<p>S1 has just begun talking about the need for a car. His campus is outside of a small town and he lives about 8 miles away, off-campus in a rented house. Both housemates have cars and he understood the situation going into this year’s lease. But by now he’s tired of mooching off of his friends for rides and also contemplating a summer internship in CA.</p>
<p>H & I are quite sure that he does not have the savings to afford even the ongoing costs of having a car; he does not have a job this school year and earned a meager amount of $$ last summer while he completed a degree requirement. We are not in a position to finance a car for him, along with paying for college costs. He has not taken out any loans to date (but he’s only a sophomore), so that may be one avenue to pursue. If he didn’t live 2800 miles away, he might be using the third car we have at home, like he does during breaks and summer. We’ll be tackling this issues with him over the next couple of months.</p>
<p>D is a sophomore and hasn’t had a car at school these first two years and probably won’t the last two. The campus and city have good public transportation, though slow. Also, a parking permit is several hundred dollars a year!</p>
<p>Her campus has a WeCar program with Enterprise car rental. You can rent a hybrid car by the hour for $10 an hour. Sounds pricey, but it includes the gas, insurance, etc. These cars have a prime parking spot and you book the time you want them via Internet. They send you a key fob you somehow wave at the car and the door unlocks. Then you put a code into a lockbox in the glove compartment to get the key. We signed her up for it but she has yet to use it. At least she will have the option if the need arises. Also, renting one of the six cars on campus even at $10 an hour will be way less expensive than paying for the parking permit!</p>
<p>Pros: flexibility with transportation! The one that goes instate can come home when he wants. They both have athletic pursuits that they need transportation for. </p>
<p>Cons: Expense! Both now live off campus, but on campus parking was ridiculous. Problems with vandalism and theft - one son’s car has been keyed, broken into (smashed window, stole ipod and anything else in sight), and run into with no note left. He also was a “taxi” driver for friends freshman year, but that has stopped.</p>
<p>All in all though, it has been worth the expense to us for them to have their cars at school. The flexibility of transportation in places where public transport is spotty or nil is most important.</p>
<p>D has car. She is 6 hours away and no major airport withing 2 hours. It is basically so she can get to school and back. She usually brings a friend who is great about splitting gas. She has a monthly budget that includes essentially no extra money for gas, and we pay for the trips home, which are usually beginning and end of semester and maybe once in the middle. So she uses it rarely for a trip to get groceries/supplies. Unless she is taking a group and someone else is paying!. She was up front about not having gas money for driving in town, so she has not been a taxi. She has not been the victim of any vandalism. However, she did get towed once. That was a hit to her budget that month… Her state U has a transportation fee per credit hour that pays for their bus system and a parking sticker, so no extra fee. They can also use their student ID to ride the city buses anywhere free. We said yes to a car when D said yes to state flagship U.</p>
<p>Soph S has a car on campus this year. Clearly not a necessity, but he owns the car and has the financial responsibility for all aspects of expense.</p>
<p>When gas prices plummeted around Winter break, he made out like a bandit financially, putting 4000 miles on the car coming to and from his out of state school and then driving to go skiing in New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming. Most of the time he shared the driving and the passangers split the gas. I think he said that he had less than $50 in gas that he paid for.</p>
<p>Depending on the circumstances, a car can be a plus.</p>
<p>I had a car all four years (plus sr yr of hs). It was an old, old used car. But there was no public transportation in the town and none between college town and home, so it was pretty much a necessity. There was plenty of parking in the dorm parking lot. </p>
<p>S1 lived home and commuted so had a car, although the student parking was so far from any classes that it probably would have worked out the same if he had walked from home.</p>
<p>S2 does not have a car. He has little need for it, and parking fees are very high. We’ll see next year or maybe jr year how grades go and if he really needs it. We’d still have to go with him to move him in and out of dorm because car is too small for all his music gear.</p>
<p>My D is a junior in hs and she shares my car with me although it seems she has it more than I do. When she goes to college she will not have a car. All the schools she is looking at are in the east and most are in urban areas with transportation. There are a couple of more rural schools she has looked at, but when we visited in the summer her comment was that she would just get a bike to get around. She has grown up in SoCal and has not ever had to drive in ice or snow and my H and I don’t want her doing that in college.</p>
<p>o Resident Student Parking Fees: $264.00 full year and $132.00 per semester.</p>
<p>o Temporary Parking Permits: For a fee of $28.50 per week those students who have not purchased a parking decal may purchase a temporary parking permit. First year residential students are limited to two (2) weeks per semester.</p>
<p>I’ve had a car with good parking ever since I got here (got best permits w/ AP credits right away) at a suburban school with freshmen who normally aren’t allowed to have cars. I live 45 minutes away, so it’s far enough that it would be annoying for my parents to come pick me up for just a night or weekend at home. I used my car for a lot of things last year including volunteering, hauling/doing stuff for SGA, driving home, grocery shopping, going out to eat, driving all my carless friends, etc. This year I added in an off-campus job for much of last semester once a week. My car has been such a plus.</p>
<p>I wrecked my car over break though (other driver’s fault) but I’m getting it back later this week. The few weeks I’ve been without it though have been quite possibly the most annoying thing ever because I’m not used to constantly asking other people for rides. And I go off campus a lot for groceries, bowling, friend’s houses, etc. so I always have had to find someone to give me a ride. I couldn’t have imagined all of my freshman year without one like most of my friends had.</p>
<p>Coincidentally, we have begun to talk about how S1 can have a car at school (see above…2800 mile away). Current thinking is to let him have our 1999 CRV next August. The car is owned by my husband’s business, so we would need to transfer title and registration anyway. Does anyone have any idea whether the car should be in S1’s name or mine? We think that we’d insurance it with our other cars/property, but since he and the car are so far away that he should be the owner of record. He’s also done a little research into insurance, and even tho he’ll only be 20, the insurance rates are so much lower where he is than in CT, that it also may be cheaper to insure it in his name, out-of-state. Thoughts? Especially regarding liability?</p>
<p>Soph son does not have a car on campus. His car is sitting in our driveway. He is happy to not have the respondsiblity of a car. It would make things easier if he had it. I don’t think parking is expensive on campus. He is still living in a dorm and will probably live in an on campus apartment jr yr so for school he doesn’t need one.
His school is 5 1/2 hours away. He can fly to our local airport from an airport 1 hour from his campus. Supershuttle services the airport but the price is almost the same as the airfare. He can usually find a ride from someone with a car. After the winter break he was able to get a ride from a classmate who lives an hour south of us. He picked up my son on the way up. My son helped with gas and the other boy had company. </p>
<p>I am grateful for those who do have a car. My son needed a prescription filled. The pharmacy is not close enough to walk or skateboard. A friend gave him a ride. Next week he has an off campus Dr appt. He will need to find a friend to give him a ride.
So thank you to those of you whose children are nice enough to give our childless kids a ride when they need it.</p>
<p>mom60–helping out fellow classmates with an ocassional ride is one ot the things my S mentioned when he announced that he was taking his car to college his second year.</p>
<p>It is nice to hear that kids without cars appreciate the favor and kick in for gas or do something to say thanks. Whether the kids without cars know it, lots of kids with cars are required to pay all the expenses related to the car, its operation, maintenance and insurance. </p>
<p>I know my S almost reconsidered when he saw how much campus parking and the insurance “boost” for his active use of the car were. The car had been less to insure when he only drove it in the summer.</p>
<p>I know this will vary a lot, but can anyone give me a ballpark of how much to budget for a car on campus?</p>
<p>We live in Louisiana, where insurance rates are extremely high, and I’m guessing there is also gas, car note, parking decal involved.</p>
<p>But when choosing between a school where he would need a car and one where he wouldn’t, I’ll need to figure that in to the budget. Not penny pinching here. I know it could be in the thousands.</p>
<p>the campus parking fee(s) are almost always available online. Your insurance agent can tell you the difference between insuring the vehicle for only summer/break use and full year use by your student.</p>
<p>Gasoline cost will vary widely by 1) student’s use and 2) cost per gallon.</p>
<p>I have know some parents who figure out what to add to the student’s budget (if they pay for any gas) by determining how many miles they are willing to have the student driving per month. Lower the acceptable mileage, lower the amount added to the budget.</p>
<p>I’ve heard of this Zipcar up in DC. Actually, a good reason to get son a driver’s license, so if he does need a car for shopping, et cetera, he’ll be able to rent one. Thanks for the advice. </p>
<p>I see you’re a Northwestern alum. We drove through the campus. Absolutely gorgeous. </p>
<p>But does Evanston have public transportation?</p>
<p>Did you have a bike on campus? The campus looked pretty big.</p>
<p>Of course, since you’re at Michigan now, you probably think it was tiny now.</p>
<p>Daughter who is a senior at Oberlin has a car. Actually, it is the old family minivan that she uses to cart around her double bass. It also gets used to haul produce from local farms to her dining co-op. She is driving back to school as I type this and should be approaching the Ohio border about now. We got a nice discount on the insurance for having the car in Ohio more often than New Jersey. She lives off-campus but within walking distance, so does not need to pay to park on campus.</p>
<p>Son who is a freshman at Susquehanna has no car, but most likely will in senior year. He can walk to the booming metropolis of downton Selinsgrove if he likes and has been able to get a ride from friends when he needs to go farther than that.</p>
<p>Well, I’m fine with letting him take the old mini-van to campus. I know a big reason he wants it is because he really wants to get a street hockey league going and he can’t fit all the goals and stuff in his dorm room.</p>
<p>The trick is going to be whether he can come up with a plausible plan to get the car or not. My dh works out of town and comes home Thursday evenings and ds doesn’t have classes Friday, so he could swing by and pick up ds and bring him home. Makes sense, right? Nope. His plan was that I cart his two younger brothers down there on Thursday evening where we could drop off the van and then be picked up by dh. Hmmm. Four hours in the car so you can have your hockey junk? I don’t think so. :)</p>
<p>Then again, it’s dark, it’s freezing, and I’m about to go out and scrape the snow off the van so I can move it into the driveway because if we get the 6 inches of snow they’re predicting then it will be buried under. However, my driveway is not that wide so I will not be able to back my van out in the morning without moving his first. I’m ready to get it out of here!</p>
My dh works out of town and comes home Thursday evenings and ds doesn’t have classes Friday, so he could swing by and pick up ds and bring him home. Makes sense, right? Nope. His plan was that I cart his two younger brothers down there on Thursday evening where we could drop off the van and then be picked up by dh. Hmmm. Four hours in the car so you can have your hockey junk? I don’t think so. :)</p>