In search of the perfect college

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The thing is, a majority of students live at home while attending college. According to a 2012 survey conducted by Sallie Mae, the financial services company, which offers student loans, 51 percent of students enrolled in college in the 2011-12 academic year lived at home. Seventy-five percent of students at two-year colleges and 39 percent at four-year colleges stayed home.

Here’s why, I think: Commuter students are better off than their on-campus counterparts on a number of fronts. First, living at home lops off $10,000 to $15,000 a year in room and board costs, so commuters incur less debt –– a lot less debt –– leaving more money for graduate school.

Second, they may be less depressed than students who go away. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 30 percent of college students suffer from serious depression, compared with 16 percent of the general population. College kids are depressed at a “substantially higher” rate, the institute says, because they are:

• Living away from family for the first time.
• Missing family or friends.
• Feeling alone or isolated.
• Experiencing relationship conflicts.
• Facing new and difficult school work.
• Worrying about finances.

Many college students mask their anxiety and depression with substance abuse. Eighty percent of college students drink, compared with 67 percent of the general population. Forty percent binge drink — consuming at least four drinks in two hours — compared with 16 percent of the general population, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Students who go away to college drink more than their commuting counterparts, according to a 2002 National Social Science Association study. “Students living in fraternities, sororities, group houses or co-ed residence halls reportedly have significantly higher rates of alcohol use than students living at home with their parents,” the study reads.
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