How far do you want to be away from home

[Orange Socks]

Once that circles gets to be 6 hours plus then it really doesn't make a world of difference. You can get anywhere by plane in that time or less. You do want to look for accessibility of airports. If it is a smaller airport you can fly into the city but may cost a little extra.

This is what I have been telling my wife. Once you get out of driving distance, it's pretty much all the same. We are considering all out of state(non TX) schools, which ends up being a plane ride away anyway. I don't want it to be too easy to come home when things get tough(SKYPE), and I want her to grow and have a real college experience. Let's say you live in Houston and your kid goes to Texas Tech, you kid only comes home at Thanksgiving, Christmas Break and maybe Spring Break. The kid is still in state, but it's a 9 hour drive. If you have Tech or school equal distance as choice you might as well include schools that are even further.

Academics are very important, but if she can play ball too...icing on the cake. Considering she is WAY smarter and confident than I ever was at her age, she just might have the opportunity to go somewhere special. I know some parents that are limiting their DD's in their choices by only targeting one specific conference, but that has to do with their comfort level. I went to school an hour and 15 mins from home. I am proud of my degree, but if I could do it over I would definitely change some things.

Off Tangent: A recent comment from a former SEC player now TB coach locally was made to me, which got me thinking. She said something to this effect. I am sitting in my college class talking to other students and I come to realize that the girl sitting next to me was the valedictorian of her high school. I am in the very same school and very same class as her. The valedictorian worked her butt off academically to get to the very same place I am sitting. I worked my butt off in softball to get to this place. In high school I would have never been in the same classes as her, but here we sit. There are just so many takeaways from her comment and so many considerations to ponder. My mind exploded. I thought to myself, if my DD has the grades and scores, I will not limit where she can/wants to go. If there is a fit that is a 3 hour flight away, then let's make it happen. If closer, bonus!

 

[BobInMadison]

Not sure what the concern was. I think maybe he was getting a little tired of Madison and wanted to try someplace else but still close to home, and a bigger city. He applied to Minnesota (Twin Cities), and two schools in Milwaukee (Milwaukee School of Engineering and UW Milwaukee as a back up). He got into both Milwaukee schools and chose MSOE, where he wanted to go anyway.

DD 1, OTOH, loves Madison and really wanted Wisconsin. When Wisconsin offered her an academic scholarship, she grabbed it.

 

[slingnit]

Another concern is a 14 or 15 yr old girl makes a decision her sophomore year to play a thousand miles away so she can get away from mom and dad. Over the next 2-3 years she gets a serious boyfriend(or girlfriend). Now that dream school isn't quite the gem it used to be to her. Another problem with making life decisions at 14 yrs old. It doesn't matter what decisions are made it will always be second guessed as to whether or not it was the best decision.