During October, 55 East Leyden seniors took a poll on the Talon news site and 53% said they are applying to a specific college because it is close to home. In comparison only 34% said they are applying to a specific college because it is far from home.

Considering that most teenagers claim they can’t wait to go away to college and be on their own, the statistics seem to show otherwise.

In this sample of seniors, the top colleges students are applying to are: Elmhurst College, Dominican University, University of Illinois at Chicago, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Illinois State University, and Northern Illinois University. Of 42 colleges named, 28 are in Illinois with the farthest Illinois college only three hours away. Only 3 students admitted to applying to universities across the country, and the remaining schools are partnering states to Illinois.

75% of the students claimed to be applying to the schools they listed because the school has a good program for their major. Yet, 11% did admit to applying to a school because of high school relationships.

When asked what their dream school is, only 21 schools were listed by the 55 seniors answering. Five people answered that University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign was their dream school. This was the top listed dream school. The remaining 20 colleges are located all throughout the country with no favoring of a particular state. Other universities named repeatedly were Harvard, Arizona State University, and even Hogwarts from Harry Potter!

Percentages add up to over 100% because the students were able to check more than one answer.