<p>Does anyone else here continue living on their own during the summer? It might be because I'm older, but I don't understand why anyone would want to pack everything up, go home and visit for (what is it? Three months?) and then pack up and do it all over again. Granted most of my friends have moved much further away, and my family has a strange relationship to begin with, and I don't live far from "home" anyway. However, when I move on to university, I don't plan on moving during the summer. I guess I'm just asking to find the opposite mindset. Do you go home for summer? Why or why not?</p>
<p>I attend an instate university now, but most of my friends go OOS and I was OOS previously. Here’s how I see it:</p>
<ul>
<li>If you have a lot of new friends who also stay through the summer and don’t care for your old friends, they stay.</li>
<li>If you have an apartment and you’re paying month-to-month, they’ll stay.</li>
<li>If they found a good job during the school year and continue the job through the summer, they’ll stay.</li>
<li><p>If they find an internship in that city, they’ll stay.</p></li>
<li><p>If you dorm, you usually come back (extra costs for staying through the summer + campus usually becomes pretty dead from my OOS experience).</p></li>
<li><p>If they have a tight-knit family, they usually come back.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>I’d go home during summer because I attended a private, small university and summers were dead on campus. Everyone else would be home. The jobs in that city were not worth my time, as my state’s minimum wage was higher and I also had a car back home. It really depends on the situation, but I moved back because there were more pros than cons. If it helps, I attended university across the country so I really preferred my west coast weather in the summers.</p>
<p>Some people are really close with their family and want to spend time with them, since they may not get to see them throughout the year (not everyone goes home during winter or spring breaks). They may have a lot of siblings that they don’t get to see during the year and are really close with, or ailing family members they they want to see or help in some way.</p>
<p>They also may have found an internship or other job near home (or they may be continuing a job they had during high school or previous summers), and living at home is less expensive than renting an apartment. There may be more opportunities in their particular field of interest at home, or they may have connections in their home town to particular companies or internships.</p>
<p>It may also be cost issues. Living at home can be less expensive than renting an apartment, depending on where the school is and where they would go to live at home. If you live on campus, there may not be housing over the summer, and it’s just as good going home, as it is finding somewhere to live over the summer.</p>
<p>Many students also don’t go home for the entire summer. They may only go home for a week or two, and might spend the rest of the summer doing an internship, traveling, taking classes, etc. Many students who live off campus (or are otherwise able to keep their apartment/room over the summer) visit home but leave their stuff at school. So it’s not tremendously difficult to “move” over the summer.</p>
<p>It just depends on the student, and their particular situation. What might be best for you might not be best for them.</p>
<p>It’s quite simple- most people can’t afford housing over the summer. </p>
<p>I lived away from campus two summers (once at “home” but I really studied abroad and once at my now-fiance’s house) and then on the next 2 summers (including after graduation). The dorm costs through the summer were WAY too expensive but once I moved into an apartment with a year-long lease it was far more manageable. Plus, by the time I was a 2nd year, I had an off-campus job where I could work throughout the summer to continue to pay rent and whatnot.</p>
<p>I take summer classes, so I don’t go home for summer. I also live in an apartment off campus (all students except freshmen and new transfer students have to live off campus), and the contract is until aug. 31, so I have to stay (it’s incredibly difficult to find summer subleasers). Besides at my university, you HAVE to pack up at the end of the school year if you’re living in the dorms, because summer housing isnt provided except in only one of the dorms and you have to reapply for summer housing (but it’s really expensive).</p>
<p>I’m home this summer because I was in the dorms and they force us out right after our last final. But this school year and beyond I’ll be in an apartment, and I plan to stay to work and do some summer classes. I might go home for a few weeks besides that just because I’m really close to my family, but I don’t intend to be home for the whole summer.</p>
<p>Most schools don’t allow you to live in the dorms over the summer. That’s why people don’t stay there those months.</p>
<p>As many have said, IS or OOS can make a big difference. Most IS students go home their first summer or two, but some will choose to stay if finances allow or if they have a job or are taking summer classes in the univ’s area.</p>
<p>I’m in an interesting position as I am financially emancipated from my parents (I can’t receive any money or financial assistance from them) to establish residency in Colorado after living in Florida from PreK thru my senior year in high school. This means that I have to pay my parents rent if I stay with them for more than 2 weeks at a time. This gave me the incentive to stay and rent a house for the summer while taking a summer course, because I would have had to pay rent back in Florida anyways.</p>
<p>Financial reasons aside, I would stay in Boulder CO year-round regardless. Boulder is now “home” to me, and returning to Florida is going to visit my parents. I’m independent by nature, so returning home where I am still supervised to a degree is a rough step backwards from managing my home, habits and finances independently.</p>
<p>And yes, it is a PITA to move all the time. In these last 3 months I have moved my belongings from the dorm to temporary storage, storage to the house I sublet over summer, the house to my car, and in 3 days from my car to my apartment for next year. Fortunately I don’t have a whole lot, but it gets really annoying and I never even fully unpacked while in the last house. The whole car thing, just to clarify, is because I left CO to visit my parents for a couple weeks before school starts again, but during that time the house’s lease ends before the apartment’s begins and my car was the only place to really keep it (short of renting an expensive locker for a month and moving stuff in and out of my car AGAIN).</p>
<p>TL;DR Stay in the univ’s town if OOS. Moving around repeatedly is a PITA and it’s kinda rough going from independent to living with your parents again. If you’re IS it kinda depends on what you’re willing to spend, what your summer plans are, and how far your parents are from your school.</p>