<p>For various reasons that have recently surfaced, I will most likely have to commute.
Disregard my previous topics.</p>
<p>There is a college really close by where most of the students are commuters. It's not the best academically (actually it's clearly the worst of my 12 choices lol). </p>
<p>There is another college 35 mins away (without traffic) but it's very much a residential school. Only about 25 people commute and all from within 5 miles. It is very good academically, way better than the closer one. I do want to go to grad school so I need a good undergrad that can take me there. However even the admissions counselors tell me it's really hard to get involved in campus life, clubs, and academic opportunities like review sessions without living on campus.</p>
<p>At the moment these are my only choices as I'd have to attend close to home.</p>
<p>Is it worth commuting to the residential school for the much-better academics? Or will my experience be such a watered-down version of what college should be that I should just stick to the bad commuter school?</p>
<p>Why would you commute to a bad school when you could commute to a good school? Unless money is an issue. </p>
<p>You say you’d miss out on more academic opportunities at the good school, but those wouldn’t be there at all at the bad school. And I don’t know why it would be so hard to get involved - you can join clubs and sports like anyone else. It just takes you longer to get there in the morning. Maybe the admissions people just want you to pay for a dorm, more revenue for the college, plus more students dorming fits the image they want to portray of the college (not a commuter school). I’d do to the better undergrad personally.</p>
<p>If you’re going to have a “watered down” college experience at both schools, why not pick the one with better academics?</p>
<p>^Good points.
It wasn’t too hard to disregard students and peers telling me to dorm, but when the admissions counselors did it I took it really seriously :/</p>
<p>But I think/hope (should check if) I can transfer from the better to the worse school if the commuting gets too bad.</p>
<p>hmm the school doesn’t have Commuter Circle or anything like that since no one else does it. </p>
<p>Any commuters who go to residential schools? What is it like, and how do the other students treat you? Is it impossible to make good friends (considering they spend 24/7 with each other and you’re only there part of the time)?</p>
<p>Well, I go to NYU and it’s very non-traditional, in Manhattan with no real campus. Freshman year, 97% of students dorm but I made a lot of friends even commuting. It’s because I joined an intramural sport and became close with a lot of girls on that team, plus i’m involved in another club and had a part-time job on campus.</p>
<p>2nd semester i moved into an off-campus apartment with my boyfriend and both his friends and mine are here all the time, it’s more spacious than dorms and there’s no RA’s to deal with so they can do whatever. I’ve heard a lot of upperclassmen say dorming is better freshman/soph year, then it’s more fun to move out on your own. Well I go to an urban school where the dorms are all over so it’s different, but most people still dorm and I never felt like an outsider. </p>
<p>It will be harder making friends if you’re the quiet type. I suggest you get involved in activities on campus like sports and stuff.</p>
<p>I just thought of something else…
Also there’s school #3, which is close and not great, but it has this program with a nearby medical school (I want to do premed), and basically 10% of that med school’s acceptances come from this school. But it’s no guarantee, and if it doesn’t work I might be screwed (considering it’s not the best school overall). </p>
<p>Either way, if I commute to one of the closer schools I’ll have a lot more free time, which I can use to volunteer at a hospital, for example (I’ve been volunteering at a local one for 2 yrs). At the further/better school it seems like all my time would be spent on school work/activities, and if I wanted to do clubs I’d have to spend the whole day at school waiting for the evening meetings. </p>
<p>Is it any better to spend extra-curricular time on school activities vs. independent ones?</p>
<p>Well, I’ve both been in a dorm and have commuted, and I can’t say that doing one or the other has much of an affect on my experience, except that the latter has made me somewhat lazier: meaning, if there’s an event planned at the school that I’m iffy on attending that’s five hours after my last class, I’m not likely to go because I’m lazy and don’t feel like going back on campus.</p>
<p>Otherwise, the experience has been pretty much the same.</p>
<p>It probably depends on your personality of whether or not you’ll have a good college experience despite where you’re physically located.</p>