Probably a good indicator though (along with other factors). If such a high number of students live on campus, it probably leads to a much closer community and lots more activities and therefore students staying on campus.
Seems the easiest thing to do it just ask admissions and current students.
You know it when you see it. A large percentage of students living off campus, satellite campuses often are commuter schools, large parking lots are an indication. Low 4 year graduation ratesâŠlots of indicators.
Stony Brook has a high percentage of residential students (84% of frosh, 60% overall in the dorms). Yet it is widely seen as a âsuitcaseâ school. Probably the combination of factors of drawing students mainly from in-state, particularly in a major population area that is about 1-2 hours away (too far to commute from their parentsâ place, but close enough for a weekend trip), encourage âsuitcaseâ behavior.
In addition to a requirement that students live on campus all 4 years, of course a school with lots of students from out of the area makes a big difference.
If home is too far to visit for the weekend AND they live on campus, where are they going to go? Sure they might go explore a nearby city or visit friends on another campus, but most kids are going to stay close the majority of the time.
Most residential campuses (Iâm using the term to mean those where the vast majority of students live on campus in addition to those that actually require it for everyone) make sure thereâs plenty happening on weekends.
Living on campus has nothing to do with staying on campus for the weekend. Many can go home to escape dorm life for a couple of days. Also- you need to get more details about what living off campus/commuting means. Off campus can be a block from a campus building- closer to it than some dorms. Commuting could mean from the parental home or an apartment a mile from school. Not all schools make sure there are activities just because they offer dorm rooms for most students. You need to talk to current students, check out the public areas on the weekends. You can just as easily take your suitcase to/from a dorm room as an apartment.
btw- UW-Madison has students choosing to stay weekends even though most sophomores and up choose off campus housing currently. A dynamic campus and surrounding area. Some surveys would count those off campus students as commuters along with those who do commute from their parentsâ houses.
This is what is usually reported in common data sets. However, it does not distinguish between those commuting from their parentsâ place and those who live on their own near campus, but not in the campus-run housing.
For this reason, the percentage of frosh living in the campus-run housing tends to better indicate how residential the school is, since frosh residential students are more likely to live in the campus-run housing than upper-class students. However, residential students includes the âsuitcaseâ students.
Straight-up ask adcoms, tour guides, student/residential life reps, and recent alumni. We did and also asked how the school works to address the suitcase-college dynamic. One school assigns dorm rooms in clusters for out-of-region students so the hall doesnât get too lonely for that group in the weekends. Another school schedules big-deal events on some weekends and entices students to stick around.
@ucbalumnus, we visited Stony Brook 3 times, and each time we heard the question of what the campus is like on weekends. Theyâve taught the tour guides there to answer that the school used to be much more of a commuter and suitcase school but that theyâve increased the number of weekend activities. They also say on the tour that the proof that campus doesnât empty out on weekends is that over 80% of students use their meal cards on weekends. However by âweekendsâ they could be counting Sunday night when students are back from spending the weekend at home.
Anecdotally, we have friends with a daughter who attends Stony Brook. They live 40 minutes from the school and see her around one weekend a month. They say that her other friends at school who live in the area donât go home very much either.
Check % of in-state students easily on College Navigator/Enrollment. Could be somewhat confounded by a college location near state boundary.
Many schools post which states their students are from on their websites.
If the top meal plan is only 14 meals per week, it might be a suitcase college.
^^My daughter chose a 12 meal plan as it was the cheapest. She lived 2000 miles from home so certainly wasnât coming home on weekends. My nephew goes to school about 30 miles from home and rarely goes home for an entire weekend. Sometimes he works in the city on a Saturday, will stop by to see his mother and steal some food, but then goes back to school. If heâs not at school on a weekend, heâs usually skiing or visiting friends at other schools.
Is this really that big an issue that residential colleges are âclearing outâ for the weekend? Univ. of North Florida requires students to live on campus, even local students. Some of those local students do go home on the weekend to work, to visit family, but that is no different than a school that allows commuters who wouldnât be on campus on the weekends anyway.
Even schools that are suitcase schools have some students who remain. They have to make their own fun. My daughterâs school is âdeadâ on weekends, but itâs not because students are leaving on weekends.
An interesting article on some factors that make a school a âsuitcase schoolâ (lower average SAT/less selective, lots of students who live nearby, ability to have cars - frosh especially) and ways colleges try to combat it, as they see it as a problem for recruitment and retention (not allowing cars for frosh, upping the sports-pep game, adding weekend parties), :
This one has tips for dealing with one if you are at one and donât want to be:
http://www.collegebound.net/content/article/the-search-for-life-at-suitcase-schools/18521/
This one has some tips for the OP question:
http://greatcollegeadvice.com/how-to-find-out-if-a-college-is-a-suitcase-school/
The number of student parking lot spots near dorms may be an indicator. The costs of having a car on campus can be quite expensive if it just sits there. However, it the students are frequently going home it may be better than the mom/dad chauffeuring I did for son and HS friends for breaks. Little student parking available.
At Wyoming, there are outlying parking lots just for storing cars. Many students donât want or need a car on campus, but they live 5-9 hours away from campus, there is very little transportation to the school, so it is cheaper and more convenient for them to drive to campus in the fall, park the car, home for Christmas, and back in the spring. It would be a two day trip for their parents to drive them to school a couple times a year. Some also have trucks to go hunting or camping on weekends stored in the outlying lots.
Have people really been surprised at schools where there is nothing to do on the weekends? What were people expecting to do that they canât do because âeveryoneâ leaves for the weekend? What are some of these suitcase schools where everyone lives on campus but goes home for the weekend?
My Sâ12 didnât expect his to be but it was. He hoped to hang out with friends on weekends, go to parties, have people to study with, go eat with. There was very little of that.
Since he didnât have a car (many of his friends did, and used it to go home every weekend), heâd usually go visit HS friends at the large state U in the same city.
I visited a campus in what is considered a âruralâ area (by the Carnegie ? criteria), even though I would probably consider it suburban as it was several miles from town and pretty close to New Haven CT(small-medium city?).
I think it used to be a suitcase school but I think the thing that makes me fear that it STILL is a suitcase school is:
The college should do more to promote activities at school including an active intramural sports, etc.
Easy:
Re: #36
Those look like characteristics of a commuter school, rather than a suitcase school (a school can be both, but not always).
In-state % of enrollment doesnât mean a lot in big states like California or Texas, fwiw.
I usually ask students I meet on campus what they did LAST weekend. That avoids a lot of the hypothetical responses.
Thatâs a great idea, @arabrab .