About 75% of St. John’s students commute to the Queens campus. According to a Forbes report, about 80% of the student body are New York state residents. Additionally, 80% of living alumni reside within the New York City metropolitan area.
While being a commuter student can often feel like more time is spent on the road than on campus, it also means that you can interact with New York as a New Yorker.
As a student who attended another city school before transferring to St. John’s, many activities felt dull and overly tourist-oriented. After transferring to St. John’s, I felt that I had the free will to pursue different areas of New York–well beyond the cliches like Fifth Avenue or the Statue of Liberty. I no longer had to pretend to listen to an out-of-stater telling me the best route uptown– I went to high school a few blocks away for goodness sake.
Many commuter students tend to develop friendships with other commuter students. Understanding each other’s experiences and forming that bond is important, but it also might mean heading home together right after class to avoid rush hour traffic.
While the lure of empty roads after an early afternoon class might be difficult to turn away from, there are opportunities to socialize at student-run events on occasional evenings and weekends. Many on-campus cultural groups including the Arab Student Association, the Balkan Club and Haraya run formal dinners and get-togethers.
Many students on campus are from Queens, “the world’s borough”— one of the most ethnically diverse places in the world.
According to the U.S. Census, more than 47% of residents are foreign-born. From Woodside’s “Little Manila” through Elmhurst’s “Thai Town” to Astoria’s “Little Egypt,” locals tend to branch out internationally. There is also ample diversity stemming from “over 44 states and 119 countries,” that make up St. John’s student body.
A 2001 New York Times article summarized it well, “On any weekday night, the parking lots of St. John’s University in Jamaica, Queens start emptying as the commuter students — the Long Islanders and the residents of Brooklyn and Queens who have historically defined St. John’s — begin their journeys home.”
The article announced the newest edition of its time: St. John’s residence village.
While I have spent a few long evenings at St. John’s, it definitely isn’t “very quiet” as former University president Rev. Donald J. Harrington described it about 24 years ago. There are students strolling around, waiting for Ubers, or heading to Monty’s these days during the early hours of the night.
However, I also imagine that many students envision their college years to be a little livelier–but I don’t think that’s the experience St. John’s always aimed for, although that might be slowly changing.
