During my sophomore year at Quinnipiac University, I lived on the Mount Carmel campus and it wasn’t bad. However, I wondered how nice it would be to live on the York Hill campus which is one mile away. My friends lived atop the hill, so when we’d visit, it felt so new to me.

Now, after actually living on the hill for a few months, I’ve found that it’s not all that it’s cracked up to be. There are both positives and negatives to living on York Hill.

Being within walking distance from the M&T Bank Arena saves me a lot of time on game days for either hockey or basketball. Instead of having to figure out a way to get there, I can simply walk five minutes through campus.

When I went to the home hockey games last year with my roommates, we’d be stuck in the standstill traffic going down the hill that would last at least 30 minutes. Also, finding a parking spot for the games would be its own battle and we’d have to resort to parking in the parking garage, which is on the other side of the campus from the arena. Now that we’re all living up here, these problems don’t exist for us and it’s more enjoyable when we’re cheering on our Bobcats.

Parking has been an issue at this university for longer than I’ve been a student. Initially I thought that parking up here would be tougher, but it was the opposite.

We have the parking garage and the Eastview and Westview lots to park in. The farthest lot from my dorm is the parking garage, and it is a hike. I choose to park in the Westview lot, which is to the right of M&T Bank Arena. It’s not too far of a walk and there’s always a spot open. The location of the spot varies, but it’s nothing too outlandish.

The increased availability of parking on the York Hill campus has saved me exponential amounts of time because I’m not circling a parking lot waiting for a spot to open up like I had to do last year at Hilltop Lot behind the New Village dorms. Finding a spot last year was like finding a needle in a haystack.

For everything good on York Hill, there is something bad. The campus isn’t as perfect as I have explained it to be so far. It can actually be tricky and rage inducing.

Why does the only place to get food on York Hill close at 9 p.m. and 7 p.m. on weekends? Many students, including me, have class until 9:10 p.m. and would like to get something to eat after the long day. Some may say to get food down at the main cafe, but that one closes at 8 p.m., making the situation even worse.

In my opinion, the meals on York Hill are higher quality than the food on the Mount Carmel campus. For example, the pizza served on York Hill is made fresh in front of you while on Mount Carmel it’s usually been sitting out for a long time. The Bobcat Den, also known as “The Rat” on main campus, stays open until midnight on weekends which is perfect. Last year, I’d always look to snack on something around 11 p.m. and it made me feel better knowing that this option was available. Being on York Hill has definitely made me schedule my time differently.

Speaking of scheduling my time differently, the shuttle system has been a laughable mystery to me. I appreciate everything the drivers do for us and I’m not discrediting them. However, there have been instances where the system failed.

I have class at 11 a.m. most mornings. Normally, I’d wake up at 10:45 a.m., throw on some clothes and walk to class. Now, being on York Hill, I’d prefer not to walk to class, so I take the shuttle. I now wake up a half an hour earlier to catch either the 10:30 a.m. or the 10:50 a.m. shuttle.

On top of this, each shuttle goes to different places as each shuttle is differentiated by color. For example, Blue Bobcat goes all-around Hamden, Yellow Bobcat goes from York Hill to main campus only and the North Haven shuttle takes students to the North Haven Campus. Shuttle rides from York Hill to main campus take about seven to eight minutes. If you are late to a shuttle, you don’t want to be stuck with the Blue Bobcat.

The shuttling system is inconsistent. Recently, I was coming back from a meeting and was at the shuttle stop around 9:50 p.m. Around 10:25 p.m., instead of continuing to stand in the rain, I walked into the Center of Communications and Engineering and called a friend to pick me up. Depending on the shuttles adds more time to my day and adds more annoyed students to the list of displeased passengers. To reiterate, I do appreciate the service the shuttle drivers do for students, but you have one job, to drive back and forth between the campuses.

All in all, the change of scenery from living on the Mount Carmel campus to living on the York Hill campus is nice. With that, there will always be the ups and downs when there is change.