Now that you’ve got your head around your schedule and where your classes are located around campus, it’s time to think about parking.
For me, the first day I came to Uni I parked in a random location, I hadn’t figured out the campus so just sort of thought ‘anywhere will be a fine place to park!’ Basically I parked in the first carpark I saw, my car was under a tree which is essential in summer weather and it actually wasn’t a very busy car park. Succeeding at parking at Uni- tick! Naturally I just kept parking in that general area (I’m a creature of habit so once I’ve found something that suits me it generally sticks…for a while).
And this continued for a full semester. It didn’t matter where my first class was or my last- I just continued to park in that same car park.
It wasn’t until second semester that I walked out of my last class with a friend to her car- which was located about 10 steps from the door of the building! I was amazed!! You can park this close?!? You can be in your car 20 seconds after class ends and you barely get rained on?!
My Uni car parking experience was changed forever.
That day the world of campus carparks opened up to me. I realized that to minimize time spent walking through campus I needed to pre-plan where I was going to park depending on the location of my last class. This is a super important point- park where your last class will be, you don’t want to have to trek across the campus at the end of the day- you’re tired, the coffee has long worn off and you just want to get into your car as quickly as possible to pump your favourite tunes.
The other important point is the weather. If the weather isn’t going to be fantastic and you don’t own an umbrella like me (am I even a grown-up?) scout out the campus entrances that are used the least and park as close as possible to the door. Honestly, uni campuses have so many entrances with carparks right in front of them that aren’t popular because they’re not located near a large lecture theatre and are mainly used by staff. These are my favourite places to park 🙂
Or if you’re planning on sticking around to get some study done in the Library, park somewhere where it forces you after your last class to walk past the Library! Your chances of going in will greatly increase!
Happy car parking!
Aimee.