2012-04-17, 02:16 AM
Get the dorm, 2hrs away is too long.
I did an internship one summer at a place right next to my current school (UCSD) and had to take a combination of trains and buses for 2hrs every morning and evening to commute. It was physically exhausting. Even sleeping on the train (which I perfected very quickly), left me grumpy and tired every night when I got home. There is absolutely no way I could do that for classes and then come home and study on top of it.
I made it commuting one summer and will never ever do it come Hell or high water.
Maybe some superman can manage it and still find energy to study, but for us mortals it would lead to a definite hit to my GPA if I ever tried it.
At the very least, I highly recommend living in dorms your first year. It is a great social experience and a good way to meet people in your major to study(this is essential to survival). I've been taking out a 5k loan every year so that I can stay near campus and it's money well spent. Assuming you graduate with an employable major it shouldn't take more than a year or two of frugal living to pay off the loans anyway.
I did an internship one summer at a place right next to my current school (UCSD) and had to take a combination of trains and buses for 2hrs every morning and evening to commute. It was physically exhausting. Even sleeping on the train (which I perfected very quickly), left me grumpy and tired every night when I got home. There is absolutely no way I could do that for classes and then come home and study on top of it.
I made it commuting one summer and will never ever do it come Hell or high water.
Maybe some superman can manage it and still find energy to study, but for us mortals it would lead to a definite hit to my GPA if I ever tried it.
At the very least, I highly recommend living in dorms your first year. It is a great social experience and a good way to meet people in your major to study(this is essential to survival). I've been taking out a 5k loan every year so that I can stay near campus and it's money well spent. Assuming you graduate with an employable major it shouldn't take more than a year or two of frugal living to pay off the loans anyway.