Living on campus v commuting what do you recommend?

Hi is the living on campus a much better experience than commuting in? will have approx 40 minute drive, which am happy to do, but I also want to be part of the student life experience without the expense of living on campus - is this possible?

Reply 1

LJMUStudentReps

Official Rep

Hi there,

I was in a really similar position. I lived in halls in first year for the experience, then commuted in the years after.
Flatmates are a bit of a lottery – I became close with some and barely saw others, so I wouldn’t worry too much about missing out socially if you commute. The main thing halls gave me was independence, like budgeting and experimenting with cooking.

You can still make friends in loads of other ways though. Coursemates are a big one – go to induction, try setting up a group chat, and suggest grabbing food after lectures so you’ve got people to go to Freshers’ events with. You can join societies and sports clubs too, and most let you try taster sessions before committing. I also made friends through part-time work, volunteering, and things outside uni like open mic events and pub quizzes.

Plans can be a bit more spontaneous in halls, but it really depends on your flat. You can still have a great social life as a commuter, and some unis even offer short-stay accommodation (1–2 nights) if you want to stay over for late events or exams.

Hope that helps and good luck with starting uni 🙂

Megan (LJMU Rep)

Reply 2

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

Original post

by jlocke70

How/where do you intend to park once you get to your destination? Normally there is limited if any parking available for undergraduates unless you have accessibility/medical requirements that they issue you a permit for. Also is that 40 minutes on the motorway, or 40 minutes door to door? You need to account for the full door to door commute time to make sure you can make an informed decision!

If 40 minutes door to door and if you can somehow resolve the parking issue then it's not completely out of the realm of possibility. I wouldn't recommend commuting in general unless you have a very compelling reason to do so (usually for e.g. mature students who have a lot of responsibilities beyond uni, or if you have caring commitments or need to stay local to a hospital where you live for specialist treatment or something).

If the goal is for savign money I think usually you won't actually save that much - bear in mind if you live at your parental home in term time, you get a reduced maintenance loan, and when you add on the costs of maintaining a car (inc tax, insurance, MOTs etc) with fuel (and parking!) costs along with the reduced maintenance loan I think you'll probably be saving less than you expect anyway. So do factor that in too :redface:

Also, don't discount how much a regular commute can be fatiguing. They really do drain your energy a lot and as you're already being expected to spend 30-40 hours a week on your studies, this can make things a lot harder to balance in terms of quality of life. Also that's at least an hour and a half a day less time to either relax, study, work on assignments, or socialise - it's really kind of "dead air" which adds up in the long run :s-smilie:

Equally, it's undeniable that not living on campus can limit your social options sometimes - even outside of drinking (which, as you'll be driving, you essentially can't ever do in the university context, for better or worse), a lot of clubs and societies have meetings and events (including non-alcohol based ones) in the evenings and you then need to consider if you really want to go to the event, leave late, and then still have a 40 minute drive (or more!) to get home...!

Personally I'd recommend living in halls for first year at least - this gives you the opportunity to experience "uni life" fully, and get to know people on and off your course better. Then for second year onwards (where normally you'd have to look to move into a private rental with others) you could consider moving back home and commuting from then, after you've established your social networks and gotten into a good routine and have a good sense of how much time you need to spend on your studies and everything else :smile:

Note if the door to door commute is 1hr plus I would consider that to not be sustainable for a full time student though so do look at the whole commute - also consider the commute time in terms of regular traffic conditions, 40 minutes on a day with no one on the road when actually every single day it's gridlock traffic at certain times of day (which may be when you want to go home) means the commute is not actually 40 minutes :wink: