# Any commuter students here? Need advice



## SilentLoner (Jan 30, 2006)

Hi all,

Not sure wether I have mentioned this before, but I am currently in the last semester of my freshman year and living on campus.

Due to financial reasons I doubt I will be able to return to my dorm for sophmore year, therefore I will return to living at home (30 minutes away) and commute from there.

I understand, but at the same time it really sucks. I've enjoyed living on campus, I've never been this independent before, and its been great getting away from the situation at home (mainly yelling family members). Getting other off campus housing is not an option, since at my university there's a housing crisis and all the 600+ seniors/juniors were effectively booted off campus and are seeking housing in the city. So unless I want to compete with 2 Spartan armies of housing seeking students...

Guess I'll just have to be grateful I had this one year.

What I wanted to ask is how would you rate college as a commuter student? Aside from traffic, what are the worst obstacles? I don't have a car yet so the parental units will need to drive me. :sigh 

Any advice would be appreciated.


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## lyssado707 (Oct 29, 2004)

I like college as a commuter student because there's no way in heckers w/my SA issues I'd be able to function in a dorm lol. That sucks you were getting to like it though and now have to leave..I take the bus cuz my school is like 45 mins away (an hour ten on the bus). I guess some obstacles would be classes always have to be planned around the bus schedule, and I'm often stuck at school for like an hour (or more cuz I'm in a rural area) after class waiting for the bus. If your parents drive you, then that won't be a problem though. Another thing I like about being a commuter student is it's more anonymous. People just go to classes and leave without having to socialize hehe. Of course, If you're interested in getting to know people from school, a dorm would be better..Oh and if you have time before you leave, you can eat at home to avoid the cafeteria LOL. Hmm I can't think of any other obstacles. Good luck


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## soma (Nov 10, 2003)

I started commuting to school this year after living on campus for 2 years. I'll start with the disadvantages, the first being parking. I go to a college close to the city so parking is not always easy to find, expensive, and requires walking. The second disadvantage is the time it takes to get to school. It takes me 10-15 minutes to drive to school, and another 10-15 minutes to walk from the parking lot to class. When I lived on campus, it would take me 5 minutes to get to class. 

But there are plenty of advantages too. When I started commuting, I noticed that I would skip class less. When I lived in the dorm, I would go back to my room after one class, get lazy, and skip my next class. Now that I commute, I stay on campus all day any way, so I go to all of my classes. Another obvious advantage is that commuting is less expensive than living on campus (at least for me). 

That's all I can think of now. I know the summer before I started commuting, I though I would die having to spend so much time commuting, but like anything else, I got used to it. Pretty quickly too. 

Good luck!


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## Qolselanu (Feb 15, 2006)

Enjoy being driven by your parents for now. I made the mistake of missing a night of sleep once and when I was driving home from school I was nearly falling asleep at the wheel! I felt my head do that head bobbing deal. It was kinda scary and exciting at the same time. Luckily I found out that I could find a nice darkish spot in one of the parking structures and take a little nap in my car if I was ever tired. I'm pretty sure that the one day where I drove tired I would lose vision for seconds at a time. Not good! But luckily I'm a freaking wheelman with my car.  ....Kinda.


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## terra (Feb 12, 2007)

I used to commute to school. The parking situation is crazy, and too expensive, so I opted to take the bus. I lived only six miles away, and yet it took an hour and a half to get to campus! The bus situation was so crazy, I had to take a bus to the transfer center, and then take a bus directly to the campus. To and from school took 3 hours. I now live on campus because it is more convenient. I didn't like commuting to school, because I felt like I wasn't a part of the collective college experience. I felt alienated and distant from the college atmosphere. I couldn't participate in activities, because it was inconvenient to take the bus back and forth. I still feel alienated and distant on campus, because I don't participate much, but at least I'm close to all the libraries and resources. Yea for libraries! :banana


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## cat burglar (Sep 2, 2006)

terra said:


> I lived only six miles away, and yet it took an hour and a half to get to campus! The bus situation was so crazy, I had to take a bus to the transfer center, and then take a bus directly to the campus. To and from school took 3 hours.


Sounds like my situation. I'm six miles from campus and each way it takes 90 minutes (60 minutes on a good day) by train and 15 mins on a shuttle bus.

Being a commuter student is nice. You don't have to deal with all the kiddies who live and play on campus. You just up and leave when class is over. At the same time, though, it's easier to get lonely if you're prone to that.


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## millenniumman75 (Feb 4, 2005)

An obstacle? I don't know about you, but....the weather, the lost time that could be spent studying (you can always put an audio tape of study notes in the car and play it on the way .

My first winter as a college student.....January, 1994 Temperature -18F/-28c with a windchill of -65F/-54c, being warned by county sheriffs not to travel, and getting stuck in a showdrift.

Also, the cost of keeping up the car if it is older. Really, you end up saving money anyway - and the food is better at home!  My last fall quarter had me sick with food poisoning during Thanksgiving weekend after eating a Chef's salad in the cafeteria .


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