To think I can drive 4 hours per day, 4 times a week as a newly qualified driver?

If you hardly drive and then only a short distance why not hire a car and do the journey a couple of days at rush hour and it will give you a better idea? I would avoid 180 mile journey every day personally, your concentration level has to be high even more so if you’re inexperienced. Might be ok if you stay over some time every week and I’d suggest you get an automatic car

There's spareroom.com as well

I got a job before uni at an agricultural research centre and part of the requirement was a driving licence, I had passed just days before the interview, I ended up driving big trucks about 100 miles to and fro to different fields with a school friend who’d also got a job as an assistant and she came with me on all the jobs far afield to take samples and spray crops etc. A few weeks in I was asked for my drivers licence and I explained I’d only just passed so it hadn’t arrived yet, the boss was horrified but I’d already shown I could do it so they stopped me driving until the licence arrived and then I got back driving straight away! It made me a very confident proficient driver of large vehicles
You can do it, like some pp I like driving long distances with the radio on, just so long as you’re careful you’ll be fine and such a saving on your time.

Although the journey would become more familiar over time, that can also be a danger. When I was commuting, I found the drive increasingly boring which made me start to feel drowsy and not as alert as a driver should always be.

Get the train! You’d be mad to drive that much! I say that as an experienced driver of decades. You’ll be exhausted and stressed - and your car will be knackered very quickly.

You could use your car to drive a short distance to make your initial train route quicker, ie you don’t necessarily have to start your train journey from your local station. Look at the options around you. Some might be quicker or better.

I’d reconsider not moving closer to the uni too. It would make things so much easier for you and probably improve your performance aswell.

I would give it a go. Journeys are different it could be an easy commute with the radio on and enjoyable. Or it could be a difficult drive and stop start. Just try then you decide

No matter how experienced you are, that's a lot of driving - especially the 2 hours back after a hard day. I wouldn't do it.

That sounds exhausting. Are there any bed and breakfasts that you can stay at? Think if the time you will save that can be spent studying.

When I first passed my test I was doing roughly the same (100 mile motorway drive there and back, two times a week - approx 2 hours each way). It wasn't ideal (as someone else said, it was dead time and required a lot more mentally of me than being on a train) but I also encountered every single driving condition you could think of, saw a ton of crashes and scary things and traffic jams and all sorts, and it really meant I wasn't scared of anything on the road after that!

4 hours a day driving is too long and will exhaust you.

I did this for my final year at uni. It was fine but I find driving quite relaxing. In your own space radio on..perfect chillax for me.

It's really hard to get into a flow swapping transport that often. I travel bus-train-tube in two directions, and I only ever work about 60% of the 2h train.

Can you look at it the other way around - look for places that you can travel to directly from the end point in one go, then see how long to drive there? Local transport network maps are better for this than Google.

On the family support, is it predictable? Can you plan in advance? Do you need to be at home, or would being closer help (e.g. could you stay 1h closer to uni?).

These are the types of queries that the mumsnet hive mind is great at coming to a solution / offering suggestions.

Are you able to share where you currently live and which uni campus you need to get to? - pretty sure none of that is going to be outing

The other thing to consider is the risk of breakdown driving a car such great distances. If you are adamant about getting a car I’d lean towards to newest car, most reliable brand you can afford with a full service history. You’ll also need breakdown membership and Id invest in a spare tyre as a lot of modern cars don’t have them. I had to buy one for my BMW and the peace of mind is worth it.

I'd look at cheap AirBnb/ travelodge options that are on the way or nearby rather than drive 2 hours at the of a Uni day, ro eat/ study / sleep at home and then drive 2 hours back the next day! At. least as an option for bad weather / feeling tired days!

That’s what 30k miles a year just on commuting to uni? You’ll have to give your mileage when you take out insurance and that sort of number could well send it through the roof.

why can’t you move closer?

If you don’t have a car already and cope fine without one now, I’d stick to the train. That’s a very long drive to be doing after uni and especially once it gets dark again, you’re likely to be driving when tired which puts you at greater risk of being in an accident. I’d look at the train where you could get plenty of work done, and compared to the running costs of a car, will work out cheaper.

A friend of mine had a flat in London that she had a Monday to Friday lodger. She used this site I think to advertise - https://www.mondaytofriday.com/

How long is the course for OP? I did a two year degree at a uni ten miles away and my drive was 40-90 mins either way. I also used an app where I booked people’s driveways to park on. Look at that parking option too. It was annoying but public transport would have taken longer and was more expensive.

4 hours (if you get no traffic) is really long and I wouldn’t have had the energy to then work after. But if it’s not for a massive amount of time and you really do want it then you’ll make it work. You can stop off and get snacks, you can stay in the library to avoid peak traffic times and you could stay in a hotel if you needed to. It’s not an ideal situation but I don’t know if it would be enough to put me off the course.

I agree with all of this. My fuel only estimate cost came out around £500 too.

To give the opposite side of your view, I'd prefer to drive it!

I love listening to podcasts and audio books, so would listen to those along the way. I am, however, a confident driver with over 25 years of experience behind me.

Other things to consider. It's not just fuel costs - it's wear and tear on your car. 180 miles a day, 4 days a week for, say, 9 months is around 28,000 miles. Estimated tyre usage is between 20,000 and 40,000 miles (though I've recently gotten much more out of some of mine). How quickly your car goes through tyres depends on driving style and the car itself.

DH hasn't changed his driving style, but his old car's tyres were rubbish and he'd only get about 10,000 miles out of them. He bought his current car new and has done 30,000 miles out of them with a change only due to a puncture.

Look up how much tyres are and whether your car has a proper spare or a space saver. My car is a BMW and doesn't have a spare at all, so the run flat tyres I have are £160 each. DH's old car was over £200 a tyre.

As another idea, could you stay up there a couple of nights?

I like the coach idea too, though they'll probably be slower than the train, depending on the route.

A PhD is going to take significantly more than 40h a week, and more difficult. I would not add 16h a week of driving to it.

On the other hand, do you have to be there in person 4 days a week?

A solution would be to lodge with someone for four days a week. Could the University help you find somewhere?

It’s not an uncommon arrangement, or used not to be. Better than wasting so many hours driving.

Is it educational psychology?
This driving is a really bad plan and not because you're a new driver. It's 4 precious hours of every day when you can't do anything but drive. You are going to have so much work to do - hours of study time down the drain sitting in the car. You'll get home, completely knackered, have to have something to eat, shower, get changed, whatever and then sit down to get on with some work which could potentially take hours and then you have to go to bed and get up again the next morning to do the same.
It really needs a rethink.
At least if you go on the train you can use that time to do some of your work.

Can you not find a place as a weekly lodger near the university? (ie. you only live there during the week?)
It sounds like you don't want to go into the reasons why you can't live near the university but are those obstacles really as big as you think they are? Is there a way round them?

Sounds like an amazing opportunity- congrats OP!

It is a fair amount of driving, but people do have this kind of commute and adapt to it. To get prepared I’d hire a car for a week and do the actual commute - will help you get used to it and see if the timings you’ve worked out are correct.

Also check with the university on actual contact times required in case you can leave earlier/start later some days, which will be a big help.

Often those reasons are money; they can’t afford to rent or flat share but didn’t consider lodging which is much cheaper. It’s always worth suggesting just in case. So many of my former students had this issue, and hadn’t consider becoming a lodger to make it affordable. They then did once being made aware of the option. You never know what’s been considered.

If the issue isn’t the cost then OP can ignore, can’t she.