Hi! I’m aiming to stay at home while going to college. I’d love to say that I want to go and live in a dorm or apartment but I’d prefer to stay with my family. I just wanted to know what is it like for people who commute. How is traffic? What are the best times to take classes? How does living at home affect your daily life? What are positive aspects? What are the negative aspects? Does the perception of other people change? For example, people who you had visited with your family? What distance should you believe is the maximum to commute?
Positive aspect: you save money.
Negative aspect: It may seem like grades 13, 14,15 and 16.
Is this primarily a residential campus or a commuter campus?
@TomSrOfBoston: I’d like to say it is both but I actually don’t know for sure. I live in Orange County, CA so the school to choose from aren’t limited. Hence my question on how far away should I be willing to go to?
Checking https://www.sigalert.com/ several times during the day over a week (not near a holiday) can give you an idea of how traffic looks, so that you can plan your commuting if you need to drive.
Depending on where you live in OC traffic can be a bear. The distance you can comfortably travel depends very much on where you are located in OC. The advantage of commuting is that you will save money. The downsides are that you might spend a lot of time commuting, it will be difficult to go back and forth to campus so you might have to spend the whole day there even if you have a huge break between classes, and it might be much harder to meet people.
I wouldn’t want to commute more than 30 minutes each way if it was me
I did it-- first Community College 10 minutes away, then a large university about 30 minutes away.
The only real downside is that it takes more effort to really be part of the college community. You have to make plans to stay for clubs and activities.
As to the commute, it wasn’t a big deal for me. I enjoy driving, having time alone (I have 4 siblings) to listen to my music and just relax. (The only time it was a hassle was when my engine seized on the Grand Central Parkway at 5pm in bumper to bumper traffic.)
While finances drove my decision to stay home, there was a huge upside: I had a part time job in a restaurant. The people I worked with were my closest friends, and we did a lot together. We went to school together, carpooling when we could. We had a ski house in the winter, and a house in the Hamptons together in the summer. We worked hard and played hard and had the time of our lives during those years. There was a table in the Student Union at both schools where we all knew we could always find someone, so breaks between classes were fine.
You don’t want more than 20-30mn each way. You’ll have to treat this seriously because ir takes more effort than living in campus: go in the morning and spend the whole day there not just for classes but also office hours, lab report meetings, tutoring, review sessions (which are often scheduled in the 6-8pm), get involved in clubs, etc. However if you go to a CSU most students will be in the same situation as you are.
I commute via subway; it takes me about an hour each way. I have a weird love for commuting.
The positives are: I save a lot of money. I enjoy having two “spheres” of life - my school life and my home life as the stress of one doesn’t easily carry over into the other. My commute only involves trains, so I can usually do a lot of homework during my commute (my major is a social science, so there’s lots of reading.) I enjoy being with my family a lot since we’re very small and close-knit.
The negatives: I usually can only schedule my classes in a certain way meaning I will sometimes have to forego more interesting classes because they’re at a weird time. For instance, I tend to schedule all of my classes early in the morning in a back-to-back sequence; I hate having huge gaps in my schedule, so I can’t take a class that’s at 4PM if the class before it ends at 10AM. It’s also sort of hard to convince myself to stay on campus once I’m finished with classes - I always have this strong urge to just bolt home and do homework/nap/watch Netflix, and that sort of mentality can really impact how involved you are on campus.
Logistically speaking, the maximum time for your commute is dependent upon the mode of transportation and the sort of class schedule you have. For instance, my commute is an hour, but it’s by public transit so I don’t mind since I can be productive, watch a video, or just “rest my eyes.” If instead I had to drive an hour, I’d probably enjoy commuting a hell of a lot less. Similarly, if your commute is an hour, and you take an 8AM class, consider how early you need to be awake in order to get to class on time. I take a lot of early morning classes and I usually need to be out of bed at 6AM in order to make it to an 8AM. If you aren’t an early riser, this is definitely something you need to consider.
My class schedule is always back-to-back and early in the morning. Some people don’t have as much flexibility with their classes since they’re in a more regimented major (like nursing or engineering). I have always been able to create a schedule I was content with because of priority registration combined with having a major where there were 10+ courses available that could fulfill any given requirement I had (and a lot of those classes were inevitably in the morning.) If your major is far rigid, you won’t really be able to have much of a say in your schedule, especially later on in your college career since there may only be one or two sections of a course you need in order to graduate.
Overall, as someone entering their last semester of college and as someone who has commuted the entire time, I had a very positive experience. I was able to maintain high grades, travel abroad, participate in clubs, make friends (meet my boyfriend), work in on-campus positions, hold internships, attend various events, and so on.
If you have any questions, feel free to PM me.
I went to CC in LA county, not far from OC. I then transferred and completed my degree at a CSU. Commuting in SoCal is a pain, but you made a choice. Give yourself extra time if your classes are anytime during rush hours. If you have to take freeways to get to school, which I did, maybe allow an extra twenty minutes. If you take the 405, maybe more? For surface streets, an extra fifteen should be good.
The negative aspects are that you will still be in your comfort zone. I did not make ONE friend in all of my college years. All of my friends were from work or in my town. I never felt at all immersed in college life. It was simply a place to get a job done. I kind of regret that. College was never the best four years thing for me. I had a good time, but not due to college. Not being invested in college meant that for a long time, I didn’t take it seriously. I dropped a lot of classes and was put on academic probation. By the time I was done, I was sick of my family and couldn’t wait to leave. That’s not a great way to feel about your family. Frankly, I never cared much about the driving. I listened to KROQ and did my makeup in the car. Driving was fun.
The positive aspects are saving money on college in the first place, and being able to hold down jobs. I had a LOT of cash as a college student. This allowed me to play as much as I wanted. Because I wasn’t on the four year timeline, I did my degree in six years. I travelled to Europe, Canada, Mexico and Australia. I got my degree, which I credit with enabling me to have my current job. So that’s positive for sure.
If I were to do it over again, I wouldn’t have wasted so much time. I would have made an effort to be more involved in college life, which probably meant I never met a lot of nice people. By all means, commute to college, but try to get involved in your college. That’s probably my biggest regret.
The majority of college students are commuters. It is a very normal thing to do. As you do it more and more you learn the shortcuts to avoid traffic. Living at home can be nice in some respects, you get to see your family everyday, but relationships might be a challenge.
I know people who have had vastly different experiences as a commuting student. Some just went to college for class and left right after and others stayed on campus, got involved in activities and meeting new people – you can guess who had the better overall experience.
So my advice would be to enjoy being in your comfort zone and saving money by staying at home but also try to spread your wings a bit, get out there and meet new people, get involved in campus life and make the extra effort that can help to give you a full college experience.
I don’t mind commuting personally because I love driving, but 20-30 min each way is 40-60 min I could spend exercising each day, so that’s something else to consider.
I was a commuter for 6 years (in a '69 Bug, with no heat and a sketchy stereo), the furthest campus being about 30-45 minutes away. I made sure to maximize my time on campus with that longer commute. Because I was always working 2 or 3 part-time jobs, I didn’t have time for school extracurriculars. If you do, definitely make the effort to join them. I didn’t feel particularly connected to any of the schools I went to, probably for that reason. Also, making friends in school was tougher - since I was living at home, it was easier to keep up my high school friendships.
I was a commuter. I went to USC and I live maybe 9 miles away from campus. USC covered my entire tuition with grant aid, so I would have had to take out loans if I wanted to live on-campus/near campus. Also, my mom was horrified by the price of living at the apartments near campus as the price was easily double what she pays for the mortgage.
The real positive for me was that I got to spend time with my family. I don’t really like being away from my mother since she’s already a bit older and his limited mobility. She always likes to cook for me, so that was another plus. I didn’t really have to make my own food.
Even though I only lived about 9 miles away, it easily took 40+ minutes for me to make it to campus. For instance, I would often leave at 6:45AM if I wanted to make it in time for my 8AM course. I also never learned how to drive, so I primarily relied on the bus and/or Uber. I usually liked to take Uber on my way home because I was beat, but I’ve had a few issues with Uber. When I get out any later than 3PM, I find that drivers aren’t too enthusiastic about the ride. I’ve even had around 5 drivers flat out kick me out of their car because they didn’t want to drive.
A real negative for me was that I didn’t really spend a lot of time on-campus if I wasn’t in a classroom. This meant that I rarely if ever utilized office hours because they would always be during a time when I didn’t have to be on-camps. I also didn’t really make many friends. There was one girl that was also a commuter, but she managed to make the most of her time. I feel like the negatives depend on what kind of person you are. I’m pretty shy and not very social, so maybe that’s why I had a harder time making friends.
I had the opportunity to be both a commuter and resident. I attended a small, private liberal arts college. There was a good group is students from Catholic high schools that commuted. Most stayed home, except for one year, to save money. There were enough of us to find friendships and groups with the added advantage of knowing Denver and fun places to go and things to do. We were also experienced enough to drive in the mountains. We went to night events. I didn’t feel bad about commuting as I could be where I wanted to be and acted as a host and local person to other commuter (skiing, eating, site seeing, and having avoid time. Living at had me allowed me to enjoy my bed and room, sit on the back porch, visit favorite malls, watch television, play with the cat…Downsides included getting on the bus and waiting downtown if cold for the transfer. Navigating traffic when I was the driver and finding parking.
I really enjoyed life as a resident student. I can’t say it was substantially better, only different. I missed the convenience of going downtown, to the natural history museum, my parish, the mall within walking distance .However, I had opportunities to participate IH dorm and cafeteria events. I went to the chapel and was involved with religious activities such as teaching catechism. I went to the library to prowl and study. I even chose my graduate school when a bulletin fell open on my foot on the page for school psychology.
to participate
I had the opportunity to be both a commuter and resident. I attended a small, private liberal arts college. There was a good group is students from Catholic high schools that commuted. Most stayed home, except for one year, to save money. There were enough of us to find friendships and groups with the added advantage of knowing Denver and fun places to go and things to do. We were also experienced enough to drive in the mountains. We went to night events. I didn’t feel bad about commuting as I could be where I wanted to be and acted as a host and local person to other commuter (skiing, eating, site seeing, and having avoid time. Living at had me allowed me to enjoy my bed and room, sit on the back porch, visit favorite malls, watch television, play with the cat…Downsides included getting on the bus and waiting downtown if cold for the transfer. Navigating traffic when I was the driver and finding parking.
I attended a college close to my home for my first two years.
I enjoyed it at first for a couple reasons. I liked the fact that I was still at home. I was not ready to move away from my hometown at the end of my senior year of high school. I was sort of a homebody at the start of my college career.
Another thing I liked about it was that I was saving money. I was able to pay for most of my first year without anyone’s help. My parents were so happy with that because my sister chose to go away for college for all four years, and she is in a ton of debt at this point. I’m going to have student-loan debt, but not as bad as her.
As time went on, however, I began to want to move away from home and try something new. When my high-school friends would come home and visit, they would tell me all about the fun they had while away at school. I began to crave that fun that they were having.
I also noticed that being fifteen minutes away from home began to feel like high school. Many of my high-school peers attended the same college as I did, and that resulted in not making many new friends because I already had an established group at the college. By the end of my second year, I was ready to move.
My first year away at college was an experience that I’ll cherish forever. It was a rough transition for me at first, but I loved gaining my own independence and living life away from my home. I never experienced life away from my hometown, and I’m glad I got to experience it. I’m looking forward to another year away from home!