Living in the Temple Apartments, I figure would rather be close and live with people as you always get more apartment if you are willing to have room mates. Debating as to whether to have a car, I would rather not, but I am not sure once you start rotations it might be needed. KSUPM, Western, AZPOD, Scholl, DMU a car seems almost necessary. I would not want to count on the next to non existent public transit in those areas.
Pets, don't have any but in undergrad some it worked out some it did not. If you are single I would probably recommend against as I saw plenty taking 18 hours plus not having enough time to walk the dog and that.