My oldest child attended undergrad in a major city so no one she knew had a car at school. S did not have a car as a Freshman, then transferred and finished in another major city.
I would not rule out a car in later school years, though. I didn’t have a car in undergrad and it definitely limited my ability to get part time jobs. The school is in a smaller city with little public transportation. Several of my friends found that they needed cars to get to things like student teaching or hospitals/clinics for nursing rotations. Those were junior and senior years.
Both of my kids went to the same uni. The older one had a car for 3 years, the younger one never wanted one. We had to tell D1 that she was not allowed to let other people to drive the car due to liability, and she was not go on a road trip with the car.
D2 took local taxi to get around, and that included doing grocery shopping and going to parties.
I wouldn’t let my kids have cars when they lived on campus. One had to live on campus 2 years, and he got a car 3rd year (actually, he had the car when he got his license, then other kid got to drive it while older kid was at college, then it went back to older kid).
Younger kid moved off campus 2nd year, and one parking space was included with rent. He got to have his car, and it worked out well. He did take his roommates to Costco and they did grocery shopping, but it wasn’t a huge problem. They knew never to let anyone else drive the cars. He used the car to come home fairly often, which made mom happy.
I don’t see why a kid attending a fully residential college needs a car, unless the college is in a relatively rural area with plenty of cheap parking spaces, and the college is a relatively short distance drive away from home (so s/he could drive home for the breaks/holidays). The money s/he saves from parking, car insurance, monthly car payment (if any), maintenance, gas, etc. can easily pay for ridesharing and/or Zipcar rental.
It really depends on the college. At my D22’s colleges (she transferred after the first semester) plenty of first years have cars, but not all. It’s not a big deal either way. D22’s personality is such that she does not feel peer pressured to give people rides, but she does sometimes give rides to her friends. I can’t imagine her ever letting someone else drive her car. She has an off campus job now that she could not have if she didn’t have her car. She drives to and from school for breaks, but I help her move in and move out because it’s too much stuff for one small car. Her car is a used 2013 Ford Cmax so not anything fancy, but it gets the job done.
It really depends on the college. Of all of the kids’ HS friends who went to college, I can only think of one who doesn’t have a car - and he rooms with a friend from here who does have one. All of younger S’ roommates have one. It was more hit or miss with older S, but they had to live on campus for 3 years and more people come from around the country, where as most of the people from our town go to in state publics or privates.
We also don’t live in an area with public transportation or Uber, etc. So most kids already have a car, albeit a super old one.
When I was in school (in state public), all my roommates had cars too. So it’s definitely not unusual. And as I mentioned, it was wonderful for older S. He was the only soccer ref in his end of the region, so he got first dibs on all games within an hour radius. The other refs had to drive an hour just to get to his area and then often another hour to get to the game site. He made a killing.
But no, I wouldn’t buy a car just to have a college, especially if parking costs was an issue. I think theirs cost $200-300 for the year? Nothing that made my eyes bug out.
2nd semester senior year I was given my grandparents’ old car so that I could do my student teaching (although there was public transportation, it was extremely inconvenient). At some point in college (maybe senior year?) a couple friends brought cars to campus but they were very rarely used, primarily to go home at breaks.
That’s very similar to me. My grandparents gave me their old sedan when I was a sophomore. The engine failed when I was driving home once during my senior year so then they bought me a new one as a graduation gift. It was 15k brand new. This was in the mid-2000s.
After reading all of this, DS is going to have to start out without a car and once he needs one for work related travel, we will give him our oldest sedan. No grandparent help.
Our freshman son used his car to drive to Costco for bottled water, Gatorade and snacks for is room. He also drove to golf courses to play golf with friends and teammates. This weekend he’ll use the car to transport most of the contents of his room to his storage unit for the summer. When it was time for he and his friends to look for an apartment he was able to drive them from complex to complex. He drove to a nearby mountain to snowboard in the winter, and to hiking trails in the fall and spring. Him having his car at school was definitely a positive.
I gave D1 a new car because I didn’t want her to have any issues with the car. We maintained the car whenever she was home. It gave her a lot of conveniences. On the other hand, D2 managed to get around at the same school without a car. She spent more money on taxi and also transportation home.
To have a car is a nice to have. I don’t think it is necessary.
I think it really depends on the college. You can’t just say yea or nay to the idea of a car w/o knowing the specific college.
I will say my D22 would be crushed if we took her car away from her. She drives to the grocery store, to restaurants to get off campus food, to her job, to take friends to the train station or airport, to the downtown of the nearby city to go out or go shopping. She would tell you she would not be nearly as happy at her school w/o a car. It would be a major major blow to her to not have that freedom and she’d have to give up her off campus job. Again, parking is not a big problem at her school and plenty of first years have a car. You just can’t make a blanket statement w/o knowing the school.
A car can be really helpful later in later years for internships, student teaching. Do your research though before freshman year - at many schools it is unnecessary and a pain. And not cheap.
If the kids is far from home, do make sure it’s a decent car. I actually brought a car to college at the beginning of junior year (when in student apartments). My grandparents gave their car to my mother when they stopped driving, and I got mom’s old GMC Pacer. Ugh - it would stall a lot, especially on left turns. Even in that tiny town it was a scary thing. Another student at I drove it the 6 hours back home (3 hours through the Adirondack mountains in NY) at October break. Left the car running when we gassed up - that was probably not so smart.
True, but when D (my S isn’t quite at this point yet) did an internship, she wasn’t in her college town. She was in our area in the summer. So that is something to keep in mind.
At the D’s school they charged and arm and a leg for a parking permit, so it’s always worth looking to see how much that sort of thing costs.
I knew some parents who grumbled because their kids took their cars to school and they basically paid to keep it parked the whole time…their kids only used it to come home.
Another downside with having a car at school is that it makes it a little too easy for kids to drive home every weekend.
Also, as my stepfather said: it’s not really the college kid’s car, it’s technically the parent’s car that the kid drives. Mainly because the parent pays for pretty much everything associated with the car. I took my car to campus as a college kid, but I paid for everything with my car.
Our oldest did take a car to college freshman year. It was an hour away, easy place to park a car…. helpful for medical appointments half way between home/college. Also younger kid was not quite old enough to drive, and we wanted to keep that ancient vehicle for him.
However I was the “mean mom” that said - NO VISITS HOME FOR AT LEAST THE FIRST THREE WEEKENDS. That’s the time when social ties are established, when everybody is new on campus…. the academic workload is still ramping up. Had resistance at first. But the plan worked, and there was little desire after 3 weeks to hang with boring family.
Our D went 8 hours away and didn’t take her car. Everything she needed was in walking distance or campus bus distance. Plus, her school charged a ton for on campus parking permits. Most of the kids at her school who did have cars, lived within an hour or two of campus. If D needed to get to the airport she either took the shuttle that ran from campus to the airport or had a friend take her…
Coming home too much was not a big deal for my D22. She drove home at Fall Break and Thanksgiving and Winter Break. Drove home one random weekend this spring semester and drove home for Spring Break and will be driving home soon when she moves out for the semester.
Many New England parents are driving the 10+ hours down to my son’s school to pick up their children. I’m going to relax and wait for my son to drive himself home.
If I remember correctly, our son’s college would not allow cars for freshman. But he brought the car for the next three years, which enabled him to do the 1.5 hour drive home quite regularly. He liked to get away for intense work weekends and also sometimes to destress. He also used the car to go to debate tournaments, I think.
