Annie O'Neill, Post-Gazette Chase Smith -- Looks for that close-knit feeling. Click photo for larger image.

When CHASE SMITH of the Hill District looked for a college, he wanted one with a family feeling such as he had at Central Catholic High School.

He was accepted at faraway University of Miami, but he chose Duquesne University, less than a mile from home.

"Most of my friends were going there. It just seemed like the right place to have that close-knit feeling like Central did. I wanted to keep that feeling," said Mr. Smith, 18, a 2005 Central grad and a Duquesne freshman majoring in liberal arts.

"I like it a lot. I still know people from high school, but I met a lot of new people."

Mr. Smith received a couple of scholarships, but going to Duquesne still costs more than going to a state or state-related school. He lived much of the first semester in campus housing but has now returned home because of the expense.

He said he isn't missing the college experience. "It feels like college. You have a lot more freedom. It's your choice if you want to go to class or not. It's more on you to mess up or do good."

	Bill Wade, Post-Gazette Laura Baird -- 'If I was going to be away, I was going to be far away.' Click photo for larger image.

LAURA BAIRD, a member of the Class of 2005 at Steel Valley High, was accepted by the University of Pittsburgh and Penn State, but those were only backup plans.

Ms. Baird, 18, had her heart set on trying something different out West -- Arizona State University, the University of Arizona or San Diego State -- schools that had kinesiology programs.

"If I was going to go away, I was going to go far away, not just a state over," she said.

Her best scholarship offer -- $7,000 a year -- came from Arizona State. She flew out to visit it and returned in the fall for her freshman year.

She admits to being homesick the first week, but then she made some friends.

"The first week after my mom left, I'm like, Oh my gosh! What am I doing out here? I didn't know anyone. I was so by myself. I was so scared I wasn't going to make any friends. My mom comforted me by telling me everyone out there is new."

It didn't take long for her to adjust.

"I love it. It's very different than the East," Ms. Baird said. "There's a lot of people from all over the country."

By going someplace different, she said, "I think it's opened me up a lot more to new experiences. ... It's such an awesome opportunity to be out here and be open and realize I can honestly do anything I want with my life."

	Steve Mellon, Post-Gazette Anne Fazzini -- 'I really started to miss all my friends back home.' Click photo for larger image.

ANNE FAZZINI, of O'Hara, faced that moment of truth while she was applying to colleges: the cost.

"I applied to all these schools around here. It ended up all the schools I wanted to go to were about $44,000 a year, which is a little over my price range considering I wanted to go to grad school for veterinary medicine," said Ms. Fazzini, 18, a 2005 graduate of Fox Chapel Area High School.

She began studying a list of top pre-veterinary schools, learned about South Dakota State University -- with a price tag of less than half of that of a private college -- and flew out with her mother for a visit.

"It was everything I wanted in a school," said Ms. Fazzini, who was impressed by the friendliness and the culture of young men in cowboy hats and pickup trucks.

While she was accepted at Penn State, she didn't want to go there because so many students from her high school do.

"I didn't feel like it would be as much of a change as I wanted it to be in college," she said.

At South Dakota State, she said, "Everyone out there does agriculture in some way or another. I was completely out of my safety zone. I was completely by myself."

She made a friend who rides and shows horses, and, "It was just fabulous after that."

But, she said, "I really started to miss all my friends back home."

She thought it would be easier to transfer after just one semester, so she transferred to Penn State's main campus this term.

She misses some of what she experienced in South Dakota, such as training mustangs, and said the semester opened her eyes to different American cultures.

But she said Penn State has a lot of the programs she wants. "It's really nice to go close to home."

	Alyssa Cwanger, Post-Gazette Cristina Palamides -- Joins five other Shaler classmates at Kent State. Click photo for larger image.

When ASHLEY McMONEGAL and CRISTINA PALAMIDES were growing up next door to each other in Shaler, they shared their plans of becoming interior designers.

They are close enough friends that Ms. Palamides, Class of 2005, would have considered going to the same college as Ms. McMonegal, who graduated from Shaler Area High School a year earlier.

Except Ms. McMonegal decided to go to Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia, a 12-hour drive, and Ms. Palamides chose Kent State University, about 90 minutes from home.

"I had my heart set on going far away to college. I didn't want to be able to run home every weekend," said Ms. McMonegal, 20, who learned about Savannah at a college fair. "I thought it would be a really cool thing to come down here and not know anybody at all and make new friends."

Not that it was easy. She said she cried nearly every day before she left home because she was scared.

She's had bouts of homesickness, and she talks to someone in her family nearly every day. She also has flown home for a few weekends.

But Ms. McMonegal, who has set her sights on a career in industrial design, said, "I think coming down here was the best thing I ever did."

Ms. Palamides, 18, wanted to go away to school, but, she said, "I wasn't about to go that far."

Ms. Palamides, who is happy with her choice, goes home about every other weekend and enjoys seeing her parents and younger siblings, who range in age from 3 to 17.

She counts five other Shaler graduates from the Class of 2005 who went to Kent State.

"It was nice to hear that other people from Shaler were going to go there, so we had each other if we got like homesick or whatever."