Dorming vs. Commuting

[Netto]

So, I thought I'd make this topic since I'm legitly thinking about dorming. There are a couple of things I'd like to discuss.

1. Financial Aid

Yes, I know dorms can get very expensive. As much as I dislike loans, I'll have no choice to accept them if I do this. The dorms at CSU East Bay (where I attend) have dorm rooms from $7,800 to $11,500 per year. With the financial aid change, I will be spending around $7,000 more. In my opinion, I'd rather just live at home (about a 1.5 hour commute with public transit). Which brings me to my next point.

2. Dorming vs. Commuting

Okay, some people have different situations on this part, but let me explain mine.

It takes me 1 hour and 40 mins to 2 full hours of commute time to get to school. That means leaving home no later than 6:20am for me to make it on time to an 8am class. I have to take public transit because I have no car. Do you know how exhausting that is? Try it and get back to me on that. If I had a car, it’d be 40 mins max (University is 30 miles away). Sure I can do homework and stuff like that during the long wait, but it doesn’t help me much when I’m exhausted sometimes. That, and if I miss a bus or a train, even by a second, I’m automatically 20 minutes late.

If I dorm: Get to have a social life for once, get to sleep in whenever I don’t have anything to do, get to see the professor without the need of waking up massively early, and do other things without worrying of when I need to leave campus. I can also choose my roommate and I plan on sticking with my pledge/fraternity brothers if I do.

Can anyone share their experiences/personal ideas about dorming? Or if you’re a commuter, could you say why you chose to?

[Moonlapse]

I'd go ahead and try to get a dorm. Driving over an hour to school every day is going to use up valuable study time and wear you down. Also, living in a dorm is a great social experience.

[sicnarf]

I commuted to school when I was in college, but I always had a car. In your case, it'd be a huge pain in the ass. Even with the cost, dorms would be far better; you'll get more time to do stuff, which will benefit you greatly. It's just inconvenient (and irritating) to commute that much.

[VerrKol]

Get the dorm, 2hrs away is too long.

I did an internship one summer at a place right next to my current school (UCSD) and had to take a combination of trains and buses for 2hrs every morning and evening to commute. It was physically exhausting. Even sleeping on the train (which I perfected very quickly), left me grumpy and tired every night when I got home. There is absolutely no way I could do that for classes and then come home and study on top of it.

I made it commuting one summer and will never ever do it come Hell or high water.

Maybe some superman can manage it and still find energy to study, but for us mortals it would lead to a definite hit to my GPA if I ever tried it.

At the very least, I highly recommend living in dorms your first year. It is a great social experience and a good way to meet people in your major to study(this is essential to survival). I've been taking out a 5k loan every year so that I can stay near campus and it's money well spent. Assuming you graduate with an employable major it shouldn't take more than a year or two of frugal living to pay off the loans anyway.

[chrome]

Dorming is worth it just for the social experience, especially if you're an underclassman (which I don't think you are but still). With the provisions and all the FRAAAANDS XD you'll make I'd say it's worth it, plus you don't have to deal with transit nearly as much. Even if you got a car, your auto bill would be like sixteenth...ed.

I lived on campus for two years and moved into an apartment (In Emeryville, 5 minutes away) for my junior year, so I don't really know much about commuting, but I know friends who still drive down here from Vallejo and wish they would've stayed on campus after freshman year mostly because of what everyone else said.

Don't you live in Richmond anyway? Why is this even a question? :|

[Shidoshi]

I commute 1h30min to my internship everyday. It's feasible if you don't have to do anything else when you get home. Studying, grocery shopping, laundry, cooking, etc. all seem like a HUGE effort and chore to do. It really wears you out. Furthermore, I wouldn't trade the social aspect of living in campus for anything in the world, if you live far from all your classmates you'll miss out on a lot things and end up a little alienated from them.

[Green4Ever]

I choose to commute because I live about 8 minutes away from campus, lol.
If I lived more than half an hour away I would prefer to live on campus.
Sitting at campus with nothing to do kills. I've tried studying in between classes and it just does not work, at all.

I'd choose convenience over money any day, even if it means large amounts of loans to pay off for the rest of my life.

[Baklava]

By getting housing on campus, you'd also be saving money that you'd normally use for public transportation!

[nRxUs]

There is also the option of leasing an apartment (with Friends/strangers/alone) near your campus. It would be cheaper than the dorms and closer than your house. If you don't know people that are going to be leasing an apartment then look for forums or stuff from your University that match people needing roommates.

[Sn1perJohnE]

hard to say, I personally would choose the dorms. I live only ~30 minutes away from my campus (CSU CI) but I live on campus. I could classify myself as not very social when I was living at home, but after living in the dorms for nearly 2 years now, I can say it was easily one of the best choices Ive ever made.

[icephoenix21]

I'd say dorm.

I've almost got my associates' and will be dorming in the fall. *w* I'm so excited.

Not only is it worth it for the social experience, but keep in mind connections and people you meet may provide for plenty of job (and other) opportunities in the future.

[WillDaSnail]

I would live in the dorm because of the social experience that you'll get. That's priceless.

[KhainiWest]

You guys are in college and still need social skills, man mad case fo aspergers up in here .

I'd go with dorm, 2 hour ride is just ridiculous.

[Onion Knight]

Would take a quality on-campus room over an off campus room (provided I didn't have to double up with anyone) for convenience. Threshold for (free or sufficiently reliable public transport) commuting being unreasonable for an off-campus room would be 45 minutes, wouldn't want to have to drive.

Apparently the social aspect is magnified tenfold when you're right in the centre of the "action" as opposed to on the outskirts but regardless of where you are you still have to make the effort yourself to get in there with everyone else, it is not going to be an "instant social butterfly" moment where you break free of your cocoon of gloom with both fists and outstretched arms in an outburst of very sociable light.

[Netto]

Dorming is worth it just for the social experience, especially if you're an underclassman (which I don't think you are but still). With the provisions and all the FRAAAANDS XD you'll make I'd say it's worth it, plus you don't have to deal with transit nearly as much. Even if you got a car, your auto bill would be like sixteenth...ed.

I lived on campus for two years and moved into an apartment (In Emeryville, 5 minutes away) for my junior year, so I don't really know much about commuting, but I know friends who still drive down here from Vallejo and wish they would've stayed on campus after freshman year mostly because of what everyone else said.

Don't you live in Richmond anyway? Why is this even a question? :|

Yes, I do. The reason why I'm asking is because I hate the commute. I can deal with having a car to drive, but public transportation is a royal pain in my ass. Also, I'm a 3rd year. I have 2 more years left (hopefully)

You all bring up good points. I'm really thinking about going through with it because this social life is definitely worth it (this being from staying on-campus with new friends until like 9pm)

Okay, seeing as the majority are saying dorming, how about this:

Car or dorm? (I haven't calculated the costs for both car AND dorm yet, but let's assume that's not feasible yet)

With a car, I can stay on campus longer and still work out being with friends. Also, it'll give me the opportunity to drive to the places I need/want to be. Social events, for example, will require others to have cars. Being in a dorm, I'd have to be incredibly dependent on my friends/roommate if we need to go somewhere.

[Corn]

I'd still say dorm because

a) gas and insurance
b) people would use you as a tool. Srsly. It happens all the time to the 18ers in high school, mang. Not sure about college if people get more mature but I doubt it.

[ArdentWings]

I say live on campus. That is, if you don't mind paying for the dorm. I commuted all of my second year, and it really hindered my ability to use a lot of the on-campus resources, such as the library and the late study hours with my professors. It's mostly a matter of convenience. There's also the ability to learn how to really closely get to know a foreign area outside of your comfort zone, which is valuable if you intend to take on summer internships that require you to move to a new city for 6-8 weeks or longer, or co-ops that require the same. Such work experiences are gems on your resume. Also, being around the people, and being able to reflect your position, abilities, and academic progress outside of the classroom on them may also give you a little perspective on your life and role as a college student as well.

[Retalion]

At my school, living on campus is expensive, so I personally choose to live off-campus by myself. Currently, I live a 30 minute, 1 bus ride away from campus, and I'm fine with that. Its significantly cheaper than living on campus. Here, transit is built into our tuition, so transiting is essentially "free", in the sense we have no choice but to pay for it. However, driving to campus is an expensive endeavor, as it costs $14 to park on campus all day, not to mention some crazy amount of taxes (Im not entirely sure, but last I heard, it was upwards of 20%) if you get monthly or semester passes. I think to park at my school for 1 semester, its in the range of $800-1k, not to mention all the money you'll spend on gas, so if you plan to drive, you might spend less living on campus.

I'm like Green in the sense that I find my break times on campus very unproductive, but it feels a waste to just leave my house sitting here (1200 square feet just to rot while I live on campus? no thanks), so I worked around it by minimizing the number of days Im at school (for the last two years, I've crammed all my courses in on 2 days the first semester, and 3 days in the second). Additionally, living by myself gives me a lot of freedom. I don't have to deal with messy roommates (roommates at my school are assigned, and the best you can do is work around it by applying for preferences of who you want to stay with), or people being noisy. Additionally, I can also be as noisy as I want without fear of disturbing my roommates, a factor I absolutely love, as being a piano major, I have this bad habit of practicing till 4 am in the morning sometimes.

With most of my friends living on campus and me tagging around them a lot of the time, I can definitely say that living off campus does take away from a lot of time I can interact with them, and I can definitely see the camaraderie built in living together/so close to each other. However, I chose that it wasn't worth the hassle, as it is cheaper to live by myself, and I can live with the 30 minute transit rides to and from campus 2 days a week. Its ultimately dependent on what you want and whether you're willing to sacrifice for it. Judging from what you're saying, I'd say you're probably better off living on campus, and worrying about your loans later.

[Mibs]

I commute ~45 min to an hour and a half daily to school in time to make it for 8:00 am classes too. Did it with a 7:00 am class too, it's really not bad. Then I stay on campus till ~9 pm when my classes are done and drive home. I get all my studying and homework done here, and if I need my teachers, I make appointments with them, since teachers inevitably have their office hours while I'm in other classes.
To me saving the money is worth it.

Edit: I should point out that the social aspect doesn't apply to me. I'm plenty capable of meeting people and connecting with them even better than their living mates do, so I don't have a need to cramp myself in with dorm mates.

[Netto]

I'd still say dorm because

a) gas and insurance
b) people would use you as a tool. Srsly. It happens all the time to the 18ers in high school, mang. Not sure about college if people get more mature but I doubt it.

A) Gas isn't a problem for me. Well, it is, but if I get a car that's great on gas, it'd be maybe $50 a week. I can live with that if that's the case. Insurance is about $100 a month on average here in California (according to the internet. Then again, it IS the internet...). Being on my parent's family plan, I expect to pay no more than maybe $150. With gas and buying the car, maybe about $300 a month. If that's the case, I can live with that too. It seems very reasonable to me.

B) I can always say no. I don't like my parents using me, so pineapple others using me as well. But, as far as I can tell, no one really uses anyone here. There's public transportation, a free shuttle to town, and friends who don't mind giving rides (I just want a car so I'm not limited by time factors. It doesn't even have to be a new car. I saw a pretty good $4,000 car just today).