How far would you commute?

WanderingWilder, ASN · May 20, 2016

I'm driving a hr and 15 mins each way 4 days a week starting this fall.

iShaybie, ADN · May 20, 2016

Wait, 45 minutes or miles?

neyneyg14 · May 20, 2016

Miles

WanderingWilder, ASN · May 20, 2016

Miles

Thought you meant mins my bad, I mapquested it and 45 miles is how far I drive.

Leonardsmom,LPN · May 20, 2016

I drive almost 40 miles one way to school which takes me just a little bit under an hour to get there. Definitely is realistic, if you have a realiable vehicle to get you to school and your clinical sites. I am living with family right now which helps with my cost of living, so the amount of money I pay in gas is less than what I would pay for an apartment closer to school. It can make it a little more difficult to meet with people to do study group of that is your thing or if you have a group project that you need to work on. But that is all things that can be worked out, and I have had people willing to drive out to where I am so that we are able to work on a project for class.

I am not sure what the winters are like in Texas, live in Michigan. But definitely take into consideration what obstacles winter driving may give you during the school year. I have some friends that live close by to my school that I have been able to stay with for a couple of days when we had a pretty heavy snow storm that would have made driving home difficult and unsafe. If your area tends to get ice storms sometimes, come up with a back up plan of what you could do if one occurred while you are at school, some one you could stay with or a hotel room for the night.

During my commute, especially during first semester I would listen to previous lectures on the material for the unit we were currently covering. Our instructor allowed us to record the lectures, and I found listening to those lectures during my commute helped. Good luck.

soraji · May 20, 2016

I'm driving 20 miles, but the time it takes to do those 20 miles is typically an hour one way.

I don't think 45 mins is too far. The mileage can be deceptive because it doesn't indicate commute time. I have classes 2 days a week and clinicals on weekends.

AceOfHearts<3 · May 20, 2016

I took the train in for class (over an hour) and drove over an hour for most clinicals. I live in the northeast with bad weather. I skipped class one day due to weather (all but one instructor had cancelled) because the trains weren't really running and the roads were awful. It's very doable, but you have to have really good time management. I studied on the train, used my driving time as downtime listening to music or I listened to recorded lectures if I really needed to.

bear94, BSN, RN · May 21, 2016

My drive was 48 miles one way, took me about 55 minutes to get to school. So almost two hours of my day, 4 days a week were spent in the car. That time wasn't wasted though. I recorded my professors lectures and listened to them in the car to and from school. Sure, there were days where all I wanted was to live 10 minutes away from school so I could just go home and take a nap, and maybe even get stuff done. But here I am, a newly graduated BSN... Who will continue commuting to work at the hospital directly across the street from my alma mater.

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · May 21, 2016

My user name is 'TheCommuter' for a reason, lol...

I commuted 95 miles one-way (190 miles round trip) five days per week to attend an LVN program in California in '04 and '05.

In '09 and '10 I commuted 225 miles one-way across state lines twice a week to attend an LPN-to-RN bridge program in Oklahoma City when I lived in Texas at the time.

NurseSpeedy, ADN, LPN, RN · May 21, 2016

I'm more worried about the time that I have to spend in traffic than the distance itself. I drove 50 miles to clinicals and got there in less than an hour with no one else crazy enough to be driving on the road at that hour. There have been other places in my area that are closer distance wise and because of the traffic I could me spending the same amount of time for half the distance. Accompanied by that traffic comes the typical stress of not so courteous drives who either cut me off, slam their brakes after cutting me off, spontaneously merge into my lane while texting/talking on their cell phone, or cause me to be late because they rear ended me while sitting at a red light (the last one happened two times in five months on the way to work. Some of the staff at my hospital told me that my new car must be cursed and I should trade it in).

WishfulThinkingRN · May 21, 2016

I drive 50 miles each way and once clinicals start I'll be looking at more like 70 to 90 miles each way. It's not ideal, but to me it's worth it. Look into public transportation options as well to save on gas and mileage.

Make sure to drive that route a few times before school starts to get an idea of how long it'll take you to get there at a particular time of day. I leave home an hour and a half before my first class even though I will typically get there in 45 min to an hour, but there is one spot prone to accidents on the highway and there are no alternate routes for me to take, so I just make sure I have stuff to study :)

Also once you start school, find out if anyone lives near you and make friends. Carpools are lifesavers.