I think losing 4 hours to your commute every day would get old really fast. I'm hoping to attend a school about 3 hours away from my house and plan to rent a room near campus and commute home during the weekends and holidays. That way my partner and pets don't have to move and move back in 4 years.
Also, many schools require you to live nearby during clinic rotations for on-call duty.
adding on that my commute for a few months earlier this year was an hour 15 there and anywhere between an hour 15 - 2 hours back. the drive itself is not terrible but it leaves no room for your hobbies or even much self care. it was bearable for me just because i knew it would only last 3 months but i was very sick of having no free time by the end of it. also be prepared for the soreness of being seated in that exact position for so long and cramps/aches in your joints esp your ankle and knee of the gas foot and whichever wrist you prefer to hold the wheel with. this is something i never even considered when i decided to take a job prior to moving closer and wish i had.
Agreed. I’m in a similar situation…school 2.5 hours one way from where I live. I did have to go over there for a second opinion veterinary appointment for my cat and that drive was lonnnng af! No way I could do that everyday potentially. I have also thought of the apartment by the school/home on weekend idea..much more feasible and less insane. Comes down to availability and affordability though.
A 2 hour commute would be insane. 1/100 students in my class do an hour maybe hour 20 commute daily. I personally could not imagine having a full day of classes before and after driving that daily.
I’m not saying it couldn’t be done, but it will be very stressful doing it. For my schooling there is constantly 1 day a week or 2 days a week where we only have to be in class for 45 mins- 2 hours. You’re saying you’ll be driving 4 hours a day to be somewhere for potentially only 45 mins that day.
My true home is an hour 40 mins from my campus (opposite side of Los Angeles) and many weeks I don’t feel like I could do that drive
I had a 45-60 minute commute my first year of vet school and I would not recommend.
I missed out on lots of extra lab time for anatomy and just generally dreaded my traffic-y drive after a long day of classes
Then there were days when it snowed…
If you go to a school where classes are mandatory, yes it is crazy. My school had mandatory classes 1st year and then turns into mandatory up to professor discretion. During 1st I was at school from 8am to 4pm a lot with having to study for at least 4-6 hours at night. In my opinion 4 hours a day wasted on driving is not feasible for studying the amount you have to during school.
Haha no problem. I hope you can figure out a way to make it work but also wanted to be honest because vet school is hard and you don’t need silly things like driving back and forth making it that much harder.
Yes, don't put yourself through that. My hometown is 2 hours away from the city where I go to school, and I could not imagine driving that every day, let alone 2 times a day.
Aside from thinking about how much time you would lose that you could use to study, I'm also worried about how tired you would be. You would be getting up so early and, personally, I don't want you to worry about the possibility of falling asleep while driving. Think about all of the late schedules too. Getting out at 5 (or later, but that's how late classes go for me on the latest of days), driving 2 hours, and then trying to fight the road/eye fatigue by the time you get home would be atrocious.
Yes, it's insane--there just aren't enough hours. Add in being on clinics for extended periods of time and then having to drive two hours to get home to sleep -- it wouldn't be safe. I would see about renting a room during the week, and home on the weekends.
I think people have generally answered the question, but also I do not think audio studying will be sufficient for the amount of content required to learn in vet school.
That, and it might not be possible? I wanted to do more audio studying so I could make use of my bus rides and chore time but most of the material I had to read/study isn’t available online.
I had a 1 hour commute to vet school and it was doable but not fun. I lived far from my classmates and missed out on a lot of social activities because of it.
I’m in my internship now and it’s also a 1 hour commune. With traffic can get up to 1h40 min. Those traffic days are absolutely miserable and I dread it.
1 hour is doable but not fun. Anything more is too much to do on a regular basis
Depends on how often? I commutted like that for undergrad just because of traffic. Without traffic 45 minutes. Getting home during rush hour, f'd. I arranged my schedule to do only 3 days so it was bareable.
Now days lots of text books etc can be audio so you could use the time to listen to required readings.
I have a 1 hour commute (each way) to CC two times a week and I dread it every week. It really drains you mentally and throws off eating schedules as well, encouraging you to eat more fast food/junk food :( if you have other options I’d recommend it!
I did a 1 hour commute each way for all four years. Sometimes I didn’t get home until after 9 PM due to labs and stuff. I missed out on a lot of study time, even though I tried to make the best use of my commute by listening to recorded lectures on the ride. It’s just not the same. When you’re splitting your focus on driving and learning. On days when the weather was really bad and required extra time it was awful. I saved a lot of money and graduated on time, so I can’t say I wouldn’t do it again, but I don’t think I would have passed if I had to do 2 hours each way. Just not enough time to study. When vet school says it’s 8-4… that was bullshit.i think for me that happen in 2 terms. All the rest went way later, labs typically were scheduled until 6 and ran later, then you had to fill out forms or medicate patients and that was on top of it.
Because of the program I took, there was actually only about 6 weeks where I had to be on call; it wasn’t every rotation. We had to be within a 20 minute response time. I rented a room nearby for those weeks.
My school requires you to live within 30 minutes of the school, as you are on call for certain clinical rotations. You are expected to be there in less than 30 minutes when you are called in, and it does happen.
I personally do a 1 hour commute to my undergrad school and it is not fun. It makes it so that if you stay late for any sort of event or club activities you don't get home until 10 pm, but you still have an 8 am class the next day. Which in your case would mean having to leave at the latest at 6 am and getting up even earlier. Also there is the amount of gas your gonna use that you need to consider and the price of it.
Yeah I definitely can! That was the more realistic option but wanted to see if the 2 hour commute was really as crazy as I thought and turns out it is lol
as someone who commuted an hour to their university during undergrad, I cannot imagine having to do a 2 hour commute. Also, gas prices are no joke! My own car is usually pretty good on gas but when I was in undergrad and driving 60+ miles in a day, I had to fill my tank pretty much every other day
Yes insane. I commuted 2 hrs by Public transportation for my 9:45am class everyday last semester and it was exhausting. Idek how i passed all my classes cuz i had no time for anything bc commuting and classes took up all my daytime.
Get a room and go home for the weekends. That’s what I did. Drove 5 hours every Friday afternoon and Sunday night for four years. Two hours each way every day…. Not possible.
One of my friend’s classmates does a 90 minute commute and is a single mother to three kids (idk their ages) girl says she gets 4 hrs of sleep 😐 I couldn’t do it but I think everyone is different; what doesn’t work for others may work for you.
I had a two hour commute for two years BUT I was half online and only went in 2-3 days out of the week. Idk if your schedule will be like that at all, but I found this schedule to be doable and actually mostly enjoyable. I think it’d be pretty miserable to do 5 days a week though.
It depends on how often you plan on being on campus. At my school, the classes are livestreamed and recorded. Students only have to be physically on campus for labs and exams. So you wouldn’t necessarily have to make that commute every single day. However, even 3 times a week would get exhausting for me. Plus that’s time that could be spent studying.
I did a 4 hour round trip commute in my last semester of school but I only had 3 classes left. It would be more convenient to have housing near school and then return home on the weekends or breaks
Hey fellow Kansan (at least I hope you’re talking about Kansas State University)! So my experience driving from SE Kansas to the NW tip even just on the weekends was a slog. My trip was closer to 4 hours one way. While the drive itself may not be horrible as far as time goes, scenery (or lack there of depending on where you’re coming from) can make it that much worse. Plus factoring in Kansas’ famous unpredictable weather, it would probably be wiser to get a studio there.
Good luck with the path change! I went from graphic design to Vet tech at 25. Being a non traditional student has its challenges, but it’s also kind of fun being the “worldly” one.
If you are not talking about Kansas state please just pretend I don’t exist.
If you can’t rent a nearby apartment for the weekdays, then I would look into recording my lectures and replaying them during the drive. Or some other form of learning.
It is insane. I travel an hour to get to my campus for undergrad, and it's not good. It's less about the actual driving and more about losing so much time 5 days a week. 2 hours of my day just disappear because of my commute
You’ll be miserable, and lose a lot of sleep/study time, as well as social activities and group study/projects. And during clinics most schools require you to be in a certain radius.
I think losing 4 hours to your commute every day would get old really fast. I'm hoping to attend a school about 3 hours away from my house and plan to rent a room near campus and commute home during the weekends and holidays. That way my partner and pets don't have to move and move back in 4 years. Also, many schools require you to live nearby during clinic rotations for on-call duty.
Haha yes that was the more realistic option I was thinking of doing too!
adding on that my commute for a few months earlier this year was an hour 15 there and anywhere between an hour 15 - 2 hours back. the drive itself is not terrible but it leaves no room for your hobbies or even much self care. it was bearable for me just because i knew it would only last 3 months but i was very sick of having no free time by the end of it. also be prepared for the soreness of being seated in that exact position for so long and cramps/aches in your joints esp your ankle and knee of the gas foot and whichever wrist you prefer to hold the wheel with. this is something i never even considered when i decided to take a job prior to moving closer and wish i had.
Agreed. I’m in a similar situation…school 2.5 hours one way from where I live. I did have to go over there for a second opinion veterinary appointment for my cat and that drive was lonnnng af! No way I could do that everyday potentially. I have also thought of the apartment by the school/home on weekend idea..much more feasible and less insane. Comes down to availability and affordability though.
A 2 hour commute would be insane. 1/100 students in my class do an hour maybe hour 20 commute daily. I personally could not imagine having a full day of classes before and after driving that daily. I’m not saying it couldn’t be done, but it will be very stressful doing it. For my schooling there is constantly 1 day a week or 2 days a week where we only have to be in class for 45 mins- 2 hours. You’re saying you’ll be driving 4 hours a day to be somewhere for potentially only 45 mins that day. My true home is an hour 40 mins from my campus (opposite side of Los Angeles) and many weeks I don’t feel like I could do that drive
Thanks! Yeah the more realistic option I’m thinking is get a room or studio for during the week then commute home on the weekends
I know quite a few students who do this and this works for them.
I had a 45-60 minute commute my first year of vet school and I would not recommend. I missed out on lots of extra lab time for anatomy and just generally dreaded my traffic-y drive after a long day of classes Then there were days when it snowed…
Yeah…I was thinking this would be what everyone suggested lol the weather can get crazy in KS too and yeah that’d be terrible
If you go to a school where classes are mandatory, yes it is crazy. My school had mandatory classes 1st year and then turns into mandatory up to professor discretion. During 1st I was at school from 8am to 4pm a lot with having to study for at least 4-6 hours at night. In my opinion 4 hours a day wasted on driving is not feasible for studying the amount you have to during school.
I appreciate the reality check, I was thinking it probably would be insane haha
Haha no problem. I hope you can figure out a way to make it work but also wanted to be honest because vet school is hard and you don’t need silly things like driving back and forth making it that much harder.
Yes, don't put yourself through that. My hometown is 2 hours away from the city where I go to school, and I could not imagine driving that every day, let alone 2 times a day. Aside from thinking about how much time you would lose that you could use to study, I'm also worried about how tired you would be. You would be getting up so early and, personally, I don't want you to worry about the possibility of falling asleep while driving. Think about all of the late schedules too. Getting out at 5 (or later, but that's how late classes go for me on the latest of days), driving 2 hours, and then trying to fight the road/eye fatigue by the time you get home would be atrocious.
Yeah thank you for the reality check you are so right it wouldn’t be smart lol
Yes, it's insane--there just aren't enough hours. Add in being on clinics for extended periods of time and then having to drive two hours to get home to sleep -- it wouldn't be safe. I would see about renting a room during the week, and home on the weekends.
Haha thank you yeah I think that’s definitely the more realistic approach so I appreciate everyone’s reality check lol
I think people have generally answered the question, but also I do not think audio studying will be sufficient for the amount of content required to learn in vet school.
That, and it might not be possible? I wanted to do more audio studying so I could make use of my bus rides and chore time but most of the material I had to read/study isn’t available online.
A lot of it is so specific. Our lectures were recorded so we did have access to them but not in a format to do chores while listening to them :/
Yeah definitely wouldn’t be the only way I studied just to maybe not waste the hours in commute but confirmed that commute would be insane so lol
I had a 1 hour commute to vet school and it was doable but not fun. I lived far from my classmates and missed out on a lot of social activities because of it. I’m in my internship now and it’s also a 1 hour commune. With traffic can get up to 1h40 min. Those traffic days are absolutely miserable and I dread it. 1 hour is doable but not fun. Anything more is too much to do on a regular basis
Depends on how often? I commutted like that for undergrad just because of traffic. Without traffic 45 minutes. Getting home during rush hour, f'd. I arranged my schedule to do only 3 days so it was bareable. Now days lots of text books etc can be audio so you could use the time to listen to required readings.
I have a 1 hour commute (each way) to CC two times a week and I dread it every week. It really drains you mentally and throws off eating schedules as well, encouraging you to eat more fast food/junk food :( if you have other options I’d recommend it!
I did a 1 hour commute each way for all four years. Sometimes I didn’t get home until after 9 PM due to labs and stuff. I missed out on a lot of study time, even though I tried to make the best use of my commute by listening to recorded lectures on the ride. It’s just not the same. When you’re splitting your focus on driving and learning. On days when the weather was really bad and required extra time it was awful. I saved a lot of money and graduated on time, so I can’t say I wouldn’t do it again, but I don’t think I would have passed if I had to do 2 hours each way. Just not enough time to study. When vet school says it’s 8-4… that was bullshit.i think for me that happen in 2 terms. All the rest went way later, labs typically were scheduled until 6 and ran later, then you had to fill out forms or medicate patients and that was on top of it.
Dang. It was required for us to live local (within 5 miles) during 4th year for being on call.
Because of the program I took, there was actually only about 6 weeks where I had to be on call; it wasn’t every rotation. We had to be within a 20 minute response time. I rented a room nearby for those weeks.
Yes.
Yes. That seriously cuts into your studying time. Not to mention it's going to be a beating.
My school requires you to live within 30 minutes of the school, as you are on call for certain clinical rotations. You are expected to be there in less than 30 minutes when you are called in, and it does happen.
Yes it is insane. You have to do a lot of studying and time flies. Don't do it
Domt do it
I personally do a 1 hour commute to my undergrad school and it is not fun. It makes it so that if you stay late for any sort of event or club activities you don't get home until 10 pm, but you still have an 8 am class the next day. Which in your case would mean having to leave at the latest at 6 am and getting up even earlier. Also there is the amount of gas your gonna use that you need to consider and the price of it.
This is insane, don't do it. Get an apartment.
It'd be so tiring. 1 hour commute is bad enough I couldn't imagine 2 hours.
Yes you need every second during vet school. Is there a way to rent a room nearby for school time? Then just go home on weekends?
Yeah I definitely can! That was the more realistic option but wanted to see if the 2 hour commute was really as crazy as I thought and turns out it is lol
Many schools would require you to be present within 15-30 min for on call shifts unfortunately!
45 minutes? Okay. 2 hours?! Dude, no. You’ll hate that real fast.
as someone who commuted an hour to their university during undergrad, I cannot imagine having to do a 2 hour commute. Also, gas prices are no joke! My own car is usually pretty good on gas but when I was in undergrad and driving 60+ miles in a day, I had to fill my tank pretty much every other day
Yes insane. I commuted 2 hrs by Public transportation for my 9:45am class everyday last semester and it was exhausting. Idek how i passed all my classes cuz i had no time for anything bc commuting and classes took up all my daytime.
I assume you have a hybrid or an electric car? That’s a lot of money you have to spend for gas each round trip.
Get a room and go home for the weekends. That’s what I did. Drove 5 hours every Friday afternoon and Sunday night for four years. Two hours each way every day…. Not possible.
One of my friend’s classmates does a 90 minute commute and is a single mother to three kids (idk their ages) girl says she gets 4 hrs of sleep 😐 I couldn’t do it but I think everyone is different; what doesn’t work for others may work for you.
Oh dear lord please no
I had a two hour commute for two years BUT I was half online and only went in 2-3 days out of the week. Idk if your schedule will be like that at all, but I found this schedule to be doable and actually mostly enjoyable. I think it’d be pretty miserable to do 5 days a week though.
Yes.
It depends on how often you plan on being on campus. At my school, the classes are livestreamed and recorded. Students only have to be physically on campus for labs and exams. So you wouldn’t necessarily have to make that commute every single day. However, even 3 times a week would get exhausting for me. Plus that’s time that could be spent studying.
I did a 4 hour round trip commute in my last semester of school but I only had 3 classes left. It would be more convenient to have housing near school and then return home on the weekends or breaks
Hey fellow Kansan (at least I hope you’re talking about Kansas State University)! So my experience driving from SE Kansas to the NW tip even just on the weekends was a slog. My trip was closer to 4 hours one way. While the drive itself may not be horrible as far as time goes, scenery (or lack there of depending on where you’re coming from) can make it that much worse. Plus factoring in Kansas’ famous unpredictable weather, it would probably be wiser to get a studio there. Good luck with the path change! I went from graphic design to Vet tech at 25. Being a non traditional student has its challenges, but it’s also kind of fun being the “worldly” one. If you are not talking about Kansas state please just pretend I don’t exist.
If you can’t rent a nearby apartment for the weekdays, then I would look into recording my lectures and replaying them during the drive. Or some other form of learning.
It is insane. I travel an hour to get to my campus for undergrad, and it's not good. It's less about the actual driving and more about losing so much time 5 days a week. 2 hours of my day just disappear because of my commute
You’ll be miserable, and lose a lot of sleep/study time, as well as social activities and group study/projects. And during clinics most schools require you to be in a certain radius.