This question is for people who work or go to school at NCSU.


I'm going back to State for grad school, but I live in durham right now. Wondering how much of a pain in the ass it will be to drive or take the TTA every day.
I'm also wondering how much I'll miss out on evening and weekend activities, living that far away....

2/28/2008 9:21:42 AM

I was in Durham for my last semester. The drive was a bit of a pain, especially going home after my night classes, but I got used to it.

2/28/2008 9:22:59 AM

i lived on Oberlin and used to walk about 15min to get to class.

it was awesome

2/28/2008 9:26:38 AM

I used to live right across Hillsborough from Tompkins, where I think 4/5 of my classes were that semester. I'd wake up ~3 minutes before class started. That was awesome.

2/28/2008 9:30:56 AM

If you can, I'd suggest you move to Raleigh. My previous roommate did the opposite commute (lived in Raleigh and rode TTA to Chapel Hill for grad school), and she got tired of it very quickly. She ended up moving to CH mid-semester. She said she like that she had ~30 min on the bus to do homework, but at the same time it sucked to be bound to the bus schedule (since it doesn't run much mid-day).

I live about 10 min from campus, and I still feel like I miss out on a lot.

2/28/2008 9:39:33 AM

7 hours

2/28/2008 9:40:10 AM

6.5 hours if there is no gwinnett traffic

god i hate that county so much

2/28/2008 9:45:18 AM

It's a pain in the ass. Many of my fellow grad students started out living in the durham area; however, they all live here now. They hated the traffic/tta and the fact that a trip to campus means you're most likely going to hang out there all day. Also it makes having a pass practically mandatory.

Grad students/other friends from here have definitely bitched about going out/weekend activities because everyone went out in raleigh and never near where they lived. Meaning they had to drive here and could only have a couple drinks or they had to stay over somewhere/take a long cab. It also makes simple things like hey lets grab dinner a pain in the ass when you know you're going to have to drive 20+ minutes back and forth.

2/28/2008 9:45:42 AM

If you're going to grad school, I would stay near the campus. It'd be a huge plus. Sometimes during the day you just don't have time for a 1 hour round-trip commute.

2/28/2008 9:49:52 AM

400 miles

2/28/2008 9:51:14 AM

not far enough

2/28/2008 10:02:47 AM

53 miles according to my gauge

i absolutely hate having to drive that both ways everyday, but you do get used to it

still, i'm planning to move up here once mortgage rates go back down

(they were supposed to drop with the FED rate but didn't )

2/28/2008 10:04:45 AM

i used to take TTA from Cary to campus every day.

as long as i caught the bus in time (i worked till 6 on hillsborough st and the last bus came at 6:05 on western/avent ferry so i missed the bus a LOT) it was fine

2/28/2008 10:05:20 AM

3 miles. i've lived about 1.5 miles away before and that was nice because the walk was pretty short, so i'd do that if the weather was decent.

2/28/2008 10:06:50 AM

I'd recommend living in Raleigh closer to campus, that way you can walk/bike to school and avoid the hassle of driving or taking public transportation altogether. You wouldn't be forced to catch the bus at a specific time everyday, so your schedule would be more flexible. Plus since you're gonna be in grad school its nice to be able to take a quick trip to your office at night or on the weekends to do some work without having to commute 25 minutes each way just to do a task that will take 30 minutes to do.

You should check out the Lake Johnson area, it's a younger crowd there but very quiet which is good for a grad student. You'd be 2-3 miles from campus and bars.

2/28/2008 10:21:11 AM

^ yep wildwoods that's what I did close enough to campus and bars, yet not really college apartments with there schenanigans

2/28/2008 10:31:14 AM

6 hours

2/28/2008 10:32:15 AM

Just close enough to make a last minute Rendezvous Fuck

Just far enough that I don't have to worry about returning the favor

2/28/2008 10:34:29 AM

i live near crabtree...takes 20 minutes from the moment i leave my apartment to the moment i finally get into my office (after a 5 minute walk from my car)...meh

2/28/2008 10:39:52 AM

7-15 minutes depending on traffic.

2/28/2008 10:41:00 AM

Quote :

"Also it makes having a pass practically mandatory."

A bus pass? You do realize that students can ride TTA for free by showing your ID, right?

Anyway, I live about 2 miles from campus (and that's the farthest away I've lived in 9.5 years of attending/working at NCSU). Definitely convenient; if I didn't need to frequently carry computer equipment between buildings, I'd probably walk or ride the wolfline rather than drive in the mornings.

Seems like having to commute from Durham every day would get pretty old though. I considered taking a job at Duke for a while, and one of the things that caused me to turn down their offer was that it would be quite a drive to make at rush hour every day. Also, my girlfriend lives in Carrboro, and while I'm perfectly OK with making that drive 2 or 3 times a week, I'm sure I'd get tired of it on a daily basis. If you're commuting in, you'll also likely miss out on most/all weekend activities due to the commute; after 5 days of driving or taking the bus to campus every morning, are you going to want to do it all over again on Saturday and/or Sunday? Not likely.

But if you really want to make it work (or are locked into a lease where you are) it's certainly doable. Just might not be a lot of fun.

2/28/2008 10:41:52 AM

Right across the street from the bell tower

2/28/2008 10:43:00 AM

I live just far enough to make it too far to walk.

2/28/2008 11:04:44 AM

^i used to live on maiden ln.

2/28/2008 11:05:49 AM

i live about 25 minutes walking distance from campus

2/28/2008 11:06:09 AM

^5 minutes by car

2/28/2008 11:09:09 AM

^How long ago did you live on maiden? I have lived at the Theta Tau house for 3 years now.

2/28/2008 11:11:02 AM

i lived in 3 maiden ln from 99-02

2/28/2008 11:11:41 AM

Damn, right across the street. It is the DU House now. Maiden Ln. Serious Business

2/28/2008 11:14:20 AM

0 minutes, 0 miles - i love on centennial campus.

2/28/2008 11:16:49 AM

it used to be :/ now it's all a bunch of frat monkeys
when i lived there, it was a bunch of skaters/metalheads that did a lot of drugs, had freaky sex, and burned couches at 4am for the fuck of it. those were the bad old days.

Quote :

"0 minutes, 0 miles - i love on centennial campus."

lol

2/28/2008 11:16:49 AM

I started grad school last semester and lived approximately 15 minutes driving time by car and got tired of it very quickly. I seemed to miss out on a lot of activities etc. because I was so far away.

I just got a new assistantship living on campus and love being so close. I would say the closer the better when you are in school. I feel like I participate in a lot of activities now that I never did before.

2/28/2008 11:18:23 AM

XSMP, we have burned plenty of couches and still do on occasion. I know some of the older brothers use to do it a lot in our parking lot during those years you were there. We still listen to metal too

2/28/2008 11:24:57 AM

when i lived across the street, you older "brothers" used to blast limp bizkit out of a blown car stereo at 3am.

2/28/2008 11:30:22 AM

i lived on maiden lane from '02-'05

we overturned a car one night just for the hell of it

2/28/2008 11:34:10 AM

Haha, well some of us listen to metal anyway

^ We picked a car up and moved it last year so we could fence off part of the parking lot

[Edited on February 28, 2008 at 11:36 AM. Reason : car]

2/28/2008 11:34:36 AM

166 miles.

2/28/2008 11:39:16 AM

A few miles...I love West Raleigh. It's convenient to everything.

2/28/2008 11:41:24 AM

yeah, I think I may try to commute/take the bus for the first semester and see how it works out. Then maybe some time next year I'll look into selling my house....

2/28/2008 11:42:21 AM

7 blocks if you drive, 5 if you walk and take the cut thru

2/28/2008 3:10:14 PM

3,041 miles according to Google Maps

2/28/2008 3:40:58 PM

not far enough

2/28/2008 7:32:20 PM

I live in Bragaw. I win.

2/28/2008 7:33:15 PM

2965 miles

2/28/2008 7:34:12 PM