Commute 1 hour

Student Lounge College Life
1

Just looking for some thoughts here. I am currently in a DPT program. I live 50 minutes to an hour from school. I only have class 8-12 monday-friday. Would commuting be too much? It would save a lot of money and i am always a lot happier when i am at home. In undergrad i had an apartment and always found myself feeling alone, really sad, crying a lot. I dont want to be in that position again with the demands of graduate school, but i also dont know if that commute is doable.

Thanks!!

2
  1. Have you done the drive during rush hour? A 50 minute drive may take longer. If you have the app “Waze” you could tell it when you want to leave and it will give you an estimate of how long it really takes.
  2. Do you have any labs/interships you need to do in the afternoon?
  3. How will you feel doing that commute and then turning around 4 hours later and doing it again?
  4. An hour commute is on the long side for people going to work but many people do it.
  5. How do you Feel about getting up early? You may have to leave home before 7 to get their on time, park, and then get to class.
  6. If you know you have anxiety/homesickness/want to be around people, it is good to find yourself a situation where you feel comfortable. Is this the only way to do it?
3
  1. Its a back road drive so its 1 hour tops during rish hour
  2. No labs/internships during the afternoon, might have group meetings but its not a weekly thing.
  3. I am not sure, i might feel like it could gove me a little break to clear my mind and then get me ready to study again but some days i could be tired. I enjoy the morning drive because i workout before and enjoy that drive to wakeup ans watch the sunrise. Im about 40 miles from school.
  4. I love getting up early, usually i wake up at 5, go to the gym, and leave for school by 6:50 (i had to commute a few times in undergrad. Parking is not an issue because the building is just for pt students so i park and walk right in
  5. Good question here, i will think about this. One major factor for me is my boyfriend of 6 years is also at home, so i can only see him on the weekends if i were to live here and i dont know if that is enough for me.

Thank you!!

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@bopper ^^

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@DPTgradstudent Other thoughts:

  1. Will you be able to get your homework done at home? Will people infringe on your time trying to get you to help out? Will your boyfriend have expectations on how much time you spend with him during the week? Then again, you could stay at the library and study/do homework and then go home later.

  2. What if you started out commuting but then decided you hated it? Would you be able to maybe look for a sublet later on?

  3. I think if you think about this as a job with hours you can make it work.

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@bopper

  1. i have an office in my room upstairs in my house or can always go to the library or stay at school, but yeah i will have to think on that so i do not get distracted.

  2. yes i would be able to look for a sublet, my sister lives on campus at the same school so i always have the option of crashing with her.

  1. That is a great way to think about it.

Thank you!!

7

Help your generation break the trend of overly long commutes. It’s not good for the environment or the soul.

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My bf and I are trying to work out a surprisingly similar situation–both seniors entering PhD in the fall in two cities about 1.5 hours away from each other by car; about 1 hour by train. His mom lives in the same city as his school and I don’t drive (well I do but don’t have a license in this country–long story). Our plan is for us to have a place together in my city and for him to commute up on Monday, stay with his mom through Thursday or Friday depending on his schedule, then return to our shared place. We will both be super busy but his concentration allows for a lot of remote individual work (so he can stay home most of the time in the summer) while mine will require me to be at the lab a lot and he enjoys driving so we think we can make it work.

I guess my suggestion is to see whether there’s a way to split up contributions to rent in two different places, like finding a sublet as @bopper mentioned for the week, then returning to a shared home w/your parents or bf for the weekends. If you can rent a room in someone’s apartment it could provide sufficient companionship during the week and leave weekends free to see family/significant others.