Where to live once summer rolls around is not an easy question to answer.

Many people go back home and live with their parents until school starts back up again in late August. However, there are still a large amount of students who remain in Allendale throughout the summer.

Both options have their pros and cons.

The biggest pro about living at home is (hopefully) not having to pay rent. If your parents are anything like mine, they will happily accept you back into their house for the summer and then cry when you leave again in the fall.

If you lived in an apartment or townhome for the summer you would have to pay rent. Unless you have a 12-month lease, in which case you would have to pay rent even if you weren’t living there, moving home would financially be a better decision.

Another financial responsibility your parents take when you get home is getting the groceries. Now that you’re home, you don’t have to live paycheck to paycheck to stock up your fridge with Ramen noodles and peanut butter. You might even get a nice home-cooked meal on occasion. We all know that no one makes lasagna like moms do.

My favorite part about being home for the summer? My mom does my laundry for me. Sure, I have to bring her my basket of clothes that need to be cleaned, but she washes, dries and folds them. Another bonus: you won’t need a handful of quarters to do one load.

However, with all these nice perks of being home, there are some downfalls. The biggest that college kids think about is curfew. During school, you are your own parent. You can decide when you come home, what time you have dinner, and when you go to bed. When you move back home? Not so much. Parents still expect that if you live under their roof, you live under their rules. They expect you to be home for family dinners, not be out past midnight and to always let them know who you’re with and where you’re at. It’s valid for parents to want to know everything, it’s just a change of pace from living by your own rules during the school year.

Another downside of coming home during the summer is trying to find a job. There aren’t a lot of places that are too keen on hiring someone for three months, only to have them leave again in the fall. It is especially unfortunate if you found a job during the school year that can’t and/or doesn’t allow transfers to a different location. You just have to hope that if you leave for the summer that your job will let you back in the fall.

Coming home for the summer has good and bad sides to it, as does staying on or near campus. If you go home, you get to see your parents and siblings, but you also have to deal with the crazy family rules that accompany coming home.

They say home is where the heart is, but some people’s hearts stay in Allendale.