Whether you’re making college plans or wondering what it’s really like living at home for college, I wanted to write about an aspect of my college life I don’t talk about much. 

In high school, I was never one of those people who had a dream college. I remember my classmates talking about applying to their dream schools, their safety schools, etc. Unlike my classmates, I always knew I wanted to go to college in my hometown. It wasn’t a dream, it wasn’t a last resort, it was just what I wanted to do.

Many of my peers thought staying home for college was “lame” and then I made the even “lamer” choice to live at home during school. I just knew it was the right thing for me and I haven’t regretted it once.

Here’s why I live at home:

-It’s Affordable

In this day and age, college is really expensive. I knew I wanted to save money by staying in state for school and I decided to save even more money by staying at home. Living in the dorms is pretty expensive (just like college lol). I never wanted to live in the dorms and I wasn’t ready to have my own place, so living at home just made sense for me. It’s also nice to not have to worry about rent each month.

-Food is Plentiful

Even with a job, it’s pretty hard to have a lot of extra money for groceries. Eating full meals for breakfast and dinner makes college just a little easier to manage. If you live in the dorms, it’s unlikely that you would have access to a kitchen to cook healthy, filling meals. One of the reasons I live at home is so I can skip the top ramen diet. 

-I Enjoy Spending Time With My Family

I know everyone has a different relationship with their family, but I really enjoy spending time with my mom and our pets. College is really stressful and it’s really nice to have people I love to come home to at night. Some people don’t have good relationships with their family and living at home isn’t appropriate for everyone.

-I’m an Introvert

Even though I am a sophomore in college, I still get overwhelmed by some of the social aspects college brings. There’s a lot of people on campus and this can be stressful for me. Living at home is a great escape from college life. I’m certainly not one of those people that has FOMO and I’m okay with being a homebody.

I know living at home isn’t for everyone, but I wanted to share my experience in hopes that it helps you make the choice about where you want to live during school. Also, I really hope this normalizes living at home! Living at home doesn’t have to be lame haha. I won’t live at home forever (obviously), but right now this is just works best for me 🙂

If you’re in college, do you live at home, on campus, or off campus? If you’ve graduated, where did you live?