When I was senior in high school picking colleges to apply to, I personally had no idea how to pick the school that I wanted, because, at that particular time, I had no idea to know what I wanted at the simple age of 17. However, one thing I did know was that I wanted was to go to a school out of state. Living in Boulder, Colorado, only about a ten-minute drive from CU Boulder, I knew that I wanted to adventure more with my life and grow on my own away from home. I didn’t want to feel trapped or eliminate any opportunity to experience a different region or meeting more people.
Picking a college was much harder than I thought because I kind of just kept picking places that were all over the United States and hoping that I would fit right in with one. I ultimately applied to schools in California, Texas, southern Colorado and Massachusetts to try and experience something that was different from the life that I was so used to. Last minute, before submitting all of my early action applications, I applied to the University of Wisconsin-Madison because my uncle had received his degree in Sociology there, and I thought it would be beneficial. Little did I know at the time, UW-Madison would soon be my new home.
Choosing to go out of state was and still is a nerve-wracking, eye-opening and growing experience that I would never trade for anything else. If you’re just about to enter college and are unsure how you feel about going out of state, here are some of the reasons why I chose to go out of state and have benefitted from this life-altering experience. In addition, if you’re an out-of-state student yourself, maybe you can empathize with me in a lot of ways about how going out of state has benefited you!
1. It redefines your comfort zone
By going out of state, one of the major things I have noticed in sometimes scary but mostly beneficial ways that comfort zone is really redefined in how I interact with others and how I’ve been able to grow on my own. In any situation, whether you’re going to an in-state school or an out-of-state school, you’re forced to explore and meet lots of new people. However, when you’re going out of state to a completely new region and you know absolutely no one going to that school, it’s only that much harder and scary. However, in this experience, I’ve found ways that I’ve been able to adapt in ways that my friends who stayed back home can’t understand. I had to get used to being with people who do not live within a 100-mile radius of me. Sometimes, because I’ve gone out of state and ventured out to meet new people, it feels like, I can conquer any other challenge much easier. This is because I’ve passed this threshold of consistently being put in situations that challenge my comfort zone every day.
2. You meet so many new people
From Boulder, Colorado to Madison, Wisconsin, I knew absolutely no one going to UW-Madison that year, besides having the phone number of my roommate. Even more so because I was not an out-of-state student from Minnesota, Illinois or a neighboring Midwestern State, it felt that much harder to make friends because I couldn’t relate to everyone in location. While I consider myself to be slightly extroverted, it was hard to find people who I could relate to, and it felt awkward trying to learn how to make friends again. However, I was so grateful for the opportunity because not only did I meet amazing people who are some of my closest friends, I gained an appreciation for the act of meeting new people and interacting with them on a novel level. This has really helped me understand connecting on a level that I don’t think I would have ever experienced if I had gone to a school ten minutes away from my home with people who have lived in the exact same state as me. While I am still close with friends from high school, I really appreciated the opportunity to branch out and meet an entirely new group of people.
3. It gives you more independence
Regardless of any college that you decide to go to, you are sure to gain independence, whether it be from your familiar group of friends, your home or your family. Going to a school about a thousand miles away from home has really brought a whole new definition to privacy and being on your own. My parents can’t fly to Madison every time I need help with something or I get sick, so personally, I really feel that I have gained a better understanding of what it means to be an adult living on my own away from the main support system that I’ve had my entire life. This has really shshowne the responsibilities of being a true adult and being far away from home.
4. It makes me value home a lot more
Going to a school nearly one thousand miles away from home has been the most overwhelming thing that I have ever experienced because I see my family less often. From being home every single day and seeing your siblings at the dinner table to seeing your family over FaceTime once or twice every week and only in person every couple months has definitely been one of the harder things that I have endured since coming to college. Although when I do have the chance to go home for the holidays or breaks, I find myself valuing my home, my friends from home and the precious time I get catching up with my family. I think that this goes for a lot of other out-of-state students as well because this sense of reaching a comfortable base after being outside of your comfort zone for long periods of time is vitally refreshing.
5. It provides a plethora of greater and larger opportunities
While all colleges present a grand amount of opportunities for their students in postgraduate jobs and post-collegiate opportunities, going to a school out of state presents a completely new variety of opportunities that you probably have never heard of before in that area. My high school worked closely to get students prepared for college as if they would have gone to CU Boulder or Colorado State University, so I felt pretty full of opportunities for schools in Colorado. Now, having gone to UW-Madison, I’ve been open to a whole new world of possibilities in terms of my major program and my future career goals. Having gone out of state, I’ve been enhanced with a new layer of opportunities for my career that I would not have received had I gone to a school ten minutes away from home.
To be honest, I have benefitted from my out-of-state college experience in ways that I would have never have from being at home — because of a growth in my independence, a greater value for the time with my family and the plethora of opportunities that I’ve been presented with. Going out of state has gone above and beyond my expectations, and I can’t wait to see what these next couple years bring for me. If you’re a senior deciding whether you want to go out of state or not, I hope some of my input has helped you in your decision, and if you’re a fellow out-of-state student, I’m hopeful you can empathize with me on the many benefits of going to college out of state!