Accomodation Vs commuting

How far is everyone travelling to uni? Are you feeling nervous or excited or a mixture?
Are you commuting or getting accomodation?

Uni is 2 hours away if I wanted to take public transport. I feel nervous about living away. I'm getting accomodation

Reply 1

Anonymous #1

Original post by Hazel-forest

How far is everyone travelling to uni? Are you feeling nervous or excited or a mixture?
Are you commuting or getting accomodation?
Uni is 2 hours away if I wanted to take public transport. I feel nervous about living away. I'm getting accomodation

The piece of advice that I have received from someone much older is never put yourself in a position where you would need to commute for more than 30 minutes. It will drain you and add on more hours in your working day (there and back).

If you have to commute 2 hours there and back, you would be spending at least 4 hours a day on top of whatever time you spend at uni. I have seen people commute 1 hour from uni and I thought that was excessive.

Getting accommodation that is 30 minutes a way (on foot, drive, bike, whatever) makes more sense than 2 hours public transport.

Reply 2

Chester Student

Official Rep

Original post by Hazel-forest

How far is everyone travelling to uni? Are you feeling nervous or excited or a mixture?
Are you commuting or getting accomodation?
Uni is 2 hours away if I wanted to take public transport. I feel nervous about living away. I'm getting accomodation

Hi there,

The previous reply has summed it up quite nicely. I don't personally know anyone that commutes for more than an hour each way. The cost of transport will add up, and commuting also takes up a lot of time. For you, that would be four hours a day. You need to make sure you use your time wisely, especially at university, so it sounds like a good idea for you to get accommodation.

What in particular are you nervous about? Remember that you can always text, call, and visit home. It might also help to bring decorations for your room that remind you of home. Moving into university accommodation is a great way to learn independence, become self-reliant, create a safe space, and socialize.

How are you feeling about starting university? What will you be studying?

I hope this helps,

Isabella
Geography with a Year Abroad Student

Reply 3

Heriot-Watt Uni

Official Rep

Original post by Hazel-forest

How far is everyone travelling to uni? Are you feeling nervous or excited or a mixture?
Are you commuting or getting accomodation?
Uni is 2 hours away if I wanted to take public transport. I feel nervous about living away. I'm getting accomodation

Hi,

It does depend on what you'd feel most comfortable doing. From what I've heard from people who do commute; a 2hr commute would be pretty brutal. This tends to lead to not really joining any societies or clubs because of how late you'd end up getting home or lack of transport later on at night.

Going to accommodation and moving away from home is nerve-wracking but it's really worth it in my eyes. My biggest tip if you are going to go the accommodation route is to try to not go home during the first month. From what my friends went through it tended to make them feel a lot more homesick when the visited home and then came back then they were before they went home. In my experience I felt a little homesick during the first week but afterwards I settled in and it was all great.

I hope this helps!

- Jessica
Student Rep

Reply 4

hallamstudents

Official Rep

Original post by Hazel-forest

How far is everyone travelling to uni? Are you feeling nervous or excited or a mixture?
Are you commuting or getting accomodation?
Uni is 2 hours away if I wanted to take public transport. I feel nervous about living away. I'm getting accomodation

Hi there,

I also agree with what others have been saying - a 2 hour commute each way is a lot and you would end up being very tired as it would add a lot of extra time onto your day. Sometimes you will also have quite a big gap between lectures/classes so you would have spent a lot of time at uni and then have a big commute home. I think you have made the right decision about living in accommodation as it will mean you have so much more time to get things done rather than spending 4 hours travelling each day.

Try not to worry too much about living away- lots of people get nervous about this as it is such a big change from school and anything you will have done before, but it is a great experience and once you have settled in, you will really start to enjoy it and it will start to feel like home.

You can usually try and find some of your flatmates too on social media before you start which can be nice and can make moving in feel less daunting so this might be a good idea to try and do before you start so you will feel less worried. Other things which will help you to feel more prepared are practicing cooking before you go, buying all of your things in advance and making sure you have nice homely things for your room!

I hope some of this helps 🙂

Lucy - SHU student ambassador.