Car for first & second year

[osteo564]

For all you current medical students:

How important is having a car in the first and second years of medical school?

I assume it becomes very important 3rd and 4th year, but since I'm going to PCOM I was planning on using public transportation if at all possible for the first two years. If I can get away with not having a car in the 3rd and 4th years, that would be great, but I think with rotations that might not work out.

Can anybody help me out???

THANKS!!!

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[PhDtoDO]

At Touro MA...unless you live on campus, you need it.

But, if you do live near school, I don't see a problem. I would also check into the public transportation.

Not having a car your 3rd and 4th year might really hurt.

3rd years need to rotate before everyone else and that could be at 6am.

I didn't have a car for a while in grad school and what took me 7mins to drive took 1 to 1.5 hours by public transit...and morning buses etc don't run as often.

At the time when you most need sleep...3rd year, you're going to be sacrificing it to the bus schedule.

Also, you might not be able to rotate at certain places because they are so out of the way.

Each school is different and PCOM, if I recall correctly, is in the city. So you'll have timeto get oriented and figure out your options...but by 3rd year, I think its life or death to have a car in most cases.

Just my opinion,

PhDtoDO

 

[JonnyG]

For all you current medical students:

How important is having a car in the first and second years of medical school?

I assume it becomes very important 3rd and 4th year, but since I'm going to PCOM I was planning on using public transportation if at all possible for the first two years. If I can get away with not having a car in the 3rd and 4th years, that would be great, but I think with rotations that might not work out.

Can anybody help me out???

THANKS!!!

At PCOM, if you lived in the city you could survive the first two years without a car using Septa. Though Septa isn't the greatest mass transit system.

As for third and fourth year, if you plnned your rotations well and didn't care about a few of them you could probably pull it off. Though this would be hard.

 

[osteo564]

Thanks for the info...

I'll actually be living within walking distance of PCOM, so that won't be a problem and I think I can do the rest using SEPTA...hopefully.

Not having a car now should allow me to buy a more reliable car for 3rd and 4th years.


Does PCOM require you to be anywhere besides on campus your first two years? For instance, doctors' offices or hospitals?

Thanks in advance!

 

[emeddo]

Thanks for the info...

I'll actually be living within walking distance of PCOM, so that won't be a problem and I think I can do the rest using SEPTA...hopefully.

Not having a car now should allow me to buy a more reliable car for 3rd and 4th years.


Does PCOM require you to be anywhere besides on campus your first two years? For instance, doctors' offices or hospitals?

Thanks in advance!

For those nice summer days (or even cold dry winter days if they happen) you could get a scooter. I have had two so far and they really hold their value well (only a couple hundred dollars a year decrease in value) and they cost about $10 a month in insurance and less than that in gas.

 

[FutureDocDO]

It's necessary in order to save time. I wouldn't want to spend my time waiting for a bus. I did that in undergrad. It was a hassle.

 

[cardiotonic]

Anything you can do to save time, you will probably end up resorting to.

 

[WestcoastMedicine]

I am going into my second year at PCOM and depending on where you live a car is not necessary for the preclinical years. I live 1/2 mile from campus so walk everyday, I don't even own a PCOM parking pass so it is doable for the first two years. 3rd and 4th year I am not so sure about. Most of the third year rotations from what I hear are done relatively close, but come fourth year alot of people I talk to are going to NJ, NY, central PA, western PA. You can really rotate anywhere in the country that we are affiliated with if you wanted to. Some students even arrange their own international rotations. I think twice I had to drive to do some required shadowing my first year. It would help if you have a car if you plan on doing alot of optional shadowing your first year, but again it is not necessary.

 

[group_theory]

For the first two years at PCOM - if you live within walking distance to campus ... then you can get away with not having a car. You may occasionally need to go to one of PCOM's healthcare center or Roxborough Hospital ... but they are all easily accessible via septa. You may also ask for a ride from one of your friends/classmates

For 3rd/4th year - you will definately need a car. While the home rotations are accessible via mass transit ... would you trust your schedule based on septa? If you need to preround on your surgery patients at 0500, what time will you need to catch the bus for that 1hr long bus ride to the hospital that is just outside the city limits? How often will buses run at this ungodly hour? q1h? q2h?

What if you're on call (and it happens to be short call). So you leave at 10pm. you want to get home as fast as possible, not wait outside in the dark (what about weather? rain, cold, snow) for the bus that runs every so often? What if you're on overnight call and the team decides to be nice and let you leave at midnight.

What if Septa strikes (what!?! never happens )

And this is assuming you get all your rotations at home and no away rotations (quite possible, but it depends on your particular group). How will you get to any away rotation? And even though many away rotations offer housing ... at some places, housing and clinical site/hospital are not within walking distance. And at these places, mass transit is definately not an option.

And what about the required rural rotation during your 4th year . and what about electives? Will you limit yourself to only places that are accessible via mass transit?

In summary ... first two years at PCOM w/o car - very doable. Not only do you save on money for the car, you save on car insurance (philly suck), car registration, gas, annual inspection, oil changes, etc.

Last two years ... theoretically doable but it will make life a lot harder than necessary.


Good question. Very school dependant. Good luck with your first year.

Group_theory
PCOM 2007