In-State Residency

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elloL

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Hello,

I'm not really at this point yet, but I'm going over my finances right now to try to predict future spending. I wanted to see if it was common for in-state residents who do not live far from their medical schools to live at home and commute to their schools. I live with a large family and my commute would likely be around 2 hours every day. I would have less privacy to study and would not be able to find connections near the school. Is it wiser to just commute and cut a lot of living expenses from renting? It would be far more convenient to try to find an apartment close to the school, so my commute would be shorter and I could find research or other clinical roles around the area. Is this a reasonable argument for renting an apartment despite living nearby-ish and is this a common thing that people do?

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Very common. During M1/M2 years, you don't need to be on campus most days and I know many people who do commute to school, but they're usually closer than you are. Most students with a 2 hour round trip will find housing near campus because once you start doing things that require you to be on campus such as volunteering, losing 2 hours a day is pretty horrible.

Commuting also makes building relationships with your classmates next to impossible, which is one of the most important parts of M1. So while commuting is doable, I'd recommend against it if you have a 2 hour round trip commute.

Kevin W, MCAT Tutor
Med School Tutors
 
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Spending two hours commuting every day would be a very bad idea. You will be exhausted. Better to find roommates and share a place closer to campus.
 
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I only live 15 min from campus and on long days even that feels like too much. I definitely couldn’t afford to lose 2 hrs a day commuting.

OP, are you facing parental pressure to live at home and commute? It seems like you’re trying to build an argument here.
 
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Hello,

I'm not really at this point yet, but I'm going over my finances right now to try to predict future spending. I wanted to see if it was common for in-state residents who do not live far from their medical schools to live at home and commute to their schools. I live with a large family and my commute would likely be around 2 hours every day. I would have less privacy to study and would not be able to find connections near the school. Is it wiser to just commute and cut a lot of living expenses from renting? It would be far more convenient to try to find an apartment close to the school, so my commute would be shorter and I could find research or other clinical roles around the area. Is this a reasonable argument for renting an apartment despite living nearby-ish and is this a common thing that people do?
In my own student's experience, long commutes can destroy a med student's career. That's 10 study hours a week lost! Hell, it even wrecks our SMP students' careers!
 
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I only live 15 min from campus and on long days even that feels like too much. I definitely couldn’t afford to lose 2 hrs a day commuting.

OP, are you facing parental pressure to live at home and commute? It seems like you’re trying to build an argument here.
My mom doesn't care whether I stay at home or not, but we're really poor, so I'm just trying to find ways to not spend money/ take out loans that are not needed. Though the vast majority of you think that the commute from home would be too long, so I'll definitely take that into consideration.
 
My mom doesn't care whether I stay at home or not, but we're really poor, so I'm just trying to find ways to not spend money/ take out loans that are not needed. Though the vast majority of you think that the commute from home would be too long, so I'll definitely take that into consideration.
Your loans for school shouldn't affect your family, and you will be able to pay back the loan rather easily as an attending. You should 100% get an apartment closer to campus so that you do not lose 10 hours of study time a week, can make strong connections to classmates and faculty, and have the ability to go home to a peaceful apartment for studying or for decompression.
 
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My mom doesn't care whether I stay at home or not, but we're really poor, so I'm just trying to find ways to not spend money/ take out loans that are not needed. Though the vast majority of you think that the commute from home would be too long, so I'll definitely take that into consideration.
How are you planning to commute, car/bus/train?
 
Hmm, probably by car, unless I could find a train that's faster.
Trains aren't faster because they run on specified times. So unless the times that the trains run are 100% convenient times, then you'll waste your time waiting for them.
 
If I had lived within 30 minutes of medical school I would have considered commuting. 2 hours round trip is a crazy commute for medical school. You couldn't pay me to make that trip. Literally, I turned down job offers with that commute and they were willing to pay me a lot.
 
Driving an hour each way to medical school is NOT a good idea. You could get stuck in traffic or delayed by bad weather and miss an exam. You could end up having an accident because you are too tired to drive after a long day. You will be spending two hours a day driving, instead of studying, having fun, interacting with classmates and instructors, or spending time with family. You really don't have two extra hours a day to waste. You have worked too hard to get into medical school to settle for a poor experience. Do you really think you will have your best performance if you have two fewer hours a day? Grades and recommendations will have an effect on your future. Having friends and good experiences will make medical school a lot more tolerable.
 
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