Living on campus as an undergraduate means more than just having a place to sleep that’s near the library.
Residence halls offer opportunities to make new friends. On-campus students may also be more plugged in than commuters about what’s happening, simply because they live among the same people attending and organizing parties, volunteer opportunities and football tailgates. And meeting up before or after class to study with friends or attend a professor’s office hours is usually easy to arrange.
First-year college students who commute, however, may have to take a different route to find their niche and make friends. They may save money by not having to pay for room and board, but the distance between home and school can be difficult for some commuters to manage.
“Class group/team projects can provide a challenge for commuter students on a primarily residential campus. Residential students may not realize that meeting late in the evenings is not convenient for their peers who commute to campus,” Heather Simpson, assistant director of the Waino Wahtera Center for Student Success at Michigan Technological University, said in an email.
[Budget for college commuting costs.]
The actual commute can also weigh a student down at times.
“Michigan Tech is located in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where we have an average snowfall of over 200 inches per year. Winter driving, snowstorms and shoveling out their cars to drive to campus can be a big challenge to our commuter students,” Simpson wrote.
But there are several ways freshman commuters can make a smooth adjustment to campus life. College experts recommend these three.
1. Attend orientation: Colleges and universities often introduce programs and resources for commuter students during orientation activities.
“During new student orientation, we not only talk with commuting students about their many options of how to get involved, but we also talk with their family members,” says Dawn Thompson, vice president for student life at the University of Delaware.
Freshmen are required to live on campus unless they meet the criteria for commuting, which usually involves living within a certain distance from campus; typically about 5 percent of freshmen commute, says Thompson.
During orientation, University of Delaware leaders tell families, “this is going to be a transition for your student, and here are ways you can support your student as well as make the transition yourself as a parent or guardian,” Thompson says.
[Learn how to make campus feel like home.]
2. Go to work: “Get a job on campus,” says Carrie Ingoldsby, director of campus life and student involvement at Mercer University in Georgia. “That’s another great way to connect as a commuter.” Out of roughly 900 incoming freshmen, around 110 will commute at Mercer, she says.
Commuters who earn a wage on campus may end up working with other students, which can expand their social circle. A campus job — in the school’s admissions office, for example — may also help commuter students learn more about the campus, Ingoldsby says.
3. Hang out at school: “Plan to come to campus to do more than only attend classes,” wrote Simpson from Michigan Technological University. Students can get involved with a student organization or participate in intramural sports, she wrote. “Avoid going home between classes; use this time to work on assignments and class preparations, visit faculty office hours, or attend a learning center appointment,” Simpson said in an email.
Commuters can also spend extra time on campus asking for help if they’re having a tough time making friends. It’s important not to isolate themselves if finding their niche doesn’t come easy, says Thompson.
University of Delaware students who live off of campus, for example, can come to the dean of students’ office and meet with one of the deans who can help them get connected, she says. “We don’t want them to feel that they have to then do it all on their own,” she says.
[Find out which campuses have the most commuters.]
Prospective college students who want a commuter-friendly school should ask admissions offices what resources are available to commuter students and what percentage of students commute, Thompson says.
They should also consider what’s involved in traveling, Simpson wrote, such as, “the distance of the commute and commute time to campus, times classes are offered based on their other commitments, the quality of dedicated space to stay on campus between classes.”
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3 Ways to Adjust to College as a Freshman Commuter originally appeared on usnews.com
