Commuting 20 mins from home vs on-campus?

chuy
Tue, 12 Jan 2010 23:20:44 +0000

Presumably you know a fair number of people that are going to your school since it is so close, so commuting isn’t a horrible idea. You’ll have a harder time staying involved with on-campus activities than you would if you lived in a dorm, so it is doubly important that you get involved with some sort of groups or something on campus. Another thing to consider is whether or not your parents are comfortable with the social life you want to (or will want to) lead in college. You’re not going to have as good access to parties since you’ll need to have somewhere to crash afterward, and you can’t really bring girls home for the night, either from a party or after you’ve been dating a while. The girl thing is also an issue if you have a dorm room but sometimes you can make arrangements, especially during the day or if they go home on weekends.

Another thing if you commute is to try and spend as much time on campus as possible. Do your homework in the libraries/study lounges. Get a meal plan and eat on campus with people. Keep really up to date on stuff that is happening on campus (movies, concerts, etc.) and attend them, preferably with friends. This is actually the exact same thing I tell people who live in dorms. Spend as little time as you can in your dorm/house/apartment. Being out there and active is fun!

To be honest I really don’t know how having a big commuter population would help. Maybe somebody can clarify that a little bit, because it seems to me that having more people on campus would mean more was going on there, and it’d be easier to find stuff to do even with the inherent disadvantages of commuting.

So basically, if you’re talking about the difference between having a little extra spending money or not then I suggest living on campus so you can get more involved and get more of the Traditional College Experience, if you’re talking about the difference between having to take out a bunch of loans or not (or not as many) then I say live at home for at least a year, and look for an apartment and job after you get sick of living at home. It is really a personal decision though.