Drive to campus. Find parking. Go to class. Walk back to parking lot. Drive home. Repeat.

It's a schedule that's familiar to many college students who don't live on campus, but commute to school. And according to Rutgers University experts, it is also a pattern that - if not broken - can leave a student feeling isolated from the rest of the college world.

"One of the big problems student commuters don't foresee is feeling out of touch with student life," said Gail Wittman, assistant dean, Office of Commuter Services at Douglass College, the college for women at Rutgers-New Brunswick.

"They struggle with the sense of belonging to the college or university because they're not a resident student that lives here," said John Leoniak, assistant director of student commuter services at Livingston College, Rutgers University in Piscataway. Many student commuters live at home with their parents or in an apartment off campus.

By mere physical location, resident students can easily immerse themselves in college life, walking from their dorm to meet friends at a poetry reading, lecture, concert or corner diner. But, for student commuters, college is a very different, sometimes lonely experience. Here are some of the issues this mobile population faces and tips from Rutgers commuter advisors on how to fight the commuter blues: