Will a 45-minute commute to med school make things very difficult?

[Super_Med]

I was checking housing for the med school I'm currently accepted at, and prices for housing near the med school/hospital are astronomical. However, I am able to find housing about ~45 minutes away that is much more affordable. Will this add unnecessary difficulty to the already difficult med student life? I'm trying my best to only spend on what is necessary.

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[Frank.MD]

A BIG yes!

 

[theendisnigh]

Not to beat a dead horse here, but I want to emphasize Whopper's point about study groups. It's so easy when you live 20+ minutes away to decide that you'd rather study at home than make study groups. That really sucks later because you don't get to know your cohort well and benefit from their potential study tips. Also you'll want to be in the anatomy lab all the time as an M1 and then rotations come round during M3. You CAN I guess hypothetically live far, but you miss out on the community service activities, the clubs, the fun study groups etc because you just don't live close enough to feel like spending that precious time commuting for anything other than school.

 

[deleted1023831]

Unless medschool's gotten easier I would live as close to if not on the campus. Several study-alliances are made. Propinquity is an important factor. If you don't know what that term means look it up. It's not just the saved time. It's the mental eustress that helps you to go the extra distance of being in the heart of the maelstrom. Going off campus will put in back into the real world-that world being of most people not studying anywhere near as much as you do and psychologically this could limit your performance.

If the travel time is public transportation add to that (At least for me) that I often times felt zombified if on a bus for more than 30 minutes. That takes time to recover.

How precious is time in medschool? People time how long they sit on the crapper. That's how serious and intense the study time can often be. I remember one of the joys of doing the #2 was I was able to sit down and avoid fear of not doing work cause when you got to do a #2 you got to do a #2. Otherwise anytime I wasn't studying I was living in fear of not doing enough.

I've seen some people have some very odd lifestyles in medical school and they made it fine but these people were oddities. E.g. someone who had a full-time job and somehow still did medical school. Holy crap I would never recommend that but this guy's like "yeah well I did it." Okay Dr. Egocentric you're not the rest of the population. Something about you made you different and your advice doesn't apply to everyone.

Wait I'm curious. How did this guy manage a FULL-TIME JOB? I'm a premed studying computer science at a top CS school where software engineer salaries right out of undergrad are regularly 150k+. I've thought of doing at least a part-time job once I start med school to offset some loans. But I am worried that it'll be too much to work as an engineer while in medical school at the same time.

 

[NicholasU]

I was checking housing for the med school I'm currently accepted at, and prices for housing near the med school/hospital are astronomical. However, I am able to find housing about ~45 minutes away that is much more affordable. Will this add unnecessary difficulty to the already difficult med student life? I'm trying my best to only spend on what is necessary.

Full disclosure I am not in med school, but I do not think that it should be a big deal. Currently I am pursuing my undergraduate degree a the U of Washington and I have a 2 hr commute one way, 4 hrs roundtrip, on a good day while taking a full 18 credits. As long as you are able to manage your time well you should be fine. I would also like to say that I plan to go to the med school at the same uni that I currently go to and I plan to continue to commute. It is all about where your priorities with your time are.

 

[doomer_md]

Full disclosure I am not in med school, but I do not think that it should be a big deal. Currently I am pursuing my undergraduate degree a the U of Washington and I have a 2 hr commute one way, 4 hrs roundtrip, on a good day while taking a full 18 credits. As long as you are able to manage your time well you should be fine. I would also like to say that I plan to go to the med school at the same uni that I currently go to and I plan to continue to commute. It is all about where your priorities with your time are.

Um what? Do you do anything else besides go to class and study?

 

[theendisnigh]

Full disclosure I am not in med school, but I do not think that it should be a big deal. Currently I am pursuing my undergraduate degree a the U of Washington and I have a 2 hr commute one way, 4 hrs roundtrip, on a good day while taking a full 18 credits. As long as you are able to manage your time well you should be fine. I would also like to say that I plan to go to the med school at the same uni that I currently go to and I plan to continue to commute. It is all about where your priorities with your time are.

*can confirm that med school takes loads more time than 18 credit semesters*

 

[doomer_md]

maybe even meet your future spouse.

But girls have cooties.

 

[YCAGA]

I think some people in this thread are confusing "can" and "should." You can live 45 minutes from campus and still do well, but it doesn't mean you should live 45 minutes from campus. People have offered anecdotes in this thread of how they made a long commute work, but it wasn't ideal for them.

A more extreme example of this can vs. should confusion is when someone asks if you can have kids during medical school. You can have kids and survive medical school, but I don't think anyone would recommend it if you have a choice.

No one is forced to live this far from campus, so this is not a question of "can I?", it is a question of "should I?" And the answer to that is a clear no.

 

[Kaustikos]

Full disclosure I am not in med school, but I do not think that it should be a big deal. Currently I am pursuing my undergraduate degree a the U of Washington and I have a 2 hr commute one way, 4 hrs roundtrip, on a good day while taking a full 18 credits. As long as you are able to manage your time well you should be fine. I would also like to say that I plan to go to the med school at the same uni that I currently go to and I plan to continue to commute. It is all about where your priorities with your time are.

You're not making a valid comparison. 18 hours graduate hours is a joke compared to medical school or even residency.
I've done my graduate studies. 18 hours of that is loads different than the coursework/study of med school.

 

[differentiating]

Agreed with everyone saying that it'll probably be a pain (but doable) during MS1-2, and will destroy you MS3-4. I lived across town from my med school in MS1-2 due to student housing location, and it wasn't too bad to just ride the buses back/forth, but commuting in MS3-4 made me want to die. I once made the mistake of using public transit to commute to a cross-town sub-I because I was afraid of racking up Uber bills... not a smart choice. The rotations where I could roll out of bed and walk to the nearby hospital were definitely the easiest, in part because my limited time off wasn't being wasted with commuting.

Hence why now, in residency, I live across the street from the main hospital. Yeah, I could probably get something 300/month cheaper if I were willing to have a commute, but I'd rather save myself the time/energy. Plus, I don't have a car, so I'm saving on that cost as well - I'll just use uber for rotations elsewhere.

 

[Kaustikos]

Bingo. I think providing context in these anecdotes is very important. There was a medtwitter couple sharing how they had multiple kids through med school/residency and saying "YOU CAN DO IT TOO!" People started asking questions and found out the couple attended Harvard (VERY supportive school), and was doing derm (the woman) and another cush specialty for the guy, and had a 24/7 nanny (plus rich parents to help them).

Context is everything.

That was my point. It can be done but it's stupid. It just makes no sense. In hindsight: I should've paid the high rent and whatever to have an easier life. Being closer is better. No brainer.
Tbt: I probably ruines by gi with stress ulcers from doing it

 

[allyallyoxenfree]

Too far I think for clinical work

 

[ploguap]

My parents are making me commute an 1hr and that’s not with traffic...

 

[oldman]

*can confirm that med school takes loads more time than 18 credit semesters*

When I was in medical school I looked at the transcript and saw my credit load was in the 30s.

 

[oldman]

Not to beat a dead horse here, but I want to emphasize Whopper's point about study groups. It's so easy when you live 20+ minutes away to decide that you'd rather study at home than make study groups. That really sucks later because you don't get to know your cohort well and benefit from their potential study tips. Also you'll want to be in the anatomy lab all the time as an M1 and then rotations come round during M3. You CAN I guess hypothetically live far, but you miss out on the community service activities, the clubs, the fun study groups etc because you just don't live close enough to feel like spending that precious time commuting for anything other than school.

I agree with this part. I had fun in med school in large part from the camaraderie.