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.