My kid is a homebody. We live in the country 15 miles from anything. He has his own car and uses it to drive to work and to school. That’s pretty much it. Very occasionally, he’ll go to the movies or meet up with friends but not a lot.
Every single college campus we visited has WAY more right on campus within walking distance of his dorm than he’s used to having to drive 25 minutes for. Movie theaters, bowling alleys, gyms, libraries, restaurants… Heck, the university population is double our town’s at a couple of the schools! I just don’t see him getting bored on campus. If he does, there are buses going all over and getting home will be easy (and cheap) with bus or rideshare.
Clearly it depends on the kind of school you are going to BUT if the school specifically prohibits freshman from having cars then it probably isn’t a car necessary school.
My twins are juniors and have managed well without cars both on and off campus. Both of their schools have very good bus systems within town. For times when they need a car, they use ZipCar or Uber. For the one twin who goes to school instate about 4 hours away, there’s a shuttle that goes back and forth every weekend. Much, much cheaper than keeping a car at school.
@Nathypops Try asking your question on the reddit site for your school. You can also ask about how easy it is to get Uber or Lyft. If your concern is getting home ask if there is a place people post for rides. You could also google map around your campus for public parking and see if you can find out if there is a monthly fee. If there is, it is a good bet you can pay to park there.
@one1ofeach I would disagree with that characterization. I went to a rural LAC that did not allow cars except for those with extenuating circumstances. The school and town quickly became claustrophobic without a car, which is why I told the OP to just cross those types of schools off the list entirely.
To the OP, there is always a way to bring your car to campus. Read the school’s official written policy. The one at my son’s school started with, “As a general rule…”. It didn’t take long to identify an exception to their general rule. They don’t make it easy but it can be done.
That being said, to someone else’s point, if you’re not comfortable telling people no, a car on campus can be a headache. My son is very independent and strong willed. Having his truck made him more popular than he might have been otherwise, but he definitely rubbed some people the wrong way when they asked him to drive them places and he said no.
When he saw kids taking the bus to Walmart for cases of water and bags of supplies for their rooms he was very glad he had his truck. He also joined Club Golf so he was able to bring other freshman and sophomore golfers to the course. It was fun to be able to grab friends from his floor and head over to Buffalo Wild Wings occasionally too.
My wife’s parents live an hour north from his school. My son would drive his truck to their house and they would drive him the additional hour to the airport to fly home for breaks.
For my son, having his truck has been 100% positive. For us the only negative is the car insurance.
Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I think I’m just not going to bother bringing a car to campus, as I wouldn’t want to be stressed about the extra payments. I always forget about services like Uber and Lyft, so thanks for reminding me of that!
I also went to a rural lac and found it to be wonderful and didn’t miss having a car at all. Presumably the op has picked schools he or she can love. Cars are not the end all be all for many many people.
I never had a car in college (and in high school I was the 5th driver in a one car family - guess how often I got to use the car?). My kids didn’t have a car in high school or college - we just couldn’t afford it. One lived on campus for 2 years and in a house right next to campus for 2 years. She managed to get rides or use a bike. There was a campus shuttle but she rarely used that. She had friends who would drive her to the airport and she paid them for gas, tolls, and their time but often there were others traveling at the same time. My other one lived in a dorm one year and in the sorority house, which was ON campus, for 3. She too walked a lot or asked for rides, mostly to hockey practice which was a mile or so off campus.
And they have lived to tell the tales of college without a car.
Semi-urban school, limited on campus parking, frosh can’t get on campus permits. But a decent number of frosh get paid spaces in nearby garages of hotels or office buildings.
In addition to local Target runs, the cars are used for move-in, move-out, and to get back and forth for fall/Christmas/spring break.
If the car can replace a bunch of plane tickets, then the economics make a lot of sense.
No biggie for Mom and Dad to pick up/drop off the kid when the one way distance is 50-100 miles. When the one way is 250 miles or more, makes more sense to have the kid drive his own car. YMMV.
My aunt had a job that she had to keep going to when she was in college so if you have something like that going on and you look into the college exceptions then you can probably find a way.
