<p>I'm 15 min away from the college I'm going to and I have a choice of commuting or living there. As heard from many, I should there at college to have a "college experience" but what do you guys think? It's $10,000 a year for rooms and boards or it's free but just gotta pay gas.</p>
<p>I'm 15 mins away from the college I'm going to go to, too. </p>
<p>The truth is if you have the money it is worth it to dorm. You'll establish a greater sense of independence, make friends easier, and just in general integrate into the community and enjoy your experience more. Also there are studies that show students who dorm do better academically. I believe the advantages to dorming outweight the costs, but if dorming is going to strap you for cash, you can commute and still enjoy college. It just might take a little more effort.</p>
<p>10K per year, do you even have to ask!? :)</p>
<p>I'd say commute all the way. My commute is about twice yours, dorms cost about 1/3 yours, and I still that its worth it to commute.</p>
<p>I'm a little short on time now, but check out what I and others have said in this thread with these keywords:</p>
<p>"satisfied commuters"</p>
<p>Use those keywords in the thread title search function and you'll find a thread in which I and other satisfied commuters gave our reasons why we believe that commuting is definitely a fun option that should be considered if its feasible (I wouldn't recommend commutes over 40-45 minutes, honestly).</p>
<p>I do think you really have to live on campus to get the typical "college experience"...it's not even quite the same when you live in an off-campus apartment that's a 10-minute walk away. The thing you really have to decide is not whether which situation creates the stereotypical college life, but whether or not you really care that much about experiencing that in the first place. Some people are perfectly happy commuting, and some people would be absolutely miserable. </p>
<p>It also depends on what the majority of the school's students do...do most of them live on campus, in off-campus apartments with other college students, or do they commute from home? If it's a big commuter/off campus school then it won't likely make much of a difference, because you'll be in the same situation as most of the other students. If most of the students live in dorms, you'll be excluded from a huge part of student life and you might have trouble making and seeing friends. </p>
<p>There's also the question of how much $10k per year means to your family, and how well you get along with them (whether they would end up driving you nuts if you lived there any longer, and so on).</p>
<p>if it's just a 15 minute drive, it's not like you'll have to leave as soon as you're done with classes just to beat the rush. and you can make multiple trips to campus in a day (say, go in the morning for classes, go home, come back for EC activities or dinner with friends).
that said, you'll need to reach out more than dorming students to make friends, since you'll be missing that connection. i don't think it's a connection worth $10,000 to make, because dorm life can be hit-and-miss, so make friends through your classes and make sure to join student groups. if you do that, it should be fine!
not quite as annoying as commuting to UCLA, which i hear is a ***** (traffic, parking, expensive, etc etc...)
so commute! :)</p>
<p>You could do the on-campus living thing for the first year or even semester...just to establish the connections and see if you really think it's worth continuing to pay that much money.</p>
<p>I'm 15 mins from my college and dormed. It's a state school so more affordable for that area... i think it's good to dorm, if you can.but it wont be the end of the world if you don't.</p>
<p>dorming is part of the whole 'independant' college experience in my opinion. but if money is a big factor than you can always commute i guess.</p>
<p>15 minutes… seriously?
My high school is farther and it was never a problem making multiple trips there for club meetings, sport practices, plays, etc.</p>