<p>My first 2 years of college were in the same town where my father was from, so my grandfather, uncle/aunt and first cousins were walking distance from campus. My typical Sunday was to walk there with my laundry around 3-4pm, do laundry, have a few beers with cousins & friends, eat dinner and my uncle would drive me back to campus. It was a great way to escape a very stressful college environment (a service academy!) and feel a bit normal. </p>
<p>Several of the schools mentioned in the article began as commuter schools with very little on-campus housing options 20 years ago, so they have some catching up to do.</p>
<p>I think it’s tough for the kids who attend a “suitcase college” who chose to remain on campus on the weekends when many of the students leave for the weekend. I would imagine it could seem like a ghost town with few options for entertainment. Hopefully, they find other students who chose to stay on campus to hang out with. A “suitcase college” would probably be a poor choice for someone who craves lots of excitement. For a student who doesn’t mind solitude, I guess it might not be too bad.</p>
<p>Back when I went to college, I was in school about 50 miles from my parents house, but I didn’t have a close relationship with my parents and I never went home except for holidays. My parents made that ‘long’ drive down to see me, once, MAYBE twice each year.</p>
<p>They didn’t much get involved in my college life and I was left on my own to handle everything. It was me that handled all issues involving registration, I’m pretty sure my parents have no idea what courses I took in college (that yes, they paid for) and had no idea if I was on track to graduate or even in what major (I guess they expected the college and its advisors to be on top of that), they didn’t get involved in any personal issues including changing roomates and transfering dorm rooms more than once my freshman year or having my roommate move out during my sophomore year in the midst of a joint lease and getting sued by the apartment complex, they didn’t get involved after a car accident and left me to deal with the insurance company, getting estimates, and handling repairs, they didn’t get involved in much of anything, but I guarantee that I learned far more about life and the life skills I actually needed after graduation outside of the classroom than I learned in the classroom. I left college prepared to lead an adult life and am now fiercely independent and haven’t yet run across a situation that I can’t figure out how to handle.</p>
<p>My son is now off at college 500 miles away without the option to come home every weekend even if he wanted. I’ve told him the stories of my college days and expressed that I think college is just as much if not more about learning the life skills you need as an adult outside of the shelter of your parents home as learning in the classroom. So far he’s dealt with drunken roommates that throw parties in the dorm room that he’s taken the responsibility to clean up after, one of those drunken roommates calling and waking him in the middle of the night to say ‘I don’t know where I am, could you please come pick me up’, losing his cell phone and/or having it stolen and handling reporting it to the campus police and doing what he needed to get a replacement, being 500 miles away and being sick and not being able to come home and have someone take care of him, searching for an apartment for next year and getting the lease taken care of… maybe all little things, but things none the less that he is learning from, he is learning the skills that are essential to get through the day to day life that comes after college.</p>
<p>IMHO I think those skills will serve him far better than most of what he’ll hear in a lecture hall.</p>
<p>^^^I had the opposite experience. I went to college in my hometown with about 90 percent of my high school classmates. I commuted at first, later moving into my sorority house, which afforded me a little freedom, but my parents still kept very close tabs on me. They were helicopter parents when helicopter parents weren’t cool. I graduated and moved about three hours away, and was like turtle on my back! I didn’t have a clue about how to live on my own! My first job was a miserable failure for a variety of reasons, and I ended up moving back home. I insisted S1 go away to school (I didn’t have to insist too hard!) and he’s 50 miles away and doing great. He comes home once or twice a semester, we visit occasionally, and we’re all fine with that. And when he graduates, he’ll have some knowledge of how the world works. S2 is a HS junior and can’t wait to follow in his footsteps.</p>
<p>^falls into the “necessity is the mother of invention” category.</p>
<p>I find it amusing that people equate those things that “have” to be done, as equal to those things that are learned. Skills applied to a career are “learned”, knowing when to come in out of the rain? if you don’t have that sense by the end of H.S.? there isn’t much hope for you, whether 500 miles from home, or next door.</p>
<p>Reading this conversation, I am reminded of an observation made by an old friend who didn’t make it past the 8th grade; ever notice while fishing, those standing on a dock cast out, and those out in a boat cast in?</p>
<p>Necessity? No I don’t think that’s it, at least not entirely.</p>
<p>I’ve done my own taxes since I was 18, including doing businesses taxes a couple years. I’ve bought a house with help from no one but the owner’s realator and have started 3 legal business entities. I’ve been in small claims court a few times and dealt with child support issues and haven’t once paid an attorney. I do minor car repairs on my own and am considering replacing my tie rod ends - looks pretty straightforward on YouTube, I’m also thinking of taking an auto maintenance class at a CC because that’s got to be cheaper than paying for auto maintenance, I do all my own plumbing work including installing a couple hot water heaters and fixing that leak in my crawl space, I installed my own garbage disposal inspite of having a male friend warn me how difficult it would be and telling me I should really hire someone, it was actually REALLY easy, I installed my own hardwood floor, I do minor electrical work around my house. I have a master’s degree and work in a white collar job in IT.</p>
<p>Necessity? No, I have the choice to say I don’t know how to do X, Y, or Z and pay someone else who will happily take my money to do it for me, but when I have a problem I figure out what I have to do, assess if it’s something I am capable of doing, and do what I need to to get it taken care of…</p>
<p>Maybe it’s not learned… maybe I’m just “wired that way” or maybe it’s just because I’m EXCEPTIONALLY frugal… or maybe it is learned. If the latter is true, then I want to ensure my son doesn’t miss out on that opportunity.</p>
<p>not sure if cleaning up behind irresponsible, lazy drunks (and picking someone up who can’t be bothered to stay aware enough to even look after himself!) is a life skill i’d want my son learning in college. if he told me that he was doing stuff like that, i’d probably get really mad. </p>
<p>i do wish i knew how to change my own brake pads though…</p>