Advice on Moving Near Campus With Classes Being Online?

[whatdoido]

Hey all,

I was recently admitted to med school (in my first week right now). Despite being told we should close to campus for the semester, our school sprung a last-minute decision that everything would be 100% online. Because I am a notorious procrastinator, I had not yet finalized a lease, so this was somewhat good news. Initially I was going to back out of the prospective lease I was entering since I had no real incentive to move cities, but I'm having second thoughts. It seems like literally everyone in my class is still moving cities, and, I'll be honest, I'm getting some major FOMO. Although the idea of needlessly spending $1200 a month for four months just to socialize/meet people makes me cringe, I also know that making connections is super important in medicine and in making med school easier, so I'm kind of torn. I really don't want to set myself up to be an outcast. I'm also worried that I won't be able to find a place come January, but I'm equally worried the rest of the year will be online as well, and I'll have lost an entire years worth of rent for nothing.

Any advice?

[frenchpress]

16 hours ago, whatdoido said:

Hey all,

I was recently admitted to med school (in my first week right now). Despite being told we should close to campus for the semester, our school sprung a last-minute decision that everything would be 100% online. Because I am a notorious procrastinator, I had not yet finalized a lease, so this was somewhat good news. Initially I was going to back out of the prospective lease I was entering since I had no real incentive to move cities, but I'm having second thoughts. It seems like literally everyone in my class is still moving cities, and, I'll be honest, I'm getting some major FOMO. Although the idea of needlessly spending $1200 a month for four months just to socialize/meet people makes me cringe, I also know that making connections is super important in medicine and in making med school easier, so I'm kind of torn. I really don't want to set myself up to be an outcast. I'm also worried that I won't be able to find a place come January, but I'm equally worried the rest of the year will be online as well, and I'll have lost an entire years worth of rent for nothing.

Any advice?

Have you ever had your own place before? If not, you might benefit from just having that experience, and the rent wouldn’t necessarily be wasted. In addition, the deeper you get into school the more difficult you may find it to connect with people - having the chance to get together with peers even occasionally in person could be a real benefit. 

[ceelbe]

I say make the move! Might as well do it now and make those potential connections. I would worry about being an outcast too, I think it’s more worth spending the money and being independent and meeting new people, knowing the area, etc. Having study buddies is crucial, even if just to have someone to complain to about stuff only they can understand lol. I’m not in med yet but in nursing school those kind of friends were crucial, I couldn’t imagine doing it all alone online without meeting some people. 

[Meningocoele]

I would stay home in a second - save $, be with social supports. Facebook chat, Zoom, and Slack are all ways to chat with classmates. It's not like you can all meet up together and go to parties or go clubbing (social distancing - professionalism). Idk... you'll likely never see these people again after 4th year. That's just my perspective though!

My program is returning for part in-person and mostly online. I'm ditching my apartment as soon as possible and going back to my city. I'll figure January out when it comes - it's likely we'll be totally online as cases will probably skyrocket and we'll go into lockdown again...

[whatdoido]

9 hours ago, frenchpress said:

Have you ever had your own place before? If not, you might benefit from just having that experience, and the rent wouldn’t necessarily be wasted. In addition, the deeper you get into school the more difficult you may find it to connect with people - having the chance to get together with peers even occasionally in person could be a real benefit. 

I have. I lived away from home my entire undergrad and for most of my gap year, until COVID. My home situation is okay, so I'm not itching to set out for independence again, so it's not worth moving out just for that. It would really just be the social aspect I worry about.

9 hours ago, RN_to_MD said:

I say make the move! Might as well do it now and make those potential connections. I would worry about being an outcast too, I think it’s more worth spending the money and being independent and meeting new people, knowing the area, etc. Having study buddies is crucial, even if just to have someone to complain to about stuff only they can understand lol. I’m not in med yet but in nursing school those kind of friends were crucial, I couldn’t imagine doing it all alone online without meeting some people. 

Definitely- having just finished my undergrad about a year ago, I know I would have had a much worse time without social supports. Sharing notes, studying together, even just stressing together as you said is invaluable. Do you think if I came into the picture a semester late or even next year but still made contacts online (zoom blahblah) I'd still be able to make those connections?

 

[whatdoido]

2 hours ago, Meningocoele said:

I would stay home in a second - save $, be with social supports. Facebook chat, Zoom, and Slack are all ways to chat with classmates. It's not like you can all meet up together and go to parties or go clubbing (social distancing - professionalism). Idk... you'll likely never see these people again after 4th year. That's just my perspective though!

My program is returning for part in-person and mostly online. I'm ditching my apartment as soon as possible and going back to my city. I'll figure January out when it comes - it's likely we'll be totally online as cases will probably skyrocket and we'll go into lockdown again...

This was my initial thought process as well, which is why I pretty much immediately stopped going forward with the lease. Especially because I agree, I'm pretty sure things will be online in January too. ~$14.5k ($1200/month) might be a drop in the bucket compared to how much debt I'll be in in four years, but i'm still broke as hell and that's a lot lmao.

You'd think we wouldn't be able to meet up, but a large proportion of my class is already hanging out several times a week. Not to sound cold or anything, but I don't necessarily care about making more friends, I have enough of those. It's just I might miss out on med-school specific support that i might need to not want to jump into a lake lol. I feel like I won't get the same support via zoom than if it was in person