Nonetheless, based on the 46 both way one - so you are out of your home, say 11 hours a day in a surgical residency, is an extra 74 minutes a day, to transport yourself, that significant as to pass on a good opportunity to train? I like to think it isn't.
Wait, wait, wait.
What year are you in med school? I gather from other posts that you're a 2nd year.
You may "like to think" that 74 minutes of transportation time "isn't that significant," but you'd be wrong.
VERY VERY wrong.
I am a third year med student at another med school in Philadelphia (obviously, not PCOM). I live out in the suburbs, where it is cheaper. It takes me about an hour to get to campus each day (I don't drive, I generally take SEPTA.)
Sweet mother of God, if it wasn't so cheap to live out in the suburbs, I'd move to Center City in a
heartbeat. You haven't been on rotations, so you don't know how exhausted you can be after being on call. It wasn't so bad on psych or outpatient stuff, but on ob/gyn and surgery...oh my God. I considered pitching a tent in the cafeteria and just living in the hospital, just so I wouldn't have to commute.
On OB/gyn, I'd stumble to the train station, sit on the train, and pass out. I'd wake up discombobulated and unsure of where I was. Driving would be more convenient (because I wouldn't have to wait for a train), but I'd probably have had an accident by now.
I'd try to read on the train, or do work, but that rarely panned out. Trying to read a textbook on a shaky train would make my sleep-deprivation headache worse. Obviously, if you're driving, then trying to study or do work during your commute time is impossible.
If I had to do that much commuting as a surgery or ob/gyn resident, I'd shoot myself. Forget it.
The driving distance is indoubtedly not an advantage of the program. However, how much driving is the average general surgery resident in the U.S. driving each day? I find it hard to believe that it would be less than 30 minutes in average each way.
If the average general surgery resident had to drive > 15 minutes each day to get to work, the resident drop-out rate would shoot up exponentially. I'm not kidding - commuting to work during residency doesn't
sound so bad in the abstract, but wait until you actually have to do it.
I mean - use your head. The motto in surgery is "Eat when you can, sleep when you can, pee when you can." Do you think that 74 minutes is such a trivial amount in such a specialty?
I'm sure that PCOM's surgery program is great. PCOM is a good school that produces good physicians. But you're being naive (or seriously in denial) if you don't think that being forced to commute so much is not a significant downside to a program, no matter how good the training may be.
I think it is...whether we are talking about an hour each way (which was stated earlier that some of the sites were) or total. Most residents choose their living quarters as to be fairly close to their residency hospital. If you are being asked to drive 45 minutes extra per day (or whatever the distance is), it quickly adds up...especially when post call. I lived 7 miles away from the hospital during residency and 1 mile during fellowship...I cannot imagine getting on a expressway and driving 45 minutes postcall. We had a 30 minute commute to our VA...each way and it was a nightmare, especially in winter to be driving that when exhausted.
My point is that its not a big deal if you are rotating at other hospitals in the same city and your commute isn't really any different. BUT if they are asking you to go to another city , then I do think its a problem, or at least one residents need to keep in mind.
Listen to her! She's experienced and reasonable!!