45 Minute Commute to Medical School Possible?

[StressedPremeder]

Hey everyone. I will be going to UBC for medicine this fall. I'm considering of using my saving and LOC to buy a condo instead of renting because of these astronomical renting prices where my mortgage ends up being less than rent. I found a great place but it will be a 45 minutes (during rush hour) from the main campus. I will have to commute three times a week to main campus. That being said, the place would be around 15 minutes from Vancouver General Hospital where classes in second year and most of my clerkship will be held. I'm also within walking distance from another hospital. Is it worth taking a 45 minute commute in first year to own my own condo and live near the hospitals. I imagine that most of my research would also be at the hospitals.

[frenchpress]

8 minutes ago, StressedPremeder said:

Hey everyone. I will be going to UBC for medicine this fall. I'm considering of using my saving and LOC to buy a condo instead of renting because of these astronomical renting prices where my mortgage ends up being less than rent. I found a great place but it will be a 45 minutes (during rush hour) from the main campus. I will have to commute three times a week to main campus. That being said, the place would be around 15 minutes from Vancouver General Hospital where classes in second year and most of my clerkship will be held. I'm also within walking distance from another hospital. Is it worth taking a 45 minute commute in first year to own my own condo and live near the hospitals. I imagine that most of my research would also be at the hospitals.

Where would you be commuting from? 45 minutes sounds like a long time. But honestly, the commute on the bus from Cambie can take 30 minutes. The only things I’d say is be sure the commute is actually 45 minutes in traffic… but if you’re gonna have a long commute, 1st year is probably the time to do it 

If you can afford it, doesn’t sound crazy to me. 

[StressedPremeder]

Yaletown! I would be taking the Canada Line to either the 99B or R4 lines. It's real close to VGH, BC Children's hospital (via Canada line) and walking distance to St. Pauls. Also around 10 minutes of the commute is actually walking to the Canada line station.

[frenchpress]

2 minutes ago, StressedPremeder said:

Yaletown! I would be taking the Canada Line to either the 99B or R4 lines. It's real close to VGH, BC Children's hospital (via Canada line) and walking distance to St. Pauls. Also around 10 minutes of the commute is actually walking to the Canada line station.

Yaletown is not far at all. That will be closer than many people in your class will commute from. 

Also, FYI, unless things have dramatically changed, there’s a good chance that your clerkship will be all over the lower mainland, not mostly VGH. When I was in clerkship people regularly went to St Paul’s, Surrey Memorial, RCH, Richmond General among other places for their rotations. Some were out in Delta, Eagle Ridge, even Abbotsford (and I’m not including the ICC students). But from downtown Vancouver many of those places will actually be fairly reasonable to get to by car, and some you might be able to sky train to depending on your hours.

[StressedPremeder]

Thanks! I'm an OOP student so I wasn't too sure how far people commute especially for the 8AM CBL lectures! I'm hoping clerkship is closer to Vancouver proper since they just established the Fraser Medical Program. I'm assuming the FMP cohort will do their lectures more out east in Abbotsford and VFMP will stay closer to Vancouver proper, but good to know.