Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter goes to school 45 minutes from home (Georgetown) and has not a single close friend from her HS or from the greater DC area. The only time she ever comes home is over breaks (i.e. the times when everyone, regardless of where they are from, tends to clear out).

Don't be arbitrary. Finding a school that is strong in the program your child is interested in and is a good fit academically, socially, and financially is more important than being X miles away from home.

But she is still in her safe zone. Close to home, in a city that she has known her entire life, with people who are similar to people she has known her entire life.

And? Your point?

In one of the most important cities in the world, which also happens to be a great college town.

Maybe part of this comes down to how much you like where you live, LOL!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter goes to school 45 minutes from home (Georgetown) and has not a single close friend from her HS or from the greater DC area. The only time she ever comes home is over breaks (i.e. the times when everyone, regardless of where they are from, tends to clear out).

Don't be arbitrary. Finding a school that is strong in the program your child is interested in and is a good fit academically, socially, and financially is more important than being X miles away from home.

But she is still in her safe zone. Close to home, in a city that she has known her entire life, with people who are similar to people she has known her entire life.

And? Your point?

Anonymous wrote:This is going to sound bitchier than I mean it to -- but after the election I was less inclined to push the midwest to my kid.

Meh. The top university areas in the Midwest (Madison, Ann Arbor, Chicago/Evanston, STL, Twin Cities, etc.) are every bit as blue as coastal areas. It's just that they're in states that have more rural areas that cancel them out. I mean, do what you want, but your thinking isn't logical.

I can't imagine forcing my kid to go XXX number of miles from home, but I didn't discourage my DC from applying to schools that were between 500 and 2500 miles away. She wanted to experience living in a different geographic area and not encounter anyone who had ever even heard of "NoVA" and I was all for it because she had a crappy high school experience. She ended up 1500 miles away and is happier than she ever was in high school. Even if it's not true, she believes the people out west are simply nicer to be around and that makes all the difference for her. Her options were somewhat limited by finances, but she found an OOS public that was affordable.

My younger DC (as of right now) wants to stay closer to home (no more than a 6 hour drive) and I'm all for it. He probably will attend an in-state public school where some of his friends are going and for him, that's probably the right choice. He's more laid back and frankly oblivious to the competitive atmosphere around here. He would be comforted knowing that he'll have some friendly faces on campus even if he realizes that they he may not see much of his HS classmates unless they wind up in the same dorm/major, etc.

Agree with you OP. My parents told me the same thing in 1995! I went to Southern California and am from the NE and I know it broke my mom's heart, but it did me the world of good. It's not the same experience if you can always use your parents' laundry and call them to come get you in a crisis.

Anonymous wrote:This is going to sound bitchier than I mean it to -- but after the election I was less inclined to push the midwest to my kid.

The Midwest is like the rest of the US. Cities are blue; rural areas are red. In Illinois, Chicago is enough to drag the entire state into the blue category. In Missouri, St. Louis and Kansas City aren't big enough to drag the state out of the red category.

Anonymous wrote:My daughter goes to school 45 minutes from home (Georgetown) and has not a single close friend from her HS or from the greater DC area. The only time she ever comes home is over breaks (i.e. the times when everyone, regardless of where they are from, tends to clear out).

Don't be arbitrary. Finding a school that is strong in the program your child is interested in and is a good fit academically, socially, and financially is more important than being X miles away from home.

But she is still in her safe zone. Close to home, in a city that she has known her entire life, with people who are similar to people she has known her entire life.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is going to sound bitchier than I mean it to -- but after the election I was less inclined to push the midwest to my kid.

What about Michigan/Northwestern/Chicago?

And Madison? Those were the schools we looked at. DC finds lots other lefties at the one she attends.

Anonymous wrote:This is going to sound bitchier than I mean it to -- but after the election I was less inclined to push the midwest to my kid.

What about Michigan/Northwestern/Chicago?

This is going to sound bitchier than I mean it to -- but after the election I was less inclined to push the midwest to my kid.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Berkeley vs UVA thread made me realize how much I want DD to go to college out west or Midwest. She is a junior next year, and we have already been talking about USC, Univ of Michigan, Occidental, Northwestern... I really think it is important. I don't want her to have her same high school friends (not that there is anything wrong with them) or only know D.C. area kids.

I actually have a friend in Dallas who drew a circle around Dallas with a compass and told her DD she couldn't apply to any school within a 300 miles radius of Dallas!!

Luckily (so far) DD wants to go away to school and experience a different part of the country. You

What an odd way of thinking. So if your DD went to Tufts you really think having a couple of kids from home in her class of 1,300 is going to materially impact her experience?

In a word, yes.

Then you're a moron. I went to school 1 hour from home, as did lots of folks from my HS. I never went home except for breaks, joined clubs that had no HS people in it, and pursued my own major. I barely ever saw those people in a school with 17,000 undergrads. The same thing other people did going out of state or to another coast, I was able to do close to home (which I had to attend for financial reasons).

Get off your high horse.

Anonymous wrote:The obsession with college on this board is out of control. Why don't you let your kid decide?

1. It's our, parents, $100,000-280,000.
2. Teens are largely dumb, short-sighted, impulsive, gullible, and can give into peer pressure.