My daughter really seems to want to stay at home at first – lucky for her there are a couple of good options for nursing very close to our home. Has anyone had a student move to campus as a junior?
Often by Junior year students want to move into apartments with friends - either campus owned or in campus neighborhoods. By that time, she may not want to move into a dorm situation. Some schools are very light on upperclass housing.
I have never known a Jr who wanted to move on campus unless it was a small LAC type school. Like stated most students have made several friends and move to apartments by Jr year. Depending on the school many of them don’t even offer dorms to upperclassmen. K know this is the case at my sons school. I have a niece who stayed home for 2 years and she will be moving into a apartment with some friends next fall.
Happykid did two years at the community college then transferred far enough away that she couldn’t commute any more. There were no spaces for fall transfers, so she ended up off campus with one friend from her CC and two other roomies. It all worked out fine.
A friend was a transfer her junior year. She wanted to meet people and make friends, so choose to live in a dorm, but also joined a sorority. Your junior won’t be the only junior living on or near that college campus for,the first time. Community college or other transfers also will be.
A couple of comments:
–I would check with each school to see if moving to campus after freshman year is a possibility. At some colleges housing is limited, especially for upperclassmen. Be aware of any deadlines for housing sign-up, the procedures to get on the housing list etc. You may get this information during visits or you can contact the Office of Residential Life at each college.
–Hopefully your D will find friends at the college who can include her in their living arrangements (be they on or off campus) when she is ready to make the move. Your D should be aware that housing gets sorted out pretty early on (often people start talking about the next year’s housing at the start of the spring semester) so she should let people know well in advance of when she hopes to move to campus.
Thanks all – I guess I didn’t mean to limit the question to literally moving ON campus; definitely college apartment is an option as well.
I would also question her desire to live at home as a freshman at this point. She will undergo many changes in her final year as a HS student. Many parents wonder if their HS senior will be ready for college in the fall and the vast majority are. Your D should spread her wings a bit and include options living away from home. This assumes costs are affordable, btw. The year away from home is an experience that can never be replaced. I would recommend it to students who could commute.
For now I would make sure she includes schools away from home. Next spring she can make a final decision about staying/going. Keep her options open. You don’t want her to stay in the nest because it is too comfy- she needs to be independent.
A year or two more at home before launch is not automatically a negative thing. But do give her space to figure out her own best options.
Another option – my S lived on campus at a college that wasn’t far from our home. It worked out really well for him and being on campus was very helpful for his social life.
Our D had 3 semesters at CC and then transferred to private U 2,500 miles away, living with strangers in a dorm. It worked out for her, especially since baby of her HS friends were at that U and welcomed her.
@wis75 Yes we are encouraging her to apply to some schools where she’d live there as well and then we will see what the next year brings.