Smeegen999 said:
My dilemma is that I live in wollongong and want to do commerce at unsw or usyd (moving up there is not an option, at least this year anyway). I am wondering if it is worth the travel ??(1.5hrs+ prob by train or car) or should I just go to the local uni.
I'd like to know peoples opinions who travel for over an hour to get to uni (or are planning to). How do u get to uni/how long does it take? What's it like? Do you regret picking a uni so far away etc..
I also live in Wollongong and have been commuting to UNSW for a year now doing commerce/science. Whether the travel is worth it depends what you plan to get out of travelling to UNSW. I'm finding it worthwhile cos I'm doing actuarial studies, something not offered in wollongong. If you are doing something that could be offered in wollongong, i would recommend that you do that instead unless you feel you would gain much more by going to sydney. And if you plan on having a social life in uni while commuting, you will be sorely disappointed.
travelling time is near 2 hours with 1.5 hours train and on avg 15 minutes bus (depends on bus queue, traffic, etc.). I usually catch morning trains (which gets packed as you approach sutherland, hurstville etc.) and come home at times around 4-6 (around peak hour). You can survive while commuting and its a great money saver, but you will definitely get sick of it.
Some tips:
-Its best that you catch trains from the major stations such as Wollongong as they offer express trains, which are fast and dont come with fking annoying school kids who never shut up. If you have the misfortune to catch one of those slow trains, then dont bother trying to sleep on the train.
-MX newspapers from Central station is a great light read on the ride home.
-Since you are doing commerce (around 12 hours of uni a week), you can easily cram all your subjects into 3-4 days, which is best even if you end up having many hours in one day. TRUST ME, doing 6 hours of uni per day for 3 days (what i did) is much better than spreading out hours to all 5 days.
-Plan to use your time at uni wisely. If you have gaps in class, use it to do work/social activities/tutor consultations. since you will use 4 hours a day just to get to uni, you might as well maximise the benefit going there.
-having friends commute with you makes the trip infinitely faster and more enjoyable.
-if you want to study on the train, do light work which only requires a small amount of brainwork such as reading, doing easy exercises. Do not attempt work requiring deep thought or high levels of concentrations.
So far no regrets about the uni, but im definitely getting sick of commuting and plan to move up soon. Also with the train price hike its not getting easier.
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