{"id":667,"date":"2014-11-24T09:10:19","date_gmt":"2014-11-24T09:10:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/postgraduate\/?p=667"},"modified":"2014-11-24T09:10:19","modified_gmt":"2014-11-24T09:10:19","slug":"should-i-stay-or-should-i-go-commuting-to-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/2014\/11\/24\/should-i-stay-or-should-i-go-commuting-to-university\/","title":{"rendered":"Should I stay or should I go: commuting to university."},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tMedia School student Alice White talks about commuting to BU and how nothing will stop her enjoying the\u00a0Bournemouth social scene…<\/em><\/p>\n

Postgraduate study is no doubt hard work. When I committed to studying at Bournemouth University my mind was initially focused on sorting out the finances, books, and deciding which colour laptop protector would best match my boots.<\/p>\n

But then I realised that I lived 30 miles away.<\/p>\n

It was enough of a distance to potentially be an issue \u2013 both money and time are precious when studying an MA, and I wanted to save on both whenever possible. So I was faced with a quandary; move house (expensive) or commute (time and money inefficient).<\/p>\n

I was conscious of missing out on the social scene \u2013 after all, uni is where you make those life-long friends and future work contacts \u2013 and I wanted to be more involved than during my hermit undergraduate years.<\/p>\n

In the end I stayed living in Salisbury, and here\u2019s what I did to overcome the distance between uni and the place I call home…<\/p>\n

My first idea was to combine bike and bus travel, by cycling to and from the bus stops. Quarterly bus passes cost about \u00a3250 for the Dorset\/Wiltshire area \u2013 a bargain compared to fuel. One impulsive eBay purchase later I was the kind-of-proud owner of a weird little fold-up bike that would slot nicely onto any bus.<\/p>\n

\u201cPerfect!\u201d I thought, \u201cI\u2019ll lose weight AND save money.\u201d That dream lasted all of two seconds until I realised that the bus took the best part of two hours, and I didn’t want to have that barrier between me and an impulsive social at Dylan\u2019s.<\/p>\n

So I plumped for driving. I signed up on Liftshare.com and quickly found someone who was willing to endure my driving and share the costs. I was also able to stay with a friend in Bournemouth one night per week, which also cuts down on the commute and allows me some time to socialize and study.<\/p>\n

Finally, I threw myself into student life by becoming a student rep. Not only did I join the purple army with my FREE HOODIE, but I also became more involved in campus events and the running of the course. Being a rep totally counter-acted any worries I had about distance; I now feel closer and more involved with the university and my course mates than I ever did when I lived here for my BA.<\/p>\n

Being a peripatetic student really doesn\u2019t have to be a disadvantage \u2013 if anything, it has focused me. Get involved as much as you can and allow yourself as much flexibility as you can afford: You\u2019ll never feel left out, no matter how far you might have to travel.\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Media School student Alice White talks about commuting to BU and how nothing will stop her enjoying the\u00a0Bournemouth social scene… Postgraduate study is no doubt hard work. When I committed to studying at Bournemouth University my mind was initially focused on sorting out the finances, books, and deciding which colour laptop protector would best match… Read more » about Should I stay or should I go: commuting to university.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1096,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1658,1663],"tags":[877,1696,48,1816,2007,2186,424],"class_list":["post-667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-archive","category-postgraduate","tag-bournemouth","tag-alice-white","tag-bu","tag-commuting-to-bournemouth","tag-lift-shares-in-bournemouth","tag-postgraduate-study","tag-student-rep"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1096"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}