I know how you feel, but . . . I have in my house at this moment, an almost-20 year-old (on one quarter's leave to have surgery, but she's going to college in town and decided to save money by living at home -- a wise choce, as we live in a town of high rents and low wages), an almost-28 year-old (applying to medical school), and an almost-30 year-old (not my kid) (applying to law school). Sometimes I wonder if I wouldn't like an empty nest for a while . . . the almost-20 wants to move in with her boyfriend as soon as she can afford it, the almost-28 seems most likely to be going very far away (as far away as Havana or Prague, maybe) to medical school, and the almost-30 will probably move out within a month or so, as he's saving up enough and getting good enough temporary work . . . when the nest finally empties, I guess it will be really really empty.

I like these young people a whole lot, and it's fun having them around, but I'm sort of ready to have them come over to visit instead of being here all the time!

At least I'm likely to have it easier than that. Most people who live in the major cities will go to university in the same city. Our educational system is not designed to have a large residential student population.

 

Congratulations for your daughter on getting accepted by all three places she applied for!

Actually, neither is ours. We have learned that our University (u. California at Santa Cruz), providing 25% of its students with on-campus housing, is unusual -- most provide far less. Though I don't know whether they included two-year colleges and vocational colleges in that figure. I know they provided the number as a defense when the town got exasperated about the housing shortage and yelled at the University for bringing in more students all the time and not providing more and more housing (this has changed to some degree. Now the town is exasperated because the University keeps growing and doesn't pay for new infrastructure, particularly water, which is in short supply. I know that University administrators feel like they can't win, but these are real problems the town has and the University just has to help out).