Starting college is always scary, but starting college a few hundred miles from home is even scarier. Putting yourself in an entirely new environment without an easy way to run home when it gets hard isn’t ever easy, but for thousands of students that leave home for school, it’s worth it in the end. Going to school out-of-state means taking the good with the bad, the scary with the exciting, and the fun with the higher financial burden of out-of-state tuition costs.
- You won’t understand a word anyone is saying
Every state has its own lingo and accent, and if you make friends with people from the area, you’re not going to have any idea what they’re talking about. You won’t even realize how many different words there are for things like water fountains, liquor stores, and roundabouts in the road. By graduation, you’ll come home for Thanksgiving break and no one at home will understand you either, it just takes some time
- Missing food from your home state doesn't get easier
Whether it’s a home-cooked meal from mom and dad or something your home state is known for, new food is one of the biggest heartbreaks when you go to college far away. Sure, it might still be delicious, but it’s not the same. A California avocado on the east coast or a New Jersey bagel in Massachusetts might as well be considered delicacies.
- Your Facebook location is a never-ending struggle
How many times is it socially acceptable to toggle your “current city” on Facebook between your hometown and where you go to school? Does coming home for summer count as a new life event or should you just consider yourself a permanent resident of somewhere else? You’re not even a legal resident in your college state, but you spend most of your time there, so that must count for something…right?
- Showing home team pride might get you harassed
Being a Yankees fan in Boston or a Red Sox fan in New York is one of the most dangerous situations a person could put himself or herself in. No, you won’t get beaten up or anything (unless you’re parading around yelling about how much the other team sucks) but you might get heckled. Be proud of your sports teams, wear all the team merchandise your heart desires, but don’t be a jerk about it and you should be just fine.
- You realize how expensive it is to be basically living on your own
Despite care packages and meal plans, being far away from your parents in a new state basically means having to fend for yourself. No matter what, it’s almost like a law written in the fabric of the universe that all college students will be broke. Where your money goes, you aren’t really sure (but let’s be real – probably food) and asking your parents for money isn’t something anyone wants to subject him or herself to. Ramen will become your best friend. Just accept it.
- There might be more career opportunities for you if you leave your home state
Depending on where you grew up, moving away to go to school might give you a million more opportunities for future employment, especially going from a small town to a major city. Certain areas of the country are better for certain fields of study, so where you grew up might not away be the best fit for whatever you want to pursue as a career.
- You can meet some amazing people you otherwise never would have known
Going to college out-of-state means pushing yourself way, way out of your comfort zone, both physically and mentally. Instead of staying close to home and going to college with people from the same state, the same town, or the same high school, you’re surrounded by thousands of fresh faces from all over the country and even all over the planet. Had you never ventured far away to go to school, you would have never met some of the friends who might end up being vastly important people in your life
- Arguably, you get more of the “college experience”
This isn’t true for everyone, but it can be argued that going away to school makes it easier for you to have a more authentic “college experience.” You’re away from your parents and on your own for the first time, you’re meeting new and exciting people every day, and there is always an endless amount of exploring your new home and parties happening both on and off campus. Of course, you can still get all of this while going to school at home, but there’s something liberating about experiencing it far from home on your own.
- Going away gives you a new appreciation of where you come from
To this day, it still sometimes baffles me to have friends who go to school far from home and just never go back. There are plenty of factors that might make someone who leaves home never want to go back, but for me, going away to school made me appreciation where I grew up more than ever. You miss all the quirky things that made your town yours, and it's especially hard to tell people at school stories about home when they need all the background about what you’re talking about.
- You’ll be homesick, but it will all be okay
It’s okay to hate being far from your family, friends, and everything that is familiar to you. It’s okay to call your mom or dad one, two, or four times a week when you first move in. It’s okay to be homesick until your new home feels like home, but it’s important to remember that it will, eventually, feel like home. You’ll forever feel yourself pining away for one place when you’re in the other – the homesickness never really goes away, but “home” is forever changing. If you have the opportunity to go to college out-of-state, take advantage of it.
