<p>I asked about a specific school in another thread, but the real heart of my concern with that school is that it's a commuter school in a huge city. More than 38,000 students and only about 6,000 live on campus.</p>
<p>If ds went there, he'd live on campus. I'm curious about people's experience living on campus at a commuter school. Is there any sense of community? School spirit? Pros I haven't thought of? Truthfully, I can only think of cons if you're looking for a traditional college experience ...</p>
<p>My biggest regret is not living on campus during college ! Or ,maybe going to a school where the majority of students commuted !</p>
<p>yds,S2 lives on campus of a school with about 17K students…as about 70% of students are instate…some would say its a commuter school. and there will be people going home at night and people leaving on the weekends… His school requires that freshman receiving scholarships live on campus for at least freshman year which i thinnk helps. He went to a boarding school for hs where over 3/4 of the students went home every weekend… about 50-100 kids were left on campus…so he is used to the idea that friends he has may not be there all the time…think it made him a bit more independent, finding other things to do not just hanging out with friends. also he tended to study a bit more on the weekends instead of hanging out.
S2 has never said that it is a problem, he sometimes goes to see friends, occasionally comes home… certainly feels a sense of community at his school especially with his honors program kids.</p>
<p>you have friends at work… do you still like them monday morning? when you havent seen them over the weekend? LOL maybe you appreciate them more</p>
<p>Bumping because I can’t imagine only two people on here have experience with this … :)</p>
<p>DD lived on campus at a local urban university where most are commuters. She found plenty to do on campus and did not seem to mind at all However, she also was close to home and familiar with the city so she always held jobs off-campus and was home whenever she felt like it.</p>
<p>When I went to college back in the “dark ages” as my kids will say, I went to a school that was mainly a commuter school. There were about 2000 kids who lived in the dorms out of about 20,000 students. I felt it gave us the best of both worlds. You really got to know the students who lived on campus so it had a small school feel from that respect, however we had all the advantages and opportunities afforded us because it truly was a much larger school with just about anything I wanted to study. I was able to take some very creative electives from all of the available offerings. From what I have seen, it is much harder to get engaged if you are a commuter at any school. If you are on campus, it doesn’t seem to matter if other people don’t live there - - you can’t hang out with 20,000 people all at once anyway. You will become engaged with the other students who live on campus as well.</p>
<p>totally agree momtotwins… with my sons school even if 70% left campus (which they dont,) he would still have about 2-3k students on campus… he has a core group of friends that he spends time with, a mixture of commuters and dorm residents… which is more students than some colleges have total
through bs and freshman year,he has had roomates that stayed on campus on weekends, and those that didnt… he saw advantages to both…there were times when he enjoyed having the room to himself for a few days</p>
<p>i think the worry about a “commuter school” is a bit over-exaggerated. alot of students that go to college, at some point want to move out of dorms into their own apartments and in effect become commuters</p>
<p>6000 kids living on campus sounds like a good-sized on-campus community.</p>