By Sydnee McConnell
Staff writer
Commuter students, both those who live locally and those who live in student housing, take up 75% of the student population according to Penn State Altoona website. Two of those commuter students are Alawnia Diehl and Noah Ritchey.
Diehl is a second-year communication student from Bedford. Diehl said that she travels between 35 to 40 minutes every day to come to campus. Ritchey, a second-year kinesiology student from Altoona travels about 15 to 20 minutes every day for class. Ritchey said he used to travel longer since he lived about 40 minutes from campus last year before moving to Altoona.
While travel time can take a while, there are many advantages that commuter students have.
“I’m so grateful that I still live with my parents, do not have the expensive housing and do not have the expense of food plan,” Diehl said.
Diehl also said that living at home makes it easier to separate herself from school. She said that while she is on campus, she is stressed and fully focused on school, while at home she can relax and destress from everything she did that day.
Ritchey said that as a commuter student, it is beneficial already knowing the area. He said that it is easier to find fun things to do.
Both Ritchey and Diehl said that one of the disadvantages as commuter students is that it is much harder to make friends.
“I know it’s much harder to make friends just because you’re not on campus all the time or usually. I don’t think a ton of commuters stay on campus just because they don’t have to. They’ll usually head home,” said Ritchey.
Diehl said that for her, it was hard to make deeper connections since she does not live on campus. Diehl said that it difficult to make plans with her friends on campus because when they want to hang out, it does not work for her schedule, or she might already be at home.
One of the other disadvantages both Ritchey and Diehl talked about was the time it can take to commute to class and the damage it can do to their cars.
Ritchey said that even though he lives in Altoona with his dad, other weeks he stays with his mom who lives up the mountain. When he is staying with his mom, it usually takes around 30 to 45 minutes to commute to campus.
Both Ritchey and Diehl said that the cost of gas from driving every day is one of the biggest disadvantages. Diehl explained that she has three jobs, and her server job that she only works on the weekends is only for gas money. Diehl explained that since starting college, she drives her car a lot more than she used to and the travel every day is rough on her car, especially on her tires.
This semester, both Diehl and Ritchey said that they do not have large gaps between classes. This was not always the case for Diehl though. Last year, Diehl explained how she had large gaps of time between classes. Diehl would sometimes go to the library to do her homework, but she would spend a lot of time in her car too. Diehl said she would just relax in her car or take naps in between classes.
Ritchey said in between classes, he does his homework either in the Edith Davis Eve Chapel or in the Slep Student Center.
“I tend to like studying up at the chapel. It’s a very quiet place. It’s really nice to study there,” said Ritchey.