On Choosing College Towns

When Sam’s friend Jackie was deciding which college to attend, her father (our friend) Brian hinted that Jackie should choose Boston University. It had nothing to do with academics. It was because he would have preferred something fun to do when he visited her. I understood what he meant.

My two older daughters went to school in Pennsylvania. There was not much to do there(although we still always managed to spend lots of money when we went). And while both Bethlehem and Lewisburg did have some very good restaurants, there were very few of them. As a result, we dined in the same places over and over again.

Kara, my youngest child attends school in Atlanta. Technically the school is in Atlanta’s zip code but the school is actually in Druid Hills—a very high end suburb on the city line. The best part of her attending school in Atlanta is that it is in Atlanta. It is a great great city. It is not quite as urban as New York, but is not even remotely as suburban as Garden City. And it has southern charm without being too southern. The majority of the residents are displaced Northerners and Midwesterners. The first real Atlantan I met was a sorority sister of Briana’s—and I met her in Lewisburg PA.

And every time we visit Kara is there is a new restaurant to go to and a new tourist-y thing to do. It is never boring. In fact we often have trouble making plans with so many options. And I do not have to overpay for a hotel room or book my room a year in advance for Parent’s weekend. Every hotel chain imaginable is within 7 miles of campus—everything from a 3 to 5 diamond hotel. And there is a flight every hour from LaGuardia and Kennedy and the flight itself is only 1 hour and 40 minutes (it has taken me longer to commute from Garden City to Lewisburg on heavy traffic days.)

And the off campus housing makes me drop my jaw in awe. Both Sam and Briana lived in hovels—high priced borderline condemnable crapboxes. And I  feared every day that they lived in their high priced hovels that the walls would cave in, their floors would drop down to the basement, or the electrical wiring would catch on fire.

 Kara on the otherhand lives in a gated community in a two bedroom two bathroom open garden style stone facade apartment. It is fully landscaped. The complex is less than 10 years old. Her apartment is twice the size of Samantha’s Manhattan apartment in Murray Hill. She has a washer and dryer in a room next to the kitchen. Her walk-in closet could house a small child. And Kara’s balcony overlooks the Olympic size swimming pool which is adjacent to the health club. She has her own parking space. The rent on Kara’s apartment is equal to the 2 hovels her sisters lived in.

When I visit Kara I think of Brian--Brian would love Atlanta. It’s his kind of town. But there is something that Brian failed to think of when he thought about his own needs in wanting Jackie to attend a school in a fabulous city: post graduation residency.  With Sam and Briana I had no fear that they would ever set down roots in either Bethlehem or Lewisburg PA. Both towns were too small—it would  never happen. But I can’t say the same for Kara. Atlanta is too nice—too clean—too fabulous. There is a good chance that she may never come back to New York—and I would completely understand.

Jackie attended Fordham University as did Chris—Jackie’s youngest brother.  Brian got to have his cake and eat it too. I may not be that lucky—I may end up eating Georgia peaches for life.