<p>I keep reading that the campus is usually dead on the weekends, that there is not a lot to do, and that everyone goes home. Is this true?</p>
<p>What do you like/dislike about the campus, honestly?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>I’m a third year student at USF. I rarely go home on weekends even though my hometown is in Florida. USF is a large, modern, metropolitan university that does have commuters. USF is in the Tampa Bay metro region of around 4.5 million people, hence by design the school serves a lot of commuters. USF, however has many resident students too. About 5200 students live on campus, additionally about 15,000 students live in private apartments within a 5 mile radius of campus; the balance of students are mostly within a one hour commute. I lived on campus my first 2 years attending USF, this year I live in an apartment across the street from USF. Some students leave campus on weekends, many don’t. I’m on campus weekends and have always had something to do. I work weekends on campus, play and study weekends on campus; but there are plenty of activities to enjoy and places to visit weekends off campus too, which I do sometimes also. Honestly, I love USF and for me there is plenty to do on and near campus on the weekends.</p>
<p>I think some USF detractors simply fling the “commuter school” tag at USF derogatorily because they don’t really know, or don’t want to acknowledge, the good things going on at today’s USF.</p>
<p>Thank you very much for your response 
Any other information you would like to add about your experiences would be great!</p>
<p>Looking for some more responses… thanks :)</p>
<p>Went to Howl-O-Scream at Tampa Busch Gardens theme park the other night. It’s pretty neat having a world class amusement park only about a mile from campus. Have an annual pass and go to Busch Gardens once in a while. Nothing academic, just fun! You can see some of the roller coasters in the distance at Busch Gardens from some of USF’s classrooms.</p>
<p>Yeah there are A LOT of students that commute. I live about 15 min away and my bro is a senior and has stayed at home his entire time in college. Two of my best friends go there, and they go home about every weekend also. There are always going to be students that stay on campus like lizard said, but I think there are a lot more commuters at USF than at your average college.</p>
<p>Florida public universities have some of the largest enrollments in America: USF-47,000; UCF-56,000; FAU-28,000; FIU-40,000; UF-49,000; FSU-40,000. There’s no way all of these students can squeeze into on campus housing and they are not all on campus during weekends; most of Florida’s public universities do have lots of commuters. Florida’s public universities are not average in enrollment numbers; they are some of the largest in America, each with lots of commuters.</p>
<p>Lizard has it right. </p>
<p>When you’re not in class there aren’t as many reasons to stay on campus as you’d think. It’s a collection of academic buildings. There are rec fields that people play on, events in the student union, maybe club or Greek meetings. But people hang out there on every campus.</p>
<p>I live down the street from UF and bike around campus at night. If you think it’s non-stop partying there, you have another thing coming. It’s just people jogging, playing sports on the rec fields, waiting for buses. Same thing I found at FAU.</p>