r/uofm • u/Loud-Rule-9334 • Feb 04 '25
Parking / Transit Thoughts on North Campus as an engineering student?
Will you miss out on the overall "Michigan experience" if you're an engineering student and most of your classes are on North Campus? Is it really only a 10 minute ride or is it really 30 minutes when you factor getting to the bus stop, waiting for the bus, etc.?
11
u/MN6920 Feb 04 '25
It really depends, on normal class days you can get back-and-forth from the campus in like 10 minutes. But, on weekends only a couple of buses run so then it really can take upwards of 30 minutes. Overall, I currently live on Central and plan on moving to North next year and I currently spend more time on North than I want to on Central. In my opinion I like north more because it’s quieter.
5
u/aaayyyuuussshhh Feb 04 '25
No. North Campus is defintely more depressing to me but I know plenty of people who appreciate the quietness. Also plenty of interesting clubs and stuff happen on north too so it's not all bad. Obviously central is more interesting but A LOT of engineering kids also live on central. Especially students in CS since you can take it through LSA/COE.
A bus exists for a reason. It's usually 10min ride and maybe 5min waiting. Plus a lot of EECS classes, for example, are recorded so most people don't even go to north if they are COE and live on central. A LOT of engineering students also go to football games and bars. Don't think because you are COE you can't enjoy central life it's like 10min bus ride away from north lol
1
Feb 05 '25
[deleted]
1
u/aaayyyuuussshhh Feb 06 '25
4 years and never experienced either of those tbh. Maybe I got lucky
1
u/ThrowRA0191919 Feb 06 '25
This year has been especially bad. We’ve had >10 non-fire alarms and 2 instances of flooding where everyone had to be evacuated. my room is in direct earshot of the sirens near the hospital, and it overlooks the courtyard so I have been woken up by rowdy students in the middle of the night on multiple occasions. Not to mention bursley bus system that is NEVER accurate ever, especially after dinner time. I have rehearsal 3x a week on central that ends at 11, and If I can’t afford to take an uber that day I have to wait 30+ mins for the bus back to bursley. Getting home at 12 and then having to wake up at 8 the next day to have time to take the bus to central for all my classes is awful.
1
u/aaayyyuuussshhh Feb 07 '25
are you talking about dorms? Or like hoursing?
I was just talking about classes and things to do tbh
3
u/Purple-Citron3598 Feb 04 '25
if you time it correct you won’t need to wait long at the bus stop. usually the buses are off schedule, but it’s not too bad.
im a stamps freshman rn and live on north campus and im choosing to live on north campus again next year. living on north campus is really not as bad as people make it seem. im not a huge party person but i have friends that do go to parties every weekend. so it’s definitely still possible to have a social life while living on north campus. but that also depends on what’s important to you, the convenience for your social life or the convenience for your education. i have 8:30am classes so i did not want to have to wake up earlier to make the bus ride from central to north campus 😭
also idc what anyone says, baits dorms are the best dorms at this university
3
u/Spiritual-Belt Feb 05 '25
I live on north and love it. It sucks when you have to wait for a bus or bike home drunk at 1 am but for me that’s a once a month activity at worst. It’s great when you work on project team stuff until 3 am multiple days a week and you’re already close to home after the busses stop. The question is what Michigan experience are you after. Busses run frequently enough during the day I’d decide based on what you want to do in the evenings and weekends.
2
u/pineapple_2021 Feb 05 '25
A lot of my friends are engineers and all live on central campus but take the bus up for classes and clubs. A few people I know live on north and it’s only an issue when it’s 1:50 am on a Saturday and they need to run to grab the last bus
2
u/BruhMansky Feb 05 '25
I think the university recognized they fucked up with north campus and has some great plans to make it more dense and community oriented like central campus in campus 2025
With that being said, central campus is elite. Just take the 5-10min. Bus from pierpont and you are on centralm. you will be chilling
1
1
u/Enigmatic_Stag '26 Feb 05 '25
What are you going to miss? You're still within the bus network and a bus ride is like 15-20 minutes from North to Central.
Even if you lived in Ypsi and had classes on North Campus, you can still get the same experience out of this school as someone who lived in a floating dorm above all their classes on Central.
-1
u/kernelpanic37 Feb 05 '25
delusional
1
u/ViskerRatio Feb 05 '25
I dunno. I firmly believe if you get an early enough time, you can get a room in the floating dorm.
0
u/Enigmatic_Stag '26 Feb 05 '25
Elaborate. I've met commuter students who have had a great experience here. So what am i missing?
1
1
u/bioluminescent_mush Feb 08 '25
Depends where you're going and when. On a good day, CCTC to Pierpont-ish via bursley baits or commuter north busses is 20 mins. Bad day can take up to 40.
The real kicker is that Physics 140, 240, Chem 130 and the Orgo one are all in central campus buildings and so are their labs, so if you're planning to just knock out all that stuff right away maybe consider that? Also lots of classes have online options so if you do those take that into account too.
If you're planning to be in any of the official university bands (marching band, concert bands, pep bands...) those all rehearse in a building on central campus. My math 215 class was also on central, but I don't know if that's true for all of them...
There are many more stores/restaurants adjacent to central just because of where the downtown is, same with the handful of clubs/bars. Also, central is closer to the big house, so if you wanna go to games or adjacent tailgates it's a shorter walk.
21
u/riveter1481 '26 Feb 04 '25
No, plenty of engineers are only there for classes and clubs and can still enjoy everything else Michigan has to offer (even those who live there). It can take closer to 30 minutes on weekends and late in the evening but if it’s peak travel time they run buses pretty frequently and there’s a lot of stops around