Live at home Freshman Year?

mdoc
Wed, 22 Oct 2008 17:04:09 +0000

During my freshman year of college (a number of years ago) I attended a college that was 4 stops away from my home on the local commuter train. I lived at home, worked 40 hours a week and took the train to school. It was a wonderful school with good academics (a #1 Masters University in the USNWR rankings) and a gorgeous campus. I hated it, because I just was not getting the college experience. I was doing just fine academically (had a 4.0), but my social life was limited and I was missing out on a lot. I transferred out after a year, found a school with combined tuition, room and board equal to the tuition at the first school, and took out loans (parents couldn’t help at all and refused to fill out the financial aid form, so I was on my own and couldn’t qualify for any financial aid). I loved my second school and had a wonderful experience. I’m sure I would have had a wonderful experience at the first school had I not been living at home (with curfew, no car and many restrictions). So I guess it depends what you’re looking for. I was looking for the experience as much as the degree, and I couldn’t get it living at home. It was worth it to me to come out of school with student loans to get that experience.