Will a college student who commutes to school and needs to work several jobs get the full college experience?

Question

They will be paying all their own bills, including tuition, so they can't afford the price of room and board. It will be cheaper for them to live off campus with several roommates. My question is, will they have the same experience as students who are able to take a more traditional approach to college, such as living on campus, or will their college experience be dampened? Everyone seems to say since they won't live on campus and will spend so much time at work, that they won't have a good college experience.

Answer 1

i dont really think you will kind of a bummer work and comuting will take a lot of time along with studying  

Answer 2

You may miss a few parties, but so what.  You will be better prepared for the real world when you graduate than those who partied the whole 4-5 years.

Answer 3

Actually, what you're describing here is now becoming the traditional experience of most American college students. More and more students are holding multiple jobs and living off campus to save money and have more freedom than living on campus. Students can always stay on campus after hours or involve themselves in on-campus activities to experience life on campus. Most parties, if that's a concern, are usually held off campus, since many campuses are dry campuses. The college experience will be what the student makes of it. If they get involved and put themselves out there to have new experiences, they will, especially if they get a job on campus or get involved with student associations. Even students living on campus who never join any clubs or don't involve themselves in campus activities don't get the "full college experience." It'll be fine to live off campus. That also provides a nice segue into life in the 'real world' as students learn to negotiate living with others and paying bills, etc. Good choice.

Answer 4

A lot of people hold multiple jobs while they go to school.    I did.   I work at a college now and I know a lot of students who hold down multiple jobs.    It depends on how you schedule your classes.   If you have a few hours in between classes, you can still be part of clubs or hang out on campus talking to people.

Being out of the house is a good experience no matter how you handle it.

Answer 5

It would be a good idea to clarify for yourself what you mean by a "full college experience".

It will be possible to complete your courses even though you are working. But you will get out of these more or less exactly what you put into them. Most college courses are not very demanding. If the assignments are clear and you do them you will get a decent grade.

But you want more than a grade; you want a real learning experience.

So, for example, you can write an acceptable, routine term paper in a few days and get a "B" and still not learn very much. The learning comes from finding a cutting edge question and reviewing the literature and finding a unique angle from which to answer it. This is a great skill which can be used in almost any knowledge work situation. But it takes considerable planning and steady part time effort over several weeks to prepare this sort of term paper.

Similarly, an important part of the college experience is meeting and hanging out with other students in your major, studying with them, learning from them, doing projects and extra-curricular activities together. Some good undergrad programs organize such experiences, but they are not obligatory. So unless you manage your time very well you may be having to run off just when the really cool stuff begins. Most students say they learn more significant lessons in this kind of activity than in formal classes. Also, the networking with fellow students, grad students and younger profs, will really pay off later on.

If you are also concerned about parties, most of them are on weekends and you should be able to include them in your schedule, so that is not an issue. Besides, they are not for mature people. Find yourself a nice steady and skip that stuff.

Bottom line: think very carefully about exactly what you want to get out of college, and then learn time management skills and use them to include your commute, your work, your classes, and these opportunities for significant learning.