Did you live on campus, off campus, or commute while in college?

@chercheur Well for me, the college experience is the be away from home, go to class, and participate on campus activities. I know that college is expensive and living off campus is expensive too but I will work hard to pay for off campus housing with the help of my parents if needed. I do want to be away from home all four years in college but I know I’m still paying about 5k a year to go to college. I do plan on having roommates in college so we plan to split up the costs of furniture and rent as well

@chercheur and I do plan on working a lot at school if I do end up living off-campus. It is just too stressful to be at home while in college and makes me think that it is high school all over again. I plan to pay for most of my living and work hard to do so.

100% live on campus freshman year, your mom will adjust…

@socaldad2002 I am living on campus freshman year but don’t know what’s gonna happen in the later years. Hope my mom will adjust and change her mind.

You may find that living OFF campus doesn’t cost you any less than living on campus. You will need to pay for 12 months rent very year…not just the school year. Your utilities will be extra, as will things like your computer access.

In addition, you will need to be responsible for your own meals…unless you buy a meal plan from your college for commuters…but that’s not going to be a cost saving measure.

Even if you commute from your home, you will have the costs of commuting. Not free. Plus…you will lose a couple of hours a day at least just getting back and forth. This time then won’t be able to be used for a job, or to study. But you already know that.

You need to crunch the numbers better. My kids both lived off campus for two years, and neither saved any money by doing so. In the summers, one kid wasn’t in the college town and had to sublet his place…or we would have been stuck paying his share of the utilities and rent. It was a PITA.

OH…and we also had to get him furniture!

@thumper1 Well, I can study and do homework while I’m on the train for commuting since the trains have wifi on them if I need to go use my computer. It usually takes 45 minutes to get to the destination and then I would need to take another subway to get to the school for about 10-15 minutes. I wouldn’t be driving to school if I was commuting since parking pass at the school is pretty expensive. It costs $253 a month for me to commute to and from school on the train. A parking pass at my school is $460 a month. I already know that I will need to pay 12 months of rent every year, pay for utilities and cook for my own meals. I’m trying to think whether it’ll truly be worth it to pay to live off campus with thousands of extra costs than commuting just to have the traditional college experience and to actually be away from parents while in college.

You said you are dorming this year. Is there some reason why you can’t do this in subsequent years. I understand that most upperclassmen live off campus…but they all don’t. Maybe that would be an option…assuming dorming is affordable.

@thumper1 Our school’s dorms are brand new this year and they are for freshman only since it only has 1077 rooms. Upperclassmen can get them but they have to win some type of lottery to get one and barely and upperclassmen live in dorms at my school. Living in the dorms are pretty expensive at my school but my mom lets me live on campus for this one year. It’s much cheaper to rent an apartment where I go to school. I’m planning to become an RA next year and then if I don’t get the position, then I’ll think about living off campus and commuting.

I would recommend living away from home if you can afford it.