I did carpool with a friend often for the first few semesters, however that eventually didn’t work out due to different work and school schedules. I often left class and drove straight to work. The days I didn’t work I’d stay in the university library till 11pm doing work. I did have some off days of course, but still long days were common.

It also took just under 2 hours as it was mostly a rural stretch of interstate. Which helped a lot with gas efficiency at least. My car was also small and gas efficient so it was about 2.5 gallons per day.

If we round up to 3, that would be about $384 a month at the $8 per gallon price. Which was significantly cheaper than a room in an apartment. Those averaged around $450 to $500, but due to a lack of transit in the city I would still be driving to school. Plus you have to account for semester breaks where I wouldn’t be driving at all. Of course gas was ranged from $3 to $3.50 per gallon then.

But then again I knew a guy who did this commute in a pickup truck. He complained about gas daily.

Also many of these people were just people I knew, not friends per se.