Your parents were OK with you going out of state to the Air Force Academy.
So no, you were NOT forced by your parents to commute anywhere.
They were ok with you being a traditional residential student out of state.
And if you felt forced for personal reasons later on to commute to UH, regardless of distance, again, that’s a personal choice, not parental force.
Was your daily drive over 50 mi each way? If not, then it’s not even on point.
Still waiting for someone here to step forward and say that they were forced by their parents to commute 50+ miles to UH when other options were available.
Hasn’t happened yet.
One guy who was allowed by his parents to be a residential student out of state does NOT meet the criteria.
My parents were okay with me going to a prestigious out of state institution on a full ride scholarship. VAST difference when compared to say, going to TTU while paying out of pocket because it was ‘too far’.
There’s also a huge comparison of apples to oranges in what traditional student-ism is when it comes to a service academy vs a state school. I don’t know how traditional student life it is to run around holding a backpack in my left hand, memorizing the names of 250 upperclassmen, and having to receive permission to get one hour off of campus while still having to be in dress blues. FAR from traditional.
Undergrad was forced. I don’t have any business trying to live any traditional student life anymore, so I feel more comfortable commuting.
This definitely seems like a big deal to you because you go on and on about it. In fact, you have taken over this thread specifically talking about this very topic. The evidence is against you.
I don’t know or care (why would anyone?) if parents force students to commute 50 miles to UH, but the truth of the matter is tons of kids commute to UH for different reasons. Maybe 50 miles, maybe less. 50 miles is such an arbitrary distance.
Amongst the many reasons that people commute are economics, UH offers the coursework or degree they are looking for, etc.
A) Downtown isn’t super germane to UH; I’ve said before that the second students get in a vehicle to go away from campus, their experience is mentally compartmentalized as a “Houston” experience, not a “UH” one, and that really goes doubly for anyone that’s from the local area, regardless of whether they live on campus or not. Otherwise, the plethora of nightlife spots that UH students already spend their time at in Montrose and Midtown would cover it. A student can’t just dip into Downtown for lunch or a coffee break unless they’ve got like an hour and a half to spare, and it’s unlikely to be conveniently located for their friends and classmates to meet anywhere around there.
B) Downtown still has a LONG way to go before it’s actually good. There’s a lot to do here, but it’s extremely event-oriented; you go downtown for something, be it a club or a theatre show or an Astros or Rockets game or a concert. Fixing the streets will help that a little, but not a lot. The bigger issue is the dearth of “third places.”
It’s not a big deal to me. Hell, I didn’t even bring it up.
Somebody else did. BLAME THEM. It wasn’t a thing for me. Yet some people here seem to think it’s a big deal or very common and keep stupidly arguing with me about it.
Of course, to the extent that people here try to say it’s common, or a good reason to not be more traditional, I’ll dispute it.
People forced by their parents to commute over 50 mi. to UH in lieu of other schools closer by are such a small category of UH students that we in no way should orient our policies to such exceptional cases.
And no, strakerak was NOT forced by his parents to commute. They were OK with him being residential out of state, and as long as that’s the case, which it was, he cannot claim that they forced him to commute…to UH or anywhere else.
He had other options his parents were fine with that didn’t involve commuting AT ALL.
Even then, when it comes to campus life (and urban development more broadly) anything on the opposite side of a freeway may as well not exist. In general, there’s an upper bound of about 10-15 minutes by foot, bike, or public transit (including wait times and walking to/from stations, etc.) before things are no longer “campus life.” In Houston, you can scratch bikes off that list because bike racks are rare and oft-robbed. Likewise, public transit isn’t frequent enough to consistently get you anywhere in 15 minutes. That basically leaves about a mile radius around UH’s campus in which development is likely to be worthwhile. (probably less, because for most, the campus functionally ends at Cullen, not Scott.)
Think Rice Village, or all the places along Guadalupe, not 6th Street.
I disagree bc the close by stuff by rail counts along with the closer city stuff .
I’m sure students at UT count stuff to do in Austin as well. It’s why UT says their location is better than what A&M has to offer. You won’t be bored in Houston as a student if you try where as A&M only has so many Dixie chicken outings before your bored which is why a lot of A&M go back home unless it’s a football game day.
We have a lot to offer being in a city with plenty to do.
Gravy would be if we did have some bars around UH but light rail is right there and a short trip to east end or downtown.
Tulane counts the French qtr and stuff in the city as well.
UT pitches students on 6th street, and Tulane on the French Quarter, but those are about as relevant to those schools’ daily experiences as Montrose and Midtown already are to UH — which is to say, not entirely zero, but it’s also not something that students are doing every day, or even every week.
Keep in mind, more than half the traditional undergrad population is too young to drink legally, and many of them don’t have cars. By the time they hit their Junior and Senior years and those things are likely to have changed, their impression of the campus and life relevant to it is already pretty set.
Yeah, but if you join a private fraternity house and move in, you’ll be able to drink, legal age or not, without anyone substantially interfering. It ain’t like a dorm where there are a bunch of rules. In a frat house…you make your own rules.
That’s strictly station-to-station, though. Doesn’t include walk time to the train from wherever you happen to be on campus or from the rail to your destination, and it assumes you have a serendipitously-timed departure with no waiting.
Do it from any of the dorms or inner-campus class buildings to somewhere students might actually hang out and it’s way longer. Even Cougar Place to Little Woodrow’s (about the easiest trip a student could make) is 22 minutes.
I stand by saying the city counts in the mix. Otherwise Austin has nothing over A&M which isn’t true. People in Houston and Austin don’t rush out of the city when there are no football games like at A&M where they leave. Downtown and east downtown etc count as our mix. A 22 minute trip on rail is nothing or a short drive. And again downtown is getter better especially by 2026 World Cup. People choose big cities bc there is a lot to do and it helps UH. Again we need a few bars but otherwise rail is there for that reason right by UH with a short trip to destinations.
This seems like you are equating all the schools within range as equals. Not all schools are equals. Depending on what you want to study there may not be closer schools or they may not be nearly as good on a resume for the job being sought after.
“So no, you were NOT forced by your parents to commute anywhere.”
FYI: Flat calling someone a liar is rude. Unless you were in that persons house hold to know for a fact the situation. I doubt you were.
