Commuting To College? Here Are 5 Ways That It Beats Living On Campus

It's late August, so that can only mean one thing: The new fall semester will soon commence at colleges all across the country. For most people, that means it's time to start preparing for "move in day", the day on which thousands upon thousands of students leave home and move into their dorm rooms. Although that is a familiar ritual to "most" people, their is a sizable minority of students (myself included) who do not live on campus. You may have heard of us before, we're called "commuters".

You know, the people who use cars, buses, and other forms of transportation to take us to our campus from our homes.

Unfortunately, some resident students tend to delude themselves into believing that this sort of nomadic behavior is not occurring. If you're a commuter student like me, you've probably had an exchange like this at some point with a resident student.

Resident: So, what housing facility are you rooming in?
Me: Oh, I don't live here, I'm a commuter
Resident: *In a downtrodden voice* Oh..........ok.

Some (but not all) resident students have stigmatized the concept of commuting to college. To that particular cluster of people, commuting is  uncool, antisocial, and on par with several undesirable diseases. On a couple of the occasions that I mentioned my commuter status to other resident students, I might as well had just declared myself a transvestite based on the reactions I got. The most memorable reaction was a disgusted face, followed by "Ugh...your life must suck."

Well, it doesn't suck. Just because I don't live with the majority of the student body doesn't mean that my life automatically becomes unenjoyable. Commuting has it's pros and cons, just like residency does. Of course, the colleges are always pimping the cons of commuting in the hopes of suckering commuters into investing in a campus housing plan that will throw a few thousand more dollars of debt onto their backs. But commuting does have its benefits, and I want to take the time to discuss a few of them here.

1. Easily Accessible Peace and Quiet: It's 2am in the morning. You have a major exam tomorrow, and you are desperately trying to get a good night's rest. You went to bed three hours ago, but haven't fallen asleep yet because your roommate insists on playing Madden with a bunch of his friends. You've tried to reason with him, but he refuses to go to bed, saying that he'll be playing all night whether you like it or not. You end up getting only two hours of sleep, and struggle to stay awake while taking your exam.

As a commuter, this problem will never happen to me. That is because I don't have to share one room with another individual 24/7. I have my own bedroom, and I am never woken up by inconsiderate housing  residents. Barring a fire or some other catastrophic event, I never have to worry about restless nights resulting from exterior disturbances. My room also gives me a sanctuary where I can go to study and do work uninterrupted. Residents will argue that their campus library fulfills this need for them, but how much privacy are you really getting when there are dozens of other people in the same building with you? Not much, in my opinion.

2. Home Cooked Meals: Even if you don't give a crap about sleep and studying, you'll certainly agree with me on this point: the taste and comfort of a home cooked meal is not something that can be experienced as a resident student. Yeah, colleges do have a lot of great restaurants and take out places either on or around the vicinity of the campus, but they probably can't rival some of the meals you get to devour at home. Besides, eating out for every meal, everyday is an expensive proposition, and more often then not residents end up living off of Hot Pockets and Ramen Noodles throughout the course of a typical week. The only time resident students get to experience home cooked meals are on holiday breaks. Commuters, on the other hand, tend to have the pleasure of indulging in home cooked delicacies a few times a week. So while one of the self proclaimed "cool" residents is forced to eat like a soldier on the frontline of some sort of intellectual battlefield, I'll enjoy my veal and veggies on a Wednesday night.

3. A Private Bathroom: Really, I don't think I have to elaborate much on this. Dorm bathrooms basically amount to public restrooms. And the idea of bathing in a public restroom is an idea that I am not curious about whatsoever. Moving on...

4. Personal Space:  This kind of builds upon my previous point concerning peace and quiet. If you decide to reside on campus, you basically end up living a medium sized bedroom with another person. That means that you have to relegate yourself to one corner of your room, while your roommate relegates themselves to the other corner of the room. That doesn't exactly strike me as a comfortable living style, and I know that some resident students feel the same way. I have heard stories from a couple of people about the "turf wars" they have had with their roommates, and it doesn't sound like something I could ever really be bothered with. At home, I have all of the space that I need, and I don't have to worry about somebody "capturing my territory" when I'm not around.

5. Saving Money: This is the most important benefit of them all. By commuting to college, I am saving about $24,000 over four years. That is an impressive total, and it only underscores the exorbitant costs of living on a college campus, especially when it's unnecessary. The only people who truly need to live on campus are the out of city students who are traveling a long distance to go to school. I only live about 30 minutes away from my college, so what's the point of spending all of that money to make a rather unnecessary move? This is probably the main reason why most commuters choose to drive or use public transportation, and it's really a wise move. People will argue that you miss out on the social experience of college if you don't live there, but that's bullshit. I've met plenty of people, and I spend a good part of my weekdays on campus anyway. So I can still make friends and be around other people without pouring another 20k into the Great American Debt Trap that is a college education.