Can anyone help me calculate how many miles I'll drive in a year if I attend a 4-year university for two years?

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I’m no math guru and don’t expect many answers from an oil/automotive form. If I can’t have this question here please delete. I didn’t know where else to post this question 😭


I am transferring to a local University that's 55 miles (both ways. Going to school and coming home). There are 16 weeks in one semester. So, that's 32 weeks in a year of college. College classes are usually 3-4 days of the week.

I won't be driving the car on the weekends and stuff so no extra mileage.

I calculated it this way. So, 55(miles driven to and from school)*4 (days attending class)=220 miles a week. 220*32=7,040 miles in 1 year of college.

Did I calculate this right?

I only want to know because if I’ll be driving close to 21k a year I might buy a beater to drive to college and let my younger brother drive my car to the community college here.
 
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You also might want to factor in having to go back to the campus occasionally to utilize the library, participate in study groups, etc., and add some extra mileage in case you have to take an alternate route due to road construction, traffic accidents, inclement weather, etc. To be safe I would assume going to campus 5 days a week.
 
When does school start? Your math might not work out because the cost of a beater, plus the insurance to reduce the mileage by 14k over 2 years won't save you that much money in terms of the value of the used car. Might be cheaper to just put the 14k extra on the car. Used car prices are still high now.
 
When does school start? Your math might not work out because the cost of a beater, plus the insurance to reduce the mileage by 14k over 2 years won't save you that much money in terms of the value of the used car. Might be cheaper to just put the 14k extra on the car. Used car prices are still high now.
August 8th I think. I wouldn’t mind if I put 14k on my car in two years.

But if I put 40k miles on it in two years, I’d care 😂
 
Same here man. Literally all 4 years of high school at the end I would go up to my math teacher with an F and beg to pass the class. Luckily they did pass me lol. I also had several learning disabilities so it helped my case a lot. 🙂😂
I always did well in math, most A types. Senior year I had A for several terms except for the last term, got senioritis after I got into college and either had a D or F. Ended up averaging a B for the year.
 
August 8th I think. I wouldn’t mind if I put 14k on my car in two years.

But if I put 40k miles on it in two years, I’d care 😂
I don't think you're framing the question correctly. Are you already putting on 14k a year on the car and then if you drive to school you'll add another 7k a year? Total mileage just going to school would be 14k over 2 years. If you look at the used car values of a car with an extra 14k, it lowers the value of your car by about $200. Some people do pay an extra premium for low mileage though so it might be more than a few hundred. Versus the cost of a beater and the insurance, seems like driving one car is cheaper.
 
Where are you coming up with the 21k a year?
I google it and this website gave me 21k a year. I was like, “hell no if I gotta drive 21k a year I might as well buy a beater and put 21k a year on that”.


I could cut the insurance on my current car if I buy a beater. Probably won’t insure the beater 😂😂
 
I don't think you're framing the question correctly. Are you already putting on 14k a year on the car and then if you drive to school you'll add another 7k a year? Total mileage just going to school would be 14k over 2 years. If you look at the used car values of a car with an extra 14k, it lowers the value of your car by about $200. Some people do pay an extra premium for low mileage though so it might be more than a few hundred. Versus the cost of a beater and the insurance, seems like driving one car is cheaper.
I only put about 4k miles on my car since I brought it in 2019.

Total mileage just going to school for two years per my math will be 14k miles.
 
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Still not following the 21k per year. Sounds like 7,000 for school and about 2,000 based on your last usage so 9,000 per year. Don’t buy a beater, you don’t drive much and it wouldn’t save you anything. This is very basic math so get into those math classes and pay attention!
 
Still not following the 21k per year. Sounds like 7,000 for school and about 2,000 based on your last usage so 9,000 per year. Don’t buy a beater, you don’t drive much and it wouldn’t save you anything. This is very basic math so get into those math classes and pay attention!
I'm done with math.

My last math course was like 2 years ago 😅
 
I'm done with math.

My last math course was like 2 years ago 😅
You're never done with math. There are some assumptions built into that 21k a year. You have to look at the details of the calculation. It's basically wrong, you basically have the correct number at 7k. Where do you think the other 14k comes from? They're making some other assumptions that don't come into play in your case. Or you've put in the numbers incorrectly. Always check your work. This calculation is trivial and is left as an exercise for the student.
 
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