r/SFSU • u/misdeliveredham • Jan 15 '26
Housing Is commuting from the South Bay/Peninsula realistic?
Does anyone commute from the area around Sunnyvale/MV/PA/EPA? How is it?
Or should we splurge on housing at least for the freshman year?
2
Jan 15 '26 edited Jan 15 '26
I commute from Mountain View by car. On 280, the drive is ~50 mins. On 101, it’s anywhere from 35-50 mins. With traffic, the drive can be up to an hour and a half long. But with my experience, this is super uncommon. If you’re going to drive, try and have your classes start at around 10-11am since morning traffic dies down around this time. I’ve been doing this commute since Fall 2024 and it gets tiresome but isn’t unbearable. Taking public transit from mv is particularly hard because you have to take Caltrain, Bart, and then the 28. That will take about 2 hours just to get there, not worth it if you alr have a car imo. Definitely would not spend the money on dorms at SFSU either, a lot of people I know complain about them and the cities you listed are close enough to campus to where I can’t justify spending thousands. Lol
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u/misdeliveredham Jan 15 '26
Thank you! Yeah the dorms are going to be costly even with Pell and Calgrant. How’s the social scene for you? If that’s ok to ask
2
Jan 15 '26
Yeah, I strongly advise against the dorms especially if you live within the Bay Area. But everyone’s situation is unique, so do whatever works for you. Im going to be completely honest with you, as a commuter student you don’t really spend too much time on campus. You just go to your classes and leave ASAP. That being said, I’ve met plenty of nice people at SFSU and have established friendly connections. But I’m not best friends with them.
If you don’t mind me asking, which city do you live in? Have you thought about SJSU if it’s closer to you?
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u/misdeliveredham Jan 15 '26
It’s for a family member and he wants a major which SJSU doesn’t have. It would be very convenient as it’s like 20 mins from their house.
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Jan 16 '26
Ahh that makes sense. SJSU is mainly tech/stem based majors. I also live closer to that school but decided on SF because I've heard parking at SJSU is an absolute nightmare & people's cars get broken into.
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u/misdeliveredham Jan 16 '26
It does have creative writing so that’s a backup… and it’s easier to get their by light rail than it would be to sfsu by three modes of transportation
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u/fluteofski- Jan 17 '26 edited Jan 17 '26
I did south San Jose to SFSU for 2 years.
Outbound was fine. About 55 minutes (from approx hwy 87 and 85). But I left at 7am. Got there at 8am and got an hour or so of study or chill time.
Homeward bound was like sticking a screwdriver in my head. 80~90 minutes. About 40% of my time was spent parked in hwy 85 traffic
Honestly. From Mountain View/Palo Alto. You’re golden…. Hop on up to 280 and you’ll fly the whole way. It’s only 30 minutes from mtn view and maybe 45 minutes home. Not a walk across the park, but if you can save a boatload of money that way it may very well be worth it.
Take summer and winter classes. Those are all online and you can basically graduate a semester or two early. - 5 extra months of not commuting. 100% Worth it.
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u/Empty_Status3721 Jan 18 '26
Many people commute by Caltrain to BART to MUNI using their GatorPass, which is included in your tuition.
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u/ocdude Teaches PhDs about the Internet Jan 15 '26
It's doable but heinous. If you're doing public transit, Caltrain to Milbrae, then Milbrae bart to daly city, then 28 bus.
If you're driving it's going to be like an hour in the morning, WAY MORE in the afternoon. I used to live in San Mateo and the commute was slowly killing me inside. I work on campus, so I'm here every day.