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Yes I will commute from Aurora. Aurora is the second largest city in IL and the last major suburb of Chicago to the west. Metra is nice and will get you downtown in 40 minutes on an express train, or about 80 minutes if all the stops are made. The major problem with Metra is parking. The lot fills up in Aurora by around 7:00am on weekdays, and there is a 9 year waiting list for a parking permit (you pay 2 dollars a day to park if you do not have a permit). There are remote parking locations with a shuttle, but I have never used them. The ride itself is about $10 round trip, but you can get discounted rates if you buy monthly passes. Also, downtown Aurora is not a nice place, so I would advise not living there, or even better, living in a more eastern suburb to cut down on your commute time.
If you do commute via Metra, your total commute time would breakdown something like this:
1. Aurora to Union Station (Chicago) in 40-80 minutes
2. Walk to Jackson Street El stop (Blue Line) - 10 minutes
3. Wait for El - 5-10 minutes
4. El Ride to campus - 10-15 minutes
If you drive, which I do not advise, it would take about 45-60 minutes on a perfect traffic day. There is unending construction on our toll ways (yes you have to pay to use the interstates in IL), which always slows things down (we are in the midst of year 4 of a lane widening project that I am convinced will never end). Also, the weather from November through April sucks, and we get lots of snow which just snarls traffic. Let me know if this helps and if you have any other questions. Hope to see you in the fall!
Thanks for the detailed info! We were thinking of either Aurora or Naperville... Obviously we'd rather naperville because its closer but the prices are a lot lower in Aurora. I was under the impression that there were some nice areas of Aurora though right?
Thanks again for the info! I'll feel better tomorrow when the mail comes, I wish the address I listed as my permanent address wasn't so far up in Northern California!