commute to university

I want to go to a particular university, however it's 1 hour by bus to the university and another hour back, is it worth it? Is there anyone who commutes similarly

Reply 1

University of Bath

Official Rep

Original post by Buzzinglion

I want to go to a particular university, however it's 1 hour by bus to the university and another hour back, is it worth it? Is there anyone who commutes similarly

Hi Buzz,

This is a very common dilemma faced by students thinking of commuting.

I commuted in second year and it took me an hour and a half each way. It wasn't ideal but its perfectly doable if you make sure you're organised and be prepared to make extra effort to get involved with societies, events and stuff on campus so you don't miss out.

I liked the fact that I could save a lot of money on rent by commuting and save some up instead, and also living at home allowed a separation between student and home life (unless I stayed late to go to an SU night or society meet up!) - and I found this helpful.

My advice would be that you definitely make some great memories living in halls but this is not the be-all-and-end-all of your uni experience, and as long as you make the effort to come to campus often and get involved with things then I'm confident you'd save money and wouldn't be disadvantaged.

I hope this helps and best of luck 🙂

Holly
University of Bath

Reply 2

martin7

Original post by Buzzinglion

I want to go to a particular university, however it's 1 hour by bus to the university and another hour back, is it worth it? Is there anyone who commutes similarly

Things you might want to take into account:

•

how reliable is the bus service?

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does it run at times that are suitable? (i.e. does the service start early enough for you to arrive on time for a 9am lecture; and does it run late enough that you can get home after lectures and/or any evening activities)

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Is the cost reasonable? (And can you get a season ticket/multi-ride ticket that could save you money?)

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Can you rely on the bus service not changing? (For example, I live in a rural area and the last ten years the service has changed several times. There was a service that stopped close to me that I could use to commute; then they cancelled it, with the nearest bus service 40 minutes walk away; then they introduced a new service that meant that I didn't need to walk 40 mins, but would need to change buses; and now that new service is going to take a different route, which would bring back that 40 minute walk.)

Reply 3

hallamstudents

Official Rep

Original post by Buzzinglion

I want to go to a particular university, however it's 1 hour by bus to the university and another hour back, is it worth it? Is there anyone who commutes similarly

Hi @Buzzinglion ,

Lots of people have a similar dilemma, so I thought I could give some of my insight into this. I don't commute myself, however a lot of my course mates do so I still have some idea of how it works and what is good and what isn't good to do when commuting.

As others have said, I think one of the main questions would be how reliable is the bus service? If it is reliable and is usually on time, this might not be too much of a hassle. However, if it is quite often late or doesn't turn up, this could be quite a big problem as you don't want to miss any of your lectures or seminars.

Another thing to consider is that if you have a 9am, you would have to get quite an early bus so it depends if you would be happy to do this. If you wouldn't mind this, it would be fine but if you don't think you would like doing this it might be quite a big factor.

It's also likely that you won't be in uni every day. Some courses have less contact hours than others so it might be worth looking into this and seeing how often you might be in uni as this may also affect your decision. If you are in every day, this might make it feel a lot worse, but if you are only in twice or three times a week, it won't be too bad at all as you have plenty of time to rest too!

One way of deciding whether you think you would enjoy the journey is to practice it! if you can, do the journey one day, there and back and see what it's like. It might also be worth doing it at peak times, so if you were to have a 9am or if you were to leave uni at 5pm to get home. This would give you the best representation of what the journey will be like and see if you would be able to do this every day if you needed to.

I hope some of this helps,

Lucy -SHU student ambassador.

Reply 4

UEA Rep Grace

Official Rep

Original post by Buzzinglion

I want to go to a particular university, however it's 1 hour by bus to the university and another hour back, is it worth it? Is there anyone who commutes similarly

My commute can take me anywhere from 30 mins to 1 hour each way depending on the traffic and time I leave. I really enjoy living at home because it saves so much money, but I have to get to uni extra early for my 9am lectures to avoid traffic. I also miss out on quite a lot of social events with my friends because I don't live on campus. Also, if I have a 9am and then also a 1pm lecture I have to hang around during the day, and coming in for, say, just one lecture feels really useless sometimes, not to mention I get tired after a long day + commute.

But if I did it again, I would still live at home. I get to see my family and my dogs, and I save a lot of money, so I guess it really depends on how you feel about it all. Could you spend a week taking the bus to see how you feel, or even a day?