Med Students - Living Alone or With Others?

[neelyboy]

I'll be getting a place to live soon (incoming MS1) and may either be living on my own or getting roommates. Which of the above would you say is preferable, splitting it into two camps:
A) with financial considerations and
B) with no financial considerations

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[Bojack Horseman]

I'd say it depends on your personality. If money was no consideration, I would probably buy a house (assuming you're not in a big city) and rent it out to other med students.


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[Poetic Silence]

Let me say this, as a pre med student, I was fortunate to find an amazing young couple and their cute son who offered me a room in their home. I can't tell you how amazing the experience has been for me. I love having someone around to talk to, watch a movie with or enjoy one of our city's many cultural events with.

With that said, I had a couple negative experiences with roommates in my age range. You have to make sure any potential roommate has the maturity to share a home with you. When it's good, it's amazing, but when it goes south. . . May God have mercy on your soul.

 

[alamo4]

Living by yourself can be pretty awful, especially if you have stressful things like school gong on.

Depression link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17475240

It seems like it might reduce headaches and stress, but living with other peope keeps us human.

 

[ModusPwnens]

I'm an incoming ms1 and I am living with a ms4. It's been great so far, and he is a wealth of information

 

[Lbgem]

Depends on your personality type. Introverted - then alone for sure. Extroverted would do the roommates. Be REALLY careful if you get roommates. And it also depends if you're sharing a room (yikes, even the nicest people will probably have at least 1-2 habits you won't like) or sharing a house/apartment with separate rooms (much better). You need to make sure you're compatible. I've had friends with klepto and psycho roommates (one had their mother + small dog move in). You don't want to find someone that has parties all the time at your place if you don't like parties.

On the other hand, probably my best living experience was me living on a couch and splitting the living room with someone that became a really good friend/study partner. It can work, just really depends on who you live with.

Roommates are like playing the lotto - you never know what you're going to get.

 

[stefspets]

For me, it is living alone, either way you look at it. Obviously if there is not enough money to make ends meet then I would get a roommate. I wouldn't get a roommate to save a little (~$200 a month). I did just that once and I regret it, the year was miserable for me.

I've had roommates and lived alone. I loved living alone. I need my space, I am an introvert and I recharge during my "me" time.

 

[Jay Gatsby]

I'd prefer alone, old sport. Flexibility, less stress, and privacy. Invaluable during medical school.

Bad roommates can ruin a year. Good roommate? Well, I guess that'd be fine, but how do you know?

 

[CassieBagley]

Kinda the same here

 

[Abby_Normal]

It depends upon whether you have friends or classmates with whom you actually want to live or you're looking for a roommate for the sake of having a roommate. Unless you're one of those people who absolutely needs other people around, I wouldn't recommend getting a roommate just to have a roommate. Medical school is demanding enough that you don't want to be dealing with roommate compatibility issues on the side.

I live alone and it can get isolating, but, for me, it was better than throwing my lot in with someone I barely knew. I do miss living with friends, as I did senior year of college, but I didn't have the advantage of knowing anyone in my incoming med school class in advance. I was fortunate enough to find an inexpensive but nice studio apartment so I wouldn't save much, if anything, by getting a larger apartment with a roommate (in fact, I turned down several invitations, they would have involved me spending $300+ more per month). I like being able to live in my own space without worrying about other people and to get away completely from med school politics.

 

[cbrons]

Living with my wife.... But you know, if I was single, I'd recommend a roommate. It gets lonely. THis coming from a dude who lived alone most of ugrad and grad school.

 

[Vespertilio]

Question for you other introverts, why does having a roommate mess up your recharge time? I'm an introvert and from what I understand, the entire house doesn't need to be empty for you to enjoy solitude... It's not like you're actually going to live in the exact same room, right? Or I'm misunderstanding, but rooming here is done where you share certain things like bathrooms and kitchens, but you each have your own rooms to reside in.

 

[Ilovewater]

Question for you other introverts, why does having a roommate mess up your recharge time? I'm an introvert and from what I understand, the entire house doesn't need to be empty for you to enjoy solitude... It's not like you're actually going to live in the exact same room, right? Or I'm misunderstanding, but rooming here is done where you share certain things like bathrooms and kitchens, but you each have your own rooms to reside in.

I never study in the bedroom...only in the living room, so it would be impossible to share an apartment with someone else. Plus, some people don't like sharing bathrooms and kitchens. It's true that you don't need an empty house to enjoy solitude, but for me, there are days where I actually don't really feel like interacting with anyone. I wouldn't want to go into the common rooms and see other people there. There are times where I just don't feel like dealing with people.

 

[Rumalum]

I made sure to get a female roommate because other guys are really loud and breathe heavily when they wake up to go to the bathroom. nothing more irritating than that

 

[deleted103644]

The best way to lose friends is to live with them.

If you can afford it, living by yourself is the way to go.

Invite your friends over as much as you like, just don't live with them.

 

[CassieBagley]

nothing

 

[startswithb]

I live alone for many of the reasons stated above. I also enjoy decorating, cleaning, and organizing the house and I don't want anyone else's sht around. I don't like confining my personal space to a single bedroom. My favorite is spending time with my friends/classmates all day and then recharging at home.

Oh yeah, and when roommates have guests over they will almost always irritate you. Or, if you have a guest over and have to be quiet and put on clothes to get to the bathroom....

 

[NickCarraway]

I'd prefer alone, old sport. Flexibility, less stress, and privacy. Invaluable during medical school.

Bad roommates can ruin a year. Good roommate? Well, I guess that'd be fine, but how do you know?

Quoting this for two reasons:
1) This is a good point; if you do live with a roommate, make sure you two are compatible.
2) Nice name. We should be friends.

 

[Staradmiral]

For me its living alone only. I study OUT LOUD, i don't just read in my head. Saying words outloud for me is neccesary to learn new words like drug names and disease names. I also like my entertainment, I watch TV, movies, play games, and I don't like turning the volume down for other people, so I live on my own.

 

[honeyyygirl]

I mean it really comes down to your personality and experiences in undergrad living with other people. Also depends on the personality / living style of roommate which you canʻt really consider till you live with them.

I enjoy living with other people IF I have my own space that I can reclude to.

If you are living in a metropolitan area, financially speaking, living with a roommate will likely be the cheaper route.

If finances arenʻt an issue then I would try living by yourself and see how you like it.

 

[VivaLaVida]

I live alone and LOVE it. I would consider myself a pretty extroverted person, but the stress of med school makes it nice to have a place of refuge where I can watch my guilty pleasure TV and let the dishes pile up during a rough test week with no negative consequences. I worried about feeling too alone, but I study best with a few close friends at school (during which we take frequent study breaks and usually dine together) so I still have plenty of social interaction.

 

[obgyny]

I've always had roommates (both shared room or my own room). But now I live on my own for med school.

When you have great roommates, living with other people can be really fun (some of my roommates in college became my best friends). For example, the girl who I shared my room with was the same major as me, also pre-health, and we had a lot of similar classes/ECs. We had extremely similar personalities, so we always got along and were very considerate of each other. I loved having someone else to vent to about school, life, etc. and we took study breaks together to keep each other sane.

But I've also had some horrible roommates who have no consideration for other people, throw parties in our apartment during finals week, never clean the common areas, etc. And they always seem nice in the beginning, until they're not . But when it's like that, it sucks to go home having to deal with all the drama.

Since I didn't know anyone as an incoming MS1, I decided to get my own place for once. I really just didn't want to risk getting horrible roommates. I thought that if I met someone during the year, I could move in with roommates for MS2. But I love living on my own too much. I'm an introvert, so I love having the apartment to myself. I'm also an insomniac with a sporadic sleeping schedule, so I don't have to worry about being quiet when I'm up at 3am or trying to nap at 5pm. I love having a clean apartment (I've had some insanely messy roommates), or being able to leave it a little messy when I'm too wrapped up in exams. It does get lonely sometimes, but friends are only a phone call away or live close by. I also sometimes study with a friend.

And now looking back, I'm glad I decided to live alone. I think it would be hard to not compare yourself to your classmates if they lived with you. Like if I saw them studying, I'd feel guilty for not studying. I think if I had to get roommates, I'd consider living with non-medical students.

You could always try living alone your first year. Then if you decide it's too lonely and find people you'd like to move in with, you could do roommates the next year. I know some of my classmates shuffled around after first year.

 

[tobi44]

Wow, a lot of people living alone in this thread. Its the opposite for me and most people in my class. I feel like the only people that live alone in my class are the people that wanted roommates but couldn't find one they found acceptable.

Real estate is pricey at my school. Having a roommate saves me around $500 a month. And I can get to know and hang out with someone in my class in the same apartment. Actually, a good number of students live in the same apartment buildings. So thats a cool option too. You can get a single and still be surrounded by familiar faces.