<p>I'm a second year at UCSD who will be living off campus next year. I have some questions about how different life will be off campus. I don't have a car now and I don't think I will next year, but I think I might have a bike. My questions are: How bad is the commuting? If my classes are in the morning and afternoon, how much time will I need to go back to my apartment for lunch? How do off campus students eat lunch? Do they bring it with them to their morning classes, go back to their apartment to eat, or eat on campus? Do I still need meal points? Do you find on campus housing more convenient? How has living off campus changed the way you plan your classes when you enroll for the next quarter?</p>
<p>I'm at home, and I recently started driving (before then, my parents would bring me to school and take me home).</p>
<p>Commuting isn't bad at all, its great, and if your commute is short, which it sounds like it would be, then just be sure to leave early anyway so you don't have to feel under any pressure to rush. I try to plan all of my classes in the morning, and only on one day do I have to stay until 4 PM. I bring my lunch with me, our school has a microwave, yours probably does to, and I'll eat on campus in an empty classroom, in an empty meeting room, or in my office while I'm on my shift (I work in the computer labs).</p>
<p>If you bring your own lunch, you can save money, I don't have a meal plan here, I just have like $10 on my card for the rare photocopying event, or if I forget my water, or if I want a small snack like candy (hasn't happened yet) from the bookstore. </p>
<p>I've never been on campus, but I think that commuting is the way to go. Fewer people to deal with, no roomates, you can separate your home life from your school life, you don't have to trek outside to the library when you want some quiet time, the list goes on and on. </p>
<p>And yes, it has affected the way I try to schedule my classes, I try to get all of them in the morning so that I can leave to go home (although right now I'm pulling an 8:00 AM class, and that's kinda early, but I'll deal, 9 AM is my sweet spot).</p>
<p>Hope this helps!</p>
<p>If you want specific answers you **really should **post this thread in the UCSD forum.</p>
<p>Anyway, I'm in the same situation as you. I'd advise against commuting from too far (like Mira Mesa) since the gas and commute time will not be worth the savings compared to living in a UTC-area apartment. For lunch, I'd just load up your Tritonplus and eat at the Price Center, or get a Dining Plan for lunch so you can eat at dining halls.</p>
<p>Generally, most commuters and transfer students living off campus do not go home between classes, but rather hang out at Geisel Library/Price Center to study/eat.</p>
<p>And on-campus housing is always 100X more convenient (as well as cheaper). Too bad we only have it for two years, but oh well. :)</p>
<p>I have only ever actually lived on-campus, but I practically lived with my boyfriend in his house last semester, so I did the morning commute alot. My college is in a pretty small town, so pretty much unless you live out in the trailer parks in the boonies it takes all of 10 minutes to actually get to campus, driving or biking, or sometimes even walking (from my bf's house, it was like 15 minutes walk). The bus takes longer sometimes depending on where you are in the route. The bus that went by his house came by twice, once going away from campus and once going back to campus, so as long as you caught the one going towards campus it only took 10 minutes. It's just that here, the parking for students is way out in the middle of nowhere on our campus so it takes as long to walk from the parking as it does from some of the apartments sometimes. I don't plan on going back to my apartment next year for lunch (I'm living off-campus in the fall), because it's just easier to hang out in the student union and grab lunch there or in the quad. I'm in the student union alot anyway because of the organization I'm in whose office is there, so it's convenient. I wouldn't worry about it all too much, unless you live really far away from your campus. If you live pretty close you should be fine.</p>
<p>I've lived off campus for three years now, once in an apartment that was about a 15-20 minute walk away and now in one that's about a 10 minute walk away. Since it's so close, I don't necessarily consider this to be "commuting". My classes are usually 2 or more hours apart and frequently they're about 4 hours apart, or all in one block, so I always go back to the apartment between them. I had a couple six hour blocks this term and I did bring some kind of lunch/snack with me to eat during class. Most people will grab a lunch from one of the lunch trucks or a pizza place or something rather than go home, but junky food makes me feel sick so I can't do that. </p>
<p>Not a lot of people stay on the meal plan because it's very overpriced for what you get...e.g. a sandwich in one of the campus food shops costs $7, which you pay for with meal plan money, but the same thing from a pizza shop down the street would cost $3, and it costs you about $8 for each visit to the dining hall. That makes getting any sort of meal plan pretty useless since it turns out to be more expensive, but that obviously depends on your school's meal plan setup.</p>
<p>Off campus housing is best because you have both privacy and independence, unlike a dorm or living at home, where you usually only have one or the other. Not to mention with a dorm you're usually paying twice as much for a double room than an average single room off campus in addition to mandatory meal plans.</p>