Being a commuter student has a lot of benefits. You save a lot of money by avoiding those room and board fees. You can avoid the cafeteria because you still get home-cooked meals. Plus, you don't have to worry about getting the roommate from hell.
However, there are a lot of struggles that come along with being a commuter, too.
1. Gas. While avoiding the price of room and board is nice, gas isn't cheap either. Prices are constantly fluctuating and it can be very frustrating.
2. Car troubles. They happen, but they aren't an excuse for most professors. Cars are a beautiful thing, but anything can happen. When you have problems, nine times out of 10 your professor will give you an unexcused absence.
3. A commuters life isn't on campus. Commuter students have family and friends back at home. Plus, a lot of us have jobs where we work a lot of hours each week. Traveling back and forth makes for a lot of living out of backpacks and cars.
4. Group projects. So group projects have always been a hassle (at least for me, personally). But being a commuter makes group projects 10 times more difficult. If my last class ends at 2 but my group can't meet until 6, what am I going to do on campus for four hours? I don't have a dorm to go back to, but driving home and coming back to campus is a waste of gas money. Plus, with having a job back home, I have a work schedule to work around, too (refer to #3).
5. 8 a.m. classes. Yeah, an early class sucks for everyone, but commuters really don't want to take them. For those who live on campus, they have to walk out the door and walk the couple minutes to class. Commuters have to wake up super early to make sure they make it to the parking lot without running into traffic, find a space and walk the long distance to class.
6. Campus activities. Honestly, this one is what I see as one of the hardest parts of being a commuter. A lot of the college experience is getting to go to football games, wrestling matches, pep rallies, theater performances, club events, etc. For starters, it seems like I never find out about events on campus until after they're over. Plus, as I mentioned twice already, having a job back home makes it hard to just take off to campus to do something.
7. Making friends. When all you do is go to class and go home, it's tough to make friends. Even when you try to talk to people in class or in between classes, it's still hard to gain actual friends from it. I've successfully made one friend in my two years of college, and it's not for lack of trying.
8. Parking lots. "Why are you breathing so heavy?" OH, probably because every single commuter parking lot is in the middle of actual nowhere. I don't understand this because commuters use their cars every single day, as opposed to students who live on campus who usually don't.
9. Parking spots. You have to time getting to the parking lot perfectly in order to actually find a spot. "Okay, classes let out at 11, they'll get to their cars around 11:05 and be leaving, so I can take their spot real quick and make it to class by 11:20." Long live the glorious days of running late and not being able to find a parking spot, so you risk making your own and getting a ticket.
10. Scheduling. Making schedules for the next semester causes stress all on its own. However, when you're a commuter, you fear the large gap in between classes. On campus, students don't know the pain of having an 8 a.m. class and not having another class until 4 p.m. It's these long hours in between we commuters spend wandering around campus or napping in the library.
Ah commuting, it's something else. Think about these struggles the next time you talk to a commuter student. Befriend them and maybe even invite them back to your dorm for those long gaps in-between class. Be thankful you don't have to live the commuter struggle.
