When on break, I used to take the whole tank with me since I live only a couple hours from my college. My tank is 5.5 gallons, which if I drain to ~20% is relatively easy to pick up and pack in the car with my other stuff. I put my fish in jars and filter cartridges in baggies filled with tank water. I’d also use some SafeStart to restabilize my cycle once set up again and monitored the ammonia levels after. Same process to set up at college again. Worked pretty well!

But eventually I did set up a cycled tank at home that I could transfer my fish to when on break. That way all I’d have to do is jar them and go. Downside to the extra tank is that it’ll require some maintenance while you’re at college. I had a large mystery snail that was the tank’s permanent resident (outgrew the 5 gal) which my parents fed. Another downside is that if you have live plants in the original tank you’ll come back to an algae filled jungle. But it makes things a lot simpler, and the algae can be cleaned out.

Overall it comes down to how much effort you can/want to put in. For shorter distances I’d just take the whole tank. But for convenience or for longer distances I’d recommend setting up a holding tank at home.