A College Far Away from Home

Last week we explored going to a local college. Now let's examine the other side of that. What does it mean to go to a college far away from home? There are many factors to consider in the distance equation.

Perhaps the most important factor is your comfort with and ability to be away from family and friends for long periods of time. I have known students who because they went to schools far away only made it home twice during the academic year (a period from August to May - 9 months). Will you be satisfied with electronic communication, or maybe more realistically, will your parents and family (think grandma) be satisfied and competent with email, IM, and/or Skype? If they aren't can you put up with constant grumbling about being so far away?

It is possible that you could come home more, but this will require money and time. Notice that I just added two more factors to the equation: money and time. If you are looking at a school that is going to stretch your budget, then you have to think about the reality of making it home more than a couple of times a year. Even if you aren't stretching your budget, you have to think about time. When you go home, you want to visit and have fun. Will you have the time to also work on reading, writing, and preparing for classes? I wouldn't count on the flight or drive home to be a time when you can do any quality studying.

A last, though not only, factor to consider is your ability to thrive in new social settings away from friends and others you feel comfortable around. Do you make friends easily? Do you feel comfortable being around total strangers without family or old friends to rely on? Many students are just dying to "start over" and others can't imagine having to go through the whole headache of making new friends. Most people are somewhere along the continuum between these two extremes and will probably do just fine. But before making the distance decision, consider some of these factors first.