<p>Opinions on cars in college? Do most people have a car in college?</p>
<p>depends where. Not at a city school.</p>
<p>some colleges don't let freshmen even have a car on campus</p>
<p>depends on the college.</p>
<p>Most large unverisities have college town's built up around them, so no.</p>
<p>At a number of colleges, student parking is very limited. So freshman aren't allowed to have cars, parking spaces go by order of seniority or by lottery, etc. I know at the colleges my kids attend, most do not have cars.</p>
<p>Usually this subject is included in the FAQ section in the student life portion of a college's web site, or someplace similar.</p>
<p>generally you shouldnt need a car (unless you commute) because all the campuses i've been to, the classes are within walking distance of anything. some towns/schools have a bus system as well. at iowa state students in most of the dorms park at the football stadium (of course we have to move them for home games) and if they leave campus they a) take the bus (its free for students) b) bike or if they're up to it c) they walk.</p>
<p>I didn't need a car. I mean they wouldn't let me have one (the school--freshmen cars weren't even allowed in the town which is bs but w/e) but I didn't feel like I needed one, if I needed to get somewhere there were plenty of people around to drive me.</p>
<p>Ah, FFAgirl06, I graduated from Iowa State. And didn't have a car ... My roommate had one -- although parking was difficult. At that time there was parking just outside our dorm (Willow Hall), but not enough for how many people had cars. Often she would decide not to use the car because she didn't want to lose the parking spot. Most often she just used it to go home some weekends (from just outside Des Moines, so it was a short drive).</p>
<p>One thing to bear in mind if you do have a car ... people want you to drive them places. Though usually most of what you need is next to campus; folks trying to sell things to students know where to locate themselves.</p>
<p>They're nice to have, but usually people will carpool to go anywhere. I'm bringing one next year so it'll be more convenient to drive home (around 3 hours)</p>
<p>Yeah there's still a small parking lot by Willow but I think its just for CA's, staff, etc. I'm actually gonna be living in Maple. I'm only taking my car so I can go to Seven Oaks during the winter and occasionally come home (live just outside des moines). My friends up there say they'll sometimes go the whole semester without moving their car except for football games when they make students move.</p>
<p>And Campus Town is great...everything is nearby. And the busses go to the mall, Target, all that.</p>
<p>at first i thought a car would be nice to have at college, but now, as I'm about to become a freshman, I won't be taking my car along b/c like others have been saying, most classes/buildings are a walking distance(max of maybe 10 mins??) and plus there's a bus system at Univ. of Illinois. I just doubt that I'll be driving to many places anyways even if I did bring the car. Maybe sophomore/junior/senior years but right now as a freshman, probably not.</p>
<p>Depends on the school and your personality. I think that, for girls, it may be more important to have a car for safety reasons. (I would often drive to the movies that we could have taken the subway to - mostly, the area right around the subway wasn't so hot. There were just other times when driving was significantly safer. It was cheaper to keep the car on campus than to pay for taxis all the time.)</p>
<p>I'm also a vegetarian who loves to eat, so I loved having my car to get to the grocery store for dorm food. Three meals a day at the school that has the second best food in the country just wasn't enough. The on-campus grocery store was overpriced (again, I probably saved money by having the car) and only had junk food, not the organic/healthy stuff that I loved.</p>
<p>My parents refused to pick me up from school. Well, they picked me up twice while I was in college, and one time was to bring me in for x-rays. Car necessary to get home - public transportation would take two hours for the 15 miles. (Have to go into city, switch subway trains, and then commuter rail out of city. Um, driving.)</p>
<p>Also depends on whether or not you are going to intern.</p>
<p>If it snows a lot at your school and you aren't familiar with driving in snow, don't bring the car.</p>
<p>Insurance can be an issue; I pretended that my car lived at my parent's house. Sometimes, you can save money by re-insuring your car at school; however, students your age probably get a larger discount by being a "second driver" on the car and having it on Mom and Dad's policy.</p>
<p>a car is necessary anywhere in texas, oklahoma, or any of the states around here. buses suck anyway.</p>
<p>don't bring a car to college. you're gonna get so many people asking for rides.</p>
<p>^
I agree....so many people in my high school asks for rides..</p>
<p>A car is helpful to have, especially if you like to set your own schedule and not have to worry about getting rides, etc. I recommend bringing a car if you have a choice, but you should be fine if there's no choice.</p>
<p>I personally didn't have a car my freshman year...but had one the following three years. Though I went to an inner city college, I needed it to get to work outside of the city reasonably. It was a great investment for me!</p>
<p>Here's an example of where you need a car: SUNY at Stony Brook. Visited the campus a week ago, and if you don't have a car, I wouldn't even know what you would do other than boar yourself to death in the campus (Compared to Columbia, the activities, halls, and library really pale and you always got Manhatten) unless you spend $18-21 going to Manhatten for activities. (Can get real pricy after awhile)</p>
<p>if you go to any school in california, you're probably gonna be needing a car.</p>
<p>I didn't have a car, but almost everyone else did. The parking is horrible on my campus, but we all put up with it because cars are really a necessity around here (the nearest grocery store is a few miles away, etc). Cars are just needed here because things in town are spread out all over. However, several of my friends don't have cars and just mooch off the people who do or walk (I admit to doing this too before I got my car... now I'm the ride all the time!). My campus has a bus system that runs to pretty much all the off-campus apartments and to everywhere on campus so it's not needed for just going to class or whatnot... only for doing stuff like going to Wal-mart or the mall or the movies.</p>