The only thing I can comment on here is living in a truly rural setting. The term is tossed around on here a lot, but I don't think people fully grasp what it means for your day to day life. It turns people off for a reason.
Major downsides to rural living (from my experience):
1) Driving 30 minutes to get to wal-mart (the nearest actual grocery store)
2) Having well-water (all fine and dandy until you lose power and also water)
3) Losing power. When it happens, you could be out for days to a week. Better have a generator!
4) Enjoy going out? Well, get used to having 1 or maybe 2 bars. Not young/lively bars, either. You can drive 45 minutes to go to a fun brewery... but then you have the problem of getting home. There is no walking home/uber/taxi service.
5) Best restaurant in town? Applebees.
6) Need major medical care? Be prepared to get life-flighted 45 minutes to an hour to a hospital that can operate on you. There is a reason they have to do scholarships like this to draw young docs to rural areas.
There are also major pluses. Privacy and outdoor hobbies come to mind (hunting, fishing, hiking). If you're into farming, it's a great place to be. The safety of rural areas and personally knowing everyone in town is a plus.
It makes a lot of sense from the rural reason alone. Not many 20-something dentists fresh out of a big city are looking to shutdown their nightlife and totally change their day to day life. It's worth saying that I personally do plan to live somewhere rural again after dental school (the lack of adequate medical care is what drove me to dental school to begin with). It's absolutely not for everyone though. Hard to fully grasp without living it. It was the same for me going to college in a big city... very different!
My wife is a medical provider (not dentist) for IHS and we both live on a Reservation. We've been here for a year and look to be here as long as we can. I'm not a provider, but I'm trying to get into Dental School. I figured I could provide 2 cents on some of things we've experienced thus far......
1)
Driving 30 minutes to get to wal-mart (the nearest actual grocery store)
--------This is somewhat true. The nearest walmart for us is 90 miles. The nearest grocery store? 5 minutes. A lot of IHS facilities will be located in a population center, so there is
TYPICALLY a grocery store nearby.
2)
Having well-water (all fine and dandy until you lose power and also water)
--------We do have well-water. How to we circumvent that? You'd be surprised of the companies that come out in the middle of nowhere to provide you bottled water service. We have sparklettes (the office dispensing water tower with the big bottles) and it only runs us $20 a month. Water has been tested multiple times by physicians in the facility and the water always comes back clean. We use the water to cook with and that's about it. Everything else is the water bottles.
3)
Losing power. When it happens, you could be out for days to a week. Better have a generator!
--------This has never happened to us. The power does flicker quite a bit, but it has never been off for more than 1 hour. All of the other IHS facilities around us have never experienced this either.
4) Enjoy going out? Well, get used to having 1 or maybe 2 bars. Not young/lively bars, either. You can drive 45 minutes to go to a fun brewery... but then you have the problem of getting home. There is no walking home/uber/taxi service.
---------We have no bars within 90 miles (dry rez). However, we live in a community with a bunch of other people who are in the same predicament. So what do we do? We bring the party to our house or someone else's house! Some of the best friends we've made have been in this community. The best part of all this? WE don't blow a bunch of money at the bar and we get to hang out with the people we know.
5) Best restaurant in town? Applebees.
--------Go lower. The best restaurant in town is Denny's. This doesn't bother us too much. If anything, we've learned to cook at home and find much more satisfaction in doing so. Every now and again we'll call in an order to Denny's and pick it up if we're lazy.
6) Need major medical care? Be prepared to get life-flighted 45 minutes to an hour to a hospital that can operate on you. There is a reason they have to do scholarships like this to draw young docs to rural areas.
-------Of course major medical care is far away, but this is the absolute last thing that crossed my mind. We're a healthy couple living in a community of health practitioners. I mean, if you're in poor health and afraid of dying, then I would say you need to located in proximity of a hospital. We're allowed to receive routine care at our IHS facility. Most of the docs here are some of the most educated practitioners you'll ever encounter (according to my wife).
YOUR EXPERIENCES MAY VARY
I guess my thought process is different than some other 20 somethings. If I come fresh out of dental school with 300k+ debt, I would do just about anything reduced the load.
We were that couple that lived in a big city close to everything we could've ever wanted. We decided one day to make the leap and move to the middle of nowhere. Have we missed a few things and conveniences? Absolutely. Do we regret making the move? Absolutely not.
If you ever have questions about what it's like out here, hit me up. I have 2 dentists that are my next door neighbors that I could put you in touch with.
