I'm all over this thread bc I'm a huge fan of higher education and I think it's super important for CFers.
lhkraus: CF centers didn't really affect my decision, but it wasn't a non-issue either. I asked my CF doc at home (Denver) about recommending centers near the colleges I was considering. I did not only apply to colleges near centers, although I was lucky enough to have options bc I knew I would have a car at school, etc. I did end up going to Emory in Atlanta, which has a CF center on campus, and I was happy about that. It wasn't why I chose the school though.
Since I moved from CO to GA, obviously staying near home wasn't a big consideration for me. I don't see why CFers should need to stay closer to home than anyone else. Obviously there are advantages to being in state if you're applying to public universities, etc, but I think college is a great time for CFers to transition into adult clincs and take comtrol of their own medical care. For some, that might even be easier to do a little further from home bc there isn't the temptation to fall back into letting mom and dad handle all the prescriptions or whatever. But there's certainly nothing wrong with going to school closer to home if that's the solution everyone is most comfortable with. Ultimately, I think it's really important that parents of CFers give their kids the same options the would have otherwise when it comes to choosing schools.
