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What's your estimate for the percent of the university population for whom it would have been impossible to live at home and commute to a local college? I don'
by graeme 7y ago
What's your estimate for the percent of the university population for whom it would have been impossible to live at home and commute to a local college?
I don't imagine it's more than 20% and I expect it is substantially less. If so, what is the point of your objection?
The bast majority of people could do what OP did, but don't. That's interesting.
- rayiner 7y agoSocial stigma is powerful. I took an extra $60-70k in debt to go to school in Chicago instead of DC, where I could have commuted from home. It’s our culture. College is supposed to be a 4-year vacation where binge drink and do a lot of drugs. Hard to do that when you’re living at home.
- t3rabytes 7y agoNot questioning your decision making, but DC seems like a fine place to go to college. I would've gone to Georgetown or GW without any qualms, same way that I decided to go to NC State (even though I've lived just outside of Raleigh since middle school). Disclosure: I went to college 50 minutes away from where my parents lived and still lived on campus because I had to get out of living in the middle of nowhere and a 50 minute commute to class wasn't my thing.
- tdfx 7y agoDC is a wildly expensive place to go to college. GW is consistently ranked amongst the most expensive colleges in the US. Even if you're on a full ride, you likely won't be able to pay your living expenses with a part-time job.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- Tade0 7y agoI don't imagine it's more than 20% and I expect it is substantially less. Why do you think so many colleges have so much housing infrastructure? Most people study grew up in places without any decent universities within commuting distance.
- graeme 7y agoBecause culturally, Americans have a tradition of going away to college. It's not just the elite universities that have housing infrastructure.
- Tade0 7y agoOk, but there's also as much infrastructure in Europe. I remember that I was one of the few students in my year who grew up in the city in which my alma mater was based.
- graeme 7y agoWas your school terrible? If not, surely the students in that city could have gone there if they wanted to save money, no? Which was my point. I couldn’t find stats, but my impressions is dorms are way more common in america.
- Tade0 7y agoIf not, surely the students in that city could have gone there if they wanted to save money, no? Top university in my country, so not everyone could to begin with. For the same reason each region - aside from those who had good schools themselves - was represented roughly proportionally to its population.