Winter break: How Should Students Spend It Financially?

Winter break: How Should Students Spend It Financially?

by An, Maame, Meher, and Mariah

What do Mt Holyoke students usually do during winter breaks? Staying on campus preparing for next semester, travelling with friends, or enjoying Christmas and New Years Eve with their family? There are many choices, so how can they make the best decision based on the amount of money they have and their preferences? These questions are not so easy for many students to answer because there are many factors to consider based on their budget constraints. Therefore, we will help both domestic and international students find the most appropriate strategy to enjoy their winter break based on these basic following factors:

- Places: home, hotel, campus, etc.

- Food: food at relative’s, buying pre-made, going out, grocery shopping, dining hall, etc.

- What to do: visiting relatives and friends, road trip, studying, etc.

Given that domestic students cannot stay on campus during the two weeks between the end of fall semester and the start of January term, the roughly 75% of students who are domestic must temporarily relocate somewhere off campus. A domestic student could live any distance from just down the street to five thousand miles away from Mt Holyoke. More than a quarter of students live less than 500 miles away, making travel home a few hundred dollars cheaper than a flight or two to California. We’ll look at two different domestic students: Katie, from Long Island, NY, and Eliza, from San Francisco, CA. Both Katie and Eliza have been working all semester and earned close to $1000 each, which they plan to put towards their winter breaks. They are willing to spend a lot of that money given a high amount of utility in return.

Katie is looking at two options. She could drive home, which costs roughly $40 in gas one way. If she drove or rode with other students going there as well, she could easily halve this cost. By staying with family, she eliminates rooming costs and most if not all meal costs. Katie could also travel with two or three friends down to Florida for the break. Such a road trip would cost her roughly $80 in gas each way and about $400 in hotel room costs. Food would also be around $400 for Katie, but many fun activities could be done without spending anything. All around, a two-week road trip with friends would require a budget easily around $1000. Katie has the option of relaxing at home and spending very little or enjoying herself on a vacation with friends for quite a bit more money. Weighing both costs and benefits of her options, Katie might have a much better time with friends than feeling stuck at home with family obligations, thus gaining a much higher utility from her expensive road trip.

Eliza also has a few options for winter break. Flying home to her family in California costs $400 each way. Though she would have rooming and food taken care of, she will have spent a lot in travel alone leaving very little for nights out with high school friends while home. Another option for Eliza would be to stay at her roommate’s parents’ house in Boston for part of break and then meet up with another friend for a few days in the Big Apple. Travel from Boston to NYC and then NYC back to school on Amtrak trains would incur costs around $100. Hotels for three to four nights would be around $375-500 for each she and her friend. On top of that, food costs could range from $150 to extremely expensive in New York City. Eliza would also need to budget at least $100 for entertainment while there. Either way, Eliza ends up spending roughly the same amount, so she must choose based on the utility she would gain from either trip.

In the case of our two international students Maame (from Ghana) and Meher (from Pakistan), things are a bit different. Home is far away - at the other end of the globe - and plane tickets are at least $2000 roundtrip. Luckily for Maame, she was able to save some money from interning last summer, so she’s thrilled to be going home! Yes, $2000 is a lot, but Christmas is important to her and she hasn’t seen her family in a year. Her budget for the entire break is a little bit over $2000 since she has to find a way to get to the airport. If she goes with the SGA bus, she’d have to pay $25. Otherwise, she’d have to take a cab and pay at least $75.  Back home, she wouldn’t have to spend much because she will be with her family and it will be easy to move around. Meher on the other hand cannot go home over the break because she cannot afford it. Luckily, her roommate who lives in Boston has offered to take her home over the break and then she’ll return to campus to work over J-term. Meher’s only expense is to pay for gas, which is about $30 dollars. During the break, food and other expenses are covered by her roommate’s family.  Evidently, December break is much cheaper for Meher than it is for Maame. However, the opportunity cost is greater since she gives up spending time with her family. Maame on the other hand, has a higher budget due to her expensive plane ticket, but is able to spend time with her family and friends.

In conclusion, regardless of being domestic or international, students who live far from Mt. Holyoke College have to spend quite a large amount of money on winter break due to the expensive travel expense unless they stay with friends or relatives near school for most of the vacation. Thus they are forced to work more to have larger budgets to compensate or choose a less preferable but affordable option. Students who live much closer have more options due to fewer travel expenses required for the going home option. Therefore, they should carefully take into consideration all the aforementioned factors to make them work out best for each specific budget and preferences so that students can have a happy and joyful break.