Commuting to WesternU

[boohoo123]

---

Members do not see this ad.

I'm attending western in the fall and I live about 30 mins from there (without traffic) and I would take the 57N to get there so against traffic in the morning

I'm currently considering commuting to save money but I'm not sure if it's worth it?

30 mins could easily turn into an hour depending on traffic for the way home and I don't want to miss out on any campus events and i wanna have a social life and hang out wiht my classmates and I'm not sure if living farther away would hinder that. Plus a 8-5pm schedule is pretty demanding. But at hte same time I would save about 8,000+ if i lived at home

Any advice? Especially from students who attend Western now! 🙂

 

[Glimmer1991]

I'd post this in the "dental" forum. I highly doubt the accepted students check this subforum very much. 🙂

 

[FutureDrM]

I'd post this in the "dental" forum. I highly doubt the accepted students check this subforum very much. 🙂

actually.....

 

[ATG20]

Having grown up and worked in the region (I don't attend Western, but I'm from OC/LA area), I can tell you that morning traffic in the area is something you don't want to deal with daily. Your "30 minute" (read:45-60) commutes will add up, and on exam days, or days when you're tired, the last thing you'll want to do is sit on the 57 during rush hour. At least for your first year, try to live near campus. As your schedule gets lighter, move back.

 

[jeffity]

I'm attending western in the fall and I live about 30 mins from there (without traffic) and I would take the 57N to get there so against traffic in the morning

I'm currently considering commuting to save money but I'm not sure if it's worth it?

30 mins could easily turn into an hour depending on traffic for the way home and I don't want to miss out on any campus events and i wanna have a social life and hang out wiht my classmates and I'm not sure if living farther away would hinder that. Plus a 8-5pm schedule is pretty demanding. But at hte same time I would save about 8,000+ if i lived at home

Any advice? Especially from students who attend Western now! 🙂

Random things to consider while you wait for current students to respond. This is based on my own first-year experience elsewhere with a 45-60 minute commute. It was the occasional late afternoon or weekend when drive to campus that was annoying.

Verify that it's actually an 8-5 schedule. (I assumed my school was and it's not even close.)
When are tests? You're right, 57N isn't bad in the morning, but you don't want to risk being late on those days. (I had 2 7AM tests each week.)
Is attendance mandatory? Are lectures recorded? Can you learn without being in lecture? (I could stay home 1-2 days a week if I wanted.)
Check the library situation if it's something you'll need or want. From what I saw and was told at the time, people don't study there much. If you're worried about drive-home traffic, you can always study there for an hour or two until it calms down.
Do you have access to sim lab after-hours? We have free reign weekends/nights so lots of people go in to practice. If you can, you may as well; you're paying for it.
Cadaver lab. If they have practicals (I'm sure they do), you're going to want to spend some time with those bodies.
Is there any group stuff? We had occasional case presentations requiring groups to meet up (usually on campus). Is their IPE thing anything like that?

Living really far will of course get in the way of social life. It wasn't that important to me, but it certainly would have been annoying. Guess it depends on the student body...and your own class. Besides just going out at nights and on weekends, there were guest speakers, campus events, volunteering, bbqs, intramural sports, etc. on or near campus.

I think the academic part is totally doable. Especially if you don't have to go in five days a week. Do you have any kind of summer between 1st and 2nd year? Could you try living at home first year? That's probably the most stressful/hard year though.

 

[OCDFlosser]

Hey, I'm a current WesternU student!

If you plan to commute, I'm not gonna lie...you're social life may suffer a bit. But, the first year is less demanding in regards to attendance - so 8-5pm isn't necessarily every day (in fact, it was rare for us).

You'll save a lot of money, so it will be worth the extra cost in gas if you want to drive to meet up with friends. It just depends on how much you can tolerate the inconvenience of it.

See you in August at our Welcome BBQ (Aug 17th)!

 

[averagejoe805]

I'm attending western in the fall and I live about 30 mins from there (without traffic) and I would take the 57N to get there so against traffic in the morning

Hey, I live in Fullerton and commuted past Pomona for years on 57N to 10E. The traffic really isnt that bad except for the 60/57 interchange and the occasional accident. In morning traffic it takes me 30 to 40 mins to go up the 57 to the 10 and out to almost the 15.

I applied to Western this round and plan to commute if accepted just because its only about 30 mins versus Loma Linda or USC which is about an hour on a good day, or UCLA at about 1.5 hours in morning trafffic - which I would consider moving for. But I did meet a D1 at USC who rode the metrolink everyday from north OC and said it was great.

But Im also old (31), married, and own my house so moving is a little harder for me. And social life isn't that big of a factor for me.