I’ve been looking at Lafayette College, and it seems like a great fit. The financial aid is great, and I love the location. I’m wanting to major in History, and being that close to a city as historic as Philly will undoubtedly provide some opportunities. The only concerns I have are with the fact that it’s a 2-day trip back home (Missouri) and that the cost of living is higher than my current town’s. People living in Easton, and especially those attending Lafayette: how is the cost of living? Does it play greatly into a day to day life? I’m lower-middle class, and paying for my college on my own, so I’m worried about this. My sister, who attends a college in my hometown in Iowa, is provided for when she comes home (my mom will buy her a lot of food and anything that she genuinely needs), but I may not have as good of an opportunity, as I won’t be coming home as often. This brings me to the other issue: the drive home. Flying there can be an option, but a flight to St. Louis still requires a 3-hour drive, and to drive from Easton is around 16 hours (so could technically be done in one day, but that wouldn’t be a whole lot of fun. This coming from someone who travels by car a lot as it is). I don’t know if I’d even be able to come home for holidays, because it may not be worth the hassle. Now, I’m not prone to homesickness, and personally love the idea of being away from Missouri, but I worry about staying on an empty campus for holiday breaks. Thanks ahead of time for the help.
P.S. I’m not really looking for alternative schools, and I have a big list (I’m just using Lafayette as an example). That being said, you are welcome to throw around school names with a similar fit, but I’m not guaranteeing I’ll look very deep into them.
I live in Doylestown, which is about halfway between Easton and Philadelphia. I don’t think of Easton as being very expensive, but you would have to drive to Philly from there. It’s about 2 1/2 hours from the PHL airport. There might be organized trips from Lafayette and airport shuttles that you could do though. Be sure to ask about that. You do not want to drive 16 hours straight, ever. S is in college in Nashville and that is a 13-hour drive, and we have only done it straight through twice.
If your financial situation is difficult, you will need to be realistic about affording trips home and about having a car on campus. Lafayette is a wonderful school though. Good luck!
I’ve been debating a lot of things since I’ve posted this (thank you for responding, by the way), and some things have changed. My mother and sister may move back to my hometown after I move out, and there’s a flight from nearby Allentown to my hometown, Waterloo, IA. But then you have to consider air fare. I really don’t think distance is too much of an issue anymore, cause I’ve thought some stuff over, plus I have some family along the way. I really worry about the cost of living. I notice that there’s a 6% sales tax in Pennsylvania, and no additional local tax, and that food and school books can be exempt. Other than that, is there anything I should worry about with the cost difference? My current town is considered 81% of the national average, whereas Easton is a 97% (and still relatively low for the Philly area). Thanks for the input though; I was afraid this thread was gonna be ignored.
As someone who lives a bit to the east of Easton (about 45 minutes), I never really considered it the Philly area. What exactly are you worried about with the price of living? Housing, food, etc.?
Gas, food, groceries, public transportation, ect. I’m using this site: http://www.areavibes.com/easton-pa/cost-of-living/. I hadn’t really looked at a map, and I now realize that it is an hour away, which stinks, cause being close to Philly would be huge. But, an hour isn’t much, as I’m currently 4 hours from the nearest big cities, St. Louis and Kansas City. How’s your cost of living? Have you lived other places? I’d really like the opinion of someone who has done this scenario, and has moved from a low cost of living rural area to a higher cost of living urban or suburban area.
Easton is about 75 miles north of Philadelphia, and it’s about the same distance from Manhattan. So you’re talking about a 1.5 hour drive on a good day.
So let’s say I go to Bryn Mawr or Swarthmore. The issue remains, and is even bigger for these schools: how much of an issue will cost of living be to me?
Easton itself is a pretty interesting city, and its right next to New Jersey. If you have a cause to go over the border you could get your gas there. It would be cheaper, they have lower gas taxes. Do you plan on getting a job in college? Most college make you get a meal plan freshman year, so that takes care of at least some of your food issue. I mean, people certainly make it work in all of these places. Public transportation for Easton that I’ve found is Lantabus, which goes in easton, bethlehem, and allentown. $4 for a day pass, and there’s better fares depending on how often you’re using the bus. I’ve never transportation though.
I really don’t see cost of living being a problem if you get a part time job. You’ll have a meal plan for some of your food, and you can bring ramen out with you or something when you move in. Ramen is virtually the same price everywhere, though. Gas might be a bit of a sticker shock.
I have lived in Easton for 15 years. It’s a nice area. Easton is part of the Lehigh Valley area which consists of the Allentown Bethlehem Easton area. There is an airport the Lehigh Valley International Airport. We do have lots of great shopping. We do get lots of great concerts around here. We just had a new venue the PPL Center just open up last year.
Gas is cheaper in New Jersey. Phillipsburg is the closest town to Easton in New Jersey. It’s about 10-15 minute drive from Easton. Pennsylvania does have the highest gas taxes in the nation. Lanta is the primary bus service in the area. I don’t know the prices as I drive. We do have 6% sales tax. Some foods and groceries are taxed. We do have some supermarkets that are cheaper than other’s. Wegmans is one of the more expensive ones. Aldi s is much cheaper. We do have plenty of dollar stores. We also have plenty of Target’s and Walmart’s. There is plenty of part time employment available.
I attend Northampton Community College full time which is a local college. I only live 10 minutes away from it. I worked for 20 years in this area and made a living at it. I’m not working right now to pursue a full time degree. One thing not taxed in Pennsylvania is clothing. We also have lots of cheap diners where you can get breakfasts cheap.
I am not sure how relevant cost of living is in this case. At a small LAC/University you will mostly walk (gas price diffferential wont matter that much) Meal plans are meal plans - and junkish college food is about the same.
Plane tickets might be a factor - but again what is the difference for tickets between city x and city y - 2-3 trips a year.
It is much more critical that you run Net Price Calculators for each of the schools with accurate numbers then see,
Wow, thank you everybody for your responses. I will be working through college, but that’s to pay for college, so I won’t have much money to spend elsewhere. I don’t know how much driving I’ll be doing, but the gas is Phillipsburg is about the same it is here, so that looks great. But as a general consensus, you guys don’t think cost of living is that big of an issue? That’s a huge break, cause that’s really the biggest roadblock towards attending an East Coast LAC.
@in2history I’m a current student at Lafayette and I really don’t think the cost of living will be an issue for you. We are a small enough campus that you can walk anywhere on campus you need to go. If you need to get off campus, we do have a bus that stops at the main shopping centers, bus station, and occasionally local airport. I have friends that come from the midwest and west coast who fly home. Many stay over break but anywhere you go on the east coast will have the same plane cost. Luckily a local bus goes to Newark, so that might cost you $40 or so. But it really isn’t terrible to get around. You can have a car or bike on campus but most dont since you dont need one. You can walk downtown in 10 minutes or the Lafayette shuttle can take you. Your biggest expense will be flights but that’s going to be the issue with any east cost/nj/pa school. Food-wise we have a mandatory meal plan for first-year students so groceries will be minimal. Junior or senior year you could cook in your own apartment or kitchen, but food isnt too expensive at the grocery store and will probably even or be less than the meal plan. So since the biggest financial hassle could be flights, most people who live far away don’t go home for breaks. If you stay on campus, some dining halls might be closed but you definitely won’t be the only one. I was here over the summer and it was still very fun since a lot of people stay on campus to do research. Winter break gets a bit cold so many do go home but we do have a lot of students, especially since we have a lot of international students, who remain on campus. Hopes this helps and feel free to contact me if you have any more questions about Lafayette 
@rachelszt Thanks! This really helps. I’m hoping that because my family won’t be paying anything for my education, they will be willing to fly me home, but I guess we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. Now it only becomes an issue of paying for the school itself, and Lafayette isn’t that bad as far as tuition and financial aid.
For the breaks when you don’t fly home, there are many cities on the east coast you can explore. Specifically, Washington DC and New York City come to mind. The public transportation system on the east coast and for the middle atlantic states is easy to navigate.
That would be fun. I’ve been to both, but as a teenager surrounded by his family. Also been to Philly, but I don’t remember it too well