My DS24 is leaning toward residential colleges at the moment. Do most undergrads have cars on campus at residential colleges? Would he be treated as weird or less-than by peers if we didn’t get him his own car? We just moved out of an area where virtually no teens have cars (urban), so this would be an unplanned purchase if we were to buy him one before college.
A lot of universities that require freshman to live on campus also ban freshman from having cars on campus. It’s something you may want to check.
Fun fact, Miami University also used to ban freshman from having horses to keep them on campus and out of trouble before cars.
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Cars can be a total PIA at certain schools because parking can be problematic.
I don’t think anyone without a car would be treated as “weird or less than” anywhere.
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None of my kids had cars in college (and long after graduation as well- got jobs in cities with good public transportation and expensive parking and insurance).
It really depends on the college. For sure there are “car culture” colleges, and those where owning a car is just an added pain and expense.
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It really depends on the campus, but I don’t think he’ll need a car in most cases. Some campuses don’t allow first-years to bring cars, and others highly discourage it. Even for subsequent years, cars might be nice to have but not essential (depends on the school). Students without cars can often find friends who do have them. Colleges often run shuttles to airports, train stations, etc., especially at the beginning and end of school breaks. Some colleges offer regular shuttles to commercial strips (grocery/box stores) and other popular downtown areas if the town is not within walking distance from the campus. On a residential campus, a car is often nice to have but not a necessity by any means.
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Most? No. And depending on the college, having a car may require additional costs for parking with spaces allocated by seniority, assuming freshman are allowed cars
OMG, no.
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At our school, freshmen and sophomores can’t have a car without special need. Mine won’t have a car, and for his campus, he doesn’t need one. They have free bus service all around town, and can walk to many places. A bike maybe.
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Most freshmen do not have a car on campus. Also, keep in mind…if your kid does have a car, they will be asked to drive others places. Is this what you want to have happen?
Neither of our kids had cars on campus until they were in grad school or professional school. They survived.
ETA…check the college policies on cars for freshmen…and the costs to get a parking place…because some places DO charge. And also…where are these cars parked. Some parking lots for students are not very close to the dorms or classrooms.
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Both of our sons had cars as freshmen even though the school doesn’t generally allow it. Freshen don’t need cars. The vast majority likely won’t have a car their first year. For our specific situation, both having a car at school was very beneficial.
It depends on the school. Lots of universities don’t allow, or strongly discourage, students to have cars freshmen year. My older S’ school did not care, and he had a car all 4 years. It worked out great because he worked as a soccer ref traveling all over the area. My younger S did not have one freshmen year (as encouraged/mandated), but did the remaining 3 years as he lived off campus.
Kids having cars was much easier! No schlepping them back/forth to school for breaks, or worrying about catching rides with people. But no, you’re not weird if you don’t have one.
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Not, it is not weird for students to not have cars. At many residential colleges, cars are the exception and not the rule.
My S has had a car since sophomore year and it’s a mixed bag. He became the DD and had to ferry people around. It’s harder to find parking once kids move off campus. My son has also had a number of parking tickets because he didn’t put enough money in the meter when he is on campus for classes. It’s a real pain sometimes.
My D never had a car and I’d say maybe 30% did have one. There was almost no student parking and the town made all its money from ticketing student cars. She never needed a car at all.
Many colleges offer good transport options for students. As an example, my son’s college has a bus running for about 18 hours a day to and from campus and downtown. At my D’s smaller college, there were many shuttles that took kids to and from local attractions, the nearby big city, and shopping areas.
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To echo Linda’s comment about college kids cars being a significant revenue source-- I grew up in a college town (so this is OLD news) and the cops would chalk the tires of cars with a college parking sticker. So if you were parked on the street in a “one hour maximum” or “two hour maximum spot”, you couldn’t go out and feed the meter… if the chalk was in the same position after three hours- even if the meter was full- the car would get ticketed! Students quickly learned NOT to use their cars during the week if they wanted to get around town- quicker and cheaper to take the college vans. The cars stayed in the student lots (which were a good walk from most of the dorms) and only came out on weekends…
Chalking was an actual verb…my parents warning “don’t get chalked” if you needed to park near the orthodontist or the eye doctor!
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Many campuses have Zip Car if the student would only need a car of occasional use.
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Also…check your car insurance for coverage. Make sure the car can be “garaged” at a different location than your home. Especially if OOS.
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How can I find out if a particular college has this practice (of kids with cars having to drive others places)? Is this one of those things I won’t find out until he’s already a student?
Glad to hear that so many make it through college without cars. Now that they have Amazon, why bother? 
I am very familiar with chalking…it’s still practiced in my old neighborhood relentlessly. One of the many reasons we moved!
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All colleges have this. It’s a given that at some point, if the kid has the car and no one else does, they are going to be asked by other kids to drive places.
It’s up to the kid to not let that happen. They are adults at college, even if we still call them kids.
The car issue shouldn’t be considered unless the student commutes or has to go home a lot. There are a lot of residential colleges that do not let freshmen have cars, for reasons already mentioned.
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When I was in college, parking was so hard to find, no one would ever drive their car off the parking lot just to save their spot which of course defeated the entire purpose of having a car.
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We should be teaching kids to resist peer pressure. Not encourage them to do things as the peers would demand :-).
Why should the peers care if the kid has a car or not?
The kid will make the right kind of friends if he is perceived as a normal kid than a rich kid.
Kids and cars is just trouble.
I have two kids at very different schools and neither have cars. At the urban campus, just an expensive hassle for something that would rarely, if ever, be used. At the rural campus definitely more students with cars, but my kid just never felt the need. No one thinks it’s weird.
I didn’t even get a driver’s license until I was 21 living in an urban area and that was really just for ID purposes.
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