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Should I stay or go? Commute or live on campus?
Okay, I am approaching the time when I must transfer from my community college to a university. I can't decided whether I should attend UHD (which is strictly a communter college, and cheaper than the other university I am about to list. Also has small class sizes but it is an open admissions university).
The other school I am considering is Sam Houston State University. It is located in Huntsville, TX (which is like 2-3 hrs from my home), more than likely I'd have to live on campus, and it costs more than UHD (duh). So yeah, here's what I am thinkin....
1) I don't like driving. (Especially Downtown.... WOW and UHD is like 40 mins to an hour depending on traffic which can get bad on I10)
2) I have a feeling I may get kinda home sick if I go to SHSU.... (but hey I can visit on the weekends right?)
3) Could be missing out on the college experience? If live at home with my parents and attend UHD, I'll be missing out, I think.
4) Don't want too many loans.... SHSU of course costs more than UHD. SHSU totals out about 16,000 while UHD is at 7,000....
What do you guys think? If it helps any, I'm an Education Major....
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If you do end up getting loans, there is some kind of special program for education majors. I'm not sure what it is, but you should definitely ask the financial aid office at SHSU about it.
Now honestly, I think you will miss out on a lot of the college experience if you live at home with your parents, and commuting will cost you a lot in gas, and cause wear on your car. On the other hand, I would advise against taking out loans to most people, because nobody wants to graduate with a debt the size of a small mortgage (except you don't have the house).
Don't worry about getting homesick. If you get involved in campus organizations, make lots of friends, and enjoy school, you'll be having too much of an exciting time to really miss home, and of course you can go home on the weekends.
I think SHSU sounds like a better deal, but try to find out if there are other ways to help you pay for it. Of course, you'll be filing a FAFSA to see if you can get any grants. Check that you want work study and see about getting a work study job. They can't work you more than 20 hours a week. Then check into as many scholarship opportunities as you can. If you can make it work, it will probably be worth it. Then again, it's up to you. If you'd rather commute to UHD, it's strictly your choice.
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Well, there are pros and cons to both. Of course you're going to miss home. But eventually, you're going to have to leave home. It would be hard to be 2-3 hours from home though the first time that you move out.
I can't really weigh the pros and cons to you because you are your own person. Only you know what is most important to you. Is the price extremely important to you? UHD is less than have the price of SHSU. If that's something that is very important to you, UHD might be your better option.
But, if you really don't like driving up to an hour a day and you feel like you'd be missing out on the 'full' college experience by commuting, SHSU might be your better choice.
You have your pros and cons set up. Now you just have to decide which pros are good enough to be your choice of school, or which cons are bad enough to make that school not the best option for you.
That is a hard decision, but just so you can get a feel for it, here is how I would go about doing it.
Personally, price is a big deal to me. If I can get a degree for $16,000, but I can get the exact same degree for $7,000, I would be more likely to go with the cheaper expense.
I personally don't care about the 'college experience' the same way I didn't care about the high school experience. I like getting things done as quickly as possible and going on my way. Especially when it comes to getting an education.
Also, I don't mind driving, so the hour long drive to UHD would be no big deal to me.
The homesickness wouldn't be a huge problem for me. At first, I would be homesick, but I would get over it. I'm getting ready to move a couple hours away from my home as well. You're right, you can always come back on the weekends.
In the end, I would probably just commute because I have no problem with the drive and I wouldn't want to pay 9,000 dollars more than necessary.
Just do that with each option and decide what is most important to you.
Hope this helps,
Darby(:
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