Hi there,
I stayed in uni accommodation and private, rented residences with my friends from uni for the whole 3 years of my undergrad degree, because I lived too far away for it to be possible to commute everyday. However, I’m our friendship group we did have a girl who lived really locally to us and commuted. Every time we went out she always came with us and was actually one of the most go ahead to get us all together to do something, so I don’t think her not living on site had any impact on her student experience. She did stay over occasionally during first and third years when we were in halls, and more often in second year when we privately rented but as far as I know there were no stipulations made by the uni as to how many times she could stay.
From a personal point of view, for all my subsequent postgrad degrees, I’ve remained at home for financial reasons and also because I live close to the unis. I haven’t found that this has detracted in any way from the student life. I think a lot more students commute into uni now as finances are more straitened and at Chester, we have a commuting students rep in the union who ‘campaigns’ for improvements such as lockers for us, cheaper public transport etc.
I think the most important thing whether you commute in or not is to get involved in all the clubs and societies on offer to make sure that you meet people at uni with similar interests, but given that these are available to all students I think its important for everyone, not just those not living in.
As the other replies have said make sure that you are clear about when you need accommodation to be booked, as unis do have closing dates on acceptance of accommodation and the best rooms often get booked up quickly so keep this in mind,
I hope this helps,
Good luck with your course
Jess
PhD English
University of Chester