<p>It seems like most colleges these days are colleges where students come with their friends from high school and go home every weekend. This makes it really hard to make friends and have a social life. Which colleges on the east coast (preferably PA, NJ, MA, ML) are NOT suitcase schools?</p>
<p>I go to a school with 20,000+ students and there are only enough dorms for 4,000. If you go to a big school, they may not simply have enough room to house everyone and people that are upperclassmen like to live off-campus. </p>
<p>Join clubs.</p>
<p>Look at stats such as percent living on campus and percent of students from out of state. They may give some indication as to the number of students who will stick around on the weekends.</p>
<p>The number of out-of-state students is a good place to start. </p>
<p>The number of students living on campus isn’t really indicative on anything - students living on campus can go home just as easily as students living off campus.</p>
<p>Pick a school that has 99% out of state 
aka GWU, Georgetown and AU. But mostly GWU.</p>
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<p>I understand this is a joke, but with an additional 5 million people living in the cities surrounding DC, the number says very little. </p>
<p>Schools that aren’t very close to large cities are less likely to be commuter schools. Out of state enrollment can be an indicator, as can selectivity.</p>
<p>While it was meant as a joke, further research says that as high as 90% of students atGW come from outside the DMV with the majority coming from 5 hrs plus away. I can only assume georgetown and au have similar stats.</p>
<p>Only 6000/20,000 undergrads live on campus at USC, but about 50% of USC’s students are out-of-state, so I definitely wouldn’t call us a suitcase school. (I mean the kids from Maryland, Virginia, California, etc can’t just go home on the weekends. And there are lots of them.)</p>
<p>I think that when looking for a school that isn’t a suit-case school, you should just be aware of how many students live within an hour of the school. If you want, email admissions and ask “How many students live within 100 miles of campus?” If they don’t have that data at hand, they should have some figure similar to that or they can at least give you an idea.</p>
<p>I know that Wofford (a school in my hometown) likes to take students from the local high schools, but something like 99% of students live on campus and it really isn’t a suitcase school despite so many people coming from in-town.</p>
<p>I think talking to students who go to the school and just doing research is really important.</p>
<p>Hampshire College. Everyone here is looking to meet new friends, and I’ve only seen like two people go home for the weekends! Also parties are very inclusive.</p>
<p>It’s a good question. Unforchantly I know a few students who choose suitcase schools by mistake and were very unhappy. Look for a large percentage of students from out of state and/or a requirement that freshmen and sophomores live on campus… That will do it.</p>
<p>Yeah the 100 miles from campus is what OP is concerned about I think. What I’ve seen here is like 95% of freshmen live in the dorms but still like half the place is empty on weekends. It baffles me why more don’t just commute and save thousands, but that’s spoiled rich kids for you. Obviously OOS aren’t going back on weekends much, but that’s not the only indicator.</p>
<p>OK - Back to your original question “Which colleges on the east coast (preferably PA, NJ, MA, ML) are NOT suitcase schools?”</p>
<p>If you’re looking for a school that the students love so much that they don’t want to leave on weekends because they might miss something (not just partying) , Around here that would be Elon. Best of luck…</p>
<p>UMD, a lot of kids don’t go home more than once a month even though they live close.</p>
<p>Most semi-prestigious/prestigious liberal arts schools on the east coast are not suitcase schools.</p>