Living off campus can be great. No RA’s, no dorming horror stories, and no problems having to deal with campus food. These perks make you want to move out of your dorm and live off campus right? As amazing as living off campus sounds, there are also a lot of struggles that commuter students are faced with. Maybe some of these are relatable to a fellow commuter. If not, you will understand what other commuter students deal with on the daily basis.
1. Waking up early for class
For those who live farther away from school, you know the struggle. It means missing out on that extra half or more hours of sleep. Getting up ten minutes before class is not an option, unless you were planning on being late to class.
2. Public transportation
Nothing’s perfect, certainly not public transportation. It’s crowd and almost never on time. If you live close enough to live at home but too far to walk to school, public transportation is one option. Especially when there are never parking spaces at your school… I guess it’s a compromise for going to school in the city.
3. Dealing with TRAFFIC
This one is self-explanatory. School in the heart of Boston is awesome, (it’s one of the deciding factors of why we might have decided to go to here) but the traffic in Boston is not. We often get frustrated by the close encounters with the car and the train, but imagine how driving in the traffic must feel. You have the urge to run red light and hit students with your car when it isn’t their turn to walk. Just don’t blame me for being late, it was the traffic!
4. What are naps?
I love naps, and seriously they are one of the greatest things in the world. Dogs come first of course! But when you are a commuter student, naps can be kind of challenging. You might have a hour gap, but do you really want to walk home, take a nap, and come back to school? Especially if you live farther than 15 minutes away? It definitely is a struggle considering there isn’t a place to nap at school, and it is probably a weird experience to nap on campus.
5. What to do with free time on campus?
Okay so I can’t nap, but what am I going to do for the next two hours before my class starts? There is the Curry student center, but I’m not hungry. Then there is Snell Library, but it’s crowd during finals week. Hmm…any suggestions?
6. Working on group projects
As a business major, you probably have a group project in every class. For commuter students this can be a struggle. It’s hard enough finding a time to meet with everyone, but coming back to school at 6 PM or even 8 PM to work on one… I know it’s part of our grade, but do I really want to commute through rush hour or sit on campus for 4 hours as I wait for the project to begin?
7. Meeting new people
You meet people from your classes, majors, extracurricular clubs, and through mutual friends. Commuters don’t really spend that much time on campus to get to really know people. This is probably one of the biggest downfalls, especially if you are an introvert.
8. Not knowing where things are on campus
Freshman: “Hey where is …..?”
You: “I’m not really sure, sorry!”
It’s hard knowing where every building and service is when you don’t live on campus, even if you’ve been a student here for three years. You learn new things about the school every day.
These are just some of the things commuters students may be dealing with, but living off campus can be a very great experience especially if you are living with your friends. Plus, you don’t have to pay rent to the school, which can be a good thing if you are living with your parents.