Pretty depressed about not being in school.

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There's more to it than what alleviate said. It's true that many, if not most, post-secondary students are willing to live far away from home to attend a prestigious university, but most U.S. cities do not have any college at all, and even less of them have a university. Most students (which are community college students) would have to travel to the next city at least to get to school, and it is typical for university students to pack up and move across the state for their schooling.

I don't understand how most of the people you know could have attended college in their hometown unless you know few people or most of the people you know just happen to live in a town that hosts a college. Even half the towns in a country having their own college seems logistically and financially impossible.

Really? All of the major cities in Australia have several universities. Most of the people I know live in the same city I do. The city I live in has three universities.So you have to go to community college first?

Major cities have universities and colleges here, too. But the overwhelming majority of cities are not major metropolitan areas, and there are a lot of people who live in these smaller towns, so many of them have to travel to get to school. Surely you have many smaller cities in your country that don't have any sort college or university, right?


No, no one has to do that, but many people do because it is less expensive to complete part of their degree at a community college than it is to pay four years' worth of university tuition. Also, lots of people don't want or need a university degree so they only attend community college. And some people are just too poor or educationally disadvantaged to attend university at all, so they never progress beyond cc.

One time I met a girl from the country. A social worker student. I was surprised that she was sharing a house at her age. She was 21. It's a little unusual here and now (think Peter Pan generation) but it was necessary for her to move out because she was from up in the riverland. With most of the campus rooms given over to foreign students she had to share a house with another student.

However, you have to remember that most of our population lives in about five cities. I suppose it's different for you guys, with your population being more evenly dispersed. Very few of us live inland.Somehow I thought not having a university degree was taboo. It often feels that way here too.

I see; that's the difference. I wonder if the number of colleges per capita there is similar to what it is here.



It probably is in some social circles, but we have several distinct sub-cultures in this country, and, in some of them, people don't even expect their children to attend college or plan it for themselves.

With respect to Americans leaving home to attend university, to me it seems unfortunate that this has become an expectation. In many cases doing so makes no sense yet people do it regardless.

As for how the practice developed, the answer (like so many aspects of US culture) is very complicated. I could easily write an entire article to discuss how the history of the US educational system led to what is currently in place. Instead I will try to make a couple of points.

First, I would recommend looking at the history of various US universities. Consider Dartmouth, part of the Ivy League. It is located "in the middle of nowhere". From the beginning I imagine almost all students there took up residence as their families lived a substantial distance away (long before there were automobiles!).

Consider also that the US has a less "urban" tradition than either Europe or I suppose Australia as well. Many current-day universities began as "finishing schools" for country gentry where young men (who would still be in high school today) traveled to be educated in the classics. Formal education was in Latin and Greek (fraternities were originally formed as secret societies for the purpose of studying texts in English which was considered radical at the time!). These institutions eventually became universities as high schools developed. In many countries I think it has always been assumed that the sort of family whose children might attend university would live in a city, much less so in the US.

Population patterns do play a role. My state has a State University System with several locations however there is a "flagship campus" where the best students hope to matriculate and it was never assumed they would all be within daily commuting distance (consider again that when the university was founded there were no automobiles). My son studied at that location. One can drive there in half an hour with no traffic but on a weekday morning there is plenty of traffic. Plus do you really want all those eighteen-year-olds out driving with everybody else during Rush Hour? Admittedly he could have gone by rail but would still need to drive about 10 minutes to get to the rail station.

Also my generation was the first to attend university in large numbers (my mother didn't even get a High School diploma until she was in her 20s). At that time, the Generation Gap dictated that everyone get away from their parents as soon as possible (we couldn't forgive them for having lived through World War II and needed our own "community" in which we could develop our own concept of how the world works).

I'm sure others will see things differently and would enjoy getting their viewpoint.

We don't really have sub-cultures here. But if I don't get my degree people might think that I'm not middle-class Yes, for those who live in larger cities it seems totally impractical and yet, perhaps they still get more coolness points for "going to college" rather than "attending college" (from home).Every morning I catch the train to work and about a third of the passengers are uni students. Some of them may drive for 10 or so minutes to get to the station but I don't see that as being an issue. I drive for about 3 minutes to get the station, not because I can't stand walking for 15 minutes but because in the morning I don't have that much time to spare.

Typically the students don't drive to either of the two universities in the city because they don't want to pay for parking in the city. There's also a university in the suburbs. They allow students to park there for about $80 per year so commuting by car is more common for those students.

Our system of commuting from home to uni is entirely practical (and cheap) but lacking in coolness. Perhaps in some ways our campus culture suffers for it. Our students don't get the illusion of living independently during their college years. They don't escape from home until they actually move out of home.

Out of curiosity, for you Americans just how much does living in a dorm or frat-house contribute to the overall cost of a college education?

The university from which I graduated combines dorm rent and meal plan costs. A single-bed dorm room + a 7-day-a-week all-you-can-eat meal plan is $1,905/mo., about $5,700 per quarter (there are four academic quarters in a year, but most people don't attend for summer quarter). Students can get a plan with less meals, or a double, triple, or quadruple room (shared with other students) for a few hundred dollars less. Room in the on-campus apartments are about the same price. I chose to live in a small cluster of smallish campus apartments at the edge of campus. It isn't required to purchase a meal plan, so that only costs $3,465 per quarter.

According to the estimated yearly costs on the school website, Room and Board for an undergraduate California resident living on campus ($15,123) is estimated to be over $1,000 more than tuition and fees ($14,007). The total estimated cost of attendance (including books and stuff) for such a student is $35,577/yr.