A closer look: There’s no place like home, or is there?
Bruins from out-of-state, overseas opt to stay in California due to brevity of break
Alex Siegel will not be traveling home to Chicago this Thanksgiving.
Instead, his parents are flying out to California to see him and his brother, who attends USC, for the weekend, and they will stay with family friends in San Diego.
Such is the unusual and often inconvenient and expensive dilemma of an out-of-state student at UCLA.
“It is challenging to attend a school far away, but I knew what I was getting myself into,” said Siegel, a first-year English major. “I knew it would be worth the inconvenience for a different experience.”
For most students at UCLA, Thanksgiving break is a time to retreat from a hectic college lifestyle for relaxation and comfort among family in a domestic setting.
However, while over 97 percent of UCLA undergraduates live in the United States and over 93 percent are from California, there exists a distinct minority that does not live within a half-day’s drive.
Say Song, a third-year business economics student, will not travel home to Memphis, Tenn., for Thanksgiving. He will instead stay with some friends from UCLA. Song, who was born in South Korea and has lived most of his life in Japan, believes a plane ticket is not worth it.
“It’s just too short a time to go home,” Song said. “(The break) should be longer.”
Some students make the trip home despite the high cost for such a short trip. Charles Maas, a first-year business economics student, is one of under 200 UCLA undergraduates from Illinois. He declined an admission offer at close-to-home Northwestern University in favor of studying film out West and will fly home for the short break.
“My mom just bought me the ticket; I could have stayed with family friends here,” he said.
Second-year psychology student Erica Fox purchased a $500 plane ticket to Maryland for the four-day break, and will pay for another ticket to travel home just two weeks later for Christmas. Although Fox says it is worth it to see her family and friends, she acknowledges the inconvenience and expense.
“We already pay much higher fees in out-of-state tuition, and on top of that, we have to pay lots of money just to visit home,” Fox said.
She added that most out-of-state students, who are probably new to the state, would prefer to spend their break touring California instead of visiting home for a short time.
International students face the problem more acutely, but do not feel the same connections to the Thanksgivings and therefore just see the break as a normal holiday.
“Thanksgiving doesn’t play a role at home, and if it were a holiday, I would still just go to the mountains,” said Thomas Schelke, a fourth-year exchange student from Germany, who said he will use the break to see more of California.
Eugene Pak, a senior who is going back to South Korea in June after six years in America, will use the vacation for travel, not visiting home.
“It’s a different country; you are here to get to know other cultures,” said Pak, who will go home to visit his family over winter break.
advertise
contact us
top of page
Comments
Post a comment