<p>I just turned 21, about to be attending University of Texas at Dallas which is 10-15 minutes from my parents place (it's a duplex, not very spacious). I was originally going to go to A&M but I had too many credits so I decided to go locally because they have a good program so now I'm not forced to move out which turns out to be a bad thing.</p>
<p>I want my own place, I feel like I would be able to concentrate on my schoolwork more, more privacy and all that stuff. Plus instead of having one bedroom, I'd have more space to study and workout...ect. The only thing is, it isn't a smart financial choice because my Dad doesn't care if I stay here as long as I'm in school and they aren't paying for any of my school, they aren't able to. So I can stay here for another couple years until I graduate then move out when I go to grad school and save a lot money(around 8k a year or so) or I can go ahead and move out which is what I'd rather do but it's hard justifying it since we live so close to the school. Another thing is my older sister and her 4 year old moved back in which makes things hectic sometimes, my younger sister is 19 and attending a community college here as well. So my parents are supporting myself, my 19 year old sister, my 30 year old sister and her son. In a 3 bedroom duplex, in apartment complex where my dad works. Another thing is, I can;t really have anyone over because my house is full most of the time and I have almost no social life since we moved out here after high school so it may help to be on or closer to the campus. And I could have friends from HS down to my APT, which would be cool. I'm lucky to have the choice, and I'm not complaining just laying out all the details.</p>
<p>So I guess I'd like some advice, or some opinions on what you guys would do. MY relationship with my parents is great, no problems at all so I definitely don't mind living here but being 21 and taller than everyone by a good amount, it feels weird lol Also, I will be taking out loans to cover everything not covered in grants/scholarships which could be a lot even though my parent's combined don't make over 55-60k. </p>
<p>Anything you have to offer would be great. Sorry for the long post.</p>
<p>I dont see it as weird to stay at home for college, moving out can be so much money. I can also understand the want to move out. I am facing a simular problem</p>
<p>Does UT of Dallas have study room/study locations? If so, utilize it to study. Stay on campus for some extra hours to get homework done and to finish studying so you’re out of the chaotic midst of your house. If transportation is not an issue, meet your friends on campus to hangout or nearby campus or even at someone else’s house - why must it be your place? As friends, they should understand that your house just has no room for extra people. Personally, I’ve had a very active social life by never inviting people to my place. </p>
<p>I understand your want to move out because I want to move out very badly, but if you are saving $8/yr just by staying home, that is a very very very good deal! It will be much better for you in the long-run to stay home, IMHO. </p>
<p>I don’t see a necessity to move out at all, as there are alternatives to your issues. I just see this as a luxury, especially because you have a good relationship with your parents. Tbh, I think waiting it out will reward you in the future with a better financial situation than if you were to move out now. </p>
<p>Currently I am working and saving money by not paying rent and I believe that’ll help me in my future even though I wish to move out. However, I do spend less time at my house nowadays. I spend more time out with my friends, or at school’s library studying, or something. I just go home to sleep and eat dinner, really.</p>
<p>Yeah they have a pretty big library, and its open late. I’m pretty sure they have some study rooms, lots of lounge areas but I’m not a fan of the lounge areas, too much distraction. Another thing is that, at my house I have so many things to keep me from being productive so I thought an empty apt would be perfect but spending more time at the library could help.</p>
<p>The friend situation is tricky because I moved over here a couple years ago and all my friends were from high school and my job over where I used to live, a good 45 minutes away from Dallas. It makes it almost not worth it to make the drive but an apt would give the option of staying over if needed, most of them still live at home too. </p>
<p>Yes the financial savings are huge, its like doubling the tuition for the semester not counting food, expenses and non essential bills like a cell phone and what not.</p>
<p>I was in the same situation and I lived with my parents 2 years before I couldn’t take it anymore. It is a good thing you have a good relationship with your parents. I have a great relationship with my dad but with my mom its another story. </p>
<p>I ultimately decided to move out because it was the best decision for me, I’m around the same age as you and I felt like I needed to learn to be independent. At home, my mom was so controlling that she tried to ruin my relationship with my boyfriend and friends, read my text messages, used my credit cards without permission/stole money from me and tried to give me a 12 am curfew on the weekends (mind you I am 21 and not a party girl to begin with so it was a bit ridiculous). I was also forced to rearrange my schedule constantly to pick up my younger sister. She basically treated me as though I was imprisoned in my own home. I got around most of it by working full time so I was so busy with school and work that I was never home. It does save you a lot of money, but on the downside, you have a harder time making friends when you commute, it is less convenient and you don’t get the full college experience.</p>
<p>Maybe make a list of all the pros and cons. It is expensive to live on your own and maybe that isn’t the best decision in this case. You also have the option to try staying at home for awhile and if you feel you need to move out because the family stress interferes with school stress, then you can do so knowing you tried both options. As a graduating senior, I wish I had moved on campus earlier. I think I would have gotten more involved and I wouldn’t have been so bogged down by family stress. However, you have to do what is best for you.</p>
<p>$8k is a lot of money. It boils down to being a financial decision, student or not. Do you hav the money to move out? If not, don’t. Don’t take out loans to do it, certainly. If you do have the money (or could get a part time job that would make the money) it just comes down to whether you’d rather have the money to spend other ways living at home or if you’d rather have your own place.</p>
<p>But don’t take out loans. 16k in loans (2 years of school left, right?) now means that best case scenario you’ll be writing a $200 check once a month for 10 years (!!!) once you graduate. Thats $200 less you’ll have for a nicer place when you move out, or a car payment, or savings. It’s a lot of money.</p>
<p>$200 a month for student loans really isn’t that bad if that’s all he/she has…I don’t understand why everyone on this board is so against loans. I couldn’t pay for school without loans and I have scholarships and go to a public university. My parents didn’t give me any money for tuition, I did everything on my own.</p>
<p>I understand that saving 16k is a lot, but it also sucks to not experience independence so that when you do have to pay on those loans you know how to rely on yourself and no one else. That was ultimately what made me move out. Most students have a lot more than 16k in debt when they graduate.</p>
<p>I know that, and I had more than 16k in debt when I graduated, and I’m paying it off now. If my payment were $200/month more my life wouldn’t be as nice as it is now. I’m assuming be has more loans since his parents aren’t paying anything and he’s planning on grad school. 16k on top of everything else is going to be a pretty big deal.</p>
<p>I’m not antiloans for things that you need, like reasonable tuition or board when you can’t stay at home, but for the marginal improvement he’s going to see right now I would strongly, strongly reconsider taking out 16k in loans to move from a place with free rent.</p>
<p>Basically if it isn’t worth taking a part time job, it isn’t worth moving out.</p>
<p>To answer some of the questions: I don’t have any money saved up, I’ve had to pay for my school and truck all myself so there wasn’t much left over to save up. So if I were to move out, it would be purely loans, and I will have to get loans regardless to go to UTD, the tuition isn’t expensive but it’s not money that I have.</p>
<p>I haven’t been unemployed since I was 15 or 16, always have worked. I have a part time job right now, I only work a couple days because my school schedule and their hours of operation conflict which sucks but it works because I make decent amount over minimum wage. Although, I have been thinking about just being a full time student and quitting my job to try and get graduated as soon as possible. Also, I am taking a couple summer classes and my job is a M-F 9:00-5:00 business and the summer classes are mainly during the day. I have probably 4-5k in loans right now I would say.</p>
<p>The commuting thing is one of things that annoy me because I would like to have the college experience but honestly UTD is a big commuter school and the on campus attitude seems more getting work done oriented rather than the hanging out doing stuff attitude found on other campuses. So I don’t know how much I’d be missing out on anyway.</p>
<p>I definitely want to go to grad school so I guess I could look at it as if I were to stay home, I could use the loan money I would use for an apartment now, for grad school then. I make good money at my job, for a college but there is no way I could pay for a place on that job unless I were to work full time and the hours just aren’t there to work full time. Plus I wouldn’t even want to work full time because doing that while doing a 15 credit hour workload in school would be unnecessarily tough.</p>
<p>" I would like to have the college experience"</p>
<p>See, here’s the bigger issue at play here. There is no such thing as ‘the college experience.’ Everyone gets a different one, ranging from dorming four years, to dorming for a year and then moving off campus, to living off campus on your own, to living at home. Many college students do in fact live at home, and you’re lucky that even though it is somewhat inconvenient you do get along with your family well enough that it wouldn’t be awful.</p>
<p>Yes it’s going to be different than living away from home, but at this point it just don’t make sense financially. And don’t worry about missing out on things too much; the things you do are a lot more important than the things you miss out on doing.</p>
<p>That’s the main factor, financial sense. Plus UTD isn’t the kind of school where you even have the “college experience”, at least not the traditional one. </p>
<p>I just wanted to get some more opinions and what other people thought about it but it seems like living at home is the best choice at the moment. I’ll just make the library my home most of the time, its just too distracting at home.</p>
<p>It sounds like you have a lot going on in your house, so it does make sense that you want to get out on your own. But just because you have a valid point(several valid points), it doesn’t mean that it is a good idea. You think that you would have more time and space to study if you moved out but you might find that you become very busy in other ways.</p>
<p>With your own space you might find that the chance to be more social is irresistible. And you will probably be absolutely amazed by how fast that you can go through your money. There are so many expenses involved with getting a place that you might not have considered.</p>
<p>The idea of using student loans to live on, when you don’t absolutely need to, is not something that i would suggest. You don’t want to finish school and have to face a huge amount of debt, the price of a house in some cases, when you didn’t have to use all of that money.</p>
<p>You also need to consider the fact that you might actually need some loan money later on in ways that you don’t realize right now. You might need money for grad school much more than for what you are thinking of using it for for now.</p>
<p>I would say to stay at home, although it’s great being on your own, it can also be very stressful when it comes to the financial side of it and not being able to go out as much or do the things that you want to do. I have been on my own since i graduated high school and i love it but therr were a lot of challenges in the way and now that i am transferring to a university and i will be paying my way there, i wish i could live at home or had some other type of support system so that i could just focus on tuition and not tutition hosuing, bills, social life, books, etc.</p>
<p>Thanks for all of the advice guys, the staying at home option seems like the best one financially and that’s the biggest part at this point, next to the classes obviously.</p>
<p>Do all of you work as well? I was talking with my parents and they said they didn’t care if I kept working or not and I was thinking about upping the hours next semester. Also maybe about joining a couple of clubs and or looking for an internship. I’ve always had a job and it never occurred to me to quit but not many of my friends work and they take an extra class and spend more time studying. Just wondering. I don’t really have any big expenses but I think I’d want the spending money for different things.</p>
<p>Ive worked full time for the first three years of community college an i managed to keep my grades up and actually sis pretty well. But now that i will be trasnferring to a university i will be quitting my job and hopefully get a small job on campus but my biggest focus for the last two years is to really focus on my studies and also enjoy college a little since i have been working so hard these last three years. I wont have as much spending money, that will definitely be a huge difference but it will pay off in the end.</p>
<p>That is kind of what I was wanting to do but I really like my job, good pay and my boss/owner is awesome. I might have to just do it though, get these last couple years done as fast and efficiently as possible because work has definitely held me back a little bit. Not sure yet but I’m taking two summer classes that will only let me do once a week (Friday) so who knows if they will even want to keep me there lol they’ve been very flexible with me.</p>