Any students commute > 35 minutes to school and doing ok?

[BOBBIO2]

Anyone commute more than 35 minutes to school? If so, has it affected your studies in any way?
I'm asking because I'm thinking about buying a home since it makes more fiscal sense than renting (mortgage and rent are about same) but the morning commute will be a little further. Thanks.

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[Micah6:8]

Anyone commute more than 35 minutes to school? If so, has it affected your studies in any way?
I'm asking because I'm thinking about buying a home since it makes more fiscal sense than renting (mortgage and rent are about same) but the morning commute will be a little further. Thanks.

Hello. I am an MS-3 (MS-4 in 31 days). I own my home as well. FOr the 1st two years, I commuted an hour each way. My grades were fine. I guess I sacrificed a little study time, but mostly just social stuff was lost. I had to make more of an effort to stay connected, but definitely managed. I am a class officer as well.
Now that I am in my clinical years, I, unlike a lot of my classmates, drive a lot less because I have most of my rotations closer to home.
So, bottom line, it is definitely doable. Good Luck.

 

[bleeker10]

Anyone commute more than 35 minutes to school? If so, has it affected your studies in any way?
I'm asking because I'm thinking about buying a home since it makes more fiscal sense than renting (mortgage and rent are about same) but the morning commute will be a little further. Thanks.

Owning a house is a great idea but let me throw in a caveat or two. If you are going to a school where you will have to go elsewhere (possibly other states) than owning a house may not be in your best interest. Many hospitals have housing options (on-site, off-site, hotels, etc) for the students. If you are gone for an entire year on rotations, are you going to rent out your house? Leave it empty? Also, are you planning on doing residency and staying in the area where your house is located? If not, then think about the difficulty of selling a house in 4 years. The market is getting better but it seems to be more of a buyers market rather than a sellers market. I know students at my school that own houses and they aren't planning on staying here for residency. When I ask them what they are gonna do with their house, they say "I don't know". I think that would be a good thing to think about because you don't wanna buy a house just to turn around and try to sell it in a couple years. I'm not saying you shouldn't buy a house at all. I'm just saying that these are some questions I know some people in my class either didn't think about and/or don't have any answer to. Good luck. Btw, what school are you going to?

Also, does your school have mandatory attendance or do they record lectures and stream them online? My school has mandatory lectures and I would hate to have to drive a long way before/after class especially on a day like today (we had 8 hours of lecture). If I didn't have to go to class then commuting would not be a problem at all because the only mandatory things otherwise would be a couple labs during the week. But after sitting in a classroom for 4-8 hours and then studying would make me less enthusiastic to commute over 30 minutes home.

 

[AMEHigh]

Depending on the day, my commute on public transportation is anywhere from 25-55 minutes. I don't think it's negatively affected my grades. I love where I live and wouldn't change it.

 

[MossPoh]

Depending on traffic my commute can be 30+ minutes a day. We don't have audio recorded lectures, so it is a lot of dead time. I'm moving closer for second year. It was doable but I much rather have the time and capacity to go home when I need to.

Also, there is a lot more to the buy versus rent thing than mortgage versus rent. I am a person in the don't buy until you settle down for a while camp. You assume there will not be repairs involved, there are taxes on the property oftentimes and that when the time comes you will be able to unload it quickly. Whereas with renting, the only thing you have to worry about is that rent and maybe utilities. That spare money that wasn't spent on maintainenace and extraneous things can be invested elsewhere. Keeping your assets liquid early on is pretty advantageous. Not to mention the reduced stress of knowing you don't have to deal with a broken water heater or toilet.

I also had a friend that thought the same thing and bought a house. Now he is getting killed on the resale. I mean destroyed.

 

[Suigeneris86]

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[Stixman28]

My commute is 1.5 hrs every day. I used to leave my house at 6:30 to make it to class at 8. Almost done with second year, and have been doing fairly well with mostly Bs and a few As. I did suffer socially because of this though. Since I was always too far. This also created problems setting up my study group because we always had problems finding a suitable place that was close to every one for days when we were off from school.

On the other hand, since I lived at my parents home I didn't have to worry about other stuff like cooking and cleaning/laundry. Which probably would have turned out to be just as much time as me commuting every day?

I commute 30 minutes. It's fine. I like not living in the city. I find that most of my med school classmates think it's insane. I just cant believe the comments i get from some of my immature colleagues about how "unfortunate" it is that i have to drive to school etc. So largely, I would say, you'll hear people tell you its a bad idea, but in reality, if you want to make it happen, it's not a big deal.

Also it didn't seem like you were looking for financial advice on buying your house, I guess people just can't help but offer up those comments.

 

[Colbert]

You can use that time to listen to lectures. That's what I do. During your second year you could listen to the Goljan lectures (which are audio gold). iTunes also has a lot of really surprisingly useful podcasts and even medical lectures from top schools. The other thing I used that time for was calling friends and family and catching up (hands free of course) so that by the time I got home I could focus on what I needed to get done.

 

[bsteven2]

For those that are doing >30 minute commutes what kind of mileage are you doing? >30 minutes driving 10 miles in traffic is one thing but driving >30 minutes with no traffic adds up in gas money on student loans.

 

[christina30]

For those that are doing >30 minute commutes what kind of mileage are you doing? >30 minutes driving 10 miles in traffic is one thing but driving >30 minutes with no traffic adds up in gas money on student loans.

Sitting in stop-and-go traffic isn't good for gas mileage either.

 

[nascardoc]

Owning a house is a great idea but let me throw in a caveat or two. If you are going to a school where you will have to go elsewhere (possibly other states) than owning a house may not be in your best interest. Many hospitals have housing options (on-site, off-site, hotels, etc) for the students. If you are gone for an entire year on rotations, are you going to rent out your house? Leave it empty? Also, are you planning on doing residency and staying in the area where your house is located? If not, then think about the difficulty of selling a house in 4 years. The market is getting better but it seems to be more of a buyers market rather than a sellers market. I know students at my school that own houses and they aren't planning on staying here for residency. When I ask them what they are gonna do with their house, they say "I don't know". I think that would be a good thing to think about because you don't wanna buy a house just to turn around and try to sell it in a couple years. I'm not saying you shouldn't buy a house at all. I'm just saying that these are some questions I know some people in my class either didn't think about and/or don't have any answer to. Good luck. Btw, what school are you going to?

Also, does your school have mandatory attendance or do they record lectures and stream them online? My school has mandatory lectures and I would hate to have to drive a long way before/after class especially on a day like today (we had 8 hours of lecture). If I didn't have to go to class then commuting would not be a problem at all because the only mandatory things otherwise would be a couple labs during the week. But after sitting in a classroom for 4-8 hours and then studying would make me less enthusiastic to commute over 30 minutes home.

I agree with this 110%. If you plan on living in the house for at least 4 years and residency, then its worth it. But if you are buying solely for 2 years then turn around to sell it, it is NOT worth it. It is still very hard to sell and you WILL lose money. It is much easier to rent during school if you will be moving away.