@Pizzagirl as romanigypsyeyes said most don’t allow food to be taken out of the dining halls.
@GMTplus7 commuting also has it’s costs. Many lower income students weren’t gifted with a car upon graduating high school. A car with all the associated costs isn’t an option and public transportation isn’t always available or a viable option. Some students are helping to support their family and might be cutting back on their own food budget. Living at home and commuting doesn’t mean that they are eating well or will have sufficient funds to complete their education.
I think it’s so hard for those of us who have enough to understand the obstacles of those who have so little.
My junior & senior yr as an undergrad, I was off meal plan. I remember a lot of ramen those years. In grad school I wasn’t even earning 5-figures as a research asst. More ramen. I survived.
Commuting certainly can be expensive. I’ve also noticed that many young people do not pack lunches, snacks or other meals on the go very often. When I had my brood of many children, I would always bring food. We just did not buy food out or use the machines. In a hurry, I’d grab a loaf of bread, Peanut butter, jelly and a jug of water. Even back then, I was the outlier at a lot of sporting events, schools, whatever. These days even more so.
I was active in chess tournaments with the kids for a while, and in this area the only ones packing food where those with dietary restriction. I’d organized a “food pool” for our school/team but most of the time buying from the snack tables ;provided was the norm, and the kids wanted to eat that food even when it wasn’t good at all and even when better was provided.
My older ones had a very difficult time and still are struggling with buying inexpensive foods, preparing meals and eating at home rather than buying something on the go. They had no problems finding free food while at college, but after they got out, they found they were very much in the habit of finding food outside rather than planning for it, preparing it and eating at home. Pack a sandwich? So difficult for them. A shame when they were raised that way but those few years at college broke that trend.
If a college student can’t figure out how to feed themselves, something is going wrong to begin with.
I think there are a few issues. One is the “elite” colleges’ practice of charging huge amounts for room and board, requiring that students live on campus, and having most of the board dollars going toward food that is available only at set times and can’t be removed from the dining halls. The remaining dollars can be used at snack-bar type facilities, open more hours, but the prices are high. It’s a scam, I think. Another issue is at community colleges and public universities, at which living and dining on campus might not be required but students’ need for housing and food aren’t adequately considered in financial aid packages.
Not all kids commute because not all kids live in towns with a college or with a college offering their major close enough, or have a reliable car, so those are some reasons kids go away. The only place where it would be the norm to commute is where there are colleges in one’s hometown or nearby. That’s just not too common. So not realizing that, I’m sure some think, “Well, why don’t they just hop in their car and drive on over?”
Also, I think much2learn is absolutely right-some of us have a lens where it’s not possible for us to understand that if a kid comes from a family where they can contribute NOTHING to a student’s journey, then munchies outside of cafeteria hours aren’t happening either. Or they think, well, why don’t the kids just live off campus and buy ramen for 9 months? If the family has NOTHING to give and financial aid doesn’t cover housing and food, HOW, exactly does the kid do that? Not to mention, in some places it’s darn expensive to live. Older pays $700 a month for a studio outside of town in a not-so-nice area. She couldn’t come close to that in Seattle proper, and certainly not near the college areas. With no aid to cover that, how, exactly, does a low-income kid just do it?
It’s like the person looking for a coat the other day. The OP said she had NOTHING to spend and people were suggesting sales at Saks and Bloomies! Uh, no. And cars-well, there’s gas, upkeep, parking fees and so on. Again, not affordable for many. And some college towns do not have good public transportation, some have none for all practical purposes.Most here have a very different lens, I think.
How is this different from not going to a school you can’t afford? Transportation and food costs are part of the deal for everyone and everyone makes these decisions. If you can’t afford it at all no way no how not possible you don’t get to go. If this is about elite schools sympathy will be slim in some circles.
It’s not just elite schools and yes, kids and their parents need to consider then total costs, but not everyone has a good college-readiness department in HS and not everyone has a college consultant to walk them through the process. In families where a kid is the first to go to college, they might not even think to work out how the kid is going to eat in the off-hours. D’s school has the kids start working on the “true cost” in the very beginning of college planning in middle school. That is why some end up starting at community college and some go to elite colleges. It depends on the packages they get. But I know that this is not common at all schools.
I think it’s so hard for those of us who have enough to understand the obstacles of those who have so little.
I agree that some on CC have ever used a food bank, or counted change to buy a carton of milk, or even put off buying something like a headlight because they couldn’t afford it.
I also agree with Marie that this issue should be considered when making post high school plans.
Well, I counted change yesterday and my kids certainly did not have anything called college consultants and the HS guidance counselors were hopeless. But, somehow they ended up at much better than decent schools and have 4 part-time jobs between them and they are not hungry. One eats a lot, too.
Right, because the alternative is to get a low-paying job (if even possible) where you can barely afford to eat WITHOUT the possibility of moving up due to lack of a college degree.
Seems logical.
The majority of students still do commute. This is CC and the demographics here aren’t typical. The majority of the population lives in large, medium sized and even smaller cities where there are public commuting options. Those that can’t commute have a more difficult situation. I think in my state it’s not uncommon to commute an hour be it driving in a rural area or via public transportation in a large city. But there are costs to that.
Athletes on full scholarships are getting a good deal. Hard to pass up. But athletes don’t control what time they get back from games/meets or practice and when the food service is open.
Students don’t qualify for emergency food programs here. Our local food banks constantly run short and have difficulty assisting families who live here, so it’s unrealistic to expect them to stretch their already limited resources to cover college students too. States don’t use taxpayer money to offer grants to OOS students, so I can’t imagine them using it to supplement college dining plans either.
I dont believe it is up to colleges to fill all the potential cracks in society. Just trying to get people educated is a big enough job.
“The majority of students still do commute.”
No, this is actually not true. A quick look at the Common Data Set at state campuses in my current state, home state and one other shows the opposite is true. In NH, UNH main campus shows only 9% commuting or living off campus. At the directional Keene State it’s only 4% (and with good reason, 61% of the students come from out of state). At the University of Washington, a full 38% commute or live off-campus,. but this IS a major metropolitan city. Still not “the majority” . At Washington State, however, only 15% commute, despite it being a huge flagship U near major cities. University of Mich has a tiny number of commuters-only 3%.
So I wasn’t wrong-many, many kids live on campus at some state flagships.
The majority of students go to CC and/or the local state regional–not the flagship.
^^ If you look at the majority of ALL college students, not just those at any one college, more attend a community college than any other type of college. Of course that includes part time students, students taking just one class, maybe even dual enrollment (I’m not sure). If you only look at 4 year colleges, I think more do live on or near a campus and not with family.
The real issue is does the student know (and accept) the true cost of college before signing up for that college? I was rather shocked when I saw how much the schools were charging for room and board. Yes, I saw the COA, I saw the tuition, and I figured we’d save money by picking less expensive room and board, but that wasn’t allowed. I have one child whose food was $2200/sem/12 meal per wk (now $1600 at a sorority full 21 meals/wk) and one whose bill is $2660 for food. This is the only plan offered to freshmen. It doesn’t sink in when you are looking at costs and tuition that there is THAT much difference in board costs. At many schools the marketing department wants to offer a ‘dining experience’ with cafes and foods from around the world and theme nights. Fine, but it costs a fortune and not everyone wants or needs Italian Night, or a sushi bar or ice cream with 40 toppings. Some would like the option of plain food at half the cost. Even at half the cost, students have to realize that they need more money than just tuition to go to college.
I do think that in the olden days students accepted that they would share a room, that they’d eat the plain food in the dining room, that there weren’t coffee bars and bottled water and snack expenses every day. We had less, and less fancy stuff.
I thought we were talking about colleges with dorms and meal plans-there aren’t many community colleges which offer that. And up above, someone was talking about “elite” schools-also not community colleges. Even the regional schools and not the flagships I looked at had more living on campus than commuting.
The area where Reed college is located, actually has well stocked food banks, certainly better than what was available when I used a food bank.
I agree that food stamps are not an option, unless the student is working at least 20 hrs a week.
When I was in high school, most students had jobs, as I did, which then gave me work experience for after high school.
My kids also worked in high school and worked while they were in college, but some students don’t consider that for some reason. They only want " relevant" work, to their major, & are then surprised after graduation when employers want work experience. They also are squeamish about sharing housing, they would rather pay $1000 a mo for a studio, than $600 to share a house.
Private schools like Reed can do what ever they want. If students don’t have money for food, but tuition is covered, then their PROFILE EFC indicates that their family is capable for the rest. It’s their choice to attend a school they can’t otherwise afford.
Public schools are operating with very tight budgets after years of tax cuts at the state level. But most public schools do not require students to live on campus. How could they? There isn’t room!
Theoretically they could charge more for everyone, to run their own campus food bank, and perhaps some schools consider that, but I feel that K-12 should be a higher priority for state education spending. So many kids simply have been passed through and we really owe them the opportunity to have the basics.
No matter what the folks on CC think- * College*, is not the basics.
Once K-12 is addressing the legal and academic needs of students, then go hog wild! Have the colleges start spending more too!