What's considered a long commute time to consider residence?

[Raizy]

2 hours? (1 hour there and back)

 

[Monocles]

What other people think is a long commute isn't really relevant to you. What matters is what you consider to be a long commute.

 

[WhoWee]

What other people think is a long commute isn't really relevant to you. What matters is what you consider to be a long commute.

Specifically...

If you drive an EV or an SUV...it's 30 miles... a Hybrid or a (really nice) luxury car...it's 150 miles.

Don't forget, it's not just the miles...also consider the amount of time you might spend sitting in a traffic crawl...and ($) tolls/parking.

 

[daudaudaudau]

That depends.

 

[Raizy]

Hmm I thought I posted this in Academic Guidance...

I was thinking in terms of going to a college. Taking residence allows you to have more time to do homework, but at the same time you double your tuition fees. I don't know what's better, going to school for 15-25k a year and graduating with a higher GPA, or 4-10K per year and graduating with a lower GPA. Not to mention, if I'm going to take Engineering or Biology maybe that extra hour of study time will make the night and day difference between a pass and a fail.

No cars, let's pretend our only option is public transit.

 

[Choppy]

I think it's all about balancing the advantages and disadvantages.

I have a 1.5 hour (total) commute. That's almost a full workday every week spent in my car and it really adds up. Not only is there expense as far as fuel, there's time away from my studies (and when you're getting ready for board exams, every hour counts) time away from my wife and dog, time away from hobbies, or even time I could be spending on research projects. Needless to say I have a high motivation to change those circumstances.

Living in residence has a number of advantages:
- you make more friends
- your classmates are close when you want to work on assignments together
- freedom from parents

It also has disadvantages:
- higher cost
- party animal roommates or floormates
- if you've never been in a student residence, visit one and take a deep breath, decide if you can live with the smell
- you can't eat mom's food
- you generally need more self-discipline to do well

 

[physics girl phd]

No cars, let's pretend our only option is public transit.

It's easier to use this time well (since you aren't the one driving). I know some former graduate students who used bus or train time really efficiently (grading students' papers while they were TA's, and reading research articles they'd printed out or stored on their computers while they were RA's). Some of it depends, however, on the quality of your public transit. Both of the cities in my example above had clean, air-conditioned passenger cabins with plenty of other commuting people also trying to use the time efficiently. If the city in your question uses public transit only as a means to move poor people around and doesn't have reliable air-conditioning, let alone vehicles, you might have problems using your time well.

You should also check into the HOURS of the transit. In the case of my friend who used the bus, the bus ran every hour even through the night, so she could work late on campus in the lab or the library if desired. In the case of my friend who used the train, however, he remembers RUNNING to the station several times in order to make the last train out in the evening.

 

[Raizy]

- you generally need more self-discipline to do well

This shouldn't be a problem for me since my parents had nothing on me as a young child, lol... so they left me alone (pretty much gave up). I decided to be "my own parent" now even though I'm 20. The reality check came at a late age.

And doing homework on the bus, yes this came to mind. It's easy to just plug in some earphones to cancel out noise but it's going to feel awkward trying to study without a desk. I can do it but it feels like I'll be 1/2 efficient with the time.

 

[Noo]

I'll be spending at least 2 hours per day traveling to and from Uni when i begin. Thats 10 hours per week of lost (or greatly diminished) study time. Saving £4,000+ on accomodation, though, and probably the same again on food/random stuff. Although the cost of commute per year (train) will add up. Oh, to be wealthy.