Tales Of a (College) Commuter

Did I mention I was a commuter in college? I made the most of it and I loved it. A friend in college once questioned my love for commuter life at college, saying “Katie (my nickname) I bet you really actually would like to live on campus.” What did I tell him?: “Yup, Rob (not his real name) I would, but I wouldn’t be able to attend here and live on campus, I’m thankful enough that I get to finish my degree here as it is. Rob was a commuter too, mind you.

What seemed like every other person at college whether they live on campus or not I swear: “But Katie some kids live far away what about them?” Two things: One, there are schools by you. Take my friend who lives about 2 hours away from me, she still attended a school in the city for a while but was smart enough with her schedule to only make the trip twice a week. Two, apartments. Sure apartments are expensive, and there may be some outlier cities, but the majority of the time apartment life will be cheaper, and nicer than a dorm anyway (based on research) You aren’t obligated to buy a meal plan (that many students don’t take full advantage of anyway), and you don’t pay for RA, RD or other staff, you take care of your space and respect it.

Is commuter life perfect? Nope. You have to drive to get to class, if you live in an apartment you have to make enough to pay rent every month instead of having loans that go toward housing. You have to find parking before classes every morning. You may have avoided a meal plan but food is expensive to buy at most schools out of pocket. The thing is, these are all just little things, that most people deal with in real life.

Nowadays I still commute, it’s just not to college anymore. I mean, people don’t live at work, they usually don’t have meal plans, and they can’t sleep in until 9:30 am willy nilly waiting for 12pm class to roll around. I think commuting was great looking back. Normal residence life is hardly preparing you for real life from what I’ve seen, with the primary exception that comes to mind being if you become an RA.

“But Katie, what about the ‘experience’?” I experienced college, I didn’t have to live there to have a social life, I just made an effort.

Next time anyone wants to talk about the “experience” of living on college to me, I better not hear one little peep about their gargantuan student loans, you had your “fun on-campus life”, you signed the loan agreement.