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Living at home vs moving out


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As others have mentioned, it depends on your situation and preferences! Personally, I am soooo much more relaxed when I am not living with parents....yes, they cook, I dont have to pay rent, they pretty much do everything, and food is freeee and of high quality....but relaxation is huge to me and also I love the convenience of living on campus..so I know that I need to live on campus!

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If the rent is reasonable or you have a classmate roommie, it is best to0 move out, but for sure living at home can be doable as long as your privacy is respected.

 

My friend that brought this up has been accepted into U of T. His parents live about ~30 minute drive (with traffic) from the med campus. Rent in Toronto is very expensive and he doesn't want to live with a roommate as he doesn't know anyone else looking for a place.

 

I think it depends a lot on your family. If your parents leave you be for the most part and are respectful of privacy, it can be worth it. Although, I definitely enjoy my own space and freedom too!

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My friend that brought this up has been accepted into U of T. His parents live about ~30 minute drive (with traffic) from the med campus. Rent in Toronto is very expensive and he doesn't want to live with a roommate as he doesn't know anyone else looking for a place.

 

I think it depends a lot on your family. If your parents leave you be for the most part and are respectful of privacy, it can be worth it. Although, I definitely enjoy my own space and freedom too!

 

I'm very similar to your friend...going to be living @ home...about 45 minutes to U of T.

 

Asian family is loud, but noise cancelling headphones and public libraries are nice places. And compared to living downtown TO, saves a lot of $$$$$

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I would recommend moving out... but it was never an option otherwise for me. At a certain point - and medical school definitely is that point - you are an adult and you need to experience what it's like living on your own, doing your own cleaning/laundry/cooking/maintenance without parents around.

 

But... in a city like TO it's not exactly cheap to live downtown, not that living downtown = moving out. I think living at home is a reasonable cost-saving measure initially, but it might become much more difficult in clerkship. I can't speak from experience, but 45 minute post-call commutes sound nightmarish.

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I would recommend moving out... but it was never an option otherwise for me. At a certain point - and medical school definitely is that point - you are an adult and you need to experience what it's like living on your own, doing your own cleaning/laundry/cooking/maintenance without parents around.

 

But... in a city like TO it's not exactly cheap to live downtown, not that living downtown = moving out. I think living at home is a reasonable cost-saving measure initially, but it might become much more difficult in clerkship. I can't speak from experience, but 45 minute post-call commutes sound nightmarish.

 

Post call in generally sounds painful - once you get home you need to sleep or eventually with repeated calls you are basically useless - that means a home environment that allows that. Is everyone else living there able to be quite during the day and tolerate of you leaving and coming in at all hours (shifts are often quite unusual).

 

That of course is not right away mind you - first two years are quite similar to standard UG.

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I would recommend moving out... but it was never an option otherwise for me. At a certain point - and medical school definitely is that point - you are an adult and you need to experience what it's like living on your own, doing your own cleaning/laundry/cooking/maintenance without parents around.

 

But... in a city like TO it's not exactly cheap to live downtown, not that living downtown = moving out. I think living at home is a reasonable cost-saving measure initially, but it might become much more difficult in clerkship. I can't speak from experience, but 45 minute post-call commutes sound nightmarish.

 

Will getting a car help in clerkship? That's what I plan to do...not going to TTC forever.

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Yep. I think living at home is probably fine for pre-clerkship, but possibly untenable from clerkship onwards. It occurs to me that living 45 minutes away would also be a big problem anytime you were taking home call. You can't be more than 20 minutes away. That was fine on gyne when I didn't get called once, but "home" psych call could mean getting called at 3am.

 

Similarly on emerg I had shifts that started at midnight or even 4am. If you're based out of St Mike's, for example, you don't want to be commuting from Markham or even Yonge and Finch. The subway is already getting crowded at Wellesley at 7:10 am.

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Will getting a car help in clerkship? That's what I plan to do...not going to TTC forever.

 

I'll say yes... but where are you going to park? If you're at Sunnybrook or places like North York General, it might be easier to drive, though the latter is across from Leslie station.

 

When I was doing an ICU elective at St Mike's, I stayed with my brother who lives at Bay and Wellesley. It was ridiculously easy to walk 5 minutes to the subway and emerge at Queen a block away from the hospital. Indeed, it probably would have taken twice as long to get there by driving.

 

I did need a car during clerkship, but that's because I had to do rotations in Saint John, NB, rural NS, and across the harbour in Dartmouth. I'd think that in Toronto if you live in the right area the TTC ought to be more convenient and much cheaper. Hospital parking is ridiculously expensive in most parts of Toronto, and driving in rush hour is generally awful as you probably know. (Although the real nightmare was the QEW/403 in rush hour...) I don't imagine you'll get free parking as I did on rural family or emerg rotations.

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Can't comment on family/financial/self-actualization reasons as those will be different for everyone, but I would consider how far away each dwelling would be from each clerkship site as well as the medical school - in some cities, you may have quite a commute for clerkship rotations even if you moved out to be across the road from the medical school.

 

I did have anywhere from 20 min - 1h 5min commutes in clerkship, which meant a bit less sleep, but subjectively my quality of life was better as I now had a car, versus in preclerkship when I relied on the transit system and often found it difficult to make it to class/social events.

 

I didn't have many rotations on home call (mostly in-house) - psych was the main exception, and I did end up crashing on the couch in the clerk/resident lounge a couple times. Wasn't too much of a hardship though - did it in undergrad too (not overnight though) ;)

 

The post-call drive home is more an issue - would recommend finding a spare room to take a nap before driving home in the morning if tired. I do this now even with shorter commutes.

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Can't comment on family/financial/self-actualization reasons as those will be different for everyone, but I would consider how far away each dwelling would be from each clerkship site as well as the medical school - in some cities, you may have quite a commute for clerkship rotations even if you moved out to be across the road from the medical school.

 

I did have anywhere from 20 min - 1h 5min commutes in clerkship, which meant a bit less sleep, but subjectively my quality of life was better as I now had a car, versus in preclerkship when I relied on the transit system and often found it difficult to make it to class/social events.

 

I didn't have many rotations on home call (mostly in-house) - psych was the main exception, and I did end up crashing on the couch in the clerk/resident lounge a couple times. Wasn't too much of a hardship though - did it in undergrad too (not overnight though) ;)

 

The post-call drive home is more an issue - would recommend finding a spare room to take a nap before driving home in the morning if tired. I do this now even with shorter commutes.

 

I never drove home post call on those times I had a car - at least not right away. Just seemed like a very bad idea to me - rush hour and I have been up for 28-30 hours.

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I'll say yes... but where are you going to park? If you're at Sunnybrook or places like North York General, it might be easier to drive, though the latter is across from Leslie station.

 

When I was doing an ICU elective at St Mike's, I stayed with my brother who lives at Bay and Wellesley. It was ridiculously easy to walk 5 minutes to the subway and emerge at Queen a block away from the hospital. Indeed, it probably would have taken twice as long to get there by driving.

 

I did need a car during clerkship, but that's because I had to do rotations in Saint John, NB, rural NS, and across the harbour in Dartmouth. I'd think that in Toronto if you live in the right area the TTC ought to be more convenient and much cheaper. Hospital parking is ridiculously expensive in most parts of Toronto, and driving in rush hour is generally awful as you probably know. (Although the real nightmare was the QEW/403 in rush hour...) I don't imagine you'll get free parking as I did on rural family or emerg rotations.

 

I think that when you're in clerkship @ u of t (and correct me if I'm wrong) you will get to rank which academy hospitals you will like to do your rotations in. But I'm not too sure...so many things trying to plan at the moment.

 

When speaking to some clerks at U of T, they said that they barely visit their apartment downtown in clerkship - many slept on the call room or found somewhere to sleep. Some electives as well were in different cities/provinces, so that means that a car will be important and a hotel room.

 

Both the subway and traffic can be brutal downtown...you're absolutely right there is no parking around St. Mike's and that's when you use the TTC. But there are always failures everyday and the last thing you want to hear is "this train will be turning back at...." might as well jump off and use a taxi.

 

I guess for pre-clerkship for now I'll live at home, and then see how it goes/where I get posted in clerkship :)

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I would recommend moving out... but it was never an option otherwise for me. At a certain point - and medical school definitely is that point - you are an adult and you need to experience what it's like living on your own, doing your own cleaning/laundry/cooking/maintenance without parents around.

 

Nail on the head here. Moving out involves a lot of extra stress financially and in terms of time-management, but that's a part of life. Sooner or later, it catches up with you. Best to learn how to be an adult during the first few years, when there's still time and the consequences for missteps are smaller. Learning how to keep a house is only going to get tougher in clerkship, residency, and beyond.

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Nail on the head here. Moving out involves a lot of extra stress financially and in terms of time-management, but that's a part of life. Sooner or later, it catches up with you. Best to learn how to be an adult during the first few years, when there's still time and the consequences for missteps are smaller. Learning how to keep a house is only going to get tougher in clerkship, residency, and beyond.

 

While I agree it has to be done at some point, is it unwise to move out at the same time one starts medicine? It really does seem to be too much at once to me. I would consider the start of second year or at the latest start of fourth year. Start of med or start of clerkship seems to be a bad time, and too many things hang in the balance for sudden and major changes to the other half of one's life. Just my 2 cents.

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While the transition to first year medicine is a big deal, it isn't such a huge change that one can't take the first steps towards more independent living. There will be many times in life where you will have to balance multiple changes. Doing it now when stakes are lower is probably a smart idea.

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While I agree it has to be done at some point, is it unwise to move out at the same time one starts medicine? It really does seem to be too much at once to me. I would consider the start of second year or at the latest start of fourth year. Start of med or start of clerkship seems to be a bad time, and too many things hang in the balance for sudden and major changes to the other half of one's life. Just my 2 cents.

 

That sounds like a very personal choice etc - probably though IF you are moving out at all during medical school doing it at the start of first or second year seem the most logical. The stress of starting medical school is nothing compared to the stress of clerkship where you really don't want to put even more things into the mix :)

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That sounds like a very personal choice etc - probably though IF you are moving out at all during medical school doing it at the start of first or second year seem the most logical. The stress of starting medical school is nothing compared to the stress of clerkship where you really don't want to put even more things into the mix :)

 

Exactly, it is very personal, and I offered that as an alternate. Could be very exciting to move out in first year, but not for me.

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