<p>Hi,
I'm a freshman at Rutgers and am hoping to transfer for my sophmore year. One of the most significant reasons I want to transfer is that I underestimated the degree to which rutgers is a suitcase school: on the weekends most dorms empty out, staff and food at dining halls are at a minimum, and the buses run infrequently.</p>
<p>Going home every single weekend, in my opinion, does not promote a true college environment. I'm thinking about applying to</p>
<p>Not really, but as far as geographic diversity, UNC and UVA (while the majority of their students come from North Carolina and Virginia, respectively) have a high percentage of out-of-state students. UT has around 5% out of state. But UT's so big that there's always stuff going on.</p>
<p>Suitcase-ness is a function of the typical student's distance from home. A large proportion of students who choose to attend college within a couple hours of home do so because there's something at home that they don't wish to leave. Rutgers is the state university of a state that's small enough that just about all the in-state students are within that distance.</p>
<p>All state universities will have primarily in-state students. UVA is less so, with about one-third out-of-state, but a school like UNC is about 85% in-state. UT is big and the state of Texas is so large that students from Houston and El Paso aren't headed home for weekends. Private schools with national student populations will have little if any suitcase factor.</p>