<p>I'm thinking about going to a local college/university that doesn't require its students to dorm, ever. If I don't dorm (such an action will save my family thousands of dollars) will I end up missing part of the "college experience"? My parents have explicitly said that they won't have any sort of curfew hovering over my head once I am in college, so I can still attend late parties and whatnot.</p>
<p>Any advice from current commuter students? Has your college life been altered since you decided to live at home?</p>
<p>It’s not terrible, but you won’t really meet new people. So, if a bunch of your high schools friends are going to the same uni, it may not be as big an issue (especially if they dorm, and you can hang there for a while), but overall, I can’t really imagine my collegiate life (at least freshman year) off campus.</p>
<p>I think you’ll definitely miss out socially if you don’t live in the dorm for at least freshman year. After that, you’ll have a lot of friends already and won’t miss quite as much.</p>
<p>Nope; I dormed for 6 weeks hated it and moved back home after being exhausted and sick a lot from lack of sleep. If you live at home you will probably have higher grades as well. My parents don’t care what I do, I have no curfew, and my parents respect the fact that I’m an adult.</p>
<p>Honestly, I’d suggest dorming for at least the first year. It’s much easier to make friends and get involved when you live on campus. Personally, I know if I’d gone to a school closer to home and commuted, I’d be stressed just about having to deal with my mom all the time.</p>
<p>I’m living in an off-campus apartment next year, but I know I wouldn’t have made a lot of the friends I’ve made if I hadn’t lived in the dorms this year. You really should spend the first year as a resident, but it’s your choice.</p>
<p>While this is certainly true for many cases, generally students who live on campus get higher grades. This is true for primarily residential schools; it is probably not true for commuter schools. I don’t know how to answer this question other than personally. I would never go to a college that I wasn’t living at. For me, it is an essential part of the college experience. You need to decide if it is an essential part of the college experience for YOU.</p>
<p>Part of the college experience (arguably even most of it) is growing up into a mature, self-sufficient adult. Living with your parents is not maturity.</p>
<p>How do you expect to get invited to these late night parties if no one knows you on-campus lol? </p>
<p>And parents may say they’ll have fewer rules, but you’re still living under their roof so it won’t be as lax as you think. Plenty of parents say that but they’re still actively nosy in your life.</p>
<p>I’d say, at least, dorm for the first year.</p>
<p>So called “roommate problems” are not really problems in the end because 1. you learn how to solve conflicts between people 2. you learn that you are not the center of the universe, and other people have different needs/interests 3. you learn how to be comfortable in varying environments.</p>
<p>I was miserable at first in a FORCED triple. But in the end, I realized that it was a growing up experience for me.</p>
<p>Absolutely try dorm life, it is one of the best parts of college! If you later want to move back home that will still be an option. You make many of your new friends in the first year or so of college- why miss out on that opportunity?</p>
<p>They are pressuring me to stay at home. They offered all these concessions and whatnot, and while I do think that they want to maintain a degree of control - I think it all boils down to money. To dorm at the college I am thinking of would cost an upwards of $12,000 a year.</p>
<p>And, on top of that, I live barely two miles away from campus.</p>
<p>Yeah, but what if you decided to go to school far away? They’d pay for housing then, right?</p>
<p>You could just tell them you want to living on campus, and see how they react. Like others said, you could do it freshman year and then move off the rest if you wish.</p>
<p>my personal advice - DORM boy, DORM. I say this out of personal experience. </p>
<p>my parents wouldn’t let me go to college away from home. sure I was accepted to distant colleges with scholarships to boot, but my parents refused to pay for all of them, I didn’t get much FA because they have a high salary, and so I ended up stuck living at home and commuting 2 hours a day. Well my parents are crazy control freaks and religious nutbags and I despise living with him, and yours sound very nice but still if you have the option, my advice is to dorm. At least for 1 year so you’ll get the experience and it’s SO much easier to make friends. I had a lot of trouble making friends since my college is in NYC with no campus, no sense of community, and living far away made it worse. I feel like I don’t even go to college sometimes, I live at home and venture to the city a couple times a week for class. I know you live close to school, 2 miles is nothing, but I think you’ll be better off moving out. </p>
<p>As for money, you could always take out loans if this is an issue, I understand if your parents are naturally worried about money and can’t afford the extra $10K or so per year. Hey it’s perfectly understandable if you want to spare your family the money and live at home because it’s so close and convenient, but my personal opinion is you would be better off dorming.</p>
<p>You could take out loans to cover the difference, or even work your behind off in the summer to make a dent in the debt. At some point in your life, you will have to take control of your life and put things into your own hands. It’s up to you to decide when?</p>
<p>^ it doesn’t sound like his parents are forcing him, they just want to save money…</p>
<p>in this economy, really everyone’s looking to skimp but I think that if you have the option, that is if it’s not too much of a burden on your family (and you wouldn’t be going to private school if you were really poor) then you might be better off on-campus. Like applicannot said, you could work over the summer to minimize loans. Also, what kind of FA are they giving you? Could you take out the extra $48K to cover loans? that’s a lot of money.</p>