How to find safety/cost of living factors for certain cities?

[docMaine]

Any advice on resources to learn about the cities I am not familiar with as far as safety, cost of living, ability/need to have a car? Also, is MSAR or individual school websites the best way to learn if clerkships would be "local" or potentially hours away? Suburban/rural schools are more appealing yet I do not want to rule out some schools that may be a good fit if I can feel comfortable there. I'm very familiar with Boston but the other cities in contention we are not so familiar with are:

Philly
Pittsburgh
Baltimore
Atlanta
Durham, NC
Rochester, NY
NYC (I'm thinking this has to be the most challenging one to consider?)

Anyone familiar enough with any of these to give me their 2 cents? Thanks!

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[Goro]

Forget about having a car in NYC.
Suggest that for each of those cities, you ask in the school-specific threads, as the students living there will know best.

And google is your friend. It took me 2 secs to do this:

cost of living durham nc - Google Search

www.google.com

 

[Mr.Smile12]

San Francisco... just as bad as NYC. Most expensive area in the country.

You should also consider proximity to your clinical sites. You may not be living in your apartment for more than two years if you need to beat the traffic around Los Angeles or Chicago. If you are really interested in underserved communities, consider where you will be living vs. working.

Parking costs will obviously be better in more rural/suburban or satellite campuses. If you go to a satellite campus, figure out how much you will have online lectures vs. in-person.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Durham, and Rochester are fine

Midwestern and southeastern cities give you the most bang for your buck imo.

Though even in some northeastern cities (Buffalo, Scranton, Burlington, Portland), COL isn’t too bad

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I missed the part about "safety". Every University is also required by the Clery Act to disclose general statistics about the safety of their campuses. You should be able to find this information on each school's website in general.

There is also this: Campus Safety and Security .

 

[mysticforze]

Any advice on resources to learn about the cities I am not familiar with as far as safety, cost of living, ability/need to have a car? Also, is MSAR or individual school websites the best way to learn if clerkships would be "local" or potentially hours away? Suburban/rural schools are more appealing yet I do not want to rule out some schools that may be a good fit if I can feel comfortable there. I'm very familiar with Boston but the other cities in contention we are not so familiar with are:

Philly
Pittsburgh
Baltimore
Atlanta
Durham, NC
Rochester, NY
NYC (I'm thinking this has to be the most challenging one to consider?)

Anyone familiar enough with any of these to give me their 2 cents? Thanks!

Sites like niche.com and areavibes.com can give you a big overview. They'll generally rank the safety, COL, diversity, things to do, etc. I'd take all the grades/ranks they give out with a pinch of salt though as even adjacent neighborhoods in the same city can differ vastly.

A lot of schools will also have info about where med students generally live, things to do in the city, transportation, etc. If you ask schools they might also put you in contact with current med students which would be even better.