The commute
One thing that concerned me about going back to school was the commute. Because I live in the Suburbs:
Home to school is a 51 mile round trip.
Home to clinical is a 42 mile round trip.
It's a 237 mile commute each week. The area I live in has some of the worse traffic in the US. When you add up gas, maintenance and parking (there's a long waiting list at the clinical site) it's easy to see how using an alternate form of transportation could save a lot of money I don't have. And because of the way the school and clinical schedule is set up I commute during peak times.
I 'm not working very much outside of school. Even so, the amount of information communicated in class and clinical is fairly staggering. I don't recommend trying to work full-time while doing this. It's Just too much. So unless you consider sleep and occasional fun optional... BTW, I don't mean to be overly flippant about the situation. Several people in my class are trying to support themselves and perhaps children too. My situation is a gift.
Imagine my delight upon finding out that I could get a three-month regional transit pass for under $65. The retail value, if it were available, is about $500.00. My clinical site funds it and my work place will pay half. I can get around for about $11 a month. I live less than two miles from a major transit center where I can catch commuter buses to school and my sites. So far so good, if I stick to commuter trips the commute takes about the same or less time than if I were driving.
posted by paradise.found @ 9:29 AM
3 comments
3 Comments:
I really don't know how some people manage a full-time job outside of this schooling! There's no way I could manage that. Kudos to them!
I hear ya on the commuting. Although I live just down the road from my school, we start our clinical rotations in 2 weeks. We go twice a week and have class the remaining three days a week.
There are 9 area hospitals we will visit in 2 month intervals. The farthest one from me is about 1 1/2 hours one way. Most of them are on average a good 30-45 minutes away. Luckily, starting out I have a site that's only about 30 min down the road. :)
Yeah, I hear ya' about commuting... I have to drive 95 miles round trip to go to class on Tuesdays. Fortunately though, my clinical site is only a 2 mile drive... er, bike ride (on sunny days).
Hey, by the way... Do your classmates and instructors know about your blog project? I'd love to tell but think it might ultimately affect content if I know who's reading.
Keep it up!
I drive about 25 miles each way to my clinical site. When I add in drop off time for daycare, I leave an hour early in the AM, and get home about 35 mins after I leave in the PM. I'm really lucky that I have virtually no traffic to get through.
When I had face to face class I had about a 34 mile drive, so this was a step up :) If I had gotten my first choice clinical site, work would be 6 minutes away.
Post a Comment
<< Home