Residential students live on-campus during the program. Commuter students live off-campus and commute to class. Please see our Find Your Community page for a detailed comparison of the two options.
We strive to offer Commuters as many of the regular Summer Session experiences as possible, but we know there is no equivalent to experiencing Stanford as a Residential student. Many Academic Programs and program-wide events will require additional commute time to attend. Most excursions are designed to introduce the local area and are only open to Residential students who pay a higher program fee. For Commuter students who are likely familiar with experiences off-campus, we've focused on creating connections to the academic and cultural life of campus.