Josh Imhof | staff writer

Each weekday by 9 a.m., Finn Davis-Martin has already traveled to three different Pittsburgh neighborhoods. Her day starts at her family home in Brookline, where she wakes up each day at 7 a.m. to let out her two dogs. She then makes the drive to South Side where she parks her car at her father’s job before hopping on a shuttle that takes her to school on the Bluff.

Like thousands of other Duquesne students, Davis is a commuter. Commuters make up more than half of the university’s enrollment, with 4,710 students choosing to live off campus in the fall of 2024, according to Tim Lewis, director of commuter affairs. With so many unique situations and lifestyles, each student’s experience is different.

Senior Kimberly Clark said that it can take up to an hour and a half for her to get from campus to her home in McKeesport.

“It shaves a lot of time off of my available time during the day, and I’m doing 18 credit hours too, so it’s pretty difficult to manage my schoolwork,” Clark said.

Despite this, Clark felt the decision to commute was worth it.

Up until her sophomore year, she lived in a dorm, but communal bathrooms and “looming” roommates made it hard for her to focus on schoolwork. So before her junior year, Clark and her boyfriend decided to mortgage a house, where she now has her own office space and even a garden.

Other commuter students, like freshman Caelin Stewart, also appreciate having their own space to grow. Stewart lives with her grandparents in an apartment-style basement originally built for her great-grandmother, complete with a kitchen and a washroom. Growing up, she shared a house with four other siblings, so making the jump to independence was difficult.

“I’m the youngest, so it was a harder transition into adulthood. It was honestly really good for me to be forced to learn to do it on my own,” Stewart said.

Clark and Stewart’s decisions not only gave them the freedom they desired, but also financial relief.

“[Living on campus] was significantly more. My mortgage is only $460 a month. [My boyfriend] pays the utilities, and it ends up being about $400 for him as well. So it’s only like 800 bucks a month,” Clark said.

At Duquesne, the lowest priced dorms – Towers, Assumption and St. Ann – shared a base cost of $14,010 for the 2025-2026 academic year, according to the university’s website. Clark lived in Des Places, where the 2025-2026 price is $18,174 for a two-bedroom, two-bed suite, making her new living arrangement cheaper than a home on the Bluff.

Cheaper living also appealed to Rodrigo Corral, who lives with his family at their home in Carnegie. Corral works as a waiter at a restaurant in Downtown and has been able to use the money he would be spending on campus housing to save for his future. Commuting also has allowed him to spend more time with his family.

Despite these benefits, he is still looking forward to having his own place.

“My dad and my brother work at a country club and they start work at 6:00 [a.m.] My mother works at the school that my little brother goes to and they’re leaving the house by 6:45 [a.m.] so that schedule doesn’t really align with a lot of the stuff that I do,” Corral said.

Commuters who live at home deal with other difficulties like making friends and being absent from things happening at school.

“Sometimes I have a fear of missing out. I wish I could just stay here because I wouldn’t miss anything fun that comes up,” said Tolomé Mazariegos, a junior student who takes the bus to campus from his family home in Oakland.

Stewart echoed these statements, adding that strict schedules commuters have to follow can make it hard to maintain a social life. Along with being a full time student, she works three days a week at Giant Eagle. This means that she needs time in advance to plan out her schedule, something that her on-campus friends don’t always have to worry about.

“I feel like commuters are more like adults making plans. I can’t just sit around waiting on campus like ‘Oh, maybe we’re gonna do something,’” Stewart said. “I’m just gonna go home.”

Even with these restrictions, each traveler has been able to hit their stride, whether that is by meeting people in class, joining Greek Life or playing intramural sports. Some commuters also talk to each other in the commuter lounge, which Corral feels has become less utilized over the years. However, he remains optimistic that students will start coming back.

“When I first started, there was a huge group. Now, no one really talks to each other anymore, but it used to be really vibrant,” Corral said. “I’m hoping that comes back at some point.”