Gas Can and Map

The Cost to Commute

Rinda-Kay Scott

At the Indiana University South Bend Campus, there is a large amount of people who commute to school every day instead of living on campus. I am one of those people, driving from the south side of Plymouth every day to come to class. This drive is roughly 70 miles round trip, which means over the four days I go to class, that is 280 miles.  Over the 16 weeks of a semester, including finals, this is roughly 4,480 miles. Over a year, that is 8,960 miles. The particular car I drive gets 14 miles to the gallon of gas, which is about 640 gallons.  With gas prices currently being around $3.00 in the last few months, this is $1,920, rounding up to $2,000 that I spend on gas every year that I am in school. When I consulted the IUSB housing website, I discovered a 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment cost is $2,957 per person, per semester. This is $5, 914 per year, rounding up to $6,000 per year. If I were paying for housing, I would be paying 3 times the amount I pay in gas. However, this amount is even less because I carpool with a few other people, who either pay me for gas, or offer to drive us to school on a certain day.  

I know that is a lot of numbers, but each of those numbers contribute to the reason I decided to live at home, and drive to school every day instead of living on campus. When actually working out the numbers, it makes financial sense for me to stay at home, and drive to school every day. I personally have no problem with living at home with my parents, and they do not have a problem with me living with them. This is one thing that I feel causes a lot of people to go away to college. It makes me happy that I am able to save large amounts of money by not staying in the dorms on campus, and can use that money to save for my future. 

In the time that Indiana University South Bend has been open, many of the people who have attended this institution have commuted to school. My mother commuted to this campus, and my grandmother also drove back and forth to take classes at IU South Bend. This particular aspect of this campus is something that is fairly personal to me, along with many others. This campus brings people from all around the Northern part of Indiana together, and allows them to share ideas and advance themselves in their education. I find this campus to be a great place to learn, and I am glad that I can receive a quality education at the same time I am able to save money.