Should I commute to my university 40 minutes away or dorm?

Dorm it.  No brainer.

If you are paying rent now, commute.  Otherwise you will be renting two places.

There is something to be said for the dorm experience.  I went to two different schools.  I stayed in the dorms at the first one, and off campus in my second.  I formed friendships in the dorms that have lasted 35 years, I have no such friendships from the school where I lived off campus.  Getting used to living with a roommate, dealing with "dorm stuff", etc, is a valuable part of growing up.  You just get a much richer "going to college" experience if you live in the dorms.  Both of my kids lived in dorms their first year, then moved off campus.  They echo my contention that there's something to be gained by experiencing that way of living.

And it's nice rolling out of bed and getting to class 15 minutes after you wake up. 

What's the funding mechanism? You/your parents, student loans, scholarships or something else?

What's the commute method? Public transportation, your own vehicle or something else? (I know you said "find parking"... how much is on campus parking? Is it daily, monthly, school year or something else? Is parking easy or difficult to find while in session?

How safe is it walking between your vehicle and class?

What are the gas, maintenance, and insurance costs for the vehicle? If you use an electric vehicle will there be on-campus charging stations? Will the charging stations be on

How much are the on campus housing costs? Are you including food? How different will this be if you lived at home? We assume you won't be paying rent if living at home. You can assume your food expense will be different - but we don't know what your potential class schedule or existing/expected eating habits.

All this aside, living in the dorm exposes you to your cohort... networking with your classmates is a HUGE part of living on campus and provides a pretty rich experience outside of the academic-specific experience provided by commuting.

Is this your first year? Many campuses want freshman to live on campus. After that you need to find housing - many times off-campus. Perhaps you do dorm for the first year, then move home?

So... you have "hard costs" and "soft costs". List and detail each, compare/contrast, then make a decision and go for it.

Stay in the dorm. You'll save gas and parking expenses, plus you will have over an extra hour to study.