My son will be going off to college in North Carolina this Fall. We have a few months to wrap our heads around the fact that he will be going outside of this nice New England bubble that he grew up in. I am sure the transition will be stressful for him/us but, hope it will not be toxic.

@Parag secretly are you looking forward to having the entire house to yourself as a empty nester?

@supremus Yes of course! You have no idea how much trash and chaos a teenage boy inflicts upon a household.

But, I am also worried about him living in the south.

@Parag Depends where in the South. Davidson, NC seems like it would be like a bubble with like-valued people. Also, it's almost an exburb of Charlotte. The cities in the South are pretty hip and blue. Provo and College Station are as conservative as college towns go and I expected it to be worse in CS where I lived for 8 years but it wasn't.

@pratik That is the impression we have of Davidson and Charlotte from our visit but, it is hard to stop worrying as a parent. I guess this will go on till he completes his first semester there. 😐

@pratik @parag Two fellow students in the Princeton history graduate program are professors at Davidson, and another was the most recent (and first female) college president. I went to undergrad at UNC, and always heard great things about Davidson. Congrats!

@jean Thanks for that endorsement, Jean! We came away with a very good impression from our visit to Davidson and I am sure that by the end of this year, I'll look back at my worrying as unnecessary. @pratik

@Parag Of course, you can’t help worrying. It’s in your job description. 🙂 But wow, just perusing the Davidson site made me long for the intellectual adventure of a liberal arts education.