Just another day heading to class...

While every college girl shares many of the same college experiences (Procrastinating, Blue Book exams ), she also carves her own path and has her own unique adventure. Have you ever wondered what it’s like for other girls? What it’s like to be an online student? To get married?! To play an NCAA sport? Well wonder no more. Our one-of-a-kind CollegeCandy writers (and readers!) are sharing their unique experiences and opening our eyes to different college worlds.

I am a commuter student.

It’s a statement I’ve had to reiterate more times than I can count during the last four years. It’s a concept some people just can’t seem to understand. It’s something that professors don’t think about when they schedule their classes. It’s something club organizers don’t care about when they schedule their meetings. It’s something you hardly ever hear on my campus, one that’s over 70% residential. It’s a foreign concept to most college students, but not to me.

Let’s rewind a few years, back to when I was first applying to college. I made a list of what I wanted in a college, and where I wanted to go. And when it came down to it, the colleges right here in NYC, in the place I am lucky enough to live, had everything that I wanted. I applied to colleges out of state as well, but I wasn’t going to choose a college just because attending that college would or wouldn’t allow me to dorm.

So I sent out my applications and checked off that little box that indicated I was undecided about my residential status. When it came time to make my decision, I chose a college that was 20 minutes away, and while I still could have dormed, it just didn’t seem unnecessary. Was I really going to pay another $10,000 a year just to live on campus? It wasn’t like I hated living at home, and I had a car, so I wouldn’t be relying on public transportation. And 20 minutes is less time than it takes some students to walk across their campus. I simply couldn’t justify it to myself.

So I decided to give commuting a chance. Read More »

If your summer has been characterized by commuting to and from your internship site, I’m sure that we can sympathize with one another. And if you have been trying to avoid your commute by staying with friends/boyfriends/girlfriends so that you don’t need to go home and actually deal with commuting, I can sympathize with you more.

Issues always seem to arise when you’re traveling back and forth (from New York to New Jersey in my case), hopping on buses and trains, and trying to figure out how to spend the night at your boyfriend’s and have the appropriate clothing and necessities for work the next day. (Walk of shame to your dorm room in last night’s theme party get up = embarrassing. Walk of shame to the office in yesterday’s outfit = unacceptable.) I had the unfortunate fate of staying in the city one Thursday night and donning a skintight American Apparel jersey dress, which I then had to wear to work the next day. I was already running late and had no time (or $$$) to buy a cover-up before work, and I spent the day hiding from everyone in my office.

To ensure that you’ll always be prepared as your job starts to make your life more hectic, and to help you make use of those hours spent in transport, read on: Read More »

Yes, it’s true, I don’t have an mp3 player. This is not really by choice, I must admit—my iPod broke a couple months ago and the so-called “Geniuses” at my local Apple store told me that the cost of fixing it would be (shockingly) the same as buying a new one. It really bothers me that Apple’s products (and most gadgets these days) are basically designed to break after about a year, thus forcing you to buy a new one, so I simply refused. I went iPod-less.

I love reading, so I figured my morning commutes would be fine. Think of all the books I could get through! I might finally plow through that stack of New Yorkers under my bed! As for walking around, I’d be better off—less likely to get hit by a bus while crossing the street and not paying attention, less likely to get targeted for mugging, less likely to run into a glass door (yes, this has actually happened to me).

Who am I kidding? Read More »