<p>My mom and I are worried about the money issue since room and board is about twice the tuition! Any suggestions, thoughts, opinions? I like about 50 minute from UMD, by the way.</p>
<p>I meant freshmen and I live, not like. Lol. Stupid autocorrect! :)</p>
<p>Room and board combined are about 1500 more than tuition for instate students (Which I’m assuming you are)
50 minutes with or without traffic?
Most of the commuters I know hate it by the way, but the one I know the best became a commuter after losing housing, so I don’t know what his feelings would be if he had started out commuting.</p>
<p>With a slight amount of traffic. And regarding the room and board, added to the tuition, the cost would be around 18K, correct?</p>
<p>The room and board is 9599 a year. The tuition for in state is about 8500 (fees included) for the year instate, so yes. So room and board is slightly less than I thought. </p>
<p>A slight amount of traffic is one thing to measure by if you’re coming between 10 and 3 or after 9 at night or before 6 or 7 in the morning. But you can’t consider the norm to ever be a slight amount of traffic. Especially on days when there is something going on on campus.
If you have to take the beltway…count on lots of traffic, always. It’s not always there, but you always need to allow time for it.</p>
<p>Do you have a reliable fuel efficient-ish car already or would you have to by one and then start paying insurance? If you don’t that’s a year of room and board for just the car. Then expect anywhere from 100 (if you’re a female with a clean driving records and can get discounts from your parents) to 300 (if you’re male) a month for insurance. Plus a 60ish miles a day in gas. If you have a good car that’s at least a gas tank a week, probably more in the stop and go traffic of the area. So put at least another 120 a month for gas.</p>
<p>I’m not saying you won’t save. I’m saying the savings might not be worth your dorm experience, because the people are what make UMD an awesome school, not the classes.</p>
<p>@ckay220, do you live near a major Park-n-Ride? The University runs shuttles morning and evening to many of them. This could make the commute more bearable …</p>
<p>My cousin tried it her first semester. About a 50 minutes commute with normal traffic – no traffic would be around 40 and heavy traffic it could take an hour and a half.</p>
<p>She only lasted one semester before she moved onto (well, I think she moved into the view actually) campus.</p>
<p>I’m in Southern Maryland, so it has taken me and my mother about 50 minutes to get there. Not using the beltway though. What about the Metro?</p>
<p>Are you near the Bowie Park and Ride? You can catch the Shuttle-UM there.</p>
<p>I’m in your future shoes, and all I can say is DONT DO IT! I miss out on so much. It’s so hard to get help with homework, or join clubs/sports, since most of them meet super early in the morning or late at night. Making friends is really difficult. Commuting drains time, and is tiring. It saves money, but in the end, the money is worth it to have a great college experience.</p>
<p>Does the freshman miss out much on getting help with homework, or joining clubs/sports, college experiences…or it is OK if he lives 6 miles from UMD. Since living very near campus, he can come very early or stay very late. Can he have a parking on freshman year?
Please advise in this situation.</p>
<p>Anyone can get a parking spot during their freshman year…I’m unsure about having a parking on freshman year though.</p>
<p>Interesting. I’m trying to figure everything out. Loans are horrible, right?</p>
<p>No, a limited amount of debt is certainly manageable for most responsible college graduates. Poster engterp above has some good points. You and your parents will incur substantial expenses to commute from southern Maryland, particularly with fuel costs as they are. Please sit down w your mom and compare the cost.</p>
<p>For example, at $3.50 a gallon if your car gets 25 m p g it will be about $2,700 a year for gas. I don’t know the cost for Public transportation, but for that distance it won’t be cheap. There may be fees for parking as well. Add in at least another $1k per year for insurance and probably more… Easily getting up to $4k and we haven’t even gotten into food and other stuff. </p>
<p>Good luck to you with your planning… My d hasn’t committed yet but looks like she’ll be a freshman living on campus in fall 2011 at this point.</p>
<p>Is it really that bad…? I live in Woodbine and I am going to commute to school for the fall semester. I live in Woodbine and it takes about an hour to get to umd without traffic… I thought it wouldnt be that bad but after reading all the posts I am scared now : (</p>
<p>@annathekim, if there is no problem with affordability, then it is so much better to live on campus. As others have pointed out, you really don’t save as much as you may think, and the TIME savings are worth a lot. (esp. around exam time :)</p>
<p>And if affordability is the case, am I just out of luck?</p>
<p>Don’t forget to compare the cost of a meal plan to what you eat at home.</p>
<p>^ No, don’t forget to compare the cost of a meal plan to what you will eat as a commuter, they are in no way the same thing as what you would eat now.</p>