Many suburban college students are commuters, too

Debra Cromie knew what she wanted -- and a dorm with a communal bathroom just wasn't it.

She wanted the academic rigor of a college education.

She wanted classes to prepare her to be a special education teacher.

But she wasn't about to surrender the comforts of her Mount Prospect bedroom and home-cooked meals to get them.

That Cromie would have to pay roughly $6,550 to live on campus and away from home further cemented her decision to stay there.

"Life is too good at home to leave," Cromie joked.

Now 20, Cromie begins her junior year at Elmhurst College as she's begun the two others: commuting from home.

Cromie joins the ranks of college students who pursue their studies without stepping foot inside a dorm or college cafeteria.

The rising cost of college, room and board -- not to mention the price tag for all the things that go inside dorm rooms today -- leads many teens to take a second look at staying home.

Suburban co-eds have an added incentive with dozens of colleges and universities within driving distance.

Consider this: Back-to-school spending for college students nationwide hit $36.6 billion in 2006, up 42 percent from 2004, the National Retail Federation reports.

The average freshman dropped $1,112 before heading off to college last fall.

Tuition prices, meanwhile, inched steadily higher. Attending a four-year private college costs, on average, $22,218 in 2006-07, according to the College Board.

Tuition climbed anywhere from 4.6 percent to 9.3 percent between 2005 and 2006 at Illinois' dozen publicly funded universities, the Illinois Board of Higher Education reports.

"There's definitely a price tag attached to it," said Roosevelt University's Gwen Kanelos, assistant vice president for enrollment services. "For some families, they may feel the whole residential room and board cost is beyond what they can afford. It's a choice."

Cultural traditions and family responsibilities also may factor into a student's decision.

To be clear, college commuters are not new. Nor are efforts to involve them on campus. But as attending college becomes a more pricey endeavor, students increasingly consider staying home and saving money.

Colleges, in turn, must respond to an increasingly diverse and demanding mix of students, officials said.

"We try to be very conscious of the fact we do have students in both venues," Kanelos said.

Roosevelt officials stagger programs and lectures to include students who may not make a second drive but may stick around to attend if it occurs at a convenient time.

Benedictine University in Lisle will debut a student-run commuter awareness board this fall.

In DeKalb, Northern Illinois University gave its commuter student lounge a facelift and new venue last year.

"There's just a lot of different types of individuals out there now who don't always go to the university in the same way we traditionally thought about it," Northern's Vice Provost Earl "Gip" Seaver said.

Roosevelt's Schaumburg campus exclusively caters to commuter students, all 1,309 of them who attended last year. In Chicago -- where dorm living costs between $8,750 and $10,572 -- 20.7 percent of the school's 2,301 undergraduate students lived in two residence halls last year, school records show.

At Aurora University, some 69 percent of freshman students now live on campus, paying $7,000 yearly to do so.

"I still think people are going to school closer to home. Many of them are just choosing to live on campus," Aurora's Freshman Admissions Director James Lancaster said.

Still, Aurora's student commuter club remains very much alive and needed.

Commuters often struggle to connect with campus life as they juggle full-time jobs, family responsibilities or traffic.

Cromie, for one, skips commuter student nights out. With gas prices now well past $3, Cromie spends about $150 on gas each month. Another 30-mile round trip to campus isn't always worth the expense, she said.

"I just go to school to get my classes done and leave," said Cromie, who works five days a week at a golf course.

Still, Northern's Seaver contends connecting students to campus life, whether through clubs or career services, rounds out their education. About 20 percent of students commute to the DeKalb campus.

"It's all these other things that make up the education as well as what you're going to get in the classroom," Seaver said. "It is about learning to live in a community."

Alyssa Gaden knows she is not ready for that yet.

The 19-year-old Harper College student watched her friends head to college. She helped pack their cars and move into dorm rooms. Then, she drove home. Gaden said knew she'd save money and stay focused academically living with her family in Mount Prospect.

"I still have a lot of experiences. I still have the comfort of my own bed," Gaden said.

She's not quite sure whether to give that up when she enrolls in the University of Illinois at Chicago next spring.

"I've thought about moving into the city so I'd get my turn, too," Gaden said, "just later than everybody else."