We are discussing whether DS should bring a car with him when he returns to school this fall. Anyone has had a car at Vanderbilt, please share your experience as to:
The pros and cons of having one. Is it necessary?
What is the cost of owning a car there?
What is the percentage of upperclassmen having a car on campus? Do most of them have cars or not?
Here are some relevant information about DS:
Staying on campus housing.
Joined a fraternity. He said it’s hard to hold a leadership position without having a car.
Would like to start research in a lab.
The parents are wondering if all of the above can be accomplished by uber which has been his mode of transportation during the past couple of years.
I wouldn’t say it’s necessary, but it’s nice. With the rise of uber, getting around town for relatively cheap is pretty easy. The main pros of having a car are if you need to leave campus regularly, like if you like to cook for yourself rather than use the meal plan. Then you need to go to the grocery store weekly, and it’s annoying to use uber to do that. Another pro is if you live within driving distance, it’s easy to come home on breaks. It’s also always nice when you want to go out to eat/go to a concert or some other activity. A lot of people just use their cars to do things they do already slightly faster, like driving to the gym in 5 minutes rather than walking 15 minutes, or driving 5 minutes to chipotle rather than walking 10 minutes.
Cons are that it’s annoying to get gas, and people want borrow your car, people want you to drive them places, and whenever you go anywhere you have to drive. This makes it annoying if you’re going to dinner and want to have some drinks but can’t because you’re driving. Also they don’t have enough parking spaces, so sometimes they’re all full. Like if you live in towers, sometimes every single spot is taken, and you have to park like a 10 minute walk away.
I’m not sure about the cost. Used to be $450/year, for the full calendar year summer included. On their website now it says that they’ve raised the rate, and when you log in to look it only says “$50” for the permit, but I feel like that’s per month. So maybe like $600/year? Permits go on sale August 1st.
A lot of upperclassmen have cars, but not everyone. I’d say maybe like 50%.
If he’s in a frat they have parking spaces that might be cheaper/closer, but they are limited so if he had one he would have already reserved it by now. It could definitely be true that a car is helpful for leadership positions in frats, since if you’re a leader you’re expected to help set up for things and you might have to go get a lot of beer from mapco or whatever.