Listening to recorded lectures on long morning commute?

[OncoCaP]

It looks like I'm going to have a decent (1 to 1.25 hr) door-to-lecture hall commute in the mornings when I start med school next year. I'm considering that it might be a good idea to listen to lectures, etc. on an MP3 player or IPOD on the way in. If you do something like this, I'm curious as to how you do it (hardware, etc.) and how useful you find it to be.

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[WhoisJohnGalt]

It looks like I'm going to have a decent (1 to 1.25 hr) door-to-lecture hall commute in the mornings when I start med school next year. I'm considering that it might be a good idea to listen to lectures, etc. on an MP3 player or IPOD on the way in. If you do something like this, I'm curious as to how you do it (hardware, etc.) and how useful you find it to be.

I do it from time to time, using my IPOD and an FM radio transmitter. I don't usually gain too much from it, but I'm not really an auditory learner. I can't study anything very effectively unless I'm writing, typing, or highlighting-- if I'm not being active, I gloss over important things. On the other hand, if you've been an auditory learner in undergrad, it's probably a good idea for you. *shrugs* I look at it like, what can it hurt? If you have to make that drive anyway, what else would you be doing? My commute is only 15 minutes, but I think if I had to spend that much time in my car, I'd definitely want to make use of it if possible.

Also, why on earth are you living that far away from school? Unless you plan on homeschooling (in which case this is a moot question except for the required attendance days), this is a dumb idea. Get a crappier apartment closer to school. You do not need to live in the lap of luxury-- there will be plenty of time for that later.

 

[OncoCaP]

I do it from time to time, using my IPOD and an FM radio transmitter. I don't usually gain too much from it, but I'm not really an auditory learner. I can't study anything very effectively unless I'm writing, typing, or highlighting-- if I'm not being active, I gloss over important things. On the other hand, if you've been an auditory learner in undergrad, it's probably a good idea for you. *shrugs* I look at it like, what can it hurt? If you have to make that drive anyway, what else would you be doing? My commute is only 15 minutes, but I think if I had to spend that much time in my car, I'd definitely want to make use of it if possible.

Also, why on earth are you living that far away from school? Unless you plan on homeschooling (in which case this is a moot question except for the required attendance days), this is a dumb idea. Get a crappier apartment closer to school. You do not need to live in the lap of luxury-- there will be plenty of time for that later.

I'm not an auditory learner ... I'm like you: need to type, draw, etc. to learn. On the other hand, once I have learned something, my memory can be reinforced by auditory information. I see that for many people going over the information repeatedly is a help.

I actually won't be that far away. Its the rush hour that adds time. I'm not really a morning person, so going in early would not be efficient. I have several kids, so a small apartment near campus would be abusive (to the neighbors and groundskeepers, I can't get enough of the little bandits ) and a decent house near the school would probably be ~$400K+. I suppose I could also get an apartment near campus, but my wife wouldn't like that. When I was an undergrad, I used to pity the students with families. Now I pity the students without families because no matter how much harder it makes school, work, etc. it's very well worth it for me anyway.

 

[vtucci]

That is a difficult commute. I did it for two months until my condo closed near school. Nightmare- esp if you are in class regularly until 5.

You can certainly use MP3 audios to play in the car but if you are a visual learner, it is not the best use of your time.

 

[OncoCaP]

That is a difficult commute. I did it for two months until my condo closed near school. Nightmare- esp if you are in class regularly until 5.

You can certainly use MP3 audios to play in the car but if you are a visual learner, it is not the best use of your time.

Maybe I'll go in early and cut the commute to 25 minutes ... I'm more of a nightowl, so that isn't my preference. We have class from 8-12noon. Afternoons have PBL, electives, labs ... so not a set daily schedule. I should be able to avoid the PM rush. It's just the morning rush that I'm considering because I learn quicker and more effectively at 11pm than I do at 7am.

 

[njbmd]

It looks like I'm going to have a decent (1 to 1.25 hr) door-to-lecture hall commute in the mornings when I start med school next year. I'm considering that it might be a good idea to listen to lectures, etc. on an MP3 player or IPOD on the way in. If you do something like this, I'm curious as to how you do it (hardware, etc.) and how useful you find it to be.

I listened to auditory material but not lectures (too boring and low-yield). I made my own summary and drill lectures and listened to those. (I still do this in the gym today). As a resident, I am constantly reviewing things for my inservice exams and specialty boards.

I used several different study methods (when I was in medical school) ; reviewing the written notes, auditory drills and concept mapping.

Send me a PM and I will outline my set-up. It's the same set-up that I use for my SDN podcasts. You can find them under the Podcast Forum on this site.

Good luck!

 

[45408]

skip school and listen to the lectures at home. Saves gas.

 

[OncoCaP]

skip school and listen to the lectures at home. Saves gas.

Earn your M.D. degree online -- no classroom -- no commute -- no annoying lecture questions (that can't be fast-forwarded through)... coming to a browser near you!

 

[bjackrian]

I thought this was something I would do, but I find it so hard to pay attention. I even take a subway, so I have notes that I can read, but with the stopping/starting and people coming/going, I find I can't concentrate. It's turned into my crossword/Sudoku time when I don't have to worry about med school things, which is almost more valuable to me.

 

[SteveUTexas]

You are going to be comming to Baylor next year, right? A lot of students with familes live in Pearland and commute. Lectures are video taped and streamed so you could be like me and only come to class every now and then. You could also only come for the 10-noon classes and that way you would miss morning rush and then watch the 2 hours of class that you missed from home at 2.5 speed. I can tell you that I got more out of just reading the class notes and looking over powerpoints than I did by ever attending class. As for the afternoon IPS and PPS classes those don't start until 1-1:30 and are usually over by 3 or 4 so again you could come to class late and just watch the missed class on video.


If you really want to listen to BCM lecture material you would have to convert the streaming video file to an mp3 and then make a cd or put it on an IPOD or something. I am pretty sure this would be against BCM's AUP though.

Essential Software for Baylor:
RealPlayer: Baylor only streams lectures in password protected RealMedia format
Enounce 2xAV: This will lead you speed up boring lectures up to 2.5 speed
Net Transport: This will let you save the video streams

 

[Sol Rosenberg]

Other than the "don't go to class" method (which obviously solves your commute problems, but may cause others) I would vote for move closer to the school. 1 hour is a LONG, LONG commute, and that is just wasted time.

As for how to physically listen to the material -- that is pretty easy. If the lectures are in MPEG2 format (I'm just guessing) you can use TMPGENC to demux the audio and video streams, convert the MPEG2 Audio Stream to mp3 or just pcm, and then burn to an mp3 cd (if your car has an mp3 cd capable player) or just an audio cd. If you have a decent PC, it doesn't take too long at all, but again, that is valuable time that you are wasting messing with that stuff (i.e. time that your closer-living classmates will be using to study.)

 

[MadameLULU]

You really don't need to tape the lectures and listen to them while driving unless you want to hear "positively elegant", "pornographically long", other crude but funny jokes from our histo prof, and random lame comments about lousiana from our anatomy prof. Half of first semester is histology and anatomy, and you won't get much out of those classes unless you are looking at the picture while 1) reading syllabus or 2) while the professor lectures.

I would come to class at least for the first couple of weeks and decide if class is worth your time. If not, join the unaccredited, unapproved MD-at-HOme program and watch the videos at home.

 

[OncoCaP]

You are going to be comming to Baylor next year, right? A lot of students with familes live in Pearland and commute. Lectures are video taped and streamed so you could be like me and only come to class every now and then. You could also only come for the 10-noon classes and that way you would miss morning rush and then watch the 2 hours of class that you missed from home at 2.5 speed. I can tell you that I got more out of just reading the class notes and looking over powerpoints than I did by ever attending class. As for the afternoon IPS and PPS classes those don't start until 1-1:30 and are usually over by 3 or 4 so again you could come to class late and just watch the missed class on video.


If you really want to listen to BCM lecture material you would have to convert the streaming video file to an mp3 and then make a cd or put it on an IPOD or something. I am pretty sure this would be against BCM's AUP though.

Essential Software for Baylor:
RealPlayer: Baylor only streams lectures in password protected RealMedia format
Enounce 2xAV: This will lead you speed up boring lectures up to 2.5 speed
Net Transport: This will let you save the video streams

That's correct -- Baylor from Pearland. Looks like this problem has been solved before. Thanks for the suggestions!! The idea of not going to class bothers the Boy Scout in me, but I realize that I need to be efficient with my time.

I have already been told a couple of times that the lectures aren't want I should be listening to on an IPOD while driving. At best its a matter of listening to drills prepared by others or by me.

jota_jota: I could cut my commute by avoiding the rush hour traffic. Looks like that's how some students handle this issue.

Thanks again for all the suggestions!

 

[Emergency!]

Another consideration if you can't avoid the long commute several days a week is to use that down time to RELAX. I love to read, but I feel guilty reading at home much when there is always something I could be studying. So, when I had to do the long commute daily, I chose to use that time to listen to books on CD.

When you get into second year (if you are still going to class) there are some excellent board review material that might be more valuable than listening to lectures.

 

[smq123]

It looks like I'm going to have a decent (1 to 1.25 hr) door-to-lecture hall commute in the mornings when I start med school next year. I'm considering that it might be a good idea to listen to lectures, etc. on an MP3 player or IPOD on the way in. If you do something like this, I'm curious as to how you do it (hardware, etc.) and how useful you find it to be.

It takes me a little over an hour to get to school too, but I take public transportation (a train). I usually spend the time sleeping, but since it sounds like you'll be driving, that's probably not an option.

I don't know what your school's curriculum is like, but if you have a "doctor-patient relations" type class that still has exams of some kind, you can listen to those lectures again on an ipod. They usually don't require taking any notes, and listening to them through a couple of times is usually enough to grasp the material, even if you didn't go to the actual lecture.

 

[OncoCaP]

Another consideration if you can't avoid the long commute several days a week is to use that down time to RELAX. I love to read, but I feel guilty reading at home much when there is always something I could be studying. So, when I had to do the long commute daily, I chose to use that time to listen to books on CD.

When you get into second year (if you are still going to class) there are some excellent board review material that might be more valuable than listening to lectures.

Yes, that's what one student who goes to my future school said she did during that time (also commuting from the same area). I may appreciate the downtime, but that might not always be an option. Another SDNer suggested recording some drills which that person evidently even listens to while working out, for example.

It takes me a little over an hour to get to school too, but I take public transportation (a train). I usually spend the time sleeping, but since it sounds like you'll be driving, that's probably not an option.

I don't know what your school's curriculum is like, but if you have a "doctor-patient relations" type class that still has exams of some kind, you can listen to those lectures again on an ipod. They usually don't require taking any notes, and listening to them through a couple of times is usually enough to grasp the material, even if you didn't go to the actual lecture.

Good idea. There probably are some classes like that which might be suitable. However, first year starts with anatomy and histology (I think), so audio learning will be limited to drill, which can be helpful. I'm going to try out one of the iRiver Clix and see how I like it. It has a high bit-rate mic built in and has some great reviews so maybe I will like it too.

I even toyed with the idea of firing up one of my laptops on the passenger seat like the police officers have. However, I worry about my hard-drives because even normal roads cause a certain amount of vibration that can't be good for the drives.

 

[vtucci]

Maybe I'll go in early and cut the commute to 25 minutes ... I'm more of a nightowl, so that isn't my preference. We have class from 8-12noon. Afternoons have PBL, electives, labs ... so not a set daily schedule. I should be able to avoid the PM rush. It's just the morning rush that I'm considering because I learn quicker and more effectively at 11pm than I do at 7am.

I would see what is mandatory at your school. In all likelihood, the PBL and lab sessions will be mandatory. Lecture typically isn't. Do you have note service or video streaming? Then stay at home and do it at night.

I am a night owl too.

 

[pagemmapants]

Right now I'm commuting 35 minutes (no traffic) to an hour (stupid 1 lane highway + slow truck) and while I usually spend it listening to loud music and "decompressing" I'm really starting to feel it cutting into time that would be better spent studying or at the gym. It's gotten to the point where I stay in town with a friend at least 2 nights a week, and I'm definitely moving in to town at some point within the next 3 months (despite the fact that if I keep my commute I get to live at home and not pay for rent/food). The time's worth that much extra to me.

 

[OncoCaP]

I would see what is mandatory at your school. In all likelihood, the PBL and lab sessions will be mandatory. Lecture typically isn't. Do you have note service or video streaming? Then stay at home and do it at night.

I am a night owl too.

Video streaming is available. As one of the poster explained above, lecture evidently isn't mandatory at Baylor. It looks like it is possible to avoid the rush hour by going in to 10am lecture and then viewing the 8am lecture on streaming video before the PBL and lab sessions. Seems like a reasonable compromise -- we shall see. If worse comes to worse, I can just start going in extra early and take an efficiency hit because early morning studying is not my optimal time. It's a temporary issue, however. We only have 1.5 yrs of pre-clinical. If I understand the clinical rotations, they aren't 8-12, so I might be able to avoid rush hour to some extent. Life is full of trade-offs. It's just a matter of making sure one understands the compromise.

 

[Hayden2102]

Is there any you could take a train or other form of public transportation? At least that way you could read textbooks or plug away on the ole' laptop.

 

[OncoCaP]

Is there any you could take a train or other form of public transportation? At least that way you could read textbooks or plug away on the ole' laptop.

No, unfortunately not ... by the time I would drive to a park & ride or transit center, I would almost be at my destination ... maybe I should look into a chauffeur .

 

[Rugby MD]

I listen to the lectures when I am at the gym or on a long car ride. I find it relatively helpful, as long as I already sat through the class. I am not an auditory learner, but if it is the second time I heard the information, and I am actually concentrating on it, It seems to work out ok. There are some lectures (nutrition, or patient interviews) that you can skip the class and just listen to.
sounds like a bunch of people are going from that same suburb to that school. you should see if a carpool is a possibility-
good luck.

 

[Droopy Snoopy]

For me, med school is all about layering. I've heard it takes going over something (in different forms) 5-7 times before it's actually put into long-term memory. What I do is listen to the lecture while following the slides, not taking notes or anything. A couple of days later the note service transcripts are put online, and I go over the lecture again, cutting and pasting the notes onto their respective ppt slide. Sometime over the weekend I go through subject by subject making my own notes and organizing info in a way that works for me (charts and diagrams mostly). Then the week before exams I go back and read my notes, highlighting high yield info (usually after a review session and based on what the prof said will be on the exam). Finally comes the night before/hour before cramming. So that's 5 layers, which has been working for me so far. Some people find time to preread, but I rarely can unless it's just skimming the objectives in the minutes before class.

So depending on the subject, listening to the audio might give you one layer and make good use of your time. Even if you're not an auditory learner, you'd be surprised what does stick in there; it's why you've always heard to go with your first instinct on those exam questions where you're like, "I have no idea." Anyway, you really can't know what works for you until you get there. You might get up there and physically need that hour commute of downtime to relax listening to ESPN radio or whatever. The key is to maximize your time and find the right combination of going over lecture slides at home, reading the textbook, participating in class, filling up notebooks of drawings and notes, and taking practice exams.

 

[OncoCaP]

I listen to the lectures when I am at the gym or on a long car ride. I find it relatively helpful, as long as I already sat through the class. I am not an auditory learner, but if it is the second time I heard the information, and I am actually concentrating on it, It seems to work out ok. There are some lectures (nutrition, or patient interviews) that you can skip the class and just listen to.
sounds like a bunch of people are going from that same suburb to that school. you should see if a carpool is a possibility-
good luck.

Thanks Rugby. I agree that even for non-auditory learners, there is a value to repetition (one guy even joked with me that I should listen to my lectures during my sleep ). I'll have to see about the carpooling as well.

 

[OncoCaP]

For me, med school is all about layering. I've heard it takes going over something (in different forms) 5-7 times before it's actually put into long-term memory. What I do is listen to the lecture while following the slides, not taking notes or anything. A couple of days later the note service transcripts are put online, and I go over the lecture again, cutting and pasting the notes onto their respective ppt slide. Sometime over the weekend I go through subject by subject making my own notes and organizing info in a way that works for me (charts and diagrams mostly). Then the week before exams I go back and read my notes, highlighting high yield info (usually after a review session and based on what the prof said will be on the exam). Finally comes the night before/hour before cramming. So that's 5 layers, which has been working for me so far. Some people find time to preread, but I rarely can unless it's just skimming the objectives in the minutes before class.

So depending on the subject, listening to the audio might give you one layer and make good use of your time. Even if you're not an auditory learner, you'd be surprised what does stick in there; it's why you've always heard to go with your first instinct on those exam questions where you're like, "I have no idea." Anyway, you really can't know what works for you until you get there. You might get up there and physically need that hour commute of downtime to relax listening to ESPN radio or whatever. The key is to maximize your time and find the right combination of going over lecture slides at home, reading the textbook, participating in class, filling up notebooks of drawings and notes, and taking practice exams.

Yes, repetition is certainly key for me. However, part of it is the efficiency concern that you point out. I'll need to learn the material several different ways and each of those ways needs to be efficient. It seems that as a med student it won't just be about what I do but how efficiently I learn the material.

Sitting in a car driving through Houston rush hour traffic can be well ... distracting when it comes to learning. It doesn't seem like high-yield study time to me. I'll make use of it as much as I can, and, maybe like you say, that down-time is what I'll want. The other options are to go in very early (say 6:30am) and thereby cut the commute to 30 minutes or just to view the lectures online and just start the day with the 10am lecture. It's nice to have options like this. As a night-owl, the 6:30am study time is relatively low-yield as well but maybe high-yield compared to studying while driving or losing the hour altogether. I'll try out several different things and go with what works (right now I'm leaning toward going in at 6:30am when things are easier and as things get tough, skipping the 8am lecture and viewing it online so that I'm studying as efficiently as possible).

 

[SoCuteMD]

Yes, repetition is certainly key for me. However, part of it is the efficiency concern that you point out. I'll need to learn the material several different ways and each of those ways needs to be efficient. It seems that as a med student it won't just be about what I do but how efficiently I learn the material.

Sitting in a car driving through Houston rush hour traffic can be well ... distracting when it comes to learning. It doesn't seem like high-yield study time to me. I'll make use of it as much as I can, and, maybe like you say, that down-time is what I'll want. The other options are to go in very early (say 6:30am) and thereby cut the commute to 30 minutes or just to view the lectures online and just start the day with the 10am lecture. It's nice to have options like this. As a night-owl, the 6:30am study time is relatively low-yield as well but maybe high-yield compared to studying while driving or losing the hour altogether. I'll try out several different things and go with what works (right now I'm leaning toward going in at 6:30am when things are easier and as things get tough, skipping the 8am lecture and viewing it online so that I'm studying as efficiently as possible).

I would definitely give yourself some time to see how well you learn on your own. I'm definitely a "home school med school" type (although I mostly study at school) and I do far better now than I did when I went to class. I make it a rule NOT to cheat myself of productive hours. If I don't sleep well one night, I sleep in the next AM so that I can be productive for the hours that I'm awake. I have managed to shift my productive hours around a bit, though, by sleeping and waking on a pretty strict schedule.

Don't stress about this now - do a little planning and figure out some options and then just give yourself some time to find what works when the school year begins!

 

[OncoCaP]

I would definitely give yourself some time to see how well you learn on your own. I'm definitely a "home school med school" type (although I mostly study at school) and I do far better now than I did when I went to class. I make it a rule NOT to cheat myself of productive hours. If I don't sleep well one night, I sleep in the next AM so that I can be productive for the hours that I'm awake. I have managed to shift my productive hours around a bit, though, by sleeping and waking on a pretty strict schedule.

Don't stress about this now - do a little planning and figure out some options and then just give yourself some time to find what works when the school year begins!

Hey, thanks for the tips. Learning the material is certainly the main reason why we take classes, so we should do whatever is necessary to learn it. As far as stress goes I'm as laid back, flexible, and hard working as probably anyone you'll ever meet ... the kinds of things that stress me out are computer problems (worried about losing my data/notes/etc since its all electronic and I can't get my work done; one of my kids throwing lemonade at my computer), someone is attacking me with a lethal or painful weapon (someone randomly shot at me once while I was going down a freeway -- made my adrenaline flow), other highly distrubing situations like child abuse. Other than that there is almost nothing that stresses me out ... not even sleep deprivation, road rage drivers, doing poorly on an exam, wasted time, etc.

That's not to say that I like everything equally. I have my preference and strive to do my best. One of the reasons I'm going into medicine is because I really enjoy being around people. I'm getting the impression that for many students a signficant fraction of the first few years of med school are spend in isolation ... studying by oneself. In the past I would typically become friends with pretty much all my professors and several students in my classes, so not getting to go to class is a downer -- socially. Right now I'm doing research, and I'm very social with the people around me in the lab. I'm also very "by the book" kind of person when it comes to rules enforced or not as well, so not going to my future 8am class disturbs me because I would imagine that the school & prof wants the students to attend class. I'm not stressing about it ... I'm just someone who's a bit of a perfectionist trying to put everything together in the best way. This thread has given me several ideas, including several that I wasn't thinking about. Thanks again.

 

[SoCuteMD]

Hey, thanks for the tips. Learning the material is certainly the main reason why we take classes, so we should do whatever is necessary to learn it. As far as stress goes I'm as laid back, flexible, and hard working as probably anyone you'll ever meet ... the kinds of things that stress me out are computer problems (worried about losing my data/notes/etc since its all electronic and I can't get my work done; one of my kids throwing lemonade at my computer), someone is attacking me with a lethal or painful weapon (someone randomly shot at me once while I was going down a freeway -- made my adrenaline flow), other highly distrubing situations like child abuse. Other than that there is almost nothing that stresses me out ... not even sleep deprivation, road rage drivers, doing poorly on an exam, wasted time, etc.

That's not to say that I like everything equally. I have my preference and strive to do my best. One of the reasons I'm going into medicine is because I really enjoy being around people. I'm getting the impression that for many students a signficant fraction of the first few years of med school are spend in isolation ... studying by oneself. In the past I would typically become friends with pretty much all my professors and several students in my classes, so not getting to go to class is a downer -- socially. Right now I'm doing research, and I'm very social with the people around me in the lab. I'm also very "by the book" kind of person when it comes to rules enforced or not as well, so not going to my future 8am class disturbs me because I would imagine that the school & prof wants the students to attend class. I'm not stressing about it ... I'm just someone who's a bit of a perfectionist trying to put everything together in the best way. This thread has given me several ideas, including several that I wasn't thinking about. Thanks again.

I was a lot like re: required classes in undergrad. It wore off quickly once I realized that time management was key to surviving in med school. Yes, the studying can be isolating, but a lot of people find a group who they study with. And by with I mean "sit next to every day in the library." My friends and I take meal/Starbucks breaks together and ask questions about confusing material of eachother, so it can be isolating but there are ways to make it less so!!

 

[ms. a]

Guys,
His commute really isn't going to be that bad. I live about 10 minutes away from where he will be, and I do the exact commute he'll be doing almost every single day. It's about 60 minutes in rush hour, from door to classroom seat. That includes riding a shuttle from the parking lot to Baylor. In non-rush hour, it 20-25 minutes. I'm now on my clinical rotations, and therefore not in rushhour too much anymore, and it's really no problem. Like others have mentioned, I spend the time relaxing and listening to music, trying to decompress beforing coming home and having to be in full-time mode.

OncoCaP-
One of the reasons I pretty much always went to class instead of watching online at home was because in class, I was never distracted by my daughter coming in for "just a second to ask a question" or some other little disturbance. Having a kid-free time to focus on class and learn was worth the rush-hour commute to me.

 

[ms. a]

Guys,
His commute really isn't going to be that bad. I live about 10 minutes away from where he will be, and I do the exact commute he'll be doing almost every single day. It's about 60 minutes in rush hour, from door to classroom seat. That includes riding a shuttle from the parking lot to Baylor. In non-rush hour, it 20-25 minutes. I'm now on my clinical rotations, and therefore not in rushhour too much anymore, and it's really no problem. Like others have mentioned, I spend the time relaxing and listening to music, trying to decompress beforing coming home and having to be in full-time mode.

OncoCaP-
One of the reasons I pretty much always went to class instead of watching online at home was because in class, I was never distracted by my daughter coming in for "just a second to ask a question" or some other little disturbance. Having a kid-free time to focus on class and learn was worth the rush-hour commute to me.

 

[OncoCaP]

Guys,
His commute really isn't going to be that bad. I live about 10 minutes away from where he will be, and I do the exact commute he'll be doing almost every single day. It's about 60 minutes in rush hour, from door to classroom seat. That includes riding a shuttle from the parking lot to Baylor. In non-rush hour, it 20-25 minutes. I'm now on my clinical rotations, and therefore not in rushhour too much anymore, and it's really no problem. Like others have mentioned, I spend the time relaxing and listening to music, trying to decompress beforing coming home and having to be in full-time mode.

OncoCaP-
One of the reasons I pretty much always went to class instead of watching online at home was because in class, I was never distracted by my daughter coming in for "just a second to ask a question" or some other little disturbance. Having a kid-free time to focus on class and learn was worth the rush-hour commute to me.

Hi Ms A,

I hope this is being posed a bad vs good commute. I see it more as ... given a certain commute, what do you do with it as a med student, if anything. Do I trade off commute time for study time, for example? I see it as a matter of getting the most out of my schedule.

As far as whether 1 hour is a long commute, I guess it depends on what you're used to. I will tell you right off, that commute time was not high on my selection criteria for where I wanted to go to school. I would rather commute longer and go to a school that fits me better. I'm really excited about going to Baylor and will gladly bear the Houston humidity to go there.

That being said, let's take a quick look at commute times. Here are the cities with the "worst" average commute times for U.S. cities:

http://www.census.gov/acs/www/Products/Ranking/2003/R04T160.htm
1 New York city, NY 38.3 min
2 Chicago city, IL 33.2 min
3 Newark city, NJ 31.5 min

Houston ranks #15 in the country:
15 Houston city, TX 25.8 min

These are averages of course. I'm not sure if these are door-to-door averages, but I would guess that they would be door to door. From the above, it certainly appears that a 1 hour commute in the mornings is well above average not just for Houston, but for the entire nation.

From the discussion, I have three options in order of decreasing preference from my current vantage point (which may be deceptive, of course):

1. Go during rush hour and either listen to audio drills during the drive or just relax; arrive in time for class.
2. Go at an earlier time and study at the school before class.
3. Go after rush hour and make it for 10am class. Watch 8am-10am class time on streaming video.

I know that my perferences could easily change at different stages of the semester (I know myself pretty well, but this will be a new situation). Also, in third year, it's a non-issue because the hours are very far from 8a-5p.

Again, hope I'm not coming across as complaining about it. I realize there are potential trade-offs and approaches and its actually kindof fun to think about little issues like this now when there is zero pressure.

 

[Droopy Snoopy]

It's funny how we're talking about an hour commute through Houston's rush hour traffic as "down time", but there it is. Welcome to med school!

 

[OncoCaP]

It's funny how we're talking about an hour commute through Houston's rush hour traffic as "down time", but there it is. Welcome to med school!

Yeah, I get the impression that you can't be easily bothered and must have a sense of humor to enjoy med school (and residency and fellowship and non-compliant patients and medicare / insurance co's ....)!

 

[potato51]

if you're talking about commuting to the medical center from the Pearland area, I've done it many times and it should take an hour at most (at least, when I take 288).