<p>okay so my parents have this close friend who lives around princeton, which is ~1 hour away from Penn. they'r sayin that if i get into penn (i dearly hope), i should commute. </p>
<p>their reasons:
saves money (this is the one only legit reason that i see honestly)
it's fun to drive in the morning..."relaxing"??
can go wherever i want, whenever i want, w/a car.
college dorm life is not as 'convenient' as i think...the shower sharing....no privacy...etc</p>
<p>i don't even wanna get into this conversation w/my parents anymore. i'll just wait till after the decision comes out. but seriously, how do i convince them that ~1 hour drive every single morning is not really feasible? and i don't wanna live w/that close friend of theirs, even though i know her really well.</p>
<ol>
<li>I'm not even sure if you are allowed to commute as a freshman.</li>
<li>Tell her you will miss out on the special educational events that are held at night and stuff.</li>
<li>Tell her most of learning occurs outside of class.</li>
<li>Tell her the amount you drive is gonna put heavy mileage on your car, wear out your tires, drain your gas. Also, increase the chances of you getting into an accident, and thus injuring yourself.</li>
<li>You can go wherever you want without a car.</li>
<li>Ask them if THEY commuted to their college.</li>
<li>Convince them you are a terrible driver.</li>
<li>Explain that gas, parking, food, insurance, etc. etc. also costs a lot of money.</li>
<li>If all else fails, explain that in the two hours you waste commuting, you could get a job and make the damn money back.</li>
</ol>
<p>say that you plan on studying diligently so these 2 hours are taking away from this precious time meant for partying ... <em>cough</em> ... i mean studying</p>
<p>Saves money vs. One of the best parts of a college experience: dorm life.</p>
<p>it's fun to drive in the morning..."relaxing"?? - completely wrong when you're going to classes and risk being late etc.</p>
<p>can go wherever i want, whenever i want, w/a car. - you can't do that if you lived in Penn?</p>
<p>college dorm life is not as 'convenient' as i think...the shower sharing....no privacy...etc - Tough it up. You're going to drive 2 hours everyday because you can't share a public shower?</p>
<p>i like the first one. that's solid. lol. second and third are good too.</p>
<p>the rest got me LOLed.</p>
<p>u know what i'll do? i'll ask the college prof who wrote me a rec to talk to 'em. his words are MUCH more powerful than anyone else's just b/c he's...well...himself</p>
<p>yea like seriously, i was just keepin my mouth shut today in the car...i mean philly has easy transportation and i do NOT like driving. i really dunno where my dad got 'relaxing' from...</p>
<p>i guess sometimes parents don't really make sense or don't even intend to make sense when they want something certain way</p>
<p>dude, your parents are ridiculous. I can understand why people commute to classes, but they live far under an hour away. </p>
<p>Is that an hour away without rush hour traffic? Things can go wrong so easily: weather, accidents. I drive to my Chinese class 2 days a week, its about 25 minutes away, and I can tell you that I've been late half a dozen times, completely not my fault. </p>
<p>I don't know if it actually saves you that much money... Dorms cost what? around 10K? Ok, so IF you can even get a parking permit, it'll cost $1,725, and gas if it stays around $2, you'll probably spend at least $1500 if you're NOT going to Penn on weekends. Then I assume your parents would pay your family friend to reimburse food? If you're not on campus, you won't be able to take advantage of your meal plan as much.</p>
<p>Say you had to work on a project over the weekend. You'd have to drive 2 hours. </p>
<p>And it would suck to drive an hour when you're dead tired. I drive 15 miles to school and sometimes I just cannot do it, so I have my mom take me. </p>
<p>Seriously, you have to talk your parents out of it. You're losing so much by not living on campus.</p>
<p>DUDE. THAT'S RIDICULOUS.
time IS money. you're wasting time driving....ridick!!!</p>
<p>i live really close to penn and i have a parent who works there (i can hitch a ride if i ever wanted to), and they're against me living and home and commuting......
it's all a part of the college experience.
my parents say: the time wasted on commuting is time that could be used for other more important things -- like hanging around the quad or whatever.</p>
<p>omg i should have all u guys talk to my parents and be my lawyers! lol. thx for the support. </p>
<p>but yea i WANT the college experience very badly. parents can be very stubborn sometimes, esp my dad. but hey still plenty of time to convince why commuting like that is a bad idea. he's still very much in his chinese way of thinking.....:/</p>
<p>well obviously if yournamehere said hey look at what i found on CC, then it wouldn't be that convincing
but if yournamehere actually sits down with them and goes through the points that people make, it definitely can be beneficial (as long as her backs it up with his own comments i guess)</p>
<p>Anyone who calls driving into and around Philadelphia needs his head examined!</p>
<p>You MUST live on campus, especially as a freshman. I feel even more strongly about this than I do about hating Princeton (and I feel very, VERY strongly on that!)</p>
<p>The DP did a feature story on commuter students not too long ago. I believe you're required to live on campus freshman year, but a few people do live at home in the later years to save some money. A few people commute from center city, the main line, or even cherry hill by train, but I think one of the biggest reasons you go to college is the experience, and you get that experience by living on campus.</p>
<p>Percent of freshmen who live in school housing: 100%
Percent of students who live in school housing: 64%
Percent of students who live off campus: 36%
Percent of all students who have cars on campus: 4%</p>
<p>
[quote]
lol why do u hate princeton so much? i'm tempted to ask.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>It's our dharma as Penn students to hate Princeton, my dear boy!</p>
<p>Anyway you're not required to live on-campus (as in a university-owned dorm)--Penn only has housing for roughly 2/3 of its undergraduate population. But even when people live "off-campus" that just means they live in one of any number of apartments, rowhouses, or frat houses that are right next to campus. There are a handful of students who commute, but they either had extreme circumstances or were just people who didn't have much of an inclination towards being social...</p>