Roommates In med school

[applesauce14]

Hey everyone. Incoming med student looking for advice. If you’re a current med student, did you choose to live with roommates during M1? If so, what was that experience like? Do you have any regrets? If you lived alone, did you enjoy that? I would love to hear any thoughts about roommates during medical school in general, and how you think they did/did not affect your study habits, social life, and overall success as a med student. Thanks!

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[Nucleophile1]

I lived alone and I loved it. I had people over as often as I wanted and then when I needed to study before a test, I had uninterrupted peace and quiet.

 

[Billiam95]

Would recommend having roommates - you'll save a lot of $$. Plus, it's nice having a built in support system you can vent to.

 

[DarkBluMage]

Hey everyone. Incoming med student looking for advice. If you’re a current med student, did you choose to live with roommates during M1? If so, what was that experience like? Do you have any regrets? If you lived alone, did you enjoy that? I would love to hear any thoughts about roommates during medical school in general, and how you think they did/did not affect your study habits, social life, and overall success as a med student. Thanks!

I chose to live alone. Just no longer wanted to deal with roommates and I’ve had some great ones. It’s nice to have peace when I want it and not have to worry/stress about someone making a mess/cleaning. I love it.

 

[applesauce14]

Would recommend having roommates - you'll save a lot of $$. Plus, it's nice having a built in support system you can vent to.

Did you turn out to be close friends with your roommates?

 

[deleted1100659]

Live alone for at least the first year, and this gives you time to feel people out so if you want a roomate the second year, you know who would be the best choice

The last thing you want is to start medical school and go home every day to someone who lives like a slob/parties/etc

 

[Tenk]

I’ve recommended this many times but I lived alone the first year and found someone to room with for ms2-ms4. There is a lot of turnover the first summer as people find out what people are actually like so unless you already know a person well enough to live with them, solo first and find someone you’d want to live with during MS1.

 

[NY_Med]

I’ve recommended this many times but I lived alone the first year and found someone to room with for ms2-ms4. There is a lot of turnover the first summer as people find out what people are actually like so unless you already know a person well enough to live with them, solo first and find someone you’d want to live with during MS1.

I second this. I am just finishing up M1 and lived alone and I loved it. Especially when your trying to acclimate to school.

Meanwhile I know multiple students who hopped on the "random roommates to save money" train and their living situations have literally imploded.

now from M2 through M4 I found my chill roommates.

 

[CanIBeAnonymous]

Hey everyone. Incoming med student looking for advice. If you’re a current med student, did you choose to live with roommates during M1? If so, what was that experience like? Do you have any regrets? If you lived alone, did you enjoy that? I would love to hear any thoughts about roommates during medical school in general, and how you think they did/did not affect your study habits, social life, and overall success as a med student. Thanks!

Rent is way cheaper with a roommate. I go to school in a big city so it was less "do I wanna live with roommates" and more I had to live with roommates to keep rent under $650/mo.

I enjoy having roommates as it's nice to always have someone to do stuff with, split rides with, and a bunch of other costs outside of rent that gets split.

Mind you, I've been living with roommates for the last like 12 years.

 

[heartsink]

Lived with another new M1 during first year, moved out to live alone during M2 and glad I did. I'm still friends with my room mate from M1 but they were loud, we had thin walls, and sharing a space just added stress. This last year its been much more expensive living on my own, but the freedom of having the whole place to myself all the time is worth so much more to me.

I will say it was nice having another person during M1 to go "is this as stupid as it sounds?" with, and just kind of sound board ideas, but I also think I got luckier with my room mate than others did. I'm also very introverted and generally do better with more time by myself so if you flourish with more people it may work out better for you.

 

[FlowRate]

I'm not a med student anymore but we had dorms that I lived in for 3 years and which was overall a very good experience. And also couldn't beat the 5 minute walk from my dorm room to most locations in the main hospital that we rotated at.

In some cities, this is mostly a financial decision. There was no possibility of my being able to afford to live alone pretty much anywhere in that metro area on my med school budget. I could have eked out living alone on my resident salary but having roommates as a resident gave me a lot more financial flexibility although also came with its own stresses. (I had a few very good roommates but my last roommate was overall okay but a consistent source of unnecessary stress.)

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

Depends on the city.

 

[applesauce14]

Depends on the city.

In what respect?

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

Well if your school is in Boston, New York City, SF, LA, the types of places that you could probably rent alone are not too desirable (location, amenities, maybe even cleanliness). If the school doesn’t have dorms, it may be better to just rent a better place with others.

But if you’re in the Midwest or Southeast, it becomes a lot more manageable to get a nice place by yourself

It also comes down to your personality.

Personally, I hated having roommates in college first year and took whatever steps needed to live alone after that. My brother on the other hand, prefers living with friends and lives with others even after graduating.

Ofc some people in those larger cities have money to live alone in nice places.

 

[efle]

I had my own apartment MS1, and then for MS2-MS4 moved into a house with several other guys in my class I knew I'd get along with.

It was great, rent was only ~$600/month and easy to hang out all the time, just have a beer with whoever else is done for the night. Would recommend/would do it again in a heartbeat. It's nice having total privacy and being able to watch TV, sleep, cook whenever you want. But not nice enough to miss out on all the cost savings and memories made.

 

[applesauce14]

Well if your school is in Boston, New York City, SF, LA, the types of places that you could probably rent alone are not too desirable (location, amenities, maybe even cleanliness). If the school doesn’t have dorms, it may be better to just rent a better place with others.

But if you’re in the Midwest or Southeast, it becomes a lot more manageable to get a nice place by yourself

It also comes down to your personality.

Personally, I hated having roommates in college first year and took whatever steps needed to live alone after that. My brother on the other hand, prefers living with friends and lives with others even after graduating.

Ofc some people in those larger cities have money to live alone in nice places.

Do you feel like not having roommates in any way prevented you from thriving socially? I do like living alone, but I am a bit of an introvert, so I feel like having roommates might open up more social opportunities

 

[Redpancreas]

Do you feel like not having roommates in any way prevented you from thriving socially? I do like living alone, but I am a bit of an introvert, so I feel like having roommates might open up more social opportunities

I don’t think you should decide to live with roommates for social opportunities. Your roommate(s) is/are just going to be only 1-2 people and while they could be start of a social group, it’s also possible that you won't really like the person and they’ll evolve into a cordial cohabitant. I personally always room with a roommate/cordial cohabitant with low expectations for a burgeoning friendship because the rent difference is worth it. I am also a pretty big introvert and sometimes I get lonely and it’s nice to at least see another human around.

Just do what makes yourself comfortable. This isn’t a decision where you try to deviate from a comfort zone for social opportunities. Also, certain social opportunities become easier without roommates.

 

[deleted50541]

I lived alone for my four years in med school, but I also lived in a relatively budget-friendly city. I was used to it from prior life experiences so it wasn't a big deal and I wasn't terribly social anyway. My relationships during that time kept their own places (one was another med student a year above me) and we hung out wherever. Plenty of other students in my class had roomed up, but it wasn't for me.

Funny enough, when I met the woman who would become my wife, she was used to living with roommates and it took her a long time to get used to being alone at home when I was working nights as a resident.