LMU Students: Living in Knoxville or Morristown?

[hopefuldogtor123]

Hello! I was accepted into LMU for the spring semester and am thinking of living in Knoxville or Morristown. I understand from looking at Google Maps and also reading previous threads on the med school forum that this is an extremely long drive and is taxing to do each day, but I want to hear if there are any veterinary schools (past or current) who do this. I was open to living closer to the LMU campus but my last housing plans fell through last minute due to "time zone differences," whatever that means, and there are currently no other apartments or houses that I would be willing to rent from except for 1 but that is currently being renovated and to be honest, I am not sure if it will be ready by the time I need it. I have done so much searching on websites and all the FB pages. I have called so many different realty companies and landlords and honestly have been turned off of renting around the area by a LOT of them (i.e. never responding but reading the messages, snarky attitudes, refusing to recognize ESAs and not giving in until I tell them that doing so is illegal, etc.). Because of this, I really do not want to keep looking further around the school and would rather move to the bigger cities where there are bigger and nicer apartments that are better handled and regulated. Anyways, I just want to hear from students who are currently making this commute, tips for dealing with the long commute, and such. Thank you!

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[Trilt]

I'm not an LMU student, but I had an hour commute for my first job as a vet. Still commute about 45 minutes.

I would strongly, STRONGLY advise against that for vet school. Especially first year when you're going to have a huge amount of lab time and are learning how to deal with being in a professional curriculum. It's one thing if it is on public transport where you can study/read notes, another to lose two of your waking hours to driving. It will also likely be dangerous at a certain point, as being a bit sleep deprived occasionally comes with the vet school territory, lol. Plus you absolutely lose the ability to quickly pop home during lunch or after classes, so especially if you have a dog, it'll limit your ability to do evening activities and other events.

I had classmates who were 30-40 minutes away and even that felt like a strain sometimes. I'd definitely recommend a suboptimal short term housing situation vs an hour+ driving commute.

 

[hopefuldogtor123]

I'm not an LMU student, but I had an hour commute for my first job as a vet. Still commute about 45 minutes.

I would strongly, STRONGLY advise against that for vet school. Especially first year when you're going to have a huge amount of lab time and are learning how to deal with being in a professional curriculum. It's one thing if it is on public transport where you can study/read notes, another to lose two of your waking hours to driving. It will also likely be dangerous at a certain point, as being a bit sleep deprived occasionally comes with the vet school territory, lol. Plus you absolutely lose the ability to quickly pop home during lunch or after classes, so especially if you have a dog, it'll limit your ability to do evening activities and other events.

I had classmates who were 30-40 minutes away and even that felt like a strain sometimes. I'd definitely recommend a suboptimal short term housing situation vs an hour+ driving commute.

Thank you so much for your input! Yeah, I'm really hoping that the Tazewell place comes through. I've also been trying to look at suboptimal short term housing situation but the only issue is that these tend to be in homes with other students living in them already, and with 2 ESA dogs, it makes it a little bit harder to stay in homes that will be shared with people who are not familiar with me and vice versa. It's especially a little bit challenging since my younger ESA, while she is extremely important to my mental health, is slightly dog aggressive (I lived in a complex with irresponsible pet owners who let their dogs off leash and had two separate incidents when she got ambushed - not attacked but more like charged at - by much bigger dogs as a puppy and so now she will exhibit excitement towards another dog but once they start playing, it can quickly turn into what I believe to be fear of being charged at again) so I unfortunately also cannot live with anyone who might have a dog or cat until I have fully completed her training and desensitization to other dogs and cats.

I've found a few places, but either have been ignored (they have their read receipts on or haven't received a call back), the places have already been rented out to other incoming students, or have been harassed for having ESAs (which also tells me that those rentals are huge red flags). It definitely would suck to have to make such a long commute, but at this point, since my housing plans fell through literally this week and since I have to be in TN by the end of next week, I'm willing to do what I have to do.

 

[SkiOtter]

Have you tried contacting a realtor in the area and seeing if they have any ideas on rentals in the area? They sometimes have better luck with finding stuff
I also assume you’ve checked Zillow, but mentioning it just in case you haven’t. It’s not always people’s first thought, but they do list rentals and maybe they’ll have something in the area or closer than Knoxville

 

[astros9341]

I am a fourth year LMU CVM student and I highly recommend finding somewhere within 30 minutes. You might not know this, but the patient care shifts will start first semester. You have to be at these at 6:45ish. You will be exhausted quite quickly as well needing to have things ready. And exams are much more cumulative than they were when I was a first year. I would say tazewell alone was hard for my classmate. It was about 35-40 minutes for her personally. Also, car issues may occur with that much driving. I would not chance it. I had a classmate who lived in knoxville on the weekends but would stay local throughout the week. She was exhausted and couldnt do it third year when we had surgery responsibilities. I would look at DCOM's housing fb page too , there may be more listings with people without pets. I ended up finding a house 25 mins away from the DVTC in Harrogate approaching Speedwell, but it was close to the main campus at least

 

[southerndogtor]

I would highly not recommend living in knoxville or morristown. First year students have all mandatory lectures and labs and there are days that you'll have class from 8-4pm. Tazewell would be the farthest I would consider and even with that I've had classmates who moved closer to the school after their first year because the driving was too much. I know graduate housing allows pets I'm not sure if it's only a one pet policy but that could be something you look into just for spring semester and then more housing should come available over summer as 3rd years move out.