Do you think commuting 1hr 30mins to uni is worth it?

Am thinking about commuting to uni, but 1hr and 30mins and 3hrs in total from home to uni sounds like a lot. It'd be expensive but not as expensive as accoms, plus I can stay at home too

Thanks

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1

Genesiss

i wouldn't do anything more than 30-45 minutes max. ngl i think you'd get tired of that commute right fast and immediately start skipping classes. like are you really going to be motivated to go to a 9am seminar or if you have a day where you only have 1 one-hour lecture? i really doubt it. find a way to live in student accom :yy:

Reply 2

charleyhowells

I commuted around that in my first year by train and it was pretty tiring but I did save myself a bit of money compared to if I was to stay in accommodation. Also weirdly, I found myself more motivated commuting as I could work on the train and I had a bit of relaxation after a long day- it kind of made me feel accomplished which kept me motivated throughout the year. In my opinion, a lot of accommodation isn't worth it.

Reply 3

Honey57

Personally, I wouldn’t commute more than an hour.

Reply 4

1secondsofvamps

Even an hour each way is too much for me

Reply 5

knksj112

I stayed in accommodation in my first year and decided to stay at home for my final year. I live about 45-50 minutes away from uni and honestly commuting is so tiring. In my first year I would attend every single lecture but when I stayed at home I found myself reluctant to get up early to travel- especially if class was only for an hour or two. That being said, if it's not financially viable for you to move out, developing a routine will be really important. I have a friend who commuted the entirety of the three years (minus lockdown), and they would do work on the train at 5am, get to uni at 8 and just stay on campus until classes ended. Granted, I'm sure they're doing a lot better than me right now since I would have to stay on campus from 6am until 11pm some days but anything that requires multiple trains/buses/long journeys isn't feasible for the majority in the long run.
It depends on whether you think you'll be ok with travelling back and forth for lectures and tutorials and whether you're ok with staying on campus during breaks between classes.

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 6

Ten-Ten

It’s not. Not even a tiny bit

I wouldn't do it.

I'm planning to do the same lol, my sixth form was roughly an hour away so I don't think it will be too bad. Honestly, it just depends on what you're used to and how motivated you think you'll be to commit to this journey at least 3 times a week (more or less depending on your course). Maybe try going down to the uni you're talking about for an open day or something and see if you can adjust to the routine, I'm gonna try this myself as well.

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 9

jonathanemptage

Really anything over an hour total and your wasting time people say “I’ll work on the train.”The problem wit that is you won’t you can’t do good work on a train the most you can do is house keeping (organising notes and stuff basically procrastinating). Also uni is much more fun if your in halls I can’t really describe it very well and will your really save money I saved £10 a week staying in halls. It also means you can take part in things and get the full experience with a 1.5 hour commute you’ll miss out that’s the long and short of it. People say”university is the time of your life .” It is but you’ll find a lot of those people lived in accommodation.

I’m sure you’ll get people on here saying “I lived at home and it was fine I don’t feel it impacted my university experience at all.” To them I say “You don’t know man you weren’t there.” (From Apocalypse Now.) But seriously they don’t know they many find when they are taking their own kids to move in they suddenly release what they missed out on. Don’t pass up this experience grab it by the horns o’s the only chance you have to experience it so do please you’ll enjoy it. Good Luck.

Reply 10

gaynor_scraggins

If you can, it probably is worth living on campus if you want the student experience. However, if you're happy at home, commuting is fine. Honestly, 1.5 hours each way is no problem. You might also find that you're only in 3 or 4 days some weeks for 12/13 weeks each semester. On the days you only have one lecture (or worse - the single lecture us cancelled), or a big gap between classes. make use of the other facilities on campus e.g. library, sports, careers info.

And if you find it is too long a commute, you can always move to uni then - lots of students change accommodation during the year.

Good luck!

Reply 11

mnot

Universities Forum Helper

No this is 3 hour travel per day, 15 hours a week, not to mention the difficulty of parking and squeeze on having to deal with natural volatility in travel and stress. Far too long, very draining.

Fuel is through the roof rn as it is...

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 12

Keele Rep

Official Rep

My commute is an hour each way and, to be honest, I wouldn't want to be doing any longer especially if I had to be on campus every day. This is partly because I find long drives both boring and tiring (even with audiobooks and podcasts to help) but also for cost and social reasons.

As @mnot has said, fuel costs are going through the roof: I'm certainly limiting my journeys to/from campus as a result of rising prices, opting to spend 1-2 long days up there a week and WFH the rest of the time. As a PhD student, I can do that but, if I had to attend campus every day, I hate to think what I would be spending! There's also the ongoing costs of parking and vehicle maintenance to consider.

Much as universities try to mitigate against it, you do also lose out on an aspect of the social side of things when commuting. I'm a mature student and I don't really drink alcohol so not being able to attend nights out doesn't really bother me as I'd rather go to a coffee morning or a craft afternoon! But knowing you've got an hour or so's drive on either end of your day does, I find, stop me attending many evening events on campus, or going up to campus solely for the purposes of socialising.

As a commuting student, it's definitely do-able but I'd advise weighing up the cost-effectiveness of living at home with these factors, especially if you need to be on campus more than 2 or 3 days a week.

Hope that helps!

Amy Louise :smile:

Reply 13

Reality Check

Original post by avaliu

Am thinking about commuting to uni, but 1hr and 30mins and 3hrs in total from home to uni sounds like a lot. It'd be expensive but not as expensive as accoms, plus I can stay at home too

Thanks

This question comes up a lot on TSR - I recommend you search for it in this and other fora to give you an idea of the consensus (it seems to be that anything over 45mins is too long, and over an hour is crippling - certainly long-term.)

It's obviously down to individual preferences and prior experience of commuting. For instance, if you've been used to travelling for an hour or more during college, then you're going to feel very differently about it than someone who's been used to attending their workplace or place of study just down the road.

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 14

Leon H

Original post by avaliu

Am thinking about commuting to uni, but 1hr and 30mins and 3hrs in total from home to uni sounds like a lot. It'd be expensive but not as expensive as accoms, plus I can stay at home too

Thanks

I drive, but Ill also be commuting on the train into Liverpool for uni, every now and then. My public transport commute will be an hour. If I had only a 1 hour lecture during the day, I would fill my day with study at library within the uni or a walk through Liverpool if I have nothing else to do. Also, I quite like the idea of relaxing while taking the train. My public transport commute will include a 20 minute walk which I think would be great to get myself ready for the day. An hour and half is a stretch, just make your day full afterwards.

Reply 15

jonathanemptage

Original post by Leon H

I don't think you grasp the magnitude of some of these breaks I had a 9am
and then a 6pm that worked out to a 9 hour break surely you can't study for that long or study effectively for that length of time.

Reply 16

Leon H

Original post by jonathanemptage

I cant imagine that, Ill be driving 30 mins so I cant see that being an issue for me. That must have been hard, how long was your commute?

Reply 17

jonathanemptage

Original post by Leon H

I cant imagine that, Ill be driving 30 mins so I cant see that being an issue for me. That must have been hard, how long was your commute?

I was in accommodation but my commute would have been about an hour each way vs a 15 minute walk (on a good day) so taking that break into account and how easy it was to get back to my accommodation it worked out pretty well for me.

Reply 18

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

I agree with the above, it's unrealistic and unsustainable. Also remember while taking that trip as a one off is fine and you don't really notice it, when you're doing it several times a week or even daily it becomes extremely fatiguing.

Also does your timeline include all parts of the trip, or just the main journey? For example, I used to have a regular commute that was about 20 minutes on the train. But to get to the train station, it was a 10 minute drive to the village to get the bus to the city which itself was 25 minutes and then I had a half hour walk on the otherwise, and vice versa ok the way back. Plus if I was late for any one of those moving parts I'd have to wait an extra half an hour to an hour depending which one it was. Finally, they all only left at certain times and they did not link well so inevitably I had to spend 15-20 mins sitting and waiting in the train station/for the bus/etc, which becomes a huge drain when it's the middle of winter and freezing, or pouring wih rain or something.

Honestly anything more than 30-40 minutes door to door (so the full trip!) Is unsustainable I think.

Reply 19

L_Anz

I don't think I would mind tbh, the uni I'm planning to go to is an hour and a half away. The cheapest accommodation was like £190 per week :s-smilie:

so that was not an option