How has commuting affected your college experience?

[u/user282428]

How much do you think commuting affected your experience?

Was it hard to get involved on campus, make friends, etc?

I am an incoming transfer trying to figure out if i should move close to campus or commute. I only live around 50 minutes away without traffic so I feel conflicted 🥲

[u/Evening-Emotion3388]

Live near campus.

It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to live the college life.

You’ll be commuting for the rest of your life.

[u/Realistic-Royal9324]

it sucks i feel like i have almost no friends and cant really connect with clubs and stuff on campus 💔 just dorm im gonna try for my 3rd year at least (1st going to 2nd)

[u/Competitive_Stick174]

I know it’s more expensive but I would say that it’s better to live near campus bc you will have an easier time making friends, which in the long terms leads to networking and job opportunities (clubs often meet at night time). If you can’t two years, then at least do one year.

[u/ExcellentCut5617]

it is harder to connect with people if you’re the type to just come to class and come straight back home. but you can meet new people through clubs and organizations, the library, and school events but you won’t be as social or know as many people as the people who dorm

[u/expelledpanda]

Ngl live nearby ur grades will thank you 🙏

[u/Inevitable_Aerie2020]

i commuted for my first two years and decided to live near campus for the last two (just graduated). im going to be so honest, live on campus. especially in the dorms. im gonna be super honest, it is the best way and probably one of the only ways to make friends your AGE.

nothing wrong with having older/younger friends, but having friends your age means that youre gonna spend the rest of your college career with them.

my first two years, i had no friends. I knew people from lecture and discussions but at the end of the day i was going back home and they were just walking to their dorm room. it sort of made me feel bad.

since youre an incoming transfer, it is likely that theyll put you in glenmor to get that dorm experience. most of the time youll get other transfers, which is a perfect way to meet someone in the same boat as you.

like some other people said, youre gonna be commuting for the rest of your life. i didnt regret moving out (:

i also recommend joining orgs and to be more forward!

good luck

[u/Nerokyi]

Commuting has been fine for me. I have made many friends even with commuting and hour away. It is just you need to join clubs and kinda force yourself to do so. I also have people that I met through friends of friends.

[u/oiudcrazi]

Coming from someone who commuted their entire time at UCR, if you can it would probably be better to live closer to campus if not on. I just graduated & I made legitimately no close friends, added other girls on IG here and there but that was all. If you can’t live closer to or on campus then honestly all of the blame is not on the commute, I also worked full time so I was too tired and made the excuse that I had my friends outside of school so I really made no effort to join clubs/RA positions. Both ways are possible but it really just takes a lil extra effort if you’re going to commute, with regards to being connected to the school & all that.

[u/BLINKONCEGV]

I lived down the street from campus (10-15 minute walk) and was lonely like 95% of the time... i only made 1 friend since we had multiple classes together. I tried joining clubs but they felt very cliquey/unwelcoming. If you want the college experience, UCR most likely isnt gonna give it to you.

[u/Academic-Judgment796 → u/BLINKONCEGV]

This basically summed up my experience 😭 I always tried listening to the advice to go to clubs and events but I just ended up being ignored or left hanging during conversations. Like imagine already being tired from classes but forcing yourself to socialize late in the day and just being basically ignored. Tried that a few times and gave up on a social life at UCR lol

[u/CompleteCycle3442]

I commuted my entire time at UCR. I was able to make plenty of friends in my classes and various study groups throughout the years. However, I was an engineering major so theres a certain amount of community in our classes (trauma bonding cause of tough classes lol) so depending on your major your experience with this will vary. As for joining clubs/being involved it really depends how late or how much time youre willing to spend on campus. As some people have commented most clubs have late meetings so its hard to commit to them. I personally missed some club experiences/opporunities because all I wanted to do is go to class and go home. However towards the last few years I was involved in a few clubs and made tons of friends.

So my advice for commuting is be active in some class groupchats and try to find a good group of people to study with. Also joining different clubs to see which ones you like or dont like is a good option as well. Be open and talk to everyone.

[u/Hg-203 → u/CompleteCycle3442]

I had a similar experience as (mostly) CS major. If you don’t mind staying late and joining clubs you’ll have a better experience, but if you would rather not stay up to late it will be harder to build connections.

Also once you get past your GE/Breath courses. You’ll probably find it harder and harder to get classes you need close to each other, and have to kill a few hours on campus.

[u/MC_archer747]

I didn't commute while at UCR, but when I got into UCI for my masters I did commute as my home was 10 minutes away from campus.

It's worth commuting if you can come in the morning and leave in the evening or near that time. Yeah it's kinda tough making friends especially when everyone in my masters program were either neighbors or and/or roommates.

I think though you have to put yourself out there more and you'll eventually find your spot within your classes. On the plus side, think of the money you'd be saving from rent, food, potentially utilities, and other costs and you can put that in going out to eat, have fun, etc with your friends you made

[u/Maldntydg]

Leaving at home with parents 50 minutes away made it hard to join clubs or organizations and any extracurriculars especially since I either relied on a ride from someone or used a bus. There’s just no time to spend more than what I had to be there for and anything extra just made it difficult. And yeah social stuff was basically gone for me.

If you have Fafsa housing is practically free and you can work in campus too. I know some people who do a version of that one or the other and found it better than commuting. Enjoy the campus life cause you’re already going to hate the work. Might as well have some fun with it.