1 hour commute to and from school

[Michiganbtw]

Hello, I currently own a house and live 1 hour away from my planned medical school. I was wondering if anyone had a similar experience with a commute to and from school and how it impacted their education.

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[SpoiledMilk]

You might be able to pull it off, but I couldn't. The extra sleep you get from being 10-15 minutes from school contributes to your overall wellbeing. If you can rent out the house, move closer to the school, and thank me in 4 years when you match into your top choice. Use rent money to offset the apartment rental.

My daily commute was 2 hours cuz of personal reasons I couldn't move closer even though all my advisors said it was the best thing to do. I suffered for the decision in every aspect of medschool. Learn from my mistake.

 

[JudgeIsInTheHouse]

I had a classmate who lived >1 hour away. She found it to be a good time to unwind, which is definitely a significant takeaway considering how absurd our exam schedule was.

 

[Med Ed]

Hello, I currently own a house and live 1 hour away from my planned medical school. I was wondering if anyone had a similar experience with a commute to and from school and how it impacted their education.

There will almost certainly be segments of medical school (particularly third year) where driving an hour after a shift would be downright dangerous. The general loss of sleep, study time, and leisure will also negatively impact you. It will probably not help your social connections, which will be important to help get you through the experience. So I don't think it's a question of whether or not you should move closer to school, it's just a question of when.

That said, not all commutes are created equal. An hour could be spent on a single train, on a bus and two trains, on quiet country roads, or on a major highway surrounded by a million other cars. I've known people who can effective unwind during their commutes, and I've know others who cannot (to put it lightly).

 

[Proudfather94]

2 hours a day 5 days a week 4 times a month is 40 hours. You are giving up a whole work weeks worth of time a month that could be used to catch up on studying and sleep. I wouldn't recommend it. I'm a little over 20 minutes from the school I'll be going to and I think that's borderline.

 

[Goro]

Hello, I currently own a house and live 1 hour away from my planned medical school. I was wondering if anyone had a similar experience with a commute to and from school and how it impacted their education.

I've had med students do this and it hurt. That's two hours of study time you're losing.

 

[Dr. Anonymouss]

There are a few factors you need to consider...

1.) are you going to a school that is mandatory attendance? If yes, then I would highly suggest planning different living arrangements. Medical school is already draining enough and the time requirements will take 99% of your day. I can't imagine factoring in a 2 hour commute to school.

2.) If your school is not mandatory attendance then you need to consider if you would genuinely be the type of person to study from home or if you need to be the person who sits in the library on campus. If you are the later then refer to point #1.

 

[Darrow O'Lykos]

It'll depend on your school's attendance policy, your personal study habits, and where your primary rotation site(s) are in relation to your house for your clinical years. I attend a school that doesn't require attendance for our main coursework outside of quizzes and exams, but we still have a lot of other mandatory in-person lectures for our ancillary coursework. Not to mention the ~6 months of going through anatomy where you have to be in the lab at variable times. My gut instinct is that it'll make things quite a bit more difficult living that far away, but I also understand not wanting to move from the home that you own if you don't have to. Have you considered potentially renting out your house to tenants and renting closer to school? Is there an option to commute by train so that you could study while commuting? I had a classmate that did that for our first year due to having a lease she was on the hook for ~45 mins away (although she did end up moving next to campus once that lease ended).

You also may feel more isolated being that far away from your classmates and it'll limit your ability to foster friendships, and that aspect shouldn't be overlooked either.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

Sell the house, take the equity, use it to pay rent nearby.

Market overextended as per Case Shiller Index.

Or just rent out the house you own, use rental income for mortgage and pay part of rent if any leftover

Finally, if there is a favorable spread, you can roll the equity into buying place near med school.

 

[orthoPA81]

I’m an OMS1 with one hour commute each way. I’ve been successful despite the commute but I’m also in a PBL pathway which doesn’t include multiple lectures a day.

If you have mandatory lectures that take up most of your day then I wouldn’t suggest the long commute. It’s just too hard to offset those lost hours of studying.

 

[IR3A4]

"It's two hours of study time you're losing"

Most med students don't study all day, or even every day, so losing two hours is not a huge deal. If you are studying all day then you should probably re-evaluate how you're studying and could most certainly benefit from cutting back.

I commuted ~2hrs every day we had to be on campus, which was typically 4-5x a week. Granted I took public transport so I was able to do other stuff on the train, but I never studied - mostly just read books, watched netflix/youtube, listened to music, etc. I found it nice tbh. It was time I was forced to have to myself, and idk what it is but I reaaaaaly enjoy reading on the subway. If I was driving I'd have done the same except with podcasts/music but driving here sucks and is unnecessary.


If you hate driving and find it miserable (me) then that's the only time you're truly losing 2hrs of your life. With a preclinical schedule that's not a lot to actually affect studying or sleep.

 

[bGMx]

Most students may not study all day, but losing those two hours for me would have made it so that I am essentially studying all of my free time (I had 2 hours of free time per day). I vote to move closer.

 

[IR3A4]

Most students may not study all day, but losing those two hours for me would have made it so that I am essentially studying all of my free time (I had 2 hours of free time per day). I vote to move closer.

What kind of schedule did you have pre-clinical that only had 2hrs of free time? That's rough man

At our school, assuming you sleep for 8hrs and have a 16hr day, we had at most in a day maybe 3-4hrs of activities so at worst 12hrs of "free time" for the rest of your day (eating, working out, leisure time, friends, studying, etc).

 

[Rapsidy]

My commute is 30 minutes outside of rush hour and 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours with rush hour traffic. It sucks for sure, but I listen to lectures from the non mandatory classes during the drive or podcasts for medicine and that helps make the time fly.

I could move closer sure, but seeing as the school is in a big city I would be giving up renting a house with 4x the space for the same price of something downtown. I like my space and privacy and have 3 pets so to me the cost of driving is worth it. I also hate city life so it’s another reason why it’s a no brainer.

If you do decide to commute you can also try to find rotations out where you are depending on your school. I look forward to not stressing to much about rotations and a much shorter commute because most of my classmates will fight for the big city academic rotations and I’ll have little competition for the suburban rotations, but again that’s school dependent on the sites they have.

 

[Game Machine Joe]

Also consider that your mandatory lectures/labs might not be the full picture. If there's someone you want to shadow/faculty you want to meet with/research activities that require you to be in-person/extracurriculars you want to be involved with/an event you want to attend, you'll have to commute for those, too. Will that, realistically, be something you do, or will the commute hold you back from doing those things?

I've made longer commutes for worse reasons, but it wears on you. You're going to have to get up earlier than you want to. When you're done for the day, you're not done - you still have an hour drive. Are you someone who would still feel motivated to study after that?

In short, you can do it, but it's going to make things more complicated. Make an honest appraisal of yourself and how you work best.

 

[esob]

I spend on average 1 hr per day commuting, though on some rotations it has been closer to 2. I found that it can be productive if you put a little effort in. Prior to each block, I create a Spotify playlist of the Divine Intervention podcasts that are relevant to that shelf. After I have listened to those podcasts a couple of times, I move on and listen to his rapid review series and then give the shelf episodes one final pass. On other blocks, such as psych, I got 1st aid for psych on audiobook and listened on my commute.

 

[Redpancreas]

I personally didn't want to take a chance with commutes and lived closer. Like many have said, it allows for significant convenience and there may be unanticipated perks (social, research, etc.). Also by M3/4, it's a helluva roadblock to commute everyday like that. If you're older, there's a chance you don't give a damn and would rather make your way than try to design your life around medical school. Sure, some people have adapted with podcasts, etc. or used it as decompression time. I've noticed most people who lived away tend to be older or wanted to stay with family. If it was me, I would use the time to call my loved ones and vent and not listen to podcasts covering material as that sounds miserable. Then I'd at least be emotionally recharged to work when I got home.

 

[aldol16]

Probably not a great idea unless it would be a huge undertaking to move. An hour each way adds up. Definitely doable though in the first two years, especially if your lectures are recorded. There's not a whole lot of social life that goes on in med school anyway other than within smaller friend groups and you can always find time to hang out with them even if you're an hour away. For the last two years of clinical rotations, it'll be very hard. When you have to be there at 5am or earlier for surgery, you don't want to be waking up at 3:30am to get ready and commute in - especially when you're getting home at 8, 9, 10 pm and expected to study on top of that.

 

[Michiganbtw]

I personally didn't want to take a chance with commutes and lived closer. Like many have said, it allows for significant convenience and there may be unanticipated perks (social, research, etc.). Also by M3/4, it's a helluva roadblock to commute everyday like that. If you're older, there's a chance you don't give a damn and would rather make your way than try to design your life around medical school. Sure, some people have adapted with podcasts, etc. or used it as decompression time. I've noticed most people who lived away tend to be older or wanted to stay with family. If it was me, I would use the time to call my loved ones and vent and not listen to podcasts covering material as that sounds miserable. Then I'd at least be emotionally recharged to work when I got home.

Fortunately my M3/4 years my commute shortens to 5-15 minutes depending on rotation if I do stay at my house. Do you think that commuting during M1/2 is more doable than during M3/4 especially with the added pressure of step 2?

 

[TragicalDrFaust]

I commuted that amount in undergrad and it was a challenge. Personally I couldn't repurpose those hours as productive hours or relaxation hours. You could try listening to lectures but it's hard to pay 100% when driving and I need to see the slides to understand. Obviously can't do easier required tasks like check email, grocery shop or shower in the car either. I don't find driving relaxing and would still need to chill out for a couple hours at home before getting started on homework (after 2 hours commuting and 5-10 hours of class, depending on the semester). Plus your eyes will roll all the way back around if you have to spend 2 hours in your car for a single lecture or a 20 minute meeting.

 

[deleted1079620]

I think this can be done if you have excellent time management skills. Seeing as you’ll be much closer for your 3rd/4th year rotations, choosing to commute in 1st/2nd year May be worth it, especially if the payments you’re making on your home + gas each week are significantly cheaper than the cost of renting closer to the school and losing the equity you’ve built.

My advice (and I do this when I only live 20 min from my school) is that on days you know you’ll have to be at school, just take everything you’ll need and plan to be there all day. You can set up in the library and watch lectures in between mandatory stuff, and not punch huge holes in your day driving back and forth. If this proves to be too much after the first semester, you can always relocate during winter break and rent out your house or sell it.

 

[OraclePL]

Fortunately my M3/4 years my commute shortens to 5-15 minutes depending on rotation if I do stay at my house. Do you think that commuting during M1/2 is more doable than during M3/4 especially with the added pressure of step 2?

Yeah. I’m strongly in the move closer camp, but really it's clinical years where a long drive actually puts you in danger. M1/M2 are more manageable with some caveats:

-Isolated from some social activities with your class

-still two hours missing from your day you could have used to relax, exercise, take better care of yourself. Someone above said it’s a good time to "unwind." Nothing helps you unwind more than actually sleeping

-for some classes people come in after hours, especially anatomy lab. Really depends on your school‘s lecture schedule and opportunities to study during the day

-Study groups were very helpful especially during the first year of medical school. A lot of times people go home for dinner, and come back at night to join the study groups, you would potentially leave that on the table

 

[DigNewton]

TL;DR – It is technically doable. Don't do it unless you have a damn good reason.

I commuted 2 hours each direction for my entire first semester, and now commute a little over 1 hr each direction. My school has required attendance 3-4 days/week depending on the student... it's 4x/week for me.

It is doable for some students, but that doesn't necessarily mean it will be doable for you. It's almost impossible to predict how difficult med school will be for you until you've done it for a little while... so I'd suggest having a backup plan if you decide to commute and later realize that it's not doable for you mid-semester. And start thinking about what your plan is for 3rd year rotations, because I agree with some of the other responses that the commute could endanger yourself and others during the more intense rotations. I already know that I'm going to have to arrange temporary housing during certain rotations in M3.

BUT – you need to have a damn good reason to be making that commute. Like... damn good. What defines "damn good" is personal, and I'm not going to presume to know your financial, family, or life situation. I have what I'd consider a very damn good reason, and it still takes all of my willpower some days to grit my teeth and keep making the commute. Med school wears pretty much everybody down on it's own, it doesn't need any help from additional time/energy drains like a long commute.

I'm not trying to discourage you, or to say "100% DO NOT DO IT DON'T BE AN IDIOT!" Plenty of other people will say that to you. I got into one school, and my options were commute or don't go to med school. 99% of people I talked to (including the admissions office at my school) told me it wasn't possible. Not that it would be very hard, but literally "you cannot do it." They were wrong, I can. But if I had any way to avoid the commute, I would.

If you decide you have to commute this far, and want to discuss logistics with somebody who has experience doing that, feel free to PM me.

EDIT: Just saw that you're much closer M3/M4. I envy you.

 

[deleted1116990]

Hello, I currently own a house and live 1 hour away from my planned medical school. I was wondering if anyone had a similar experience with a commute to and from school and how it impacted their education.

Do not even think about it.

When I went to med school I attempted the same thing due to having a girlfriend who refused to move from our home an hour away. My genius 25 year old self thought I would just listen to lectures in the car. The school refused to help me find a parking spot. Parking became an extra 60+ minute ordeal making my extra 2 hours of commuting a day 4 hours. There are not 4 hours to give in a first year med student's day. Out of complete desperation, I attempted to ride a motorcycle and park it on the sidewalk in the short term.

The whole thing escalated rapidly and blew up 3 weeks in resulting in me having to go to the dean with my tail between my legs and explain the situation and ultimately got a year deferral to work my ---- out.

A year later, the loser girlfriend was gone, and I had a house in town and was prepared to start medical school without any distractions. .

I wasted a year of my life and put a valuable professional career on hold for no good reason. Don't be me.

 

[GoSpursGo]

So this is where I think the details matter. How often is attendance required during the first two years? What kinds of public transit are available (i.e. can you study on a train vs. do you have to drive and pay for gas)? Are you married/committed to a significant other and/or have kids who have a good reason for being unable to move closer to school?

I more or less agree that living closer would be better, but actually owning a home is a big deal and I would understand not wanting to lose that. And if you're not alone in making these decisions, that adds a whole extra layer of complexity. So the answers to the above questions would shape how I think about this situation.

 

[Michiganbtw]

So this is where I think the details matter. How often is attendance required during the first two years? What kinds of public transit are available (i.e. can you study on a train vs. do you have to drive and pay for gas)? Are you married/committed to a significant other and/or have kids who have a good reason for being unable to move closer to school?

I more or less agree that living closer would be better, but actually owning a home is a big deal and I would understand not wanting to lose that. And if you're not alone in making these decisions, that adds a whole extra layer of complexity. So the answers to the above questions would shape how I think about this situation.

Attendance is required (school is MSU CHM) and I will be driving my own vehicle. However, the house I own is completely paid off with utilities, taxes etc covered by my roommate.

This roommate is moving out within the next 6 months and I cannot afford to both own the house and rent an apartment. What's making this a difficult decision is that all of my rotations M3/4 will be 5-15 minutes away if I stay at this house. However, if I move I will be forced to sell the house and have to rent apartments for the next 4+ years.


I've heard a lot of helpful advice on here, and thank you to everyone for their input!

 

[GoSpursGo]

Attendance is required (school is MSU CHM) and I will be driving my own vehicle. However, the house I own is completely paid off with utilities, taxes etc covered by my roommate.

This roommate is moving out within the next 6 months and I cannot afford to both own the house and rent an apartment. What's making this a difficult decision is that all of my rotations M3/4 will be 5-15 minutes away if I stay at this house. However, if I move I will be forced to sell the house and have to rent apartments for the next 4+ years.


I've heard a lot of helpful advice on here, and thank you to everyone for their input!

Yeah that's rough. In that case I would very strongly look into whether you can rent the house for a couple of years.

 

[deleted1116990]

Attendance is required (school is MSU CHM) and I will be driving my own vehicle. However, the house I own is completely paid off with utilities, taxes etc covered by my roommate.

This roommate is moving out within the next 6 months and I cannot afford to both own the house and rent an apartment. What's making this a difficult decision is that all of my rotations M3/4 will be 5-15 minutes away if I stay at this house. However, if I move I will be forced to sell the house and have to rent apartments for the next 4+ years.


I've heard a lot of helpful advice on here, and thank you to everyone for their input!

You could not possibly have been stuck with a better time to sell a house and cash out of the real estate market for a few years than right now.

Seriously dude, this is a no-brainer. You can sell the house for cash above list price tomorrow and likely collect a windfall profit. Take your equity out of the house and use it to pay your med school tuition to avoid student debt. Keeping your equity in the house presents the very real possibility that it will be worth less than it is right now. You are going to be a student for the next 4 years. Most students live in rentals very near the hospital. Accept it. You can be a homeowner again later, likely able to buy in a much better market than the one we are presently in. If for some reason you are extremely attached to the house and think you might move back there, you will have no problem renting it, but again, get rid of the distractions and hire a company to manage it for you.

 

[GoSpursGo]

You could not possibly have been stuck with a better time to sell a house and cash out of the real estate market for a few years than right now.

Seriously dude, this is a no-brainer. You can sell the house for cash above list price tomorrow and likely collect a windfall profit. Take your equity out of the house and use it to pay your med school tuition to avoid student debt. Keeping your equity in the house presents the very real possibility that it will be worth less than it is right now. You are going to be a student for the next 4 years. Most students live in rentals very near the hospital. Accept it. You can be a homeowner again later, likely able to buy in a much better market than the one we are presently in. If for some reason you are extremely attached to the house and think you might move back there, you will have no problem renting it, but again, get rid of the distractions and hire a company to manage it for you.

This is a very common line of thinking ("the housing market is so hot, it's got to crash soon so it's time to sell") but it's more complicated than that. A lot of the fundamentals that led to the crash in 2008 (homeowners with much greater debt than they are good for) are not present in 2022, rather it's a fundamental lack of supply. So... while a market correction is likely coming, there is a very real chance the OP would be in a better place financially if they hold onto their house for 4 years, let alone if they could then stick around for residency and have the house long-term.

Add on the fact that the house would be ideally situated in just 2 years time rather than 4... it becomes not ideal to sell if you don't have to.

 

[deleted1079620]

You could not possibly have been stuck with a better time to sell a house and cash out of the real estate market for a few years than right now.

Seriously dude, this is a no-brainer. You can sell the house for cash above list price tomorrow and likely collect a windfall profit. Take your equity out of the house and use it to pay your med school tuition to avoid student debt. Keeping your equity in the house presents the very real possibility that it will be worth less than it is right now. You are going to be a student for the next 4 years. Most students live in rentals very near the hospital. Accept it. You can be a homeowner again later, likely able to buy in a much better market than the one we are presently in. If for some reason you are extremely attached to the house and think you might move back there, you will have no problem renting it, but again, get rid of the distractions and hire a company to manage it for you.

I disagree with this, as a prior homeowner. If I owned a home right now I would be renting it out for two years and have a paid for place to live during years 3 & 4, and income during school to cover rent and possibly other expenses.

 

[deleted1116990]

This is a very common line of thinking ("the housing market is so hot, it's got to crash soon so it's time to sell") but it's more complicated than that. A lot of the fundamentals that led to the crash in 2008 (homeowners with much greater debt than they are good for) are not present in 2022, rather it's a fundamental lack of supply. So... while a market correction is likely coming, there is a very real chance the OP would be in a better place financially if they hold onto their house for 4 years, let alone if they could then stick around for residency and have the house long-term.

Add on the fact that the house would be ideally situated in just 2 years time rather than 4... it becomes not ideal to sell if you don't have to.

I have sold 3 houses in my life. I can tell you that I have never seen a market like this where houses are selling for all cash the next day with multiple offers above list price and that is considered normal. I haven't seen anything even close to this. Two of my houses took over a year to sell. It sucked. It is certainly possible the market will still be good in 4 years (I doubt it). I don't know the future. But I can objectively tell you that it is on fire right now and if you need to sell, as in you need to move somewhere and become a renter because you are going to go be a student or something, then lucky you because it's a good time to sell and get your equity out (as compared to somebody who bought in 2005 and needed to sell in 2008 to go to med school or something).

I have also rented a house when I couldn't sell it. My renters trashed the place and flooded the basement with sewage by flushing towels down the toilet. I was an intern at the time and that was not something I wanted to deal with. All the money I made renting evaporated fixing that mess. The house also needed a new roof. That cost $10,000, He's talking about holding a house for 4 years while he's a student without income. Roofs cost more, insurance costs more, taxes are higher, repair labor costs more. Yeah, it's complicated. Even if he's got renters in there that don't suck (big if) and don't trash the place and pay you, it still financially may not make sense. Maybe.

As somebody who has gone through exactly what this guy is talking about -- trying to commute an hour and failing. Trying to be a landlord on a property an hour away and failing. I stand by what I wrote. Minimize distractions. Don't commute. Don't be a landlord. Move close to the university. Focus on med school. If you don't want to rent, then sell your current property and buy in town if that makes more financial sense.

 

[GoSpursGo]

I have sold 3 houses in my life. I can tell you that I have never seen a market like this where houses are selling for all cash the next day with multiple offers above list price and that is considered normal. I haven't seen anything even close to this. Two of my houses took over a year to sell. It sucked. It is certainly possible the market will still be good in 4 years (I doubt it). I don't know the future. But I can objectively tell you that it is on fire right now and if you need to sell, as in you need to move somewhere and become a renter because you are going to go be a student or something, then lucky you because it's a good time to sell and get your equity out (as compared to somebody who bought in 2005 and needed to sell in 2008 to go to med school or something).

I have also rented a house when I couldn't sell it. My renters trashed the place and flooded the basement with sewage by flushing towels down the toilet. I was an intern at the time and that was not something I wanted to deal with. All the money I made renting evaporated fixing that mess. The house also needed a new roof. That cost $10,000, He's talking about holding a house for 4 years while he's a student without income. Roofs cost more, insurance costs more, taxes are higher, repair labor costs more. Yeah, it's complicated. Even if he's got renters in there that don't suck (big if) and don't trash the place and pay you, it still financially may not make sense. Maybe.

As somebody who has gone through exactly what this guy is talking about -- trying to commute an hour and failing. Trying to be a landlord on a property an hour away and failing. I stand by what I wrote. Minimize distractions. Don't commute. Don't be a landlord. Move close to the university. Focus on med school. If you don't want to rent, then sell your current property and buy in town if that makes more financial sense.

Yeah, and I just bought a house in this market. It is a really bad time to buy, but there is no guarantee it will be a better time to buy in 4 years.

Sorry you had a really bad experience with renters. That is a risk the OP would take, and maybe he doesn’t want the risk. But this is not the black and white, obvious decision that you are trying to make this out to be.

 

[Darrow O'Lykos]

Attendance is required (school is MSU CHM) and I will be driving my own vehicle. However, the house I own is completely paid off with utilities, taxes etc covered by my roommate.

This roommate is moving out within the next 6 months and I cannot afford to both own the house and rent an apartment. What's making this a difficult decision is that all of my rotations M3/4 will be 5-15 minutes away if I stay at this house. However, if I move I will be forced to sell the house and have to rent apartments for the next 4+ years.


I've heard a lot of helpful advice on here, and thank you to everyone for their input!

I think the bolded context above makes this a significantly easier decision. Rent the house out via a property management company for years 1 and 2, then move back home for your rotations years 3 and 4 and potentially take on a classmate as a roommate if you'd so like.

You get to keep the house. Your rental income will basically cover all of your house's monthly expenses while additionally subsidizing your rent for years 1 and 2. You get to live significantly close by to your rotation sites years 3 and 4.

You're in a great financial starting point going into med school and you should do whatever feels right knowing that either path will significantly reduce your overall debt when you graduate.