<p>I recently moved into the dorms temporarily for band camp, but I will be a commuter student for the rest of the year. I'm also a transfer student, so this school is completely new to me, but I am enjoying it. My parents and I were on the same page when we decided together that with this school only being a 15 minute drive away, it would be silly to dorm. I've dormed before and just didn't like the experience. I commuted last year and loved it.</p>
<p>It seems like ever since I've told my roommate and other friends I've made here that I won't be dorming, I've been getting slammed with questions. They aren't rude about it, but I'm not sure why they care so much. I think they just want to hang out a lot on campus, but I'm a very close drive if people want to meet up. I can't really describe it fully, but they almost seem to be pitying me in a way. Like I'm not getting the "real college experience." It's not like I wanted to live on campus and I couldn't, I made the choice. I think that's what people don't get, that I can afford to live on campus no problem, but choose not to dorm to save money. My college has a pretty big commuter population, so I'm surprised a lot of them feel this way about people who commute.</p>
<p>Plus, dorming has become expensive on campus since many of the dorms have been remodeled. It's $4,500 per semester not including a basic meal plan. There are cheaper dorms available, but since the newer dorms are only available by seniority for now, most freshmen take up the space in the cheaper dorms. </p>
<p>Anyway, sorry for rambling. I'm not upset by this or anything just a little confused about this mentality. When I dormed I never felt bad for people who didn't. My friends are being a little pushy, but I don't think they mean any harm.</p>
<p>Have you ever had people react this way when they found out you were not dorming?</p>
<p>I dont see what the big deal is, and I don’t see why u should even worry about things like this. Many schools have communter students, and since you’re not a freshmen and have already made friends, this shouldn’t really matter.</p>
<p>I’m not worried about it like I said before, but I was just curious if anyone else ever had a reaction like that from anyone. I just found it strange, but the questioning has died down right now.</p>
<p>Never had this reaction because I’m a transfer student from a CC. My school is a commuter school bigtime, so I wouldn’t say I’d get any grief about it if I wasn’t a freshman. I think freshman year is an important year to meet people. Since I’m a junior…yeah. I would’ve liked to live in the dorms, but I was waitlisted at number 200 something. :/</p>
<p>A lot of my friend’s hanging out time was not really planned. It was spur of the moment lets go get some food stuff. When I moved off campus I really lost that. Granted I was a half hour walk from their dorms if I was at my home. You’re friends could be worried about seeing you a lot less.</p>
<p>When I first started college, a lot of people were surprised that I didn’t go straight to a four year university, live in a dorm, etc. like my cousin, who’s the same age as me. Many of them had some snide things to say, but I had to force myself to ignore them. You have to do what’s best for you- and why would you waste all that money when you don’t need to, and don’t want to?</p>
<p>I think the whole “college experience” (dorming, etc.) has been way overhyped. You can have a great four years at university even if you don’t do it the “traditional” way.</p>
<p>That could be true too. My rommate told me I could stay over a couple weekends if I wanted. I’m only 15 minutes away, so it’s not an issue. I couln’t live in the dorms all year though, I could never concentrate when I did live on campus.</p>
<p>I tell people that I commute for financial reasons, which is partially true (I absolutely could not pass up the opportunity to spare myself $30,000+ in debt!), but what ultimately motivated me to commute is that I simply hated living in a dorm! I tried living on campus my freshman year, but I felt like my dorm was a tremendous waste of money. While I anticipated dorming would be an excellent way to build relationships, all the friends I made were from classes or organizations. People in my hall mostly just hung out with their roommates and weren’t open to making new friends; so if you didn’t click with your roommate, your chances for socializing were shot. Since I didn’t make meaningful friendships in my dorm, I determined that living at home wouldn’t detrimentally affect my social experience at college. </p>
<p>I also didn’t like adhering to a meal plan. My university had stringent requirements for when you could redeem your dining dollars, and often, I’d miss meal periods because I’d be in class or work. I figured that if I lived at home, at least I could guarantee 2 square meals a day!</p>
<p>The people at my school pretty much have the opposite attitudes. Commuting is considered normal or some wonderful rite of passage while dorming beyond freshman year is considered lame and dorky. The biggest concern is freedom. No one likes RA’s or restrictive housing policies to put a damper on their party, etc.</p>