Living on campus or at home at the University of Chicago

Student Lounge College Life
1

<p>Hi guys, I need help with a decision, or at least some advice....</p>

<p>I'm already thinking of housing plans for college as an upperclassman, and I have 3 options.</p>

<p>Live on campus, in an apartment, or at home. (My house is 25 minutes away by car)</p>

<p>Here's the thing, I'm riding through college on a very generous scholarship. My first year total cost me 7200 dollars (Housing, books, tuition, meal plan etc. etc.)</p>

<p>This year I have asked my parents to stop paying for college, I took out loans. </p>

<p>I understand I'm losing money due to fees and interest, but to be honest I'd rather have a 7000 dollar loan and value my education and know I'm responsible for it. If my parents feel like gifting me money after I graduate, that's fine, I just don't want their money now.</p>

<p>Anyway, back to the point.</p>

<p>Would you guys recommend living at school or moving back home?</p>

<p>I KNOW, living at home would be a huge downgrade from dorm life (in terms of the social aspect) BUT I would be saving 14000 in loans before interest. That's a pretty significant amount. (If I live at home I will go for free, I might even possibly get a refund check)</p>

<p>My parents would probably buy me a cheap car to drive to school.</p>

<p>So my question is this, would you guys (in your opinion) take the 7200 in loans and move back home and save the money, or prefer to graduate with 21000 in loans but having lived at college all four years?</p>

<p>If I get an apartment, I could realistically shave around 3-4 thousand off that price, so I would have around 17-18 thousand in loans.</p>

<p>Now I have no idea if my parents will help me pay off this amount after I graduate, so I'm not sure what to do.</p>

<p>In terms of possibly doing an RA position, I would LOVE to.... But
1) I do not know if I will get it
2) I haven't really traveled before, so I think my third year would be the perfect opportunity, however I do not think RA's are allowed to leave for an entire quarter (I can look into this more, however)</p>

2

<p>I.e. your parents will fully subsidize your live-at-home costs, including:</p>

<ul>
<li>food</li>
<li>utilities</li>
<li>car</li>
<li>fuel, maintenance, and insurance costs associated with the car</li>
<li>parking costs, if needed</li>
</ul>

<p>?</p>

<p>If you do live at home, is using public transportation doable? Some cities might be rather stressful to drive in, due to unpredictable traffic jams.</p>

3

<p>Let me get this straight - you don’t want them to pay for your college, but you DO want to take advantage of their hospitality and live at home?</p>

<p>You are a bit confused IMHO. Let them pay for your college, and you pay for your own housing. That’s the way 99% of kids do it.</p>

<p>Then YOU pay them back when you graduate, or hold money for them in case they need financial help.</p>

<p>Why are you taking UChicago’s or the government money then? Your parent brought you into the world (or adopted you), don’t they have more of a responsibility?</p>

<p>As someone who works on a college campus, I do NOT think commuting to school is a good idea, especially in a city.</p>

<p>Living at college is an experience it is doubtful you will be able to replicate the rest of your life.</p>

<p>Same thing about having your parents foot the bill…</p>

<p>My parents paid for my college, and I paid them back when I was able to get a decent job. Now that my father is older, I can pay for things for him and he won’t lose his life savings if he needs medical care.</p>

4

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<p>I’ll pay for parking costs and maintenance of the car.</p>

<p>Utilities and food will be on them, just like living at home.</p>

<p>I can do public transportation no problem, but it would probably push my commute to more than an hour. I really don’t mind driving I did it all summer when I worked at the University, both during and not during rush hour.</p>

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<p>I can’t have my parents pay for my college, I have free tuition, I only need to pay room and board. That’s the 7200 figure I provided.</p>

<p>Reason for me not wanting my parents money now is I feel they have control over my education. Even though I now they would never demand anything from me at school, if they did I would have to oblige, seeing as they are paying for it. By taking out loans I don’t need to seek approval from them in my academic decisions.</p>

<p>You’re right, most parents foot the bill.</p>

<p>Mine don’t. I’m slightly different. I’m a first generation college student who doesn’t come from some wealthy family, so paying my housing costs last year was a struggle for my family, which I didn’t see the need to cause again this year. So I took the burden on myself.</p>

<p>I didn’t take these loans expecting my parents to pay them off in a lump sum when I graduate, but my parents have mentioned helping me pay them off when I graduate. So I just brought it up.</p>

<p>I know it seems strange saying my parents can’t afford to pay yearly, but may be able to provide a lump sum when I graduate… Like i said, this may not be true, just something my parents brought up.</p>

5

<p>To be honest, I think my comments above were pointless.</p>

<p>This isn’t a thread about who pays for school or the situation with paying for college from my parents etc. etc. or how I’m treating it.</p>

<p>The reality of the situation is this: I can either take loans for ~7000 a year for housing at UChicago and live on dorms (I do have an on campus job and I will be making payments)</p>

<p>I can pay ~5000-6000 for an apartment and dining there.</p>

<p>OR live for free at home. Only thing I need to pay for is a beater car, parking, and maintenance.</p>

<p>Since my parents paid for my first year, I can graduate with 21,000 in loans, 17000 in loans, or just 7000 in loans provided i live at home.</p>

<p>Financially it makes most sense to come back home.</p>

<p>But I would like to hear people’s perspective on the matter and what matters most to them when it came to the upperclassmen experience.</p>

6

<p>I commute to a college campus most days of the week. Parking is horrible.</p>

<p>If you can deal with it, live off-campus and commute. If you don’t want to be a burden to your parents, I would not live at home. If you think you could help them around the house and so on, when you have time, live at home, and also if they think that letting you live at home would be “paying you back” for you taking out loans.</p>

<p>“All summer” is not during the regular school year. Traffic is MUCH MUCH worse - I know, I’ve taught summer and winter classes. </p>

<p>You <em>could</em> live at home to start, and then move into an off-campus apartment after a few months if you feel your social life might be ruined by living at home. To be honest, it sounds like your parents might like you to live at home.</p>

<p>One of my brothers lived at home during junior, senior, and 5th year. It was fine for him, and my parents felt better about him getting his work done.</p>

7

<p>My parents wouldn’t think they’d be paying me back for loans. That was my choice I’m not expecting payment for that. I think they would like me to live at home though, I’ll admit that.</p>

<p>And you’re right about the traffic thing, I commuted to high school it sucked but it was doable. I have a good estimate of the commute time it would take.</p>

<p>And living at home for a start is a good suggestion, I think that’ll be what I end up doing.</p>

8

<p>I meant “paying you back” as in doing something nice for you (= homecooked meals perhaps, my mom used to make me a bagged lunch for work :smile: ).</p>

<p>As for the RA thing - look into it. Sometimes the programs are quite detailed in their requirements.</p>

<p>Good luck either way. Sounds like you are a good kid/young adult.</p>

9

<p>Ahhh yes, I do miss the good food :)</p>

<p>Yeah the RA thing would be perfect, I’ll look into it now.</p>

<p>I’d love to hear from people though, if to them (looking back) living on campus for 2 more years would be worth that 14,000 dollars.</p>

10

<p>Everyone’s situation is different. What is worth $14,000 to one person might not be worth $14,000 to you. It sounds like you’ve considered all of the factors. It’ll impact your ability to spend time with friends, but since you lived on campus for a year, hopefully you have a solid friend group that you can spend time with when you want to. It’ll be a tiring commute especially if there’s traffic and you have to leave extra early to find parking on campus, but you’ve done a trial run of the commute over the summer so you know what to expect. It’ll make it harder to do other things on or around campus, like clubs, internships, school events, etc, but you’ll just have to be ready for long days. It sounds like you understand the pros and cons, and that you’d like to live at home, unless you’re able to swing a position that provides housing. That’s perfectly fine, and many students (and non-students) do it without any problems.</p>

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<p>I’m not sure I follow your reasoning. You say that you don’t want your parents to pay for your school because then they have more control over your educational choices. Fair enough. But it sounds like your parents were only paying for your room and board (when you lived on campus), and that they’ll be paying for your room and board now that you want to live at home.</p>

<p>Now, you want your parents to pay for your room and board (housing and food) when your live at home. They still won’t be paying your tuition because you have a scholarship, but they are still paying your living expenses. I get that the cost is much less to live at home than to live on campus, but your parents paid for you to live on campus last year, are paying for you to live at home this year, and are potentially buying you a car to commute. If they had any say over your education last year, they should have the same say over your education this year.</p>

<p>And they’ll have a new hypothetical power over you–how you live your life at home, since they’ll be able to monitor your comings and goings much more closely. I’m not saying that your parents are overly controlling, but if you’re worried about having to follow their (hypothetical) demands over your education, you may also want to worry about their (hypothetical) demands over how you live your life.</p>

<p>I get that you want to save money. That’s a perfectly respectable thing to do. But your reasoning for why you’re doing what you’re doing doesn’t make a lot of sense. You want to be responsible for your own life and education and you don’t want to take your parents money. Perfectly understandable. But you ARE taking their money–for the roof over your head, for the food you eat, and possibly for the car you’re going to get. If you really want to be independent, then pay rent and utilities and contribute to the cost of groceries and other household supplies. Living at home doesn’t mean they have any less of a say in your life (and they get that say both because they’re your parents and because they’re still paying for your living expenses). If anything, they may have more of a say in your life.</p>

11

<p>Be careful with the RA thing, I seem to recall a recent conversation about a UChicago RA I know whose scholarships decreased because the free Room & Board was seen as a reduction in need. Obviously don’t trust my recollection: look into it yourself. </p>

12

<p>You can’t decide as if you’re comparing different sizes and brands of canned tomatoes to buy. Rather, it’s a complex cost-benefit analysis that includes all kinds of factors — from your family system to your career goals and earning potential to… Here’s one option to consider: Live at home, take public transit on the days you need a break from the hellish traffic and parking conditions (and when you want to read/work on the bus/train), and use your money for travel/study abroad. </p>

13

<p>Your logic doesn’t make any sense, honestly. It seems like you want to live at home, so you should just go ahead and do that–you don’t need to justify it in front of a virtual audience. </p>