<p>D is at Dartmouth, no cars freshman year. Even if you bring a hard, parking space is limited, you will still end up walking on campus, so you would only use it occassionally.</p>
<p>I'll chime in on the side of "it depends". Both kids went off 2000 miles to college towns (one much smaller than the other). Neither had or will have a car during undergrad. Neither had their own car during hs, so it did not seem so different for college. References to the hassle and expense of parking and the rules about no cars for frosh did not apply for us - it was location. If our kids were attending schools much, much closer to home (and not in towns that were designed well for students) we may have provided one. The biggest benefit was not worrying about DUI.</p>
<p>We did not totally remove them from insurance while at school. They were classified as something like "away at school" drivers. We did this so our umbrella policy would still be in effect for overall liability.</p>
<p>Since D's college is so far away - we are flying - no opportunity for taking the car. Local kids have cars, so rides aren't that difficult. Already checked with the insurance. The won't allow the on and off the policy stuff. However, they reduced the insurance by $600 per year, so D can drive when she is home, and not when away, and I feel confortable about that.</p>
<p>MotherofTwo - when I was 17 I was attending college in California and my parents lived in Texas. I bought myself a used car, got a California license, and then contacted local insurance agents to find who would sell me a policy. Most companies would not insure me because I was under 18, but State Farm would -- there was a very nice State Farm agent in town, so that's how I ended up with them. (I stayed with them for many years - no major accidents or claims - so it was good business for them to sell me the policy) </p>
<p>That was many years ago so I don't know what various companies' policies are these days, but the law in California requires all drivers to get insurance and provide proof of it - so I am pretty sure that one way or another young people can get their own policies at any age. Although most teens would be insured under a parent's policy, there are teens who are living on their own or whose parents do not drive. Obviously, anyone over 18 is an adult and can get their own policy.</p>
<p>I think your friend's 24-year-old's problem probably stemmed from his driving record, not his age - that is, maybe he couldn't get a policy because he had so many tickets no one wanted to insure him. Rental companies usually will not rent to under-21's, and sometimes won't rent to under 24's - but that's simply the way their own insurance policies are written. </p>
<p>Obviously, young drivers can expect to pay higher rates.</p>
<p>I won't have a car because my college doesn't allow it. My brother did, but his college is just 2 1/2 hours away from home, so he came home most weekends. At first, I didn't want to go to a college that wouldn't let me have my car. Where I live, you are pretty much stranded without a car: everythign is at least half an hour away, and no public transportation, so not having a car seems bad to me. But, in a way, I'm glad I won't have one because I will save a lot of money. My insurance is very low anyway, but gas isn't cheap, and if I had a car, I'd use it. Without the car, I'll use public transportation, which I think is actually free to some places. I know the car and gas is a major expense for my brother, and I'm always glad to save money!</p>
<p>Parking in Boston is way too expensive...and so is the insurance. The public transportation is amongst the best in the country. DS does NOT need or have a car.</p>
<p>My insurance company (Geico) just changed its policy a few months ago so that if your kid is away at college (more than 150 miles) with no car, he/she is fully covered on your policy even when home for holidays. at NO CHARGE. This is a big change for Geico, which tried to charge me for a kid on a learner's permit in previous years. Check w/ your insurance company about its policy - because the policies do change!</p>
<p>Our S's school has a policy - no cars freshman year...if they find out that you've brought you car and are keeping it in town somewhere, but not on-campus...you lose your on-campus privileges for your SOPH year.</p>
<p>We recently changed our car insurance to Geico and will be saving thousands per year! S is away for the summer, then to boarding school for his senior year. Our previous company offered only a $200/yr "away at school" discount for S and also charged for D who has a learner's permit. It's really worth shopping around.</p>
<p>I'm like Momofwildchild. I've always said no car freshman year, but am now rethinking this if Daughter does end up at her first choice school which is in a small town where a car would be very, very useful. However, this is still very much up in the air at our house so we'll see.</p>
<p>I'm with Carolyn on this one. While DS does not need a car (and we really can't afford for him to have one in Boston), DD is looking at a couple of schools where a car would be more handy. BUT her two top choices are California schools in cities...and with the significant traffic, she wouldn't have a car at either of them. Her next two choices are in South Carolina, and a car is a possibility if we can afford it...but tuition, and other costs come first. Two kids will be in college when she is a freshman so it is unlikely that she will have a car that year.</p>
<p>I can't address the insurance issues but I can say from personal experience of both family and friends that some upperclassmen aren't responsible enough to have cars and some first years are. Whether a car is advisable at any level depends on school location, availability of public transportation, and parking availability on campus. (And note that even at schools where first-years are not permitted to have cars, some do by paying for off-campus parking and not registering their cars with school security/parking office.) </p>
<p>My S did not have a car freshman year (cars were not allowed); like many of his classmates he did bring a car after his first year and he accrued lots of on-campus parking tickets for parking his properly school-registered car in spaces not allotted to his particular dorm--certainly no improvement over what a responsible first-year would have done. My D had a car her first year and it was a tremendous convenience both for local recreation and errands and for coming home over long breaks--school allows first years to have cars and has limited but sufficient parking for all, with rules she took the (minimal) trouble to abide by. With that much variation in just one set of siblings, I can imagine that in dealing with a larger population there is no single right answer regarding cars in college.</p>
<p>Hi Momoftwo. My DD just finished her freshman year at Cal and did not bring her car up there for the reasons that you mentioned. We took her off our insurance (Auto Club) and put her back on several times throughout the year depending on her visits home. This saved me a ton of money!! We just called the day before she got home for the weekend/vacation to put her on, and then called to have her taken off as she was leaving to go back up to Berkeley. For the upcoming year she has told us she doesn't need a car up there, she uses the public transportation, so we are selling her car. In regard to entitlement (someone elses wording, not mine) one of my DD's friends roomed with an extremely wealthy girl for the first semester (she moved out the second semester when her daddy bought her a house to live in in the Clairmont Hills!!). Anyway she brought her brand new Range Rover up and paid to park it in some garage across town. The horror, she had to take a public bus to go get it!!</p>
<p>i just wanted to add something to this - if your kids are taking cars to college, you might want to check into how their insurance will change. for example, i got a discount for simply <em>being</em> a college student. one of my other friends insurance actually increased when she took her car to school - because it was being housed in a different region (or something like that).. of course you could just not tell your insurance company that the kid's taking their car somewhere else, but that just popped in my head while i was car shopping with my little sister today.</p>
<p>reviving an old thread for fellow parents...some things to chew on</p>
<p>Funny to see this brought back again. My son is now entering his sophmore year at college. He had a car his freshman year and will have one again this year. It worked out very well for all of us. His college is 6 hours away and he had four breaks during his school year where the dorms were closed unless you are an international student or are able to get special permission. The cafeteria's are also closed. He's good driver and does not drink. His car is one his Grandma used to drive - safe but not usually first pick if there's a roadtrip. His college is in a small town and parking fees are low and places to park are convienent. Worked for us.</p>
<p>My son will start his senior year at the University of Maryland at College Park next week. He has never had a car. Cars are forbidden there for freshmen and are of little use, in my opinion, for anyone who lives on campus. But my son has lived off campus for a year now, and he has found the lack of a car to be an inconvenience sometimes since there is no good supermarket within walking distance of his apartment. </p>
<p>My daughter is a freshman at Cornell. Cars are permitted for freshmen there, but it is extremely difficult to find a place to park, and parking is very expensive. Local public transit is quite good, but if she ever moves off campus, she may face the same supermarket shopping problem that her brother faces at his college. Also, in her case, a car would be convenient for trips home during breaks since the mass transit options are limited. But I doubt she will ever have one; the cost of parking is just too high.</p>
<p>My sons go to UF, and neither had a car their freshman year. They lived in a dorm and ate in the campus food courts, on University Avenue, or in oldest's case at his frat, so a car was useless for day to day life. When oldest wanted to go home, he never had a problem getting a ride. People welcome passengers, for the company and gas money. </p>
<p>This year he is living in a house so he brought a car up there. It will only be used for shopping and entertainment (case in point- today he's surfing at the beach). I don't think he even has an on-campus parking pass yet. It's easier to get around by bus (his house is literally right next to campus anyway).</p>
<p>Younger has it easy because he will be able to ride shotgun with older in the car, or borrow it himself. He's living in a dorm though, so I don't see him really needing a car.</p>
<p>Even the kids who live in apartments use public transit. By the time they park the car in some remote lot and walk to class, they could have been there by bus.</p>
<p>My son had his car at USC last year as a freshman, and was very happy be able touse it get around LA easily. There are lots of permanent spaces available if you were Johhny-on-the-spot about signing up. But this year he will be at U of Chicago, which has tons of public transportation and very little parking available, so the car stays home and we save $1000 on insurance.</p>
<p>My S took his car as a freshman but had to rent a parking space in an off campus lot. Luckily it wasn't much farther away from the dorm than some of the oncampus parking. His roommate did not have a car so it was very handy for one of them to have wheels for weekend trips to visit friends and to come home (roommate is from our town ). They are both in NROTC which required a lot of trips to dry cleaners for uniforms which would have been a really long walk and a big pain to carry the uniforms to the bus stop and stand out there holding them all while waiting for the bus on a major road.</p>
<p>He is off campus now. He alternates driving his truck to class or taking the school bus that his apt. complex provides for the kids to ride on (free).</p>