<p>My D, at Cal, has not had a car during the school year, but did have one for a few weeks of a summer program, when parking is not so crazy. She has decided she would love to have a car there senior year, but ONLY if she could ahve off street parking. When I visited her and parked on the street there were times when both the car in front and behind were kissing license plates with me- tough to get in & out and lots of extra dings which would being annoying to those car-obsessed people who try to keep the body work perfect (like DH and DD)</p>
<p>I vote for no car frosh year in most schools, to force the campus commitment, but possibly after that depending on the situation</p>
<p>Vanderbilt Univ., one mile from downtown Nashville, does not provide any on-campus parking for freshman. Those who wish to pay a lot of money can rent spaces from nearby hotels. My son actually thought that sounded like a fine idea until we disabused him of that notion very quickly. He is a good and experienced driver, but I see no need for him to be driving around a new city during his freshman year.</p>
<p>His car will spend most of the year parked in his grandmother's garage; we took an insurance reduction available for students who attend a school 5 hours or more away from home, but did not cancel it because he will be driving when home at Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks.</p>
<p>Fast forward a year from my previous post....now BOTH D & S have cars at their schools. S is a rising junior in an urban area, but still lives on campus.
However, he's 7 hours from home and now can drive himself back and forth for the longer breaks.</p>
<p>We finally relented and allowed him to take a car (old but reliable) to campus after returning from spring break last semester. So far so good.</p>
<p>On campus parking is expensive--for residential students it will be $575 this fall, just for one semester. D's is much cheaper, thankfully.</p>
<p>I also think that D does a better job of making sure car is maintained properly, another reason to hesitate about S taking one. But we ultimately gave in so we'll see how things go....</p>
<p>When my husband was at CAL 30 years ago about 7 kids from his floor had cars. By the end of the year ALL of them had been stolen. I wonder if the dorm parking has gotten better?</p>
<p>I got a car my senior year, so I could drive to my job (which, ironically, was driving buses. I had to drive to the bus barn to bring out the first buses.) By then I was living off campus in apartments with off street parking.</p>
<p>My daughter is not taking a car to UCLA. Her grandma says if she needs a car for a long trip, she can borrow hers. She happens to live in LA.</p>
<p>All 3 of mine took cars to school. I think it really depends on the school. D's school didn't even charge for parking--you signed up for a permit. The boys' schools had no parking shortage and permits were very reasonable. Also all the kids went to schools within 3 hours of home--so they could drive themselves back and forth from home on breaks and even moved themselves out at the end of the year. D. needed a car because the equestrian facility was 5 miles from main campus and no school transportation provided for all the equine classes she took out there.</p>
<p>My State Farm agent tells us that having D 1500 miles away from her car will result in a grand total of 20% drop in her rate, and that as long as she's a dependent, we have to cover her if she has a license.<br>
Anyone else on State Farm hear something different? I'd love to argue with them....</p>
<p>No, but our rates with State Farm went to a figure that prompted us in seconds to find a new insurance company. We were State Farm customers for over 22 years, and my parents used State Farm for their lifetime. We were saving significantly by using another carrier while our son was in hs. We don't pay anything for him now, bc he does not have a car and is away at a college that is 6 hours away from home. He may still drive as an occasional driver on vacations, including summers. I wanted to cry when I opened our State Farm bill once our son was a licensed driver in NJ.</p>
<p>We are State Farmers. We have homeowners (including hurricane) insurance, as well as auto. I believe, and don't quote me, but I believe that if we give up our auto we jeopardize our homeowners (did I say that includes hurricane?) which means we will be hurting for hurricane insurance. The insurance companies have already cut and cut and cut hurricane insurance in our area, and now even veteran State Farm policy holders are getting cut out from hurricane insurance (even those that have paid into the system for decades) if they live within a certain distance from the coast. We are just waiting for the shoe to drop. It's absolutely terrifying to think about getting dropped. So we are happy campers to pay our State Farm auto insurance...just don't cut us out of hurricane insurance! :(</p>
<p>Neither S nor D had car while in college. After college, S bought a car to drive to work and had to get his own car insurance since the car was bought and registered in PA, and we live in CA. D worked in DC so she did not need a car, but we still kept her on our policy at no extra charge (so said my State Farm insurance agent) because she occasionally had to rent cars for work or borrow friends' cars.
Now she is in grad school, she bought a car last week and fortunately we had her covered all this time because the car dealer would not let her drive the car off the lot without proof of insurance. She then bought her own insurance and I think the fact that she was insured all these years helped keep her rates lower.</p>
<p>We just sold D's 1995 Corolla because her school doesn't allow cars for first two years, and she's in mourning. I, on the other hand, think this is an excellent idea for many of the reasons cited previously. We were advised to keep D as an occasional driver on our insurance. Main argument for doing this versus constantly dropping/adding/dropping them is the possibility that they may have an accident while driving someone else's car. For example, what if that car doesn't have any (or enough) insurance?</p>
<p>Meanwhile D's school (Drew) just announced that they will be participating in the zipcar program, where students pay a nominal fee to rent cars. A quick look at their website revealed that several schools in the northeast are participating. It will be interesting to see how this program goes.</p>
<p>Son will be a soph at Cal and is sharing a house this year with 5 other guys. Therre is a huge lot in back of the house that could fit 5 cars. Only one of the 6 will have a car at school. I told them that they should rent out the spaces for the year and make some $$! (parking is scarce in Berkeley)
He told me that they might do that, but they are also thinking of putting a trampoline back there. Praying they don't do that....</p>
<p>I took a car to college and parked it on a side street...I'd move it every now and again, and no one seemed to bother with it. We used it to drive to my roommate's house on weekends sometimes but it's primary use was to get me to/from school as my parents had moved within 8 hours of the school. I still used the bus to get around town. </p>
<p>My SD went to an urban school where a car would serve no purpose. MY SS has access to public transportation if he needs it. </p>
<p>I tried to have them dropped from insurance while in school but no luck. We would have to make them "excluded" drivers, which means we'd have to trust them never to get behind the wheel of a car on breaks, with friends, etc. I wasn't willing to put our assets at that risk. When my SD was a senior, she lived with a BF and had to come up with her own rent, and so we had an argument that we provided less than 50% of her support. We therefore moved her onto her own policy, and you can get a policy for urban dwellers that reflects they own no car and just drive occasionally. We had about a nanosecond of lower insurance costs and then YSS got his license. </p>
<p>He has absolutely zero interest in taking a car to school.</p>
<p>I didn't even have my license until my senior year of college. At my alma mater (Humboldt), parking is a big problem. The University subsidizes the city bus for students and faculty, and the residence halls sponsors a weekend shuttle into the closest city "Eureka"--the one with a mall and a Target. I found that having a car would have been nice, but it definitely was not a necessity.</p>
<p>I hope that Humboldt deals with the problem by banning freshmen cars on campus so that the freshmen are forced to learn how to ride a bike, walk a mile (and not on a treadmill), or take a bus. With parking permits hovering around $300 per year as well as the incredible price of gas, it is more economical to fly back and forth than it is to drive.</p>