So a perennial question on this forum is whether or not your student will/does need a car while attending WFU. Recently this came up on another thread and was deemed off-topic so I’ve created this thread as a public service to facilitate the ever-popular need-for-car debate, haha.
Personally, although I sent our D to Wake with stern promises that she would never have a car there, especially since we live 2000 miles from the school, that resolve evaporated quickly once she became a sophomore and had leadership positions in her sorority requiring frequent errands into town and also had volunteer jobs off-campus. The shuttle service, although nice, did not meet her needs. All of her friends had cars at Wake, including the friends from fairly distant states. All the students at Wake from our Western state brought cars with them. The campus is not within walking distance of anything other than Reynolda Village, which is uber-charming but not very utilitarian.
What would probably be useful would be to find out from Wake what percentage of students have parking permits. You can’t have a car at Wake without a parking permit ($550/year btw) so Wake definitely has those stats.
My son is a first semester freshman. He does not currently have a car. He is managing fine without the car through a combination of relying on friends and using Uber. He is thinking about rushing a fraternity in January and would prefer not to have a car in the spring for fear that he will be enlisted in running errands and shuttling partygoers to the off-campus parties. We were thinking about whether he would take a car for sophomore year, etc., but I did not realize how pricey the parking permits are. Our son has several friends who brought cars and they are still getting parking tickets. Apparently the parking enforcers are notoriously vigilant.
DD is a junior at Wake and has a car, although she has been overseas this semester. She uses it on weekends to go downtown and the grocery store. She also drives to the mountains or the beach with other students on private or organizational retreats, also to go to the airport when travelling. We live 500 miles from the school, so she drives to school and back each semester. She also provides transportation for some of her friends who don’t have vehicles.
She also uses Uber often, especially on weekend nights.
It’s an older car, and it’s worth it for us for her to have it there. Most of her friends didn’t have cars their freshman year, but do now. She hasn’t had any issues with burglary, vandalism, etc. The freshman year parking at the colloseum isn’t ideal, especially late at night, and moving the car for football games is a hassle. They can park on campus on the weekends, though, as I remember.
My take is that it’s handy to have a car, but most can do without one, especially their freshman year.
S is a junior and does not have a car. However, many of his friends do and he occasionally has access. Uber is also very popular. He has a job off campus and takes the shuttle and that works out fine. Bus stop is very close to his office.
I echo ricke1. My sophomore has one, but Uber is the more common mode of transport other than for trips home.