As someone who lived on campus her first semester and now commutes from home, I can give a good perspective of comparison between living on campus and commuting from home. There are seemingly equal benefits to both, so here are the pros and cons of commuting.
1. Privacy
Pro: Living at home is great. You can have all the personal space you want. All your belongings can be placed around the room how you please, all your own furniture, no room checks, no roommates. You can study all day and night without disturbances.
Con: You don’t have that instant community experience that comes with living two feet from the nearest person going through the same things you are. That’s really something to be appreciated when you need someone to talk to at midnight when your non-residential friends are asleep or busy.
2. Food
Pro: You get to eat real, home-cooked meals at least half the time, eat on campus whenever you feel social, and eat out if you feel like it. You can because you have a car!
Con: You miss bonding with your friends as you walk together or making new friends along the way.
3. Parking
Pro: Commuter parking has way more options than residential parking.
Con: But if that’s all full, you’re toast, because you can’t walk—what would you do with your car?
4. Making it to class
Pro: You get to wake up with some Starbucks and your favorite CD as you cruise to class.
Con: You have to deal with traffic. If you leave too late, you’re toast.
5. Benefits
Pro: Commuters get some rather nice benefits: free Portillo’s, free Chipotle, free bowling, free food, free food, and more free food.
Con: Well, you pay for that free food with your commuter-life fee. So, it’s really just chosen food that collects commuters at a certain given time for the sake of socializing us with one another, but that only happens if you already know each other. I think I’d rather keep my $200.
6. Mobility
Pro: You have a car, so everyone wants to get a ride from you!
Con: You have a car, so everyone wants to get a ride from you.
7. Parties
Pro: You have access to an entire house if your parents go on a trip. That means party!
Con: Just make sure you clean up the puke that freshman left all over their toilet before they see it. True story.
8. Lifestyle
Pro: You can hang with your friends at your house and feel like normal-sized people rather than ants in little dorms with no privacy. You can watch TV, cook together, and cry about homework without people interrupting your study time in the lounge or visiting your dorm.
Con: You will probably get addicted to this exclusive life with your friends and neglect other social opportunities. Make sure you get out there and go to that social outing your other friends invited you to.
9. Roommates
Pro: No roommates! If you enjoy having space, privacy, and not dealing with people you may dislike, commuting from home is a dream.
Con: If you do have some friends you would adore living with, you kind of wish you were their roommate.
10. Making friends
Pro: Commuters have a special aura about them and we seem to find each other by instinct. Sitting in a new class, we will most likely gravitate toward one another and have an instant bond of friendship. You now have a buddy to get that free Chipotle with!
Con: Commuters tend to be excluded naturally from social events because most people never see you, never met you personally, or have no idea you exist. Going to parties it’s always: “wait, you go to Judson? I’ve never seen you…” Yes, that’s because I use my home as a refuge from the reality of school. I’m sorry I can’t break you out.
11. Free food
Pro: If you lived on campus previously, you get an “in” with the RD as a forever resident of that dorm building. Meaning, if there’s a free food event, you will be welcome. Come in, weary traveler, and tell us of your tales of the commute from the great outer lands.
Con: You won’t always get to casually waltz in on those free food events, because who has time for that?
12. Time
Pro: You get to save a lot of time by staying home and studying instead of getting distracted by random social encounters and events.
Con: You still have no time because you’re always driving!
13. Convenience
Pro: You can work at home on your laptop if you’re a studio-using major. But that’s the only pro to this because…
Con: If you don’t have the ability to bring studio work home, driving back and forth just to work in studio, and end up having to spend 15 hours of your night to finish your project because there’s probably a class going on, is the definition of hell. Driving all the way to campus to print something or pick something up makes you want to say your goodbyes to this life. If the library is closed: too bad.
14. Rules
Pro: If you go to a religious school, there may be some rules. My school doesn’t allow drinking on campus and opposite sexes are only allowed in dorms at designated hours. Living at home, you can drink whenever you want and have friends over any time.
Con: You have to still abide by your parent’s rules, and they’re probably strict too, if they sent you to a religious school. You may be over 18, but you live under their roof. Their house, their rules.
15. Drama
Pro: You don’t have to deal with the drama that comes with close living quarters and you don’t have people who hardly even know you watching you and gossiping about the things you do and who you talk to. At my school, it seems like everyone watches what everyone does and talks about it because there’s nothing better to do in the “bubble” community. You can’t even sit down to lunch with a person of the opposite gender without people asking you about the nature of your “relationship.”
Con: There is no downside to this. Really. Unless you really want to hear all the gossip that’s going on; then just ask your resident friends. But you probably live in ignorant bliss at this point, so just hold on to that sweet privilege.
16. Driving
Pro: You save a ton of money by not paying housing.
Con: You probably spend just as much in gas. Ugh.
Living on campus certainly has its blessings. I recommend it for at least the first semester or so, because you’ll make a ton of friends and establish yourself as a person who goes to that school—in case you eventually disappear into the mist of anonymity, which isn’t so bad if you like privacy. It really just depends on your personality, the location of your house from your school, and your budget. For me, I still prefer commuting. It’s worth saving that ton of money from housing costs. Plus I get to see my dog all the time and play music whenever I want.
