Parking spaces fill up on campus, Friday, August 29, 2025, in Houston, Texas. | Raphael Fernandez/ The Cougar.
UH is well-known to be a commuter school. With a majority of the student population being commuters, it is essential to understand how to navigate college life and manage travelling.
Be early
As cliche as this sounds, it is highly recommended to be as early on campus as possible.
With the ongoing construction on campus and in Houston, it is possible that you might encounter heavy traffic, especially during peak hours.
Therefore, aim to leave for campus ideally an hour before your class time. This will also ensure that you get a good parking spot as well.
Services on campus
Luckily, UH offers a variety of services and support for students to help them understand commuter life better.
Commuter Student Services’ mission is to provide support services and effective communication to help facilitate commuter students’ success and connection to the UH community.
UH also offers the Commuter Ambassador Program which is a paid leadership position creating an opportunity for commuter students to influence and lead other commuter students on campus.
They have regular office hours, host various opportunities and office events giving students a taste of the campus environment.
Students taking classes at both the main campus and the Sugar Land campus can use the Cougar Line shuttle service to travel back and forth.
The shuttles can be tracked through the UH GO app or the Cougar Trax Website.
Try out different routes
Before school opens, try out various routes to campus and at different times. This will help make decisions as to which route and time suits you better and understand Houston traffic.
It will also ensure that you memorise alternative routes in case the regular routes are closed or causing a diversion.
Stay involved
Just because commuter students are not staying on campus, doesn’t mean they can’t enjoy campus life to the fullest.
However, to experience that, it is recommended to get involved on campus as much as possible. This can be done by joining various organizations, clubs or even finding an on campus job.
Staying a little late on campus after class can help students catch a variety of ongoing events!
news@thedailycougar.com
