Hello everyone who will be attending Kaiser in Pasadena, CA in August...and congratulations to all. As we get ready to start, I thought it might be helpful to share information about the program and to solicit advice from those who are currently in. Hopefully this will help us to know what to expect and maybe make life a little less stressful. :) I am looking forward to getting started!

I'll throw out the first question. I am relocating from out of state (St. Louis) and looking at moving to Huntington Beach. Does anyone know how long the commute is to Pasadena?

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer,

Brandon

I'm not interested in CRNA schooling... but I do live by the Kaiser in Pasadena and am familiar with travel distances and traffic patterns...

Living in Huntington Beach... well, you'll love the community and absolutely hate the commute...

If you look up directions at mapquest/yahoo-maps/etc... it will probably give you a pretty convuluted way to travel... one that traffic will make impossible... it takes 1 full hour with NO TRAFFIC what-so-ever...

In the morning traffic will be going west... and you will be going slightly west. Also traffic will be going north to downtown LA... and you'll be going towards LA and then over-shooting it...

If I thought about the morning commute... it could easily be 90-120 minutes if you leave anytime after 7am...

Now I thought the program was in Fullerton... which certainly is a VERY reasonable commute... so maybe only a limited time in Pasadena wouldn't be bad... but if you expect multiple years of commute... i'd seriously reconsider...

Brandon-look on yahoo and get driving directions from Huntington Beach to Pasadena to get a good idea of what your route will look like. That is a drive-45+ miles-you're looking at at least 1.5+ hour drive one way to Pasadena and at least 30-45 minutes to CSUF during rush hour. My times are conservative, it wouldn't surprise me if it even took longer. Are you wanting to take advantage of your trip to the West Coast by living by the beach? Nothing wrong with that but there is a price to pay in the form of a commute. You can always drive to the beach-as the large majority of southern cal folks do. I know there is another student who is relocating as well but she'll be staying in Pasadena. If you're thinking about being close to work-you can find work anywhere and rentals anywhere. You can choose where to live and work. If you're planning to live with family or friends, well you can't beat a sure bet support system there.

By the way-is anyone planning to work during school? If so, how much?

Look forward to seeing everyone in the Fall.

Jose

Slobgob is right. Your gonna hate it. But that's nothing new to KPSNA students. I personally know someone who drove 1.75 hrs from West of Pasadena to get to class and she still graduated.

As for working. I heard the instructors discuss that the first day. I have heard it is highly discouraged and I know people who said they were going to work, then were only able to work perdiem once or twice a month. If your moving from out of area it doesn't even seem worth the job hunt.

Unless you have a compelling reason such as already owning a house or free rent I would strongly urge you to reconsider living in Huntington beach for this program. You can live anywhere in LA and make this program work but why make lifer harder than it already will be? Commuting is well known as the worst part of this program, choosing somewhere to live that is neither close to Pasadena nor many of the clinical sites would be foolhardy.

The first semester you will be in Pasadena 4days a week and Fullerton 1 day. Second semester 1 day in Pasadena, 1 day in fullerton, and three days of clinical. For the first month and a half of the second semester we were actually in Pasadena an additional half a day after being at fullerton in the morning. Starting in the third semester you will be in clinical 4 days and Pasadena 1 day.

That being said, if you have had the opportunity to see that our clinical sites are spread throughout LA with Woodland Hills in the north, Anaheim in the south, West LA to the west, and Loma Linda way out east. You will recognize that Pasadena is not particularly close to any given site but central to all.

Therefore, barring a compelling reason to live elsewhere, I would highly recommend Pasadena as the place you want to be.

Brandon-I'll be starting this August and currently live in Huntington Beach. I love it here but after a couple of drives to Pasadena I decided to move there this July before school starts up. It was such a difficult drive the my wife is even switching hospitals to help save some time during the days. The total driving time to and from if living in Huntington Beach each day prob. totals 2 1/2 hours. Just some thoughts. If you need help finding some place to live don't hesitate to email me, I've driven to pasadena and went apart. hunting there already.

M.R.

plenty of apartments in pasadena, and surrounding cities: Arcadia, San Gabriel, Rosemead, Monrovia, Altadena, Eagle Rock, etc...

Check out Craigslist.com... click on Los Angeles.... lots of listings...

Or if you don't mind spending money (60$)... WestSideRentals.com

errr... double post... servers were down...

Unless you have a compelling reason such as already owning a house or free rent I would strongly urge you to reconsider living in Huntington beach for this program. You can live anywhere in LA and make this program work but why make lifer harder than it already will be? Commuting is well known as the worst part of this program, choosing somewhere to live that is neither close to Pasadena nor many of the clinical sites would be foolhardy.

The first semester you will be in Pasadena 4days a week and Fullerton 1 day. Second semester 1 day in Pasadena, 1 day in fullerton, and three days of clinical. For the first month and a half of the second semester we were actually in Pasadena an additional half a day after being at fullerton in the morning. Starting in the third semester you will be in clinical 4 days and Pasadena 1 day.

That being said, if you have had the opportunity to see that our clinical sites are spread throughout LA with Woodland Hills in the north, Anaheim in the south, West LA to the west, and Loma Linda way out east. You will recognize that Pasadena is not particularly close to any given site but central to all.

Therefore, barring a compelling reason to live elsewhere, I would highly recommend Pasadena as the place you want to be.

I heard a couple of semesters ago, a student dropped out of the program because she had to commute to San Diego. Is that true?

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LJose,

I currently work per-diem and plan on keeping my per diem status. I will only work 1 or 2 days a month if the program allows me to.

A friend of mine graduated last August, he said he worked every weekend because he had to.

I'm planning on working 3 shifts per month.

By the way-is anyone planning to work during school? If so, how much?

Look forward to seeing everyone in the Fall.

Jose

I heard a couple of semesters ago, a student dropped out of the program because she had to commute to San Diego. Is that true?

I don't know if anybody quit but you do stay in a hotel in San Diego for a short while to do clinicals at the Balboa Naval Hospital. The cost of the Hotel is covered in tuition I believe.

We do have rotations in San Diego. Everyone goes to Balboa Naval for one month to do regionals. Kaiser San Diego is also a rotation but not everyone goes through there. Either way the school pays for a hotel on the nights you are required to be in San Diego.

With regards to working... Good luck with that. I would play it by ear and see how everything else goes before commiting to anything. Very few people in my class work and those that do, don't work very often. Take out a few extra loans and enjoy the little down time you will have.