Question to any current or recent QU students - what is it like living at and getting around the Mount Carmel campus without a car? I understand that freshmen students cannot have a car on campus. How frequent do the shuttles run and are they crowded? What’s it like on the weekends if you want to get off campus (during the day too - not just Friday and Saturday nights)? If you were used to driving yourself around during high school, was living at QU without one a big transition?
Also, does QU have Zipcar or a similar car-sharing service where you can rent a car by the hour?
Hi @jaydee12, I am a graduate of Quinnipiac so can help you answer this question from my own experience. Getting around the Mount Carmel Campus is not a problem at all, everything is within walking distance on campus, it’s maybe a 15 minute walk from either end of campus.
Between the Mount Carmel and York Hill Campuses (the two undergraduate residential campuses) there is continual shuttle service until the early AM hours and resumes at 7am. Off campus shuttle service is also available to the local communities of Hamden, North Haven, and New Haven. Hamden and North Haven are large suburban communities with access to most types of shopping and services students might want. New Haven is a large city and a college community, our shuttle to New Haven also provides service to Union Train station which is a bus station for many large bus companies and also has Amtrak (Boston and NYC) and Metro North service (NYC).
All shuttles (between the campuses and the local community shuttle) operate 7 days a week while students are in session. The local shuttle begins at around noon and continues into the early AM hours.
In terms of crowding, it depends on the hours, which ones are busier than others. I will say the student government association works very closely with our Public Safety office to ensure it’s as smooth as possible, and that improvements are made as they come to light.
All of our shuttles have GPS tracking which is accessible to students through their mobile device, allows you to plan your time better off campus.
This year we added Enterprise Car share service with two cars available on campus, first come first service but can be reserved on an hourly basis. All students are allowed access to this service as long as they pass the application process through Enterprise-CarShare.
Of course there is a bit of an adjustment from having driven in high school to not being able to just walk to your car. I had friends who didn’t bring their personal vehicle until their senior year even though they could have brought it earlier because they didn’t feel it was necessary on campus.
Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns 
Paul
Paul Krsiak '07 '10
Associate Director of Admissions
Quinnipiac University
pmkrsiak@quinnipiac.edu