Driving

College Life
1

<p>I have a dilemma that I think only experienced people can resolve..</p>

<p>My current choice of colleges are St Cloud State University and the University of Minnesota. </p>

<p>St Cloud State is 60 miles, or about an hour away. In comparison, driving back and forth to school everyday would be considerably cheaper (1,500 a year as opposed to 4,000) than living on campus, as I could also form my schedule to allow for school 3 or 4 days a week. If I was able to get a scholarship to SCSU, I would just live there, because it would cost nothing!</p>

<p>The University of Minnesota is 20 miles away, making the drive easier. I would definitely not live on campus, and I believe the cost is around 8,000 a semester.</p>

<p>Has anyone had a 45+ minute one way trip to school a day? If so, did you find your situation overly stressful? Keep in mind, I live in Minnesota, the driving conditions are not always good. Any advice would help.</p>

2

<p>Right now I have a one hour commute (each way) to high school and it's not too stressful and I'm stuck on the NYC subway with the loonies and the bums. Just make sure you get enough sleep or drink enough coffee because you don't want to fall asleep at the wheel.</p>

<p>My biggest problem living so far away from school is that all my friends from school are so far away, we can't make any plans spur of the moment. I think this is especially true in college, you'll be missing out on campus life, since all your friends are going to be living together and going to all the campus events while you're at home a distance away. It takes away part of the college experience and of course it's much worse with a 45 minute + commute than with a 20 minute one as 20 minutes is a reasonable time to head somewhere for a little while.</p>

3

<p>Agreed. One of my primary concerns is with my car: I have a 1999 Dodge Stratus that runs very well for having 82,000 miles, but I am pretty sure that driving to SCSU will either badly harm or kill it.</p>

<p>We shall see.</p>

4

<p>driving time will restrict your schedule and cut into time you could be doing better things (studying, hanging out, whatever is better than driving)</p>

5

<p>p.s. I used to have to commute 1.5 hrs from high school everyday (public transportation, still a waste of time)</p>

6

<p>bstewart, 82,000 is like nothing, my car has about 290,000 and it's an 89'</p>

7

<p>Gta: Point taken! What kind of car do you have?!</p>

<p>Lindsay: Thanks for sharing. I don't think I have much to worry about in terms of studying and hanging out, mainly because both of my friends have dropped out of college and will likely be working full time, and over the last year, I have had to study very little to maintain a very nice GPA.</p>

8

<p>I have a friend who commutes to school everyday for an hour, but then he lives at home so there is no living fee due to an apartment..</p>

9

<p>Keep in mind that gas prices will probably not drop so take that into account with a hefty commute.</p>

10

<p>bstewart:
Go to the U of M and live on campus. Maybe living from home is tempting but staying in a dorm has so many great advantages for your college education (that is why schools reccomend or require freshman to live on campus). the U of M has a good housing system and once you are there, you will find that having a car is completely unneccesary (when you do, its expensive and you have to park far away from anything). </p>

<p>Do yourself a favor and live on campus where you can create relationships and enjoy college.</p>

11

<p>hey bstewart I drive a 1989 Mercedes 190E. Runs like it just came out of the showroom.</p>