When does going "out of state" for college become mandatory?

[Microphone Fiend.]

I asked this question to my friends, as many know, out of state tuition is EXPENSIVE, you have to pay three times as much as someone living in state and often it results in kids walking out with debt. So I ask the following.

1. When does going out of state become mandatory?

2. Why do you think kids go out of state?

 

[Tom]

Since going to college isn't "mandatory", going out of state is NEVER mandatory.

Students choose to go out of state because:
1. An out-of-state school is the best for their chosen field of study.
2. They want to live farther from home for college (harder for Mom and Dad to drop in, farther from high school "friends" they'd like to ditch, living in a different part of the country, etc.).
3. They have some family connection to the out-of-state school.
4. The out-of state school offered the best financial aid package.
5. They think it sounds better to go someplace other than where 60-70% of their graduating class is going to school. Call this the "snob" choice.

Those are just the first few that come to mind.

 

[(Barret)]

1. It really does not become mandatory but it becomes helpful. Some kids succeed in certain environment, for example if a kid is from NY but his family had to move to Mississippi for his high school years, obviously the kid would need to go to NY to get back to the type of environment where he can succeed in as opposed to Mississippi which would be boring to the kid. Going out of state also becomes mandatory when a kid is in a bad situation like lets say an Asian American male living in Montana, he would obviously feel somewhat left out. Also sometimes the kid's parents may have a job that temporarily relocates them to an area opposite of what they grew up in (a family in New Jersey having to move to Texas) so the kid may not like the environment too much and as a result he may want to go out of state just for his benefit. Sometimes going out of state can boost a student's motivation and make him excel academically.

2. Kids have a sense of exploration to them, most kids who have rich families often want to go out of state to explore another culture or because they are often bored with their surroundings (nephew lives in GA and he hates it there, mainly because the state is conservative and there is not a lot to do unless you live in Atlanta). A lot of the times kids who apply to Ivies and get in go out of state because a lot of the places like Harvard and Yale have GREAT financial aid programs so kids really do not have to worry about debt at all.