Save Money, Stay Home: College Students Skip Dorms to Save Dough

I wish in high school they had a class to go thoroughly everything about college; prices, differences staying home and going away, loans and how they work, etc. I have learned more trial and error but help along the way is something everyone deserves!

I have twins. One is going away to college, the other decided at the last minute to stay home instead. I wish she could have the experience of dorm life, but the only school that offered enough scholarship money to pay for everything was out of state. I completely understand why she didn't want to go so far from home. Her twin brother's school is only 2 hours from home, so the decision to go was easy for him. The skyrocketing cost of education is not only making it difficult to earn a degree, but it also makes it difficult to gain the peripheral life experiences that young adults need before entering the real world.

I have been dorm shopping for two weeks now. It's like furnishing an apartment ! My daughter has a pile going in the basement. At least we had some extra school supplies she doesn't have to buy.

I was one of those students who lived at home for my undergraduate degree, and lived with a roommate in the dorms while getting my Masters. I'm autistic, and actually found it easier to live in a dorm. Yes, my roommate turned the heat up to 90 degrees so that she could walk around in her granny panties all day, but my family did not understand my mental condition AT ALL, nor was I allowed to seek help for it when I lived at home. At the dorms, I got to go to counseling for free!

Tuition is being increased to the point that most students (or parents) can no longer afford to go to college at all. And, once they graduate, most cannot find jobs and are in debt up to their eyeballs. So, if it means getting a college education and living at home to make ends meet, than it's a small price to pay compaired to others who cannot even afford to dream of going to college. For most kids, living in a dorm is all about drinking and partying anyways.

I find it extremely sad to know that kids are forfeiting such a good education and life lesson they can only learn by living out on their own due to the amount of money not available to send them to these good schools. I understand that the job market isn't too well and students fear that they will rack up all the loan money with no way of paying back once they graduate college. I wish that scholarships were offered more often as well as student aids. Then again, the school tuition has no cut off point and can continuously increase disregarding the fact that graduates aren't offered or can find jobs when they do leave the school with a diploma.

I would love it if my children decided to live at home during college. I would wonder how they would be effected by not having that dorm experience though.