<p>I will be a new transfer student this upcoming fall. Do you think that I will need my car? I want to bring my car to school but my parents don't want me too.</p>
<p>It’s all about cost-benefit. Do you think you will use the car enough to warrant the parking permit? I use it to go buy groceries and to do things outside of the area pretty frequently, but some people find they rarely leave the CP area, and when they do, it’s to places easily gotten to buy public transportation.</p>
<p>D took her car this past year, because she was going to be working 6 miles away from campus. She couldn’t have justified it otherwise, since public transportation can get you to all the basic needs and lots of fun places. She still takes the metro if she’s going to DC, to Reagan Nat’l, etc. She did find it a lot more convenient for getting groceries (she was in an apt this year). Her sister is planning to be chauffered to everywhere she wants to go when she gets to UMD this fall. I’m not sure the driver realizes this yet!!!</p>
<p>If you are living on campus, I am in agreement with your parents. There is no reason for it. DS did not take his, and even though he will be in new leonardtown (apt style dorms) we are still not sending him with it, nor has he asked to take it. They travel by Metro into DC. He will be interning in the spring in DC or he Pentagon, and he will be riding the Metro. One roommate out of the 6 in the dorm will have his car and that is because he will interning at a place where there is direct bus or metro. After his internship, his folks are collecting the car.</p>
<p>The other thing you might want to see from your parents side is the fear. The fear of you getting in an accident, the fear that the car makes it too easy for you to go and have fun instead of being a student, the fear that nobody else will have a car so you become chaffeur for everyone on the floor.</p>
<p>The beauty that I love about UMD compared to other Universities, is that there is so much to do on campus that you don’t need to leave, and if you want to you can walk 20 minutes to the metro, hop on it for about 5 bucks roundtrip and go into DC. They also have $25 round trip bus rides into NYC constantly. I don’t know the schedule, but DS was known to decide that day that they were all bored and so they would road trip to NYC!</p>
<p>It depends on where you live, what you plan on doing in the area, etc.</p>
<p>I live in NY so it would be inconvenient for anyone to come get me, and the bus is inconvenient if I either have something big to bring down or up. I also have an aunt who I’m very close with, who doesn’t drive, but lives a few miles beyond the metro. Her husband also works on cars for a living so if anything happened to it, I’d be alright with getting it fixed. </p>
<p>Also the metro doesn’t run past midnight on weekends, and a lot of buses stop even earlier. I wouldn’t want to have to somehow pay for a cab just because I stayed in DC past midnight, or even at my aunts house. </p>
<p>If you have the car, and the permit is not too much of an inconvenience to pay for, I’d say bring it, but it depends on your situation and how much you think you’d be using it.</p>
<p>^The metro runs until 3am Friday and Saturday nights.</p>
<p>Yeah, sorry. Meant to say on weekdays then forgot.</p>
<p>My 16yo is thrilled that her brother is leaving his car home, at least for the first semester. If he finds he really needs it, he’ll take it for the 2nd. We live about 40 minutes from campus, so we can go get him if he wants to come home for a weekend.</p>
<p>We heard that parking is a serious hassle, and not necessarily near the dorms.</p>
<p>I would say there might be 50-75 spots in front of Centreville, or probably 15%.</p>
<p>As for NY/NJ student remember you can catch Amtrack out of New Carollton or Acella out of Union Station. You don’t have to bus it back home.</p>
<p>DS is leaving his Texas “beast” at home and is not happy about it at all. He definitely thinks he will need it for getting to sailing, surfing, kiteboarding, etc. Friends he met there have convinced him that he’ll have lots of free time on his hands, especially on the weekends. Uh huh.</p>
<p>One big fear I have is that the laws of Maryland are different and need to be studied. I don’t know if they will even allow his “beast”. I also get to take a break on our insurance by excluding him while he’s gone, then addiding him back when he’s in town. We will be saving $150.00 a month!! Not to mention the gas it takes to feed the beast which I contribute to. </p>
<p>I hope he finds he doesn’t “need” it, but something tells me that he will “want” it in the spring.</p>
<p>He does realize that fall comes fast in MD, and by the 1st of Oct nobody is going to the beach, unless they are an absolute die hard, or we have an indian summer and they also hate footbal!l They are all going to the football games or DC! It will be hard to find somebody on a home game weekend who says ywah lets go to Ocean City instead of the game with the other 5K students!</p>
<p>I will be honest DS lived in the 2nd to last room on the hall before you hit the bathroom, these kids leave their doors open, I don’t recall seeing any surfboards in the room. Plus, does he realize how small these rooms are? What is he going to do keep it under the bed? </p>
<p>Before you travel from TX to MD, do yourself a favor and check out the room size on their website. It is @10 X 12, 2 beds, 2 desks, 2 dressers, add in the fridge, and where exactly will this 6 ft surfboard be hanging out at without getting damaged, when his drunken roommate enters at 2 a.m.? Is he going to hang it from the ceiling or place it under the bed. Because if his answer is stand it up in a corner, just remember drunk kids wobble and bump up against things pretty easily. He can either have a roommate like my DS 1 5’11 and 150 lbs falling on it, or my DS 2 6’4 and 240 lbs football playing falling on it drunk! Is he willing to risk that board?</p>
<p>FYI one wall is closets and a door, another will have a window, so there is very little options on which wall he will place it for safety reasons.</p>
<p>Finally since you called it a BEAST, and you are from TX, I am thinking it is something on the lines of an F-350 dualie or King Ranch. The reality is it will be a beaaaach to park that thing. I have a Denali (GMC suburban) and I have to park in no mans land because I am always over the lines, or anything close in the parking garages state “COMPACT”</p>
<p>Also surfing in Maryland is not very good depending on where he’s used to.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the information. I think I am going to wait to see how the semester goes and see if I end up really needing my car.</p>
<p>The “beast” is a lifted SUV (X-Terra), no trucks in our family…lol or goats, grazing cattle, or pigs. It already does not fit (height) in parking garages here. He doesn’t like depending on others to get around and frankly I can’t see him on public transportation, but hey, it’s a whole new world in Maryland. I think he will suffer from separation anxiety, personally. It’s not just a car you see, it’s his baby! He did ALL the mods on the car himself, from the lifts to the electrical, additions, everything!! It really is impressive. He’s afraid one of us will attempt to drive it while he’s gone, I think. I can’t even get in it without steps, so it won’t be me. I’ll take a car obsession over a girl obsession at this point in his life though.</p>
<p>I don’t know where he thinks he’s going to fit the surfboard, sailing gear and kiteboarding gear. He does have friends with second homes in the area so maybe that’s what he’s thinking. The kiteboard is not too big of an issue because the board is not much bigger than a skateboard and the sails roll up to fit in a backpack. In fact, he just ordered a new sail for his kite specifically for wind conditions in Maryland. He knows the conditions are different and the waters much colder. He’s sailed all over. I don’t think he is going to like surfing in Ocean City. It’s not what he is used to. I didn’t care for it either. He is a beach lifeguard here and I think he’s in for a major adjustment when he goes to MD!! He mentioned the weather being a lot like our weather (coastal), but I know the winters come faster and harder that ours. If you even want to call ours winter.</p>
<p>We don’t do football, either…even though we’re from Texas.</p>
<p>Jewels: He’ll be okay without his car freshman year when all his friends are in the same boat…and then he can look forward to a car in his upperclass years, including coming down to Virginia Beach…we have good surfing, including the East Coast Surfing Championships.</p>
<p>Centh,</p>
<p>Thanks, I’ll pass that on! Now that you mention it, he does have a friend in Virginia Beach. I remember him mapping it from UMD. I think he lived on the island here for a while, then moved up there. Someone mentioned die hard. He is. I have to say. He surfs before guarding two hours, then kites after work for two hours. He says he needs water like he needs air! </p>
<p>I know he’s there for college, but it’s not a prison sentence either. This is also part of who he is.</p>
<p>It’s true that the surfing in MD is not amazing (it’s not in Texas, either…lol…?! Guess you guys are from somewhere else, though). But if he is a diehard - and it sounds like he is - he knows it’s better to surf in crappy conditions than in none at all (at least in my opinion - but then again I was born and raised in crappy conditions). </p>
<p>There is a surf team at school so I am sure he can hook up with some people there to help him store his gear. They carpool to the beach…they even have a North Carolina trip. They do some pretty COLD trips (some Ocean City October/early spring things) but with a wetsuit anything is possible!</p>
<p>umcp11,</p>
<p>Very good info. He will be so glad to hear it! Do you have any contact info on the surf team? Are they very competitive or is it more club? He got a new wetsuit today just for surfing there!! </p>
<p>Conditions are not always great in Texas, but you’re right about surfing in different conditions. He has both a long and short board. It’s the best when hurricane season hits which is now (June 1st to October 1st). They try to close the beaches, but they find a way. Last summer he was surfing 10ft. waves in Texas!! There is a great picture of a big group of he and his friends at the pier when the storm is starting to hit. He has appeared in some online surfing magazine recently, but I couldn’t tell you which one. He has also contributed surfing photos for that and other magazines. </p>
<p>It’s funny, I’m thinking books, necesseties, he’s thinking wetsuit and gear necessities…lol!</p>
<p>The club is called the Terrapin Waveriders (I guess to include things like body boarding and kite boarding). They do at least one trip to a surf competition in OC but in general it is not competitive…they accept people who have never surfed before and there are some beginners in the club using those big foam things! But it’s definitely a mix; there are more advanced surfers, as well.</p>
<p>The website right now looks to be under a lot of construction…[UMD</a> Surf Club](<a href=“http://www.studentorg.umd.edu/surf/]UMD”>http://www.studentorg.umd.edu/surf/). This past Fall it looked totally different and all the links were active. So seems as if they’re doing some work updating it. I also remember them not being very good at responding to e-mails. It’s important to keep up to date at the meetings. Your son will get a chance to check them out at the First Look fair (all of the clubs come out on the mall and share info and you sign up for listservs). However if I remember right the first meeting was before the fair…I sent you a PM with some contact info!</p>
<p>Got the PM and thank you again!! I will be so glad when they finish their hair growing contest!! They have a contest among the lifeguards to see whose hair and beard can get the longest. Ick!! They all look like Shaggy from Scooby Doo at this point!</p>