So I got into a local private university (DePaul) in my city and it’s about 45min away via public transit. The decision I’m trying to make now is if I should live on campus or just commute from home. If I commuted from home I would be saving 15k a year and only be paying 15k for tuition/books. Financially speaking it obviously makes sense to stay at home and save the 30k in private loans for the two years.
My main concern was that if I commuted I feel as though I would be missing a giant portion of the “college experience”. I’ve also heard that making friends is a lot harder if you live off campus especially if you’re transferring in as a Junior like I am since alot of people have known each other since Freshmen year. Also the fact that I’m 22 and have never lived on my own was also a thing I wanted to change, I want to at least have some experience of being independent before I graduate. If I was to live on campus and graduate with 60k of debt I think I would be able to pay it off considering Computer Science entry level jobs pay 75k+ in Chicago, and that number is only expected to rise.
I’m talking with financial advisers, current students, and other people about my options but wanted to hear what you guys think as well
And in addition to the cost of maintaining a car, there is the time cost and opportunity cost of spending up to 2 hours/day in a car/bus/train, rather than using that time to study or to network.
You also need to balance your desire for “the college experience” with the possibility that 17-20 year olds may seem very immature and irritating to share a dorm room with.
Usually if you are a junior you would be living in apartments (on or off campus)…so you have to decide if that is worth it. Or maybe you live on.near campus the first year and make friends and then the second year you live at home.
DePaul has 68% of frosh living in the dorms, according to http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg05_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=350 . I.e. it is mostly residential, but probably nearly a third commute from where they lived before (e.g. parents’ place). Only 16% overall live in the dorms, indicating that most non-frosh live off-campus.
Usually, there is an advantage to living in the dorms for frosh year (making better connection with the school and other students, and associated with higher graduation rates), but that advantage is probably less if the school is less residential. If you are a junior transfer, that may not be so advantageous at schools like DePaul where most non-frosh live off-campus.
Of course, if it involves loans beyond the federal direct loans, then that can be the overriding factor. But be aware that living at your parents’ place (consuming food and utilities there) and commuting (cost of using public transit or driving a car and parking) are not free, although some parents more willingly subsidize those costs than they do dorm costs.