Live at home Freshman Year?

anon94785555
Mon, 20 Oct 2008 22:57:44 +0000

NO WAY.

I strongly advise all freshmen to live on campus, no matter where they come from. I also strongly suggest that students go away from their hometown for college, if there is a better campus available. You can’t replace the experience of being an 18 year old (new HS grad) college freshman living in the dorms later on. Total immersion in college is also more conducive to studying and not feeling divided. A lot of time spent commuting and leading a childhood home life could be better spent learning about other students lives in the dorms. You can transfer to a local college and live at home later to save money, but do not give up the college experience if at all possible. I was lucky enough to have scholarship money to live on campus less than 10 miles from home my freshman year, and found ways to keep on doing it (working in food service later was one), a college friend walked to campus from home and missed out on a lot of spontaneous later evening/night activities, including many discusssions of anything and everthing- we could not ring her doorbell at 10 pm and expect her parents to understand why she should go out then… There are so many nonacademic growth opportunities that happen when one is living on campus. Major universites are a city onto themselves, leaving even for a weekend means missing a lot. Find anyway you can to let your child have the full campus experience first semester freshman year. You and the student will not regret it. Regrets I have years later involve keeping myself on too tight a budget- I can’t take my money now and use it in the past…