<p>Does it harm the college years?</p>
<p>My son is an easy train ride from home and I work 20 mins from his school and could pick him up easily. But no. I would not want him coming home for the weekend over the school year except in an extenuating circumstance. He has left campus for a family related issue once- to attend his cousin’s first communion. He belongs at school, doing fun stuff.</p>
<p>This is what I will most likely be facing when DD starts college in 2014. We are looking in-state but I fear she will come home every weekend and I’d rather she stay and get the full experience.</p>
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<p>If the college students thought going home on the weekend harmed their college years, they wouldn’t. I don’t see any evidence in the article that it does overall. It probably results in less binge drinking and other irresponsible behavior and lets parents monitor how their children are doing.</p>
<p>I knew suitcase schools resembled commuter schools in many ways, in that people often attend one because of their jobs, close enough to home to save some money. </p>
<p>How can a commuter/suitcase school hurt one’s education (when compared to a residential college that provided a similar curriculum for one’s educational path)?</p>
<p>The kids did not want a suitcase college at all. We have also told them they have to stay on campus for the first 6 weeks or so (barring any emergencies, etc.). We also told them that they needed to be 2 hours or so away from home so running home for every little thing was not easy. They were totally fine with this and want the full college experience. It’s getting harder and harder to find schools like that though.</p>
<p>It certainly makes it harder on the kids who don’t go home on the weekends if a large portion does leave. I lived in the dorm my first year at a school in the same city as my home. I had a boyfriend at the time, and went home on many weekends in the fall. I told him over winter break that I was going to spend more time with my friends at school, and he objected so I dumped him. Going home had definitely impeded my making new friends at school, but it improved spring semester. I had to commute sophomore year due to money issues, but I had a lot of friends in the dorms to hang out with and stay with on weekend nights after parties. I don’t think it harms the education, but it affects the social experience.</p>
<p>Both D and I agreed she wouldn’t run home during her first semester. Then, she got a roommate who stumbled in drunk Friday and Saturday nights and spent Saturday and Sunday mornings hung over (and insisting the room be dark). Since D was local, she started coming home. She got a new roommate at Thanksgiving, and we saw a lot less of her. Coming home every weekend kept her from connecting socially. However, it had no detrimental effects on her academic experience.</p>
<p>To insist that the only “real” college experience is to be had by living in a dorm on campus and never coming home except for long breaks is as wrong-headed as insisting that the only “real” college education is to be had at a fill-in-type-of-institution-here or in fill-in-field-of-study-here. Nationwide, the average undergraduate student is in her mid 20’s and working at least part-time while studying for her degree at a commuting-distance college/university. Most students commute. Of those that don’t, a sizable number attend “suitcase” institutions. Why the author of the article believed that this was news is beyond me.</p>
<p>My guess is that it is not the suitcase nature of school, it is that higher SAT kids tend to go to non-suitcase school. I think we should accept some kids are smarter than others.</p>
<p>And I think that “average” college students misses out on a lot of the overall college experience. More like HS grades 13-16 without the drama.</p>
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<p>Your first sentence doesn’t make sense - would you say that “if college students thought binge drinking harmed their college years, they wouldn’t binge drink?”</p>
<p>One might believe that not cutting apron strings isn’t harmful and in fact feels kind of nice. That doesn’t mean that it is, indeed, not harmful or at least not optimal.</p>
<p>For my money, I prefer my kids having the sleep-away experience, and I would NOT consider it a good sign if my son routinely wanted to come home on the weekends (again barring a situation such as a critically ill parent or medical condition). It would tell me he wasn’t adjusting well and didn’t enjoy his new environment.</p>
<p>“Suitcase” schools become what they are from presenting a lack of options on campus. It has nothing to do with proximity to home. I thought this was a curious statement;</p>
<p>“Taking a cue from Stony Brook University on Long Island, a Division I rival that has used the Seawolves to help erase a suitcase legacy, Central has been re-energizing its sports image.”</p>
<p>Says quite a bit about the role of sports, being competitive, and that impact on school pride and weekend options.</p>
<p>Suitcase colleges?</p>
<p>Does that include the possibility of dropping one suitcase with dirty laundry at home, and filling the cleaned one from last week with all Mom’s and Dad’s pantry goodies, before returning to the hard college life?</p>
<p>All depends on the kid.</p>
<p>Many kids don’t finish college and the majority that don’t, flunk out their freshman year.</p>
<p>Know your kids on this one.</p>
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<p>Actually I think the “bring my dirty laundry home for mom to do” is really kind of annoying and childish. Be a big girl or boy and do it yourself on campus.</p>
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<p>No one said it’s the only “real” college experience - we know that most kids stay close to home, commute, etc. We’re saying it’s the experience we prefer our kids to have. That’s a different statement.</p>
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<p>Who said it’s about hurting one’s education? It’s about a social experience. There’s nothing “wrong” with vacationing only at grandma’s house in Florida, either, but I want my kids to have a different experience.</p>
<p>I think the bigger thing is – a school which is a suitcase school by definition has the bulk of its students from the immediate area. That in and of itself is a negative in my mind. For me / mine, I prefer a school that has a national draw to its student body.</p>
<p>My issues with suitcase colleges were because of any concerns of my kids coming home all of the time,but with that of too many kids at that college being in that situation. If a school is a true suitcase college, it is dead,dead ,deat on the weekends and the college often does not have any incentive to have anything to for the kids to do since there are so few kids there. It’s not necessarily that they are at home, but they could be at other venues. NYC schools suffer from this syndrome a lot because it is impossible to compete with the draw of Manhattan. So if you have a kid who is going to school some distance away and is not going to know many or any kids at his school, you may not want one that empties out on weekends and holidays whether it is to off campus venues or home, if your kid is looking for an active on campus life.</p>
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<p>Wrong. A suitcase school by definition; has nothing to offer that keeps kids there. Kids stay (or go) where the action is. Doesn’t matter if the school is 20 minutes away, or 20 hours.</p>
<p>If the majority of kids come from 20 hrs away they are not going home on weekends. What happens at many of the lower tier state U’s and many privates too is that 85% of the kids are instate and many do go home and the 15% from away and internationals are stuck there on weekends. Not ideal. It also becomes a chicken and egg situation. Hard to put on events for sparse crowds.</p>