Commuting to universities far away
11
Hi, so I’m located in Sheffield and got an offer in mechanical engineering at university of Manchester which is one of my dream universities that I firmed. It’s an 1 half hour to travel to the city and then 30 min walk to the campus. Which would mean 4 hour ish journey time in one day, which I feel like I could work around occupying my time with study while travelling on train until I can get a car which would reduce the time a lot. Wanted someone’s input on commuting whether it’s manageable 
Reply 1
Original post
by anonymoussyy Hi, so I’m located in Sheffield and got an offer in mechanical engineering at university of Manchester which is one of my dream universities that I firmed. It’s an 1 half hour to travel to the city and then 30 min walk to the campus. Which would mean 4 hour ish journey time in one day, which I feel like I could work around occupying my time with study while travelling on train until I can get a car which would reduce the time a lot. Wanted someone’s input on commuting whether it’s manageable
NO, your days will be very full with an Engineering degree and you will be exhausted.
Why do you need to commute?
Reply 2
Wouldn’t bother, why don’t you want to live in halls? That’s usually a pretty fundamental part of the uni experience. You’ll be pretty socially isolated if you have to commute 4 hours a day.
Original post
by anonymoussyy Hi, so I’m located in Sheffield and got an offer in mechanical engineering at university of Manchester which is one of my dream universities that I firmed. It’s an 1 half hour to travel to the city and then 30 min walk to the campus. Which would mean 4 hour ish journey time in one day, which I feel like I could work around occupying my time with study while travelling on train until I can get a car which would reduce the time a lot. Wanted someone’s input on commuting whether it’s manageable
I'm confused how you got 4 hours out of a half hour to the city and a half hour to the campus. Surely that's max a 2 hour return trip...
Reply 4
anonymoussyy
OP
11
Original post
by Muttley79NO, your days will be very full with an Engineering degree and you will be exhausted.
Why do you need to commute?
Why do you need to commute?
I’m not comfortable in moving out, nor everyone wants to move out but I am keen on studying at Manchester though
Reply 5
anonymoussyy
OP
11
Original post
by artful_loungerI'm confused how you got 4 hours out of a half hour to the city and a half hour to the campus. Surely that's max a 2 hour return trip...
Rough estimate of going there and back, 3-4hr dependent on how much I have to walk etc
Reply 6
20
Original post
by artful_loungerI'm confused how you got 4 hours out of a half hour to the city and a half hour to the campus. Surely that's max a 2 hour return trip...
OP wrote "It’s an 1 half hour to travel to the city and then 30 min walk to the campus."
If you interpret "an 1 half hour" as "one-and-a-half hours", then two hours each way for four hours in total works out.
Reply 7
20
Original post
by anonymoussyy until I can get a car which would reduce the time a lot.
Getting a car brings a new set of problems, and may well not make things significantly better in terms of your time.
Your main problem will be finding somewhere to park it when you travel in to university. Your university might not provide any parking for students (or it might provide it only for students with blue badges), which would mean you'd have to find somewhere else to park. Parking may well be expensive, and may not be conveniently located for where you need to be. You'll need to factor in traffic conditions, which will vary from day to day.
In addition you'll have the ongoing costs of owning and running a car -- tax, MOT, insurance, servicing, fuel costs, etc, which may make a significant dent in your budget.
Reply 8
9
If you want to stay at home, why not study at Sheffield University, that would make more sense and still be an awesome course.
Reply 9
I had a little trouble finding accommodation in my final year which ment about 4 hours travelling for a couple of weeks until I found a place. It was so tough anything over an hour is mad you miss out on some h and what if you need to stay late for group projects or you miss the last train. Or what if you have a nine hour break in a day like I did in my second year it’s so much better to be able to retreat somewhere comfortable (ok fairly comfortable.). While the library can be comfortable it won’t compare to your own space also have you costed everything I mean do you really save that much money if you do save money is it worth that saving to miss out as much as you will and burn out from long distance commutes are a real thing halls are a much better option
Reply 10
anonymoussyy
OP
11
The whole point is I want to study at Manchester for the campus and how good it is for engineering not necessarily for the social life. I’m working too and consciously saving for a car, timings I can set off earlier and costs i will be able to manage though it’s just a lot of fuel money, I assume will be cheaper than train. Also it just helps me feel secure esp with late cancellations or delays of trains
Reply 11
Original post
by anonymoussyy The whole point is I want to study at Manchester for the campus and how good it is for engineering not necessarily for the social life. I’m working too and consciously saving for a car, timings I can set off earlier and costs i will be able to manage though it’s just a lot of fuel money, I assume will be cheaper than train. Also it just helps me feel secure esp with late cancellations or delays of trains
Please either move out or go to Sheffield uni - you will have long days of study and this is not sustainable.
Reply 12
Original post
by anonymoussyy The whole point is I want to study at Manchester for the campus and how good it is for engineering not necessarily for the social life. I’m working too and consciously saving for a car, timings I can set off earlier and costs i will be able to manage though it’s just a lot of fuel money, I assume will be cheaper than train. Also it just helps me feel secure esp with late cancellations or delays of trains
Yeah I get that but I can tell you from experience BEng courses are very full on and it will help you a massive amount to be in halls or have a place locally.
Original post
by martin7OP wrote "It’s an 1 half hour to travel to the city and then 30 min walk to the campus."
If you interpret "an 1 half hour" as "one-and-a-half hours", then two hours each way for four hours in total works out.
If you interpret "an 1 half hour" as "one-and-a-half hours", then two hours each way for four hours in total works out.
That's a really weird way of writing "one and a half hours", but yes that tracks.
Original post
by anonymoussyy Rough estimate of going there and back, 3-4hr dependent on how much I have to walk etc
Assuming the timeline above is accurate, I would not suggest this for a full time degree. I have a roughly 2 hour door to door commute as a part-time student and it's hell, the only minor saving grace is that I only have to do it 2-3 days a week. If I had to do that 4-5 days a week it would be impossible - even the year I had to go in 3 days a week was extremely difficult and fatiguing. Not to mention the expense involved...
Simply put it's not a realistic commute as a full time student, you should be aiming to move somewhere closer or look at other universities.
Reply 14
20
Original post
by anonymoussyy I’m working too and consciously saving for a car, timings I can set off earlier and costs i will be able to manage though it’s just a lot of fuel money, I assume will be cheaper than train.
Don't assume. Do some research and work through the numbers.
I commute to work. I could drive in, and if I look at just the fuel costs, driving works out cheaper than travelling by train. But where I work, there's limited on-street parking -- but it's expensive and it's limited to either 2 or 4 hours depending on which area it's in. So my only realistic option is a multi-storey car park. And once I factor in the costs of parking, it turns out that driving in costs about twice as much as taking the train.
So you really do need to look at all the costs that driving involves, not just the fuel money.
Also it just helps me feel secure esp with late cancellations or delays of trains
You can also be delayed by accidents, roadworks, congestion etc when driving.
Anyway, I have to agree with the other posters on this thread -- four hours a day is far too much commuting time.
Reply 15
Why don’t you firm a university elsewhere. A 4 Hour commute after your typical 9 to 3 or 9 to 5 yeah I’m not so sure. Engineering as well that’s a lot to take in bit too intense that and a bit out of reach. 
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