People who moved across the country for med school, how did you arrange for housing?

[AORiverContra]

Were you able to arrange all your housing online at home, or did you have to fly out to look for apartments? If you had to go there beforehand, how soon before your orientation did you go to look for apartments? How did you find your roommate and decide on a place with them? Is there anything else I should know to make the move go smoothly?

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[AORiverContra]

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[Lannister]

I will be moving to another city for med school which I had never been to (it's in the state I went to college in, but not my home state). I looked for apartments online. Usually the med schools will have some kind of resource for finding housing. Also, join the FB group. People are constantly posting looking for roommates. Once I had a list of possible apartments, I scheduled tours and took the bus down there to look at them.

 

[0dee]

Never trust the pictures that are posted on websites as it can be very deceiving, and always read the online reviews for the apartment complex. Also, stay away from any apartment complex that is close to an undergraduate Institution, as you won't be able to study or sleep at all.

 

[solace12]

My fiancee and I are moving cross country and we just signed a lease agreement for a condo 10 minutes away from the med school. We are moving there a month and a half before orientation, as we want to get settled in and explore the area before classes start for me. I used the school's FB group, Zillow, Trulia and other resources offered on the med school website to look for houses/apartments. I downloaded the Zillow app to my phone and selected several filters (price, bedrooms, etc) so I could narrow my search. It took us about a month until we found the condos we just signed a lease for. We didn't fly out to personally view the condos as they sent us floorplans, a virtual tour and brochures/pictures via email. I felt comfortable with the pictures/virtual tour because the condos are brand new and no one has lived in the unit that we are moving into. If it was a more established complex, I probably would have requested a virtual showing, e.g. Skype.

If you are looking for roommates, your school's Class of 2020 FB group page is probably your best bet! Also have a very good idea as to your budget and preferences before beginning your search - it'll save you a lot of frustration. Good luck!!

 

[Dr Tony T. Chopper]

Were you able to arrange all your housing online at home, or did you have to fly out to look for apartments? If you had to go there beforehand, how soon before your orientation did you go to look for apartments? How did you find your roommate and decide on a place with them? Is there anything else I should know to make the move go smoothly?

arranged housing on campus. 400 a month for a single were the rates so I had no incentive to live off campus. plus they offer covered parking for 120 a year.

 

[ndafife]

Class Facebook group should have some people from the area or familiar with the area to help you get an idea of where to live / what to expect for costs.

From there I checked out a bunch of apartments during the second look day and found a place to live. Otherwise we had some people who lived out of a hotel for a couple days before orientation

 

[lampshade4u]

I flew in at the beginning of June and checked out a bunch of buildings and potential places to rent with a realtor. Realtor sucked and had nothing concrete lined up (make sure you find someone who doesn't suck and tell them you mean business and are willing to ink a deal on the spot) so I just looked at the area and different places I could possibly live. Flew back home and realtor sent me a bunch of apartments in the buildings we looked at. Ended up using another realtor on an apartment we'd never seen or been to but in one of the buildings I saw on my trip there... had to just trust pictures and it turned out just fine. I would never recommend agreeing to a $22,000 contract on something you've never seen before, but sometimes there's not much you can do. It was easily the most stressful endeavor of my transition from UG to Med school.