit family here on the East Coast and she doesn't want to miss out. She could go anywhere from Boston to Atlanta and be surrounded by cousins and aunts and uncles and there are constant family gatherings (less so during COVID, of course) and events centered in DC or Philly. We don't know anyone in California, Oregon, or Washington and she wouldn't be able to come home for the little things. I really understand her concern and I feel it too but it is her only hesitation about moving to the west coast for school (her three top "dream" schools are all in California) and I don't want it to hold her back. How can I help her feel more comfortable? Should I? I'm proud that she loves us all but it's important to me that she live her life.

The huge tight knit family? If a DC goes to a west coast school and it's covid era there will not be the open hearted and fun invites to homes of west coast people for holidays.

You're mixing issues. The family sounds like pressure but the east coast to west coast travel is no longer simple. We used to hop flights like it was an amtrak from DC to Baltimore, Philly, NYC. Califorinia dreaming is just fine- been here done that. Reality hits on prices of travel and hassle for Thanksgiving and end of year. CA -LA - ski in the am and beach in the pm. New reality is covid 19 and major hassles just getting there.

It sounds like your DD is not mature enough to analyze the current situation and college in CA. If the USA had dealt with covid like Australia I'd say yes. Conditions here? No.

[Anonymous]

and more on flights. The only repercussion for no masks and flying with covid symptoms or a positive or awaiting test results is banning by airlines. https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2021-01-01/covid-19-airplane-sick-on-plane-cdc

Isaias Hernandez - age 69 - from LA on that flight from orlando. And we only know about that because he died.