Originally Posted by AfterThisNap
Dude, just go with the hardrock. It's going to be more versatile for you. If you wind up hating gears you can switch to SS for about 50 bucks.
Just because a bike doesn't have triple crowns and 20 gussets doesn't mean that it's going to snap in half. Do it. Do it.
I have a SS MTB, and I totally agree with ATN. Hardrocks (or the geared mullet, or whatever, all the same bike) are plenty strong to deal with abuse. More gears will make it more fun to ride around campus. If you want to go on trails, it'll be fun there. But a SS geared for the mountains in the city is never fun for getting from point A to point B. And a SS geared for getting from point A to point B in the city never going to be fun for trails.
This is basically why gears were invented.