Where to live while in medical school?

[MedGrl@2022]

I am trying to decide what makes the best sense for where to live for medical school.

I recently was accepted into my instate medical school. Both of my parents live about 30 minutes away from the school (in no traffic). Classes start at 8AM so I might miss a lot of traffic because I would be going in so early but I am not 100% sure about that. I figure that I would have to fill up on gas about once a week. So I estimate that it would cost me about $60*4=$240 a month. I also suspect that if I live with my dad that he would feed me (which is not certain) and there would be furniture. He is also away on business trips a lot so I would have the house to myself a lot. The only bad thing is the weather and potential traffic. I know the roads can get pretty congested during peak traffic due to a major city and winters can bring a lot of snow and ice which would make for dangerous driving conditions. (I would most likely need to do some driving regardless because as medical students we work in physicians offices once a week somewhere within the state.)

I also found some rooms within walking distance of the school that are around $480-$600 a month including utilities. I would need to buy furniture, food and everything else though.

Should I live with my Dad to save the cost or would it make more sense to save time and live within walking distance to the school?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[yugo2113]

.

 

[MedGrl@2022]

Financially, it makes sense to go this route. Socially? If you want to date and aren't already in a relationship living at home is generally viewed as a deal breaker to potential mates.

What about academically? Is it that much better for students to live close to the medical school? When I was in undergrad, I lived on campus and it was a 4 minute walk to classes. I loved being able to just get up and go to class five minutes before class started. Are things like that going to matter in medical school? Is the commute really going to kill my studying time as well? (It would be an hour combined everyday.)

The medical school is also INSIDE the hospital. Have students ever slept on campus if there is extremely bad weather or if you are on campus studying real late, like in an "on call" room or something like that?

 

[LizzyM]

First: do the drive on several regular work days (not this Thursday/Friday when many people are on vacation) to get there by 7:45 and again at what you would expect your evening departure time to be. What seems like a reasonable commute can look very different when you actually try it out.

Second: can you study at home or would you have an alternate study spot on campus or elsewhere?

Besides the cost of gas, do figure the cost of parking at school (if there is a charge), insurance, maintenance and repairs. What if your car breaks down or needs to go in the shop?

If your dad is traveling quite a bit, will he be out shopping for food and restocking the pantry so you have something to eat or will you end up buying food anyway?

Can you afford the hour per day that you will be commuting? That could be spent studying, exercising, socializing with fellow students over dinner.

Living with family can also hinder your social life. If you are in a long-distance relationship it can work out but otherwise it can be a drag.

 

[T3ckFr3s]

$480-$600 including utilities is extremely cheap in my opinion.

 

[iceman55]

I would say live within walking distance from your school your first year until you get accustomed to life as a med student.

I think living closer to school and not having to worry about the commute to/from home will make the transition a lot smoother. And to me that's well worth the extra dollars.

 

[Gene Parmesan]

Personally, I'd live away from home. The price of living at home vs. with fellow med students near campus is so small compared to the price of tuition, that I'm willing to go into more debt for the social and convenience benefits. I'm guessing it's also easier to get to libraries and study with classmates if you live walking distance to campus. Living at home would feel like such a drag after being on my own for the last 4 years.

 

[BABSstudent]

I am trying to decide what makes the best sense for where to live for medical school.

I recently was accepted into my instate medical school. Both of my parents live about 30 minutes away from the school (in no traffic). Classes start at 8AM so I might miss a lot of traffic because I would be going in so early but I am not 100% sure about that. I figure that I would have to fill up on gas about once a week. So I estimate that it would cost me about $60*4=$240 a month. I also suspect that if I live with my dad that he would feed me (which is not certain) and there would be furniture. He is also away on business trips a lot so I would have the house to myself a lot. The only bad thing is the weather and potential traffic. I know the roads can get pretty congested during peak traffic due to a major city and winters can bring a lot of snow and ice which would make for dangerous driving conditions. (I would most likely need to do some driving regardless because as medical students we work in physicians offices once a week somewhere within the state.)

I also found some rooms within walking distance of the school that are around $480-$600 a month including utilities. I would need to buy furniture, food and everything else though.

Should I live with my Dad to save the cost or would it make more sense to save time and live within walking distance to the school?

I think it is totally worth it to just live away from home. You are not calculating insurance, car maintenance, parking pass, etc. into the equation. Plus, 1 hour of travel a day is a lot. I do an hour long bike ride a day round trip and it is a lot of time that you don't get back. Some of my classmates have to walk a few blocks and they are home. I am extremely jealous of that.

You also have to figure in how much is your time worth. Each week, that is 5 hours that you could be doing something else (studying, surfing the internet, exercising, etc.). Will you also go into school on the weekend or is the distance from school going to hamper that?

For me, I would rather spend the money to live close and have independence. My family doesn't understand the time requirements of school and thus it would be way too hard to live with them.

 

[darkjedi]

If cost is your only consideration, spend the extra money to have your own space and to live near your future classmates. Personally, it would not be worth it to live at home during medical school. I moved from a apt that was 20 minutes biking distance to now a 10 minute bike ride, because I felt like I needed to live 'closer' to school and my friends. Since you are so close, you can always go home pretty readily on the weekends or whatever for groceries.

 

[SouthernSurgeon]

You're in professional school, a few years away from being a doctor.

Time to leave the nest.

There are innumerable advantages to living close to campus. Last minute dinner/social invites, access to on-campus resources, etc.

Anecdotally, most students from my class who lived far out from campus moved closer after M1 year (exceptions being non-trad students with families).

 

[plumhill]

What is your relationship like with your parents? If they're chill and won't nag you constantly or be a distraction, it may not be so bad to live at home. But at the same time, living among your peers might be more comfortable socially, as long as that also isn't a distraction.

 

[sinombre]

A few of my classmates are living at home and commuting 30-45 minutes each way, and one commutes an hour and a half (with no traffic) each way. They miss out on a lot of the social stuff, which may or may not matter to them. Personally, I think growing friendships with classmates is a really important part of medical school, and living half an hour away would probably make that difficult.

 

[boboyahoo]

WARNING: DO NOT LIVE AT HOME AND COMMUTE FOR PROFESSIONAL SCHOOL
I do that for undergrad and I literally enjoy no fun stuff from the tuition I pay. I have never been to a football, basketball, or any game held at my school. I miss a lot of study group sessions that are held spontaneously. Sure, the chores are done at home but I come home tired at the end of the day only wanting to go to sleep. Everyday, I have an 8 AM class, so I have to wake up at 6 am to make sure I get there on time due to commute and parking. Sometimes, I break down cause I can't enjoy anything that other kids my age enjoy. I also think that I would have had a 4.0 gpa had I stayed on campus just because I would have been more focused with the many libraries on campus. I do save money, but I don't think it is work the losses I make in terms of gpa and social life. I am not miserable, but have matured beyond my years because of the amount of work I do alone to try to just reach campus and return home. In case you care abt your dad, you will always be able to meet him when you complete taking notes and have studied well and feel like you are ready to have some free time. Having a little space is really good, you will not regret your decision even if you hated sharing rooms in undergrad. I am also a very social person, so I do worry about getting carried away with social life but I feel that having people to talk with (esp classmates) can really keep you on top of your studies b/c you know what page you are on.

 

[circulus vitios]

I lived at home throughout undergrad. My experiences weren't as drastic as boboyahoo's, but it definitely sucked.

 

[NickNaylor]

WARNING: DO NOT LIVE AT HOME AND COMMUTE FOR PROFESSIONAL SCHOOL
I do that for undergrad and I literally enjoy no fun stuff from the tuition I pay. I have never been to a football, basketball, or any game held at my school. I miss a lot of study group sessions that are held spontaneously. Sure, the chores are done at home but I come home tired at the end of the day only wanting to go to sleep. Everyday, I have an 8 AM class, so I have to wake up at 6 am to make sure I get there on time due to commute and parking. Sometimes, I break down cause I can't enjoy anything that other kids my age enjoy. I also think that I would have had a 4.0 gpa had I stayed on campus just because I would have been more focused with the many libraries on campus. I do save money, but I don't think it is work the losses I make in terms of gpa and social life. I am not miserable, but have matured beyond my years because of the amount of work I do alone to try to just reach campus and return home. In case you care abt your dad, you will always be able to meet him when you complete taking notes and have studied well and feel like you are ready to have some free time. Having a little space is really good, you will not regret your decision even if you hated sharing rooms in undergrad. I am also a very social person, so I do worry about getting carried away with social life but I feel that having people to talk with (esp classmates) can really keep you on top of your studies b/c you know what page you are on.

Professional school is not the same as undergrad. The social dynamic is completely different - or at least it has been in my experience. I agree that living at home when you're in professional school is a bit of a social faux pas, but I'd say that living at home during professional school is better than living at home during undergrad. You'll be spending most of your time working anyway, and you can always hang out with classmates, you'll just have to go to them.

Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk

 

[boboyahoo]

Nick Naylor, I am in professional school but still working towards a B.S. (my professors have told me that the work load and curriculum is very close to what med students will go through in the first 2 yrs--so I want to speak from that experience if med school is any similar). If you go to a well known university, it will take some toll on you just because professors will be on a different level in terms of hardness. I imagine myself to have made a lot better decisions in terms of my major and gpa had I stayed near campus just because I came in with a second year standing due to AP/IB transfer credits, so I know my capability to do well was a lot more than what it has become. My commute is much longer than the average joe. I only did it out of financial problems but if I had to do it all over again, I would have chosen a closer university (probably lower tier but I would have been 5 minutes from home with a high gpa). So think about it rationally and perhaps even go through the traveling phase for a week and see how you do. I tried that before doing the commuting but since I wasn't studying during that trial phase, I didn't know just how tiring it could be. I have also subdued a lot of flu/cold/fevers miraculously as I have terrible bouts of cold if I ever caught one. Overall though, health-wise I just don't feel the same healthy self as I used to when I was in HS. It's weird, but if you want to travel, that's up to you since I have never lived on campus and I have heard a lot of my friends wanting to commute like me if they had the chance due to opposite reasons. But out of experience, a lot of the ppl in my major are doing pretty well due to staying on campus rather than like me. It's not that I am a gpa hoarder, rather I have seen so many interesting class listings that I could have taken in the evenings but that would have meant me coming home at near 10-12 am. It's more like I regret having gone to such an amazing school only to be taking so little courses that I am interested in and are the ones that are offered only at my institute. It seems like a waste of my time really, so after these many years, I don't really think that it was worth my time to have gone for the prestige/uniqueness since I could have gotten that experience and then some from any other university of my convenience. So go figure... This won't be an issue with you of course but flexibility is key with living near campus. LizzyM is 100% right in her rationality in asking you her questions.

 

[deleted407021]

I currently live at home while in undergrad. I'm 10 minutes from the school so why not have the benefits of free living arrangements and being around family for longer? I feel that I could get more work done, though with better access to the school library and a quiet place to myself. That will be something to look forward to in med school.