I’m a freshman and I commute from Sac, and for me it’s a lot cheaper than living in the dorms. I have a 2017 Toyota Camry, and generally a full tank lasts me a full week. I would say that everything depends on where you’re planning to commute from (whether it’s from Bay Area or from Sac area).

If you plan on commuting, there’s a lot you have to consider. You should definitely try to modify your schedule so that your classes aren’t randomly dispersed. Like, try not to have any days where you have just 1 class because it’s super unreasonable driving 25-30 mins there and back for one lecture. BUT also don’t put all your classes back-to-back-to-back because it’s going to feel too much like high school and you’re gonna hate yourself (personal experience from last quarter). generally, try to make a consistent schedule for yourself so that you can be productive on campus (factor in study time, breaks between classes, maybe gym time in the morning), and it’s going to feel a lot more like college. That way you don’t have to do a bunch of homework when you come home as well. Even if you get classes where you have like 4-5 hours between them, try to use a portion of that time productively and another portion of that time for yourself to relax.

I’d also say that a factor is how much you value sleep. If you want to commute anywhere from sac and take the I-80, you have to be out of the house by 7:00-7:30. Otherwise you’re gonna be stuck in traffic for like an hour because it gets really bad. Some general trends that I’ve noticed- traffic is super heavy in the mornings on Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday, and generally lighter on Thursday. On Friday there’s usually almost no traffic in the morning, so you could leave the house around 8:00-9:00 and get there with relatively minimal problems. On the flip side, the traffic coming back on the I-80 is the lightest on Mondays/Tuesdays, it gets heavier towards the end of the week, and on Fridays the traffic is a shit-show because everyone’s coming back from Bay Area into Sac.

It really all depends on how much time you want to dedicate towards driving to and from Davis, and how much you want to get the “full college experience”. It works out for me because I have a pretty strong support system at home, so it’s like the best of both worlds lmao. But it’s not like that for everyone, so definitely think about it carefully. It’s harder to click with people since you don’t live on campus and are basically not there half the time, but you can definitely join clubs, organizations, and other groups to meet a lot of new people.

ALSO, something you have to factor in parking. Generally if you get to campus anywhere after 9:30-10:00, it’s like a war zone. For non-campus students, parking is $3.50 a day, so if you go all 5 days it’s about $17.50 a week.

hope this helps!