The college crowd

ZOE PANAMA (second from right), 20, from Los Angeles, and CHRISTY CICCONE, 20, from Hershey, Pa., will be juniors at Boston University in September. MATT GLASSMAN (far right), from Concord, Mass., and MATT MOISANI, from Orange County, Calif., are both 21 and will be seniors at BU. All four live off campus.

Christy: ''I came here for college because I wanted a city with lots of things to do, and I wanted to meet people from all over."

Zoe: ''I grew up in Los Angeles, wanting to go to college on the East Coast because I always thought of very pretty campuses. I also knew I needed to be in a city. Boston has a lot of culture, great architecture, and food. But it's definitely expensive for a college student. Three of us pay about $3,000 a month to share an apartment and utilities."

Matt G.: ''My friends who go to smaller schools in other places, when they go out, their whole night is $10, and here, one drink can cost you that."

Matt M.: ''You can easily spend $100 in a night. You pay $20 or $30 to get to a bar, you pay to get in, you buy yourself a drink, you buy a girl a drink, you pay to get home. It adds up."

Zoe: ''Cabs are outrageous. You go two blocks and it's like $7. Every year, I always say I'm going to take more advantage of the city, but I don't. I wish I did more here. I don't have a car, and I despise the T."

Matt G.: ''The public transportation is terrible compared to other cities. You can get from one side of New York to the other in 25 minutes. Here, you have to wait that long for the train, and it takes forever to get anywhere. I've given up. I walk."

Zoe: ''If it's cold and snowy, I even take a cab to campus. Halfway through freshman year, I wanted to move off campus. Dorm life is OK; it's a great way to meet people. But lots of people here move off campus after their freshman or sophomore years. It definitely forces you to be very independent and mature. My friends at other schools in the middle of nowhere just do the fraternity scene."

Matt M.: ''There are lots of decisions here, about 8,000 different clubs, even supermarkets. Being here makes you grow up."

Zoe: ''The last 'Boston' thing I did? Saturday night, we went to the North End for a friend's birthday. It's like out of Italy. Then we went shopping on Newbury Street"

Matt G.: ''I scalped Yankees-Red Sox tickets and went with a friend to Fenway Park."

Matt M.: ''We all went to the Boston Marathon. It's one of the best days in the city."

Zoe: ''The weather? Coming from LA, I do hate the weather here. I had no idea what seasonal affective disorder was until I came here. My freshman year, we had record low temperatures. I'd call my father and say, 'I need to transfer to USC.' "

Christy: ''This is worse than what even I am used to in Pennsylvania."

Zoe: ''The weather controls your social life. You don't want to wait in line at the clubs."

Matt G.: ''I've waited 45 minutes for a cab in zero-degree weather."

Zoe: ''Our cable bill definitely went up in the winter. We were ordering a lot of movies when it's too cold to go out. Some days, you wake up and it's so windy and snowy and cold, you just don't want to go to class. Lots of kids skip in the winter."

Matt G.: ''You make the best of the weather with winter sports."

Matt M.: ''In California, a lot of kids go to the beach. Here, you can go to a bar and freeze, or you can stay home and read. Because you're so immobilized by the weather, you're forced to do work, which for me is good."

Zoe: ''I would do it over again. I would come here again. I've been exposed to such a different culture and way of life, and met so many people from all over."

Christy: ''I definitely would come back. I love Boston. I think it's the perfect size for college. But I don't want to live here after college; it's not quite big enough for me. I think I've conquered it."

Matt M.: ''I love the city. It makes you grow culturally. It makes you aware of new views. In southern California, it's very lax. The pace here is extremely fast. The people can come off as cold." "

Matt G.: ''I've had a great experience, but I think you're rushed to grow up here. I think a smaller, more rural place would be more like a college experience. It's like mini-adult life here."