Getting involved on campus... as a commuter student

Woo hoo, a student out there asked Ask an Advisor my first question today!

A reader writes:

"Hi. I'm a commuter student at a school with a lot going on on campus. I wanna be more active at school. Any tips on getting more involved?"

This is a great question! Quite a few first generation and low income college students are commuter students because it is often cheaper to live at home with family and commute to campus, so I suspect there are a lot of folks out there wondering the same thing...

First off, don't think of campus activities as the only way to feel like you're apart of campus life. Eat meals on campus (even if that just means brown-bagging it). Make friends with folks that live on-campus and visit the residence halls every now and then. Find a place to study on campus beside the library. Use campus computer labs. Attend sporting and performing arts events. Doing these things in addition to campus activities will help you feel more integrated into the fabric of campus life.

That being said, a lot of campus activities will be advertised heavily to students living on-campus and can make off-campus or commuter students feel left out. So what can you do?

Do not, repeat DO NOT, only come to campus for class and then leave. This is probably the number one way that commuter students shoot themselves in the foot, and surely you don't want to do that! I assume that not only do you value your foot, but it would be much more difficult to commute and get involved on campus with a self-inflicted injury...

To get involved on campus, you first have to figure out what is available at your school. Look into community service, intramural sports, student organizations, campus recreation, Greek life (fraternities and sororities), student government, research, on-campus employment, and internships. Check out your school's website and pay a visit to the student activities center if your school has one to get this information. Look out for transfer, re-entry, and commuter student services also.

Now that you know what's out there, here are two ways to go about it. 1. You can get into activities that fit into your current schedule or 2. You can adjust your schedule to get more involved with activities. Either way, the more flexible you are the more likely you are to keep something up and stay involved.

Got questions? Please feel free to ask The Advisor about it.