Is this a reasonable commute?

-5-7 mins to GO station by Car (20-25 if I take bus)
-45-55 mins to Union Station
-3-5 to Queen's Park

1st year Eng. student, want to be close to school for academic reasons. Is my commute setting up me for tough times...Thanks.

With the hours you spend at school with lectures/labs/tutorial, it's not bad. It's worthwhile to spend 2+hrs on bus/train to go for a day with 5+hr of class. If it's a commute for a 2hr lecture, then yeah, it seems like a waste of time.

Thats roughly my commute times as well. its harsh but i've lived with it for the first 2 years

Originally Posted by Kyle_87

Thats roughly my commute times as well. its harsh but i've lived with it for the first 2 years

I'm in the same program as you as too. Do you think it'd be easier to live on residence for first year....or atleast close to the campus. Cause I have feeling there'll be nights...where I'll literally have to sleep in a common room, wake up the next day...without changing clothes or showering and go to class.

Speaking from having worked with an hour and a half commute one way, even though I worked for 8 hours, it was just draining and annoying.

I'd reccomend living on or near campus, especially for those nights before an assignment is due where you may have to be at the university late.

It depends on how you work and how your schedule is.. but I would not be able to stand it.

Originally Posted by matkun

Speaking from having worked with an hour and a half commute one way, even though I worked for 8 hours, it was just draining and annoying.

I'd reccomend living on or near campus, especially for those nights before an assignment is due where you may have to be at the university late.

It depends on how you work and how your schedule is.. but I would not be able to stand it.

+1

I take 4 buses everyday, about 1 hour commute each way, working 40 hours a week. It's really draining.

Going to classes isn't that bad though, since it's only 1 bus. The transfers are the most annoying: if one bus is late, then you miss the next connecting one.

I have a 1.5 hour commute each way to work everyday and I don't mind it at all. I take bus (15m)-> GO Train (45m) -> Subway (15m) then include 15m of random waiting (for bus to come, train to leave etc). Keep in mind that for the entire GO train ride I sleep both ways...so I find it refreshing to have time to relax.

Of course in a perfect world I'd be 5 minutes from work, but that's not always possible.

If you can do most of your work on your commute or at home, I don't think it's too bad...but it'll be hard if you are the type of person that does all their work at school (I had a few friends that did this since they couldn't concentrate at home)

Originally Posted by kt11

I'm in the same program as you as too. Do you think it'd be easier to live on residence for first year....or atleast close to the campus. Cause I have feeling there'll be nights...where I'll literally have to sleep in a common room, wake up the next day...without changing clothes or showering and go to class.

Couldn't you bring a gym bag and use the showers there?

indy 1t1 nice. If you can afford it i'd say to live on campus. if u decide to commute, make sure u know some ppl in res and keep a sleeping bag handy in case u need to stay late nights!.

Its do-able, although living on campus is definitely ideal, but will be much more expensive. Keep in mind that first year will be your hardest, with all the getting used to the heavy workload.

I commuted from Burlington (~1hr on the go-train) for a while with about a 15 minute car ride to the go-station (Indy 0T8 here). Door to door it was like 1.5 hrs each way, sometimes more if there were delays on the go-train, which happens often. Some tips:
- Get locker and towel service at the AC (~$45 for the year, its worth it)
- Get a chubb card and a locker in the mech eng or rosebrugh building (a one time $25 cost for the card, and I think a $30 locker rental fee).
- Keep a sleeping bag/compact inflatable matress in the your eng locker and soap, shampoo a change of socks/underwear in your gym locker.

You get 24 hr access to both of those buildings mentioned with the chubb card. With this set up, if you need to on short notice, you can crash at a friends place with no hassle, and all your **** already downtown, and in the morning take a shower with everything you need.

Also the AC has private showers if you're worried about that kind of thing.

With this set-up you can practically live downtown like 2 nights out of the week.

i would consider opportunity cost... how much is your time worth? for me, spending 1-1.5 hours commuting each way adds up (that's 2-3 hours per day ... shorter ride if i caught all my connections, obviously longer if i missed them, which happened about half the time). sleeping on the commute wouldn't be possible for me, nor doing any work. where i went, i had three connections and it was rather tiresome. i'd rather spend some extra cash and live close by (which is what I did after a short while). for five days a week and about 14 weeks per semester, that's about 12.5 hours wasted per week, 175 hours wasted per semester. time is too valuable an asset IMO.

then again, if you are now living with your parents and not paying any rent, it would be quite an expense to take up at the last moment if not financially well off.

Originally Posted by jonawesome

Its do-able, although living on campus is definitely ideal, but will be much more expensive. Keep in mind that first year will be your hardest, with all the getting used to the heavy workload.

I commuted from Burlington (~1hr on the go-train) for a while with about a 15 minute car ride to the go-station (Indy 0T8 here). Door to door it was like 1.5 hrs each way, sometimes more if there were delays on the go-train, which happens often. Some tips:
- Get locker and towel service at the AC (~$45 for the year, its worth it)
- Get a chubb card and a locker in the mech eng or rosebrugh building (a one time $25 cost for the card, and I think a $30 locker rental fee).
- Keep a sleeping bag/compact inflatable matress in the your eng locker and soap, shampoo a change of socks/underwear in your gym locker.

You get 24 hr access to both of those buildings mentioned with the chubb card. With this set up, if you need to on short notice, you can crash at a friends place with no hassle, and all your **** already downtown, and in the morning take a shower with everything you need.

Also the AC has private showers if you're worried about that kind of thing.

With this set-up you can practically live downtown like 2 nights out of the week.

I only know 1 person, who's going there. And we're not that close, I'm not sure if I'll meet anyone that close who'll let me crash.

Is this possible...do what you said but crash in a common room?

If your classes are the in the morning like 8am (like moi) take Gotrain and ttc. If you have a late morning class like 10am it wouldn't hurt to save a ttc token and walk up from Union to Queen. It's about 30mins but think of all the calories you'll burn off. Of course, you need to factor in your aching back pain. =P

If you live in Toronto, you shouldn't bother with GO. It's no faster than the subway.

Add another 5 minutes to Queen's Park.

Your average commute looks like it will be just under 1.5 hours one way.
Commuting isn't for everyone. Depends on you.

Originally Posted by kt11

-5-7 mins to GO station by Car (20-25 if I take bus)
-45-55 mins to Union Station
-3-5 to Queen's Park

1st year Eng. student, want to be close to school for academic reasons. Is my commute setting up me for tough times...Thanks.