Surviving without a car at med school

For just school purposes, Hopkins is doable without a car. You can choose to live in Reed Hall which is literally across the street from the hospital and just a couple blocks from the PCTB where you have classes. (And basically everything is connected by tunnels, basements, bridges so you don't have to walk outside after dark.) If you want to live off campus, two areas that come to mind that you would not need a car for are Charles Village (where the undergrad campus is) and Mount Vernon, as they both have frequent free shuttle service to the medical school. The caveat, however, is that Baltimore itself is not a very public transportation friendly city. If you think you'll be okay with having easy access to just the school and then using cabs/bumming rides when you want to go out to eat, shopping, etc. then you would be okay without the car. So basically Hopkins is doable without a car, but if you like to go out and do other things to relieve stress, I would recommend the car to maintain sanity.

flip26 said:

I assume it is possible if not preferable to live and function reasonably well without a car for all 4 years at the following major city schools - please let me know if I am wrong about any of these - and please add to the list:

Columbia
NYU
Mount Sinai
NYU
AECOM
Boston Univ
Tufts
Harvard
Northwestern
Pritzker
UCSF
GW
Penn

How feasible is it to manage without a car at the following schools? The underlying assumption is that one lives in nearby dorms or apartments with easy (and safe) walking access or availability of some sort of mass transit / bus / shuttle service from residential areas...I am most concerned about MS1&2, but also interested in years 3 and 4, too, and similar ease of access to clerkship rotations at affiliated hospitals...

Hopkins
Stanford
Yale
Mayo
Baylor
WUSTL
Vanderbilt
Michigan
Duke
Wake Forest
Miami
Emory
Tulane
NYMC

Thanks - actual knowledge or personal experience preferred over speculation - thanks again.

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I have the same question about Dartmouth???

At all the schools on the second list, you could probably get by without a car the first two years provided you live within walking distance of the medical school or nearby a place where there is constant transport to the medical center. As far as daily routines outside of school such as going out to eat, getting your groceries, shopping, etc etc you'd have to rely on other people to give you rides. If you don't mind bumming rides and trust you'll be able to find friends who'll help you out with that then you should be fine. 3rd and 4th years at those schools might be tougher though but the schools themselves might have shuttles to the different sites you go to, that's more of a school-by-school thing you should look into.

The schools on the first list you'll be fine without a car for the first two years although some people will have them definately, for the third and fourth years you'd need a car for the boston schools probably though, at least for Tufts I've heard, maybe UChicago too. Each school is different though, and its hard to make generalizations about a list, when you go to interview you should ask current students about how feasible it would be.

Am I the only one who enjoys the independence of having your own car? I can't imagine not being able to just drive around on my own time schedule, whether it's driving around to relax or to actually go somewhere.

The financial aid people at Dartmouth said that a car is necessary (along with winter tires). They try to work some things out of you don't own a car already.

SigurRos said:

The financial aid people at Dartmouth said that a car is necessary (along with winter tires). They try to work some things out of you don't own a car already.

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ouch!

Houston has a metropolitan transport system, and Baylor video records all of its lectures, so I think in theory you could survive without a car for MS1&2.

You cannot go to Duke without a car. Even if you lived close to campus first year, Durham is too spread out to function without a car and you wouldn't be able to get groceries, etc.

Tulane has the uptown shuttle and streetcar, but they're not very extensive. you could probably bike also as nothing is that far.

the only problem would be grocery shopping and shopping in general. nothing good is really close. it would be hard.

It's technically possible maybe even preferred in some bustling cities like NY, but for many schools the clinical rotations may take place off campus at various teaching hospitals and facilities. Getting to your surgical rotation at
5am may prove to be a bit difficult when struggling with bus times, charts, subways, etc. A car just makes things a whole lot easier.

Vvandenn said:

Am I the only one who enjoys the independence of having your own car? I can't imagine not being able to just drive around on my own time schedule, whether it's driving around to relax or to actually go somewhere.

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I hear ya on that one, but I think this is because I live in a place where cars are necessary! I am having a hard time imagining my life without a car (if anything, just so I can drive outside of the city to hike.)

I was wondering, does anyone know how expensive it is to keep a car in Boston. One guy said it cost $500-$1000 bucks a month!!!! Do apartment complexes have places where you can park your car for free?

You can get by without a car at the University of Michigan. I was there for 4.5 years for undergrad, 3 years of which I had no car. There are multiple bus systems (university, city, etc.) to get around campus, although most of it is within walking distance, especially as a med student. The only slight problem is getting groceries. There are some small places around campus where you can buy some stuff, and an outdoor market for fresh fruits/veggies/etc. when the weather permits, but you probably can't live off of these places alone. The city buses have stops at the mall and grocery store, but depending on where you live, it could be a long walk from the bus if you have a lot to carry. However, if you make some friends, at least one is bound to have a car, and since everyone needs food, I'm sure you could bum a ride. Also, I'm not sure, but I think Michigan does all its rotations at the University Hospital, in which case driving is still not a problem for M3 and M4 years. I could be wrong about that, though.

EDIT: It's not a good idea to rely on the bus system during the winter, either. If snow comes suddenly (as it is bound to do in Michigan), the buses can be severely delayed. I once went to the mall with a friend and ignored the weather forecast since they're rarely accurate here, and we ended up waiting almost 3 hours for a bus to get there to take us home.

it would be ridiulously expensive and unnecessary to keep a car in NYC for medical school. Most of the main teaching hospitals are within the 5 boroughs and are easily accessible using public transportation. Some schools (viz., Cornell) offer free car service to off site locations.

SigurRos said:

it would be ridiulously expensive and unnecessary to keep a car in NYC for medical school. Most of the main teaching hospitals are within the 5 boroughs and are easily accessible using public transportation. Some schools (viz., Cornell) offer free car service to off site locations.

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Agreed. Public transportation runs 24/7 in NY. I know people who go to work at 5am, and take the train. The only NYC med school where it would not be ridiculously expensive to park your car is Albert Einstein because they do have parking near the dorms. IIRC, it's around $60/month.

For the first part of your list you forgot Drexel, Temple, and Jefferson.

Why are you adding/removing schools based on whether you need a car or not?

I don't know if anyone was wondering about Pitt, but I can speak from experience w/ undergrad.

Totally do-able w/out a car. The school ID gets you free public transportation, which is pretty frequent through oakland. Getting groceries or going to less dense areas is sometimes a problem, but they just started FLEX CARS here.

These things are awesome. You pay, like $30/year membership fee and then $6 an hour to use one of the many cars parked around campus (which includes gas, insurance, maintenance, etc.). After you're done, you park it back in it's assigned spot for the next person.

I'm sure these things can fill in any gaps where public transportation is not going to cut it.

Most centrally located Boston hospitals are accessible by public transit or bicycle. Parking is pretty difficult, expensive or both at all of them. If you need to access the West Roxbury VA driving is the most expedient mode of transportation. Parking there is free.

ive spent some time at UCSF and its doable without a car (actually, owning a car in that CD is a major pain). UCLA, even though its not on your list is also good without a car (speaking from my undergrad experience there)

I've been debating about going "carless" for the first two years at UCSD. Any input? I would be living in La Jolla for sure (near campus).

How much does it park a car in the big cities out east?

A friend at UPenn once told me it can cost up to $1000/mo for parking spaces. I thought he was joking...I can't imagine that given that I was raised here in Indiana.

IUSM said:

A friend at UPenn once told me it can cost up to $1000/mo for parking spaces. I thought he was joking...I can't imagine that given that I was raised here in Indiana.

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I thought it was expensive to pay $250 to park for a whole year. But I think the average on the east coast (big city) is probably $100-200 a month inside the school.

I live near UPENN and the parking situation is crazy. You could go without a car because there is a nice grocery store an campus and SEPTA runs pretty well to get to just about anywhere in the city and suburbs.

Blue128K said:

I don't know if anyone was wondering about Pitt, but I can speak from experience w/ undergrad.

Totally do-able w/out a car. The school ID gets you free public transportation, which is pretty frequent through oakland. Getting groceries or going to less dense areas is sometimes a problem, but they just started FLEX CARS here.

These things are awesome. You pay, like $30/year membership fee and then $6 an hour to use one of the many cars parked around campus (which includes gas, insurance, maintenance, etc.). After you're done, you park it back in it's assigned spot for the next person.

I'm sure these things can fill in any gaps where public transportation is not going to cut it.

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always wondered where you get the keys to the flexcar? and where do you leave them?

lemon tree said:

always wondered where you get the keys to the flexcar? and where do you leave them?

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I personally think that they can be a PITA. I stayed with a friend in DC and we got one a few times.

You look online for cars and then reserve them using your membership card and a credit card. They are located in predetermined locations (ours had a sign of where it was supposed to go) in parking lots or on the street. They send you a card and you swipe the card on this magnetic deal on the windshield and the doors unlock. the keys are attached to the dash.

Why is it a PITA you might ask? well, when we were looking to reserve the car, all the ones that were remotely close by were booked, so we ended up taking various trains etc and walking a crap ton to get to our actual car. I mean we ended up paying for public transport AND the car (which was not cheap, $50/day for a POS yaris).

As someone that has a car, it pissed me off a great deal.

I know for sure that Boston has a great public transportation system, so one should be able to get by without a car. At the same time, I have a friend at HMS who's always bitching about his assigned preceptorships at Mt. Auburn, which apparently is really far away from Longwood medical area (where the school is located). I think a few of the affiliated hospitals are not within the metropolitan are, so unfortunately it's luck of the draw when it comes to assigned shadowing opportunities in Boston. There's always Zipcars if you really need a car. They rent by the hour, and the rates are pretty reasonable.

Julietcf14 said:

I hear ya on that one, but I think this is because I live in a place where cars are necessary! I am having a hard time imagining my life without a car (if anything, just so I can drive outside of the city to hike.)

I was wondering, does anyone know how expensive it is to keep a car in Boston. One guy said it cost $500-$1000 bucks a month!!!! Do apartment complexes have places where you can park your car for free?

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It is pretty expensive! When you move to the city, you can go to City Hall and get a parking pass for the area of the city in which you live (i.e. Back Bay, Dorchester, South End, Bay Manor, etc.) Then, you're allowed to park in your neighborhood, for free, in the "Residents Only" section. The caveat to this, of course, is that everyone and his brother is fighting for one of those free resident spaces. If you can't get a space there, you can park, overnight, at a metered space, providing you move your car before 07:00 A.M. (or you'll get a ticket). If you want a private space, it is upward of several hundred dollars a month, so that's most likely out.
The T is pretty great. It heads far out of the city, into the suburbs, and there's either a train, a trolley, or a bus that goes to nearly everywhere in the city. Unfortunately, it only runs until 12:30 A.M., but cabs aren't that expensive after that point, if you live relatively downtown.

I can only speak for Philadelphia (where I've lived just about all my life) and NYC (where I spent a semester in college and visit as often as possible).

For Philadelphia, it is completely doable to access just about any medical school easily via SEPTA, the public transportation company here. The only one I'm not sure about is Drexel, since I heard the medical campus isn't near the main campus. I have a car, but should I be fortunate enough to get into a Philadelphia medical school, I plan on commuting via SEPTA to school and back, and using my car for everything else. I suppose you could drive, and I don't think parking would be as expensive as, say, Boston or NYC, and the traffic isn't as bad as NYC. However, why bother when the subway/regional rail spits you out directly into Temple and Penn and no more than 3 blocks from Jeff?

For NYC, especially Manhattan, I would say you don't even want a car, at least not to commute to and from school. It's a nightmare to drive in that town; I can't imagine parking everyday. MTA, the public transportation system (I prefer the train, hands down) is great in the sense that I don't think you can ever be 5 blocks or so from a station. If I get into a medical school in NYC, you can rest assured I will be taking the subway and walking as much as possible.

TheRealMD said:

Houston has a metropolitan transport system, and Baylor video records all of its lectures, so I think in theory you could survive without a car for MS1&2.

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Ummm yeah...Houston's pub trans system sucks! I would never rely on that system unless that was my only option.

malicious1116 said:

I live near UPENN and the parking situation is crazy. You could go without a car because there is a nice grocery store an campus and SEPTA runs pretty well to get to just about anywhere in the city and suburbs.

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Yeah...I guess Fresh Grocer is ok...a bit expensive though...and small...and dirty

but hey...it works

I can speak for GW, Emory, and Miami since I've lived in all 3 cities. You're right about GW, you really don't need a car, for your first two years at least. For M3 & M4 you might need one for rotations. They do have Zipcars and Flexcars in DC (cars you rent by the hour or by the day, the rates include gas and insurance) but it might get a little expensive if you have to use the car everyday unless you sign up for one of the frequent user plans. The DC metro area has a great subway system though so you could swing it for all 4 years.

Miami and Atlanta don't really have extensive and reliable public transportation systems. Emory's not accesible by train, only by bus and it sucks to take the bus in Atlanta, I did it for about a year. Also Atlanta's not really a pedestrian friendly city once you leave the immediate downtown area. There are so many suburbs there and everything is so spread out so having a car would be alot easier for you.

UMiami is on the train line, but there's only one line in Miami so unless you plan on living on the train line you're gonna need a car. The rent on South Beach is pretty reasonable but the only way you can get off the beach is by car or bus and trust me taking the bus in the sweltering Miami heat something I would not wish on my worst enemy. Anyway, grocery shopping is alot easier in Miami if you have a car. G'luck with your decision.