10 Life-Changing Tips for Commuter Students (No One Tells You About)

After your freshman year of college, students typically move into off-campus housing. This poses multiple new challenges that no one really talks about. It’s more of a trial and error, learn as you go situation. This is why I felt a passionate urge to let you know the most helpful tips for commuter students that I learned when I lived off-campus. Learning from other people’s mistakes is the ultimate life hack if you ask me. So check out these common, but avoidable obstacles and how you can have a much better commuter experience than I did!

Tips for Commuter Students

Meal prep

When living off-campus you typically have two options: renew your meal plan so you can eat places on campus or you adult it up and make your own meals. If you are in the latter group, it’s time to get a meal prepping system in place.

The biggest obstacle this reveals is that you have to go shopping, pick the meals, cook, and all of this takes time. So make sure before you go anywhere, you make a list of the meals you want to enjoy that week. Use Pinterest and look up some amazing (and easy to make) recipes that you can enjoy. I recommend, especially when you’re a meal prep beginner, is to choose meals that aren’t too complicated.

After you pick your meals, you need to plan a shopping day. Planning is something I intertwine into a lot of my articles because having a plan helps you get things done. Lastly, I recommend you pick a cooking day!

A routine could be:

• Friday: Spend an hour and a half picking meals from Pinterest and list out the ingredients you need to buy
• Saturday: Spend two hours shopping for ingredients
• Saturday (evening): Spend 3-4 hours making the meals for the upcoming week

Leave early

When you are commuting, make sure you add extra time to the actual ETA (estimated time of arrival). You have to take into account traffic, parking, possibly having to park somewhere else because your plan A parking lot is full, and the time it will take to walk to your class.

I am notoriously late to almost everything! But ever since I became a commuter student I’ve grown deeper respect for my time (and myself). I realized I want to have proper time to get ready in the morning, which means I may have to go to sleep a little bit earlier…

But don’t fret! I have a super-effective night routine that will help you start the semester off with good intentions and good habits. 😉

Related: 9 Amazing Ways To Improve Your College Night Routine For Students

Time-blocking

So now you are prepared to leave early and get to class on time. Time-blocking is a great way to make sure you are staying on schedule. I could rave on and on about time-blocking and how it’s helped me build structure in my life, but I won’t.

I have a complete tutorial about time-blocking if you want to check it out!

Related: Time Blocking Your Life To Improve Time-Management (Easy Tutorial)

Pick your outfits before the week starts

If you aren’t already doing this, get into it girl (or guy)! Whew, I can’t tell you how much time I used to spend every morning deciding what I would wear to school. Definitely wearing your favorite hoodie and leggings will work but I liked to put in a little more effort ;).

This hack is exactly what you need to make sure you are leaving on time every morning. This can be something you do on your chill Sunday afternoon.

Locate every parking area near your classes

Sometimes parking fills up. I know at the University of Oklahoma, it was hard to arrive a little late and expect spectacular parking. So, to ensure you always have somewhere to park, identify the parking areas and parking garages on campus.

The last resort for me at OU was to park in the free parking area (which was about a 30-minute walk from most of my classes) and hop on the shuttle bus to take me to the main campus.

Also, if you don’t want to buy a parking pass, check to see if there are free parking areas around campus.

Keep snacks in your car

Let’s be real… there will be those days where you are in a rush and don’t have time to get eat breakfast (unless you’re meal prepping a quick breakfast such as quick oats). So, keeping snacks is a non-negotiable for me because I get hangry, not hungry.

A snack I love to pack is Nature’s Bakery Fig Bars. I literally have a box of them in my car right now…

Get ample rest

Being a commuter, you’re in the car a lot more often. With adding on learning, studying, trying to stay fit, and eating relatively healthy, life can get overwhelming. Never feel inadequate if you are feeling a bit burnt out. Everyone needs time to relax and get re-energized every once in a while, so don’t feel bad for needing to take self-care time.

Set expectations

If you’re living with a roommate(s), discuss some ground rules you all need to follow. Your roommate(s) don’t know to be quiet after a certain time unless you let them know. So set clear expectations before classes start up so you are all on the same page.

Put it all out there so there is no confusion or pent-up aggression just because something was never discussed. Topics can include:

• Guests
• Class times
• Study times
• Parties
• Sleep time
• Dishes
• Cleaning the apartment/house

Be social

You may already have an established friend group. If you do or don’t have established friends on campus, it doesn’t hurt to make a friend or two in your classes. Meeting people in your classes can be incredibly beneficial in terms of having someone to study with, ask questions if you’re absent, and could potentially turn into a great friendship!

Check your class and email before leaving

There could be something that you are supposed to bring but you didn’t know because you didn’t check your email before leaving. You could also miss an email saying class is canceled. Just make sure you take a quick look before you start your commute!

Being a commuting college student can be much simpler with these tips for commuter students. I hope you found this article helpful and hopefully you use some of them in your life. Please let me know in the comments down below of some tips for commuter students you have learned so far!