I am currently trying to convince a friend with teenagers that the 'going away' part of 'going away to college' is part of the entire point.
Keeping your kid in town is just infantilizing them. And god knows we have enough enfants terribles in the world, and especially in tech.
She's going to end up with a 28 year old son still living at home playing video games all day, while his degree rots away, wondering what went wrong. Maybe I should start logging dates and conversations. "Here it is, July 15th, 2019..."
sorry, but this is wildly out of touch. going to a local university while living at home is not infantilizing anyone. it is a very financially smart and sensible plan that meets the needs for many people's goals in life. balancing classes, extracurriculars, a job, and other college activities that don't depend on your living situation is more than enough of sampling what "adulting" is like
not everyone needs to, or can, move across the country for school living in their own place right out of high school
There's a huge financial difference between going to school at a better school in-state than going out of state. I went to school an hour from home.
And if we're going to talk about out of touch, I'm not sure where you're from where you think everyone who goes to school has a university in the same town as them, let alone with the degree program they want to attend. Changing your degree to one that's 'good enough' so you can stay in town? That's setting yourself up for a lifetime of disappointment.
As far as I've heard, parking on campus at my alma mater is even worse than when I attended, so being 10 minutes off campus is more conceptual than factual. It's probably true that Uber is far cheaper than a dorm, even if you averaged 3 rides a day, especially these days, but there are loads of semi-spontaneous interactions that become stilted when you have to worry about getting back and forth across town. It's not doing your own laundry, it's the people you meet while doing your laundry.
> Changing your degree to one that's 'good enough' so you can stay in town? That's setting yourself up for a lifetime of disappointment.
This is exactly what I did.
I went to a good school and was in a great program for getting my Software Engineering degree. But it was expensive, student life seemed detached from reality, and I was piling on debt. I decided to leave and live with my parents while attending a commuter school and getting what many would consider a lesser degree while working 2-3 jobs at a time. Many people (including myself at times) thought I was heading down the wrong road, and had questioned my decisions.
I ended up with very little debt, had multiple job offers by my junior year, and now I'm living a life I could only dream of. I don't mean to toot my horn or whatever, I just think that what you said isn't always the case. I have no regrets for getting a 'good enough' degree, and think it was one of the best decisions of my life for various reasons.
