2008 Woodie Awards
College Choice Comes Down to Staying Close or Getting Away
Justin Pope Associated Press
Issue date: 4/28/05 Section: News
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Stanford is close to home in California, more laid back and seems to offer more of the programs Aman Kumar wants to pursue. But Princeton offers an idyllic campus and would show him a different part of the world.
Acceptance letters in hand, thousands of high school students are wrestling this week with final college decisions, due Sunday. Academics, financial aid and even athletics will tip the balance for many. But many, like Kumar, also are struggling with a question they can no longer postpone: Do I want to go away to school, or stay close to friends and family?
Stanford "is the perfect profile match," says Kumar, who was born in Stanford's hospital and lives in Saratoga, Calif., just a few minutes drive from the Palo Alto campus. "But at the same time, you wonder if it's going to be more of the same, if you're going to become complacent. People say the college where you will grow the most will serve you best."
Many students, looking forward to independence, are eager to get away. But taking the plunge can be intimidating.
"I've never been away from home," said Megan Kunz, a senior at Edina High School in suburban Minneapolis who is choosing between nearby College of Saint Benedict, and DePauw University, about 600 miles away in Indiana. She's leaning toward DePauw but worries about "not being able to just drive home on the weekend when I feel like I need a break."
For other students, like Lino Ochoa, escape is part of the appeal. A senior at The College Preparatory School in Oakland, Calif., Ochoa says he's looking to get out of his drugs-and-violence-plagued neighborhood. He wants to be a commercial pilot and hopes to attend Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Ariz., though if his financial aid offer isn't increased he could still end up at the University of California, Berkeley, just up the road.
"I see moving to a place like Prescott, which is a pretty small city, as a way to kind of escape this environment," he said. "I really see it as an opportunity to better myself."
Acceptance letters in hand, thousands of high school students are wrestling this week with final college decisions, due Sunday. Academics, financial aid and even athletics will tip the balance for many. But many, like Kumar, also are struggling with a question they can no longer postpone: Do I want to go away to school, or stay close to friends and family?
Stanford "is the perfect profile match," says Kumar, who was born in Stanford's hospital and lives in Saratoga, Calif., just a few minutes drive from the Palo Alto campus. "But at the same time, you wonder if it's going to be more of the same, if you're going to become complacent. People say the college where you will grow the most will serve you best."
Many students, looking forward to independence, are eager to get away. But taking the plunge can be intimidating.
"I've never been away from home," said Megan Kunz, a senior at Edina High School in suburban Minneapolis who is choosing between nearby College of Saint Benedict, and DePauw University, about 600 miles away in Indiana. She's leaning toward DePauw but worries about "not being able to just drive home on the weekend when I feel like I need a break."
For other students, like Lino Ochoa, escape is part of the appeal. A senior at The College Preparatory School in Oakland, Calif., Ochoa says he's looking to get out of his drugs-and-violence-plagued neighborhood. He wants to be a commercial pilot and hopes to attend Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Ariz., though if his financial aid offer isn't increased he could still end up at the University of California, Berkeley, just up the road.
"I see moving to a place like Prescott, which is a pretty small city, as a way to kind of escape this environment," he said. "I really see it as an opportunity to better myself."