We opted against our daughter having a car at school for at least the first semester. She's living on campus. There's an amtrak station one block from campus that makes the roundtrip to our home area (and her boyfriend) for $40. There's NO way to drive it for that, if you value your time at all. The campus has an "hour car" that you can rent for $9 an hour. Way cheaper to get that a few times a month than pay $100 for a parking permit, PLUS the higher insurance rates. She's not happy with that decision, but that's the way life goes sometimes. LOL. My son will be attending the U of M. Lots of public transit options. Plus, he can take the train directly to our town for $5. Another no brainer.