<p>My mother does not use rational judgement, so bear with me. Please do not suggest, "just live on the campus! The experience is great and worth the money!" because I would not be asking this question if that were a viable option. She is vehemently opposed to it, for reasons which I will not further explain.</p>
<p>My parents are willing to pay for my college, but not dorm life. I am stuck between a rock and a hard place. I have done numerous clubs and 40 hours of volunteer work so far, leadership positions, etc, I have a 28 act (the first time, gonna aim for the 30s next time), 3.85 rough gpa. I think I have a decent shot at getting in, but I am still aware of getting rejected.</p>
<p>With these stats, I don't really want to sell myself short. My only options I've discussed with my mother right now are: UofM Ann Arbor/Dearborn, Schoolcraft, Madonna. If you can suggest another school I can commute to from Livonia, that would be great. </p>
<p>Anyway, how hard would it be for me to commute? I think I would much rather commute than go to Schoolcraft or Madonna.</p>
<p>This will sound dumb, but I thought for a long time that you were forced to live on campus as a freshman. Any helps appreciated.</p>
<p>I just googled it and it’s 26 miles away and 30 minutes away (I’m not 100 percent sure but there’s a 50 mile limit on how much far they’ll let you live and commute) if you feel comfortable driving that much, go for it I’m a very blegh driver myself so I would never drive from where I live (it’s like 1 hour north of detroit) to Ann Arbor but if you are a good enough driver and she’s prepared to help you out with gas money it would work!!</p>
<p>Oakland University and Wayne State are in commuting distance though those could be rough drives some times with weather and traffic. Good luck to you!</p>
<p>Parking in Ann Arbor around campus wont be easy or cheap, so your best bet would be a commuter lot, so you would also have to factor the bus ride into your commute time. My buddy commutes from Whitmore Lake and it usually takes him 30-40 minutes between the bus and traffic. On snowy days it easily can take him over an hour to get to school. </p>
<p>@vladenschlutte I don’t think I’d do Wayne State, you’re right. I have reservations because I’d really like to start out at the school I’ll get my degree from. The reason being, I have done so much extracurricular stuff throughout school to get into a good college (that I quite frankly hated 90% of) I would be quite upset if it was tossed out the window. It seems like when you transfer, what you did in high school doesn’t amount to a hill of beans.</p>
<p>Sunk cost fallacy. Take the time lost as a lesson.</p>
<p>Further, no other school in your commute range really cares what extracurriculars you did either. You’d have no problem getting into Oakland or Wayne State or Eastern if you were to go to one of those without any extracurriculars. You gotta face it here, if you don’t get into Michigan your best option really is Schoolcraft.</p>
<p>Haha he hates the commute, but he’s going to renew his lease, although I don’t think his fiance gave him much of a choice. It’s a tough call and depending on your intended major and how natural some of the classes come to you, that commute could really cut into some valuable study time. Is getting an apartment somewhere a little ways away from campus or something midway between AA & Livonia a viable option? In the end, I would make the commute to attend Michigan if that’s what it took.</p>
<p>I commute from the Plymouth/Northville/Livonia border. It’s really not that bad. What’s a bigger PITA is parking and then taking a bus from the commuter lot. </p>
<p>It’s not terrible. Though I did have to take a few snow days this year because the roads were just unbelievably terrible. Profs understood and it was NBD. </p>
<p>I don’t OP’s parent would allow or pay for the apartment either. As there is insufficient space in dorm, UM has terminated the compulsory dorm housing for freshman years ago. Livionia can be 30-50min driving away depending on where you are. It is not impossible although it is not as convenience as living in dorm or at least in town. I think it worth the effort if you have no other options.</p>
<p>I’m from Livonia, MI and I currently attend U-M.</p>
<p>Driving from Livonia to Ann Arbor is not that bad. It probably takes me about 25-45 minutes. I live on campus, but I drive home once in a while.</p>
<p>“Please do not suggest, “just live on the campus! The experience is great and worth the money!” because I would not be asking this question if that were a viable option.”</p>
<p>You really need to talk to your parents. You need to get out of Livonia! You need to escape! Ann Arbor is way more beautiful and intellectual than Livonia.</p>
<p>More importantly, living off campus would most likely hurt your academics. What if you need to meet your teammates for a group project at 10:00 PM at night? Are you going to drive back at 1:00 AM? What if you need to use a CAEN computer late at night? What if you have an 8:00 AM class?</p>
<p>Is it possible to take care of the above situations if you commute from Livonia? Yes. However, it would be significantly more convenient if you lived on/near campus.</p>
<p>I know plenty of those who went to an Ann Arbor high school, but somehow convinced their parents to live on campus for dorm life. Not sure how they managed that </p>
<p>I took classes at Oakland U in high school and it seemed there were a lot of Oakland County Arabic girls and guys with really impressive stats who were all but forced to attend Oakland because their parents wouldn’t let them go away to a real college. You don’t mature nearly as much living at home and going to a regional U. Good luck OP. ):</p>
<p>This is my history and experience with commuting to Ann Arbor from Troy (Oakland County). Yes, it was quite a hike and an extreme (outlier) but I did commute from Troy to Ann Arbor for 2 years after I transferred from a community college. I managed to have my classes scheduled 3-4 days/week; yet few times during any semester I commuted on weekend to meet classmates for a project/research. </p>
<p>Do I recommend commuting more than 20 miles? NO. Because you will miss the overall experience and driving will take its toll (slightly in your case) on your body and mind. I am sure you have your own reasons/tribulations but at the end, it is not that bad especially you live in Livonia, which is much closer to AA then Troy is. You will get used to it in matter of few weeks. One tip i can suggest to you is to record lectures with your smartphone/recorder, and listen to such recordings in your way back or next morning when you commute back to campus (you’re welcome!).</p>
<p>I always prefer and advise students to live in campus or near campus (very near) so you invest the time lost in driving and parking into value-added tasks pertaining to college students. </p>
<p>I lived at home (went to Pioneer to give you a gauge of where I lived) and my commute from driving to the south campus commuter lot to taking the bus to north (Driving to north, parking in the orange lot, and walking to campus only saves about 5 minutes on that - not worth bothering with) was about 35-40 minutes. It wasn’t so bad. Yes, if I needed to stay till 2AM I would, and I’d take the bus and drive back. If I needed to stay past that I’d nap a couple hours then go back home when the busses started running again. It was never that big a deal, though I wasn’t driving so far, most of that time was spent on the bus.</p>
<p>Some kids from Pioneer moved out of their parent’s home freshman year, but many of them then moved back in after that. I never considered it a big deal myself, I’d live with my parents now if that was an option. Could save $500 a month on rent. </p>
<p>Yes, once you commute by driving, there is little difference if it is a 5min or 30min drive as you spend more time in parking and shuttle. If one live right on the AATA bus route, that would be a different story, however, it does not have the flexibility to stay late.
For commute students, the CoA is around $6000 less than living on campus or off campus. So it may not save any money by commuting if one is eligible for financial aid with need met by grant/scholarship.</p>
<p>With gas at $4 per gallon, parking and wear and tear on car… not to mention feeling so out of the loop with peers and feeling worn out after the annoyance of the commute time. Would be so miserable.</p>