<p>I've been seeing it as a trend among colleges that they close housing for the summer or even the winter break periods. I'm going to Augsburg College this fall and I don't know what I'm supposed to do when they're closed for winter and summer since I'm out of state (all the way from Georgia) and I definitely cannot afford a plane ticket back and forth along or something like that... I know I can stay in the winter or summer but then I have to pay a fee which could get into the thousands...also not cool. </p>
<p>Is it better just to get my own apartment rather than live in a college dorm? I have to stay in the dorm for the first year but after that...well yeah, I was wondering. Or if any of you guys have alternative options, I'd like to hear them.</p>
<p>Well if you have to stay in the dorm your decision is made for you. </p>
<p>So you won’t be going home for summer? You won’t be going home ever? If you have to stay in the summer for whatever reason I’d consider a sublet for an apartment, there must be a lot of summer sublets. You might be able to find something similar for winter break, though since winter break is much shorter than summer I would think the costs to stay in the dorm wouldn’t be prohibitively expensive.</p>
<p>I don’t think you need an apartment unless you want one, I think subletting when the dorms are closed or even staying with friends would probably be a better option.</p>
<p>Just to warn you, you need to take into account all the expenses of staying on campus. At my college, during the summer, dining halls are closed and the residences that students are allowed to stay in don’t have a kitchen. So breaking it down, a student is there for 3 months, with no dining hall and no kitchen. Mind you that college summers are 3 months long and if you’re school operates like mines, that means you would have to go food shopping weekly, order out often, and ultimately eat unhealthy (eating out often/living off of sandwiches isn’t healthy). </p>
<p>All I’m saying is think about everything. Don’t just think about “oh it’s cool to stay on campus for a summer.” </p>
<p>IMO, I think it would be cheaper to go home UNLESS you have a summer job while on campus and even then, you still run into the issue of unhealthy eating habits for the summer.</p>
<p>I’ve honestly never heard of anyone not going home for a summer because they can’t afford it. The cost of a dorm for 3 months will be more than the plain ticket. Unless you have an internship or job lined up near your school.</p>
<p>Winter break people (usually internationals) sometimes stay on campus, but again most schools will charge.</p>
<p>Cost of dorming at UB for 1 month during the summer is just about $800 if you live in a double. What is the cost of a plane ticket, <$200 each way?</p>
<p>"Cost of dorming at UB for 1 month during the summer is just about $800 if you live in a double. What is the cost of a plane ticket, <$200 each way? "</p>
<p>Isn’t there financial aid?</p>
<p>I have no idea but the cost of staying at school will probably be more than round trip tickets home.</p>
<p>Just FYI, 2 weeks at UB is more expensive than round trip tickets from Minneapolis, MN (MSP) to Atlanta, GA.</p>
<p>If you cannot afford a plane ticket home, how can you afford to stay at school/pay for an apartment that extra month+?</p>
<p>Will you be working on-campus while attending school there? If you haven’t been planning on it, if you got a job working 10 or so hours a week, you could easily earn enough to cover your travel expenses back and forth for at least summer break. </p>
<p>It seems really unrealistic that getting an apartment and/or staying over the summer will be any cheaper than getting flights back and forth from home. Although you might want to eventually live in your school area full-time, the logistics of getting back and forth from school a long distance aren’t really as bad as you might think they are. One option that you may have for winter break is to go home with a friend. Some of my friends at the private school that I used to attend would go home with a friend from the residence hall or classes and spend the winter break at their house. This was especially common with international students. </p>
<p>As for summer, I’m sure that with either summer employment or during-school employment, you could put away the money for your travel expenses. One thing that could be complicated though is what happens with your belongings over the summer. If you’re traveling by plane, you clearly won’t be able to bring everything back and forth with you, so you might have to spend some money on a storage unit for the summer. </p>
<p>Another option is to roadtrip. My first roommate in college attended school in New York but was from Colorado, and when she went back and forth from school, she would load up her car and drive there in two days, staying overnight at a motel on the way. </p>
<p>Finally, depending on your financial aid package, it’s very possible that travel expenses are factored into your CoA, and you might have loans or scholarships that will disburse funds to you in order to cover these expenses.</p>
<p>What were you planning to do? Move in freshman year and stay around the college area for 4 years without every coming home? And how are you getting there in fall? Surely that costs some money that you knew about for travel expenses. </p>
<p>If you can’t go home for winter break, that’s understandable, but summer you kinda have to. A plane ticket home will be cheaper than staying there. Btw, I live in MN near Augsburg College. The airport isn’t far from the college- it’s all in the Twin Cities area and a plane ticket from MSP to Georgia should be between $350-400. If you watch the deals carefully, you might be able to get it cheaper than that at some point. Travel expenses should have been something you considered when choosing a school. I’m from MN and going to Illinois Wesleyan U, which is an 8-hour drive, but I’m still flying back and forth for Thanksgiving, X-mas break, Spring break, etc.- travel is just something that you have to spend $ on whether you want to or not if you pick a college that’s far enough away. Good luck though! </p>
<p>Another thing to check into: Someone told me that if I didn’t want to pay $300 to fly back and forth sometime for college breaks that I should check into taking a train or a bus. It would take much longer, but is a lot cheaper. You’d have to catch several different trains or buses, but could do it if you had to. Check into that maybe. I personally haven’t yet because I’m most likely just going the plane route (because a bus or train takes too long, and it would then be easier for my parents just to drive to IL and get me, rather than going by the train/bus schedule).</p>
<p>Also, I don’t know if there are other students from Georgia going to Augsburg this fall, but maybe if there are and someone has a car that’s driving back, you could all carpool and split the gas money. That’s something I’ve considered too if plane ticket rates would happen to rise a lot.</p>