In order to get to class every morning as a freshman, Nicole Baringer would wake up around 6 a.m. and drive 15 minutes to Ohio University’s campus.
“I tried to be at least five minutes early for that, but a lot of time that didn’t work out,” Baringer, a sophomore studying biological sciences, said.
Baringer lived at home last year, and like hundreds of OU students, commuted to campus.
More than 650 freshmen and more than 1,600 sophomores live off campus for Fall Semester 2016, according to Institutional Research. Most of those freshmen are likely living at home, OU Spokeswoman Anna Hartenbach said.
If students are not in university housing, OU has limited information on where students live, Hartenbach said.
“We do know whether or not they are commuters and, according to policy, freshmen are required to live in residence halls unless they are living with family while they commute,” Hartenbach said in an email.
As a commuter student, the winter weather sometimes impacted where Baringer would sleep.
“Whenever it snowed really bad, getting (to campus) was terrible, and I highly recommend finding someone who could stay with because I definitely had to,” Baringer said. “I stayed with many friends.”
A member of Delta Zeta, Baringer now lives in the sorority's house on Mill Street.
“Living at home excluded myself from a lot of the college experiences that other people had, and I decided to go through recruitment for a sorority because I didn’t have a lot of friends in college because I didn’t live in the dorms and couldn’t put myself out there as much," Baringer said.
Now that she lives on campus, Baringer said she feels more involved with OU.
“For the money that you save, it is worth it, but for the experiences that you miss you kind of got to weigh it out,” Baringer said.
As a commuter student, Karli Davis lives eight minutes away from OU.
“I feel like people have different opinions on getting the whole college experience living in the dorms. I personally don’t feel I’m missing out on anything, especially when I have friends where I can go to their dorms and stuff,” Davis said. “I personally like the nice, quiet space of just myself.”
She said she usually spends her whole day on campus and she likes to go to Court Street Coffee or Alden Library.
“I usually pack stuff with me so I don’t have to drive back and forth, but it’s not that far so if I have to go back and get something, it’s not a big deal,” Davis said.
Even though Davis doesn’t have a meal plan, she said her friends sometimes swipe her into the dining halls.
“In the past couple months, I’ve actually become vegan, so the fact that I have the privilege of just being at home where I can control what kind of food I have, I appreciate that a lot,” Davis said.
She is also part of the Margaret Boyd Scholars Program and sophomores in the program live in Bryan Hall.
“Even though I don’t live there with them, I still have access to the dorm,” Davis said.
She said she still feels like she is getting the college experience.
“I’m here most of the day, I’m only really home in the evenings,” Davis said. “So I feel like I’m not really missing out besides having a roommate.”
She also commuted to campus her freshman year.
“I think (commuter students) have to put in a little more effort to be involved since you aren’t living (on campus) 24/7,” Davis said. “If you just search a little harder for things you would like to be involved in, then you don’t feel as disconnected."
