Anyone commuting 45+ minutes to law school by car? Forum

[Pizon]

My commute when I started law school was 45 minutes without traffic. During rush hour, it was up to 2 hours each way. Taking the train wasn't much better. I ended up moving near the school a few weeks in.

Now that I'm almost a 3L, I'm actually considering doing the commute again. However, I'll try to arrange my schedule so that I'll only have to go in 3 days per week.

[kalvano]

It's really not a big deal, depending on you. It will take a little more of an effort to make friends with people and do stuff with them, but I think it's actually better to have some distance between school and home. If school stresses you out, you're still stressed when you get home. A drive can be stressful too, but it gets your mind off school.

And really, studying from home is much, much better. People at school get all stressed out and worked up, and it bleeds over into everyone else. Studying at home allows you to do it in a more comfortable environment with a lot less stressful atmosphere.

On the flip side, some things suck, like when your brief is due by 8:00AM, and not a minute later. Or when you need to look up something in the library or use the printers. But you figure out a rhythm and it becomes pretty easy.

For 1L for me, it sucked a bit because classes were 5 days a week, and sometimes going in for one class was crappy. Next semester, for 2L, I only go 4 days a week and nothing before 11:00AM, so traffic won't suck as bad.

I'm pretty sure that entirely forbidding sublets and assignments is fishy. Its really easy to modify a lease too, if you say, talk to your landlord and say, "look, I want out, lets figure out something that is agreeable."

Nothing fishy about it. Most standard apartment leases explicitly prohibit transfers and subleases. Also, the landlord is under no obligation at all to do anything.

[kublaikahn]

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[kalvano]

I'm pretty sure that entirely forbidding sublets and assignments is fishy. Its really easy to modify a lease too, if you say, talk to your landlord and say, "look, I want out, lets figure out something that is agreeable."

Nothing fishy about it. Most standard apartment leases explicitly prohibit transfers and subleases. Also, the landlord is under no obligation at all to do anything.

But you can live close to campus and still study at home. Best of both worlds.

The entire point was that sometimes it's nice NOT to live close to campus. Breathing space.

The landlord is obligated to make a reasonable effort to market the apartment if you vacate. Eventhough it is standard to forbid sublets, if you found a qualified renter and offered them to the landlord, he/she would probably be obligated to accept it (otherwise thiey are not making a reasonable effort to lease the place). Obviously your subletter would have to have good credit, no pets, or whatever the lease entailed. Once a place is re-leased you are off the hook for the remainder of rent.

I own and manage my own rentals and apartments and I let people off the hook all the time. I usually keep the deposit but not always. So go talk to your landlord (not the leasing agent if you can avoid it). Whatever you do, keep paying your rent and communicating with your landlord. In most jurisdictions, it is much easier and cheaper for a landlord to file a forcible detainer action than a standard civil suit. If you pay rent through the time you exit, the landlord will be forced into a civil suit. Furthermore, if you did provide a suitable replacement tenant, you will most likely win the suit and be eligible for treble damages on the deposit.

Because obviously the best advice is to just break the lease and leave the landlord hanging. While they may have a duty to mitigate in California, that doesn't really mean anything. What if no one is interested in renting the apartment? What if they prefer a different unit?

And having a broken lease on your credit record is always a blast when it comes time to rent another place. In fact, if the whole point is to get a place closer to campus, what happens if the new place calls the old place? "Oh, him, he broke his lease when it became inconvenient for him to abide by the contract he signed." That will go over well.






OP, one thought - is this an individually-owned place or a corporately-run complex? If it's corporately run, they might allow you to transfer to another complex nearer to campus run by the same corporation.

[snichols16]

OP: I used to date someone who lived off Alameda close to the 10 and I would often leave her loft in the morning to make it to UCLA when I had seminars. The commute won't be that bad. You can take Olympic home in the evenings and the morning shouldn't take more than 45 at all. At least you aren't going to Irvine.

[Puttanesca]

And really, studying from home is much, much better. People at school get all stressed out and worked up, and it bleeds over into everyone else. Studying at home allows you to do it in a more comfortable environment with a lot less stressful atmosphere.

I second this - studying from home is better. During undergrad, I studied in the library less than 10 times throughout the entire 4 years. I just found it to be easier and more comfortable to study at home.

On the flip side, some things suck, like when your brief is due by 8:00AM, and not a minute later. Or when you need to look up something in the library or use the printers. But you figure out a rhythm and it becomes pretty easy.

For 1L for me, it sucked a bit because classes were 5 days a week, and sometimes going in for one class was crappy. Next semester, for 2L, I only go 4 days a week and nothing before 11:00AM, so traffic won't suck as bad.

The dean of admissions at my school said that because of my commute, I could put in a request for an earlier or later schedule depending on what fits my needs. So, I will probably put in a request for a later schedule (starting around 10:30ish) so I have more leeway in the morning. The traffic won't be any better, but at least I won't have to leave my apartment before 9am.

For those who commuted by car - would you recommend staying on campus to study until after rush hour to lessen the commute time? In my case, I would probably have to stay until around 8pm. My commute w/out traffic is about 25 minutes.

[Puttanesca]

OP, one thought - is this an individually-owned place or a corporately-run complex? If it's corporately run, they might allow you to transfer to another complex nearer to campus run by the same corporation.

The place is corporately owned and run. Good idea - I did think about trying to transfer into an apartment complex closer to campus, but unfortunately, the company does not have any places near campus.

[Puttanesca]

I own and manage my own rentals and apartments and I let people off the hook all the time. I usually keep the deposit but not always. So go talk to your landlord (not the leasing agent if you can avoid it). Whatever you do, keep paying your rent and communicating with your landlord. In most jurisdictions, it is much easier and cheaper for a landlord to file a forcible detainer action than a standard civil suit. If you pay rent through the time you exit, the landlord will be forced into a civil suit. Furthermore, if you did provide a suitable replacement tenant, you will most likely win the suit and be eligible for treble damages on the deposit.

Wish you were my landlord.

[kalvano]

For those who commuted by car - would you recommend staying on campus to study until after rush hour to lessen the commute time? In my case, I would probably have to stay until around 8pm. My commute w/out traffic is about 25 minutes.

I guess it depends on you. Really, once you get to know the professors and the class, you don't spend all day studying.

[Pink]

And really, studying from home is much, much better. People at school get all stressed out and worked up, and it bleeds over into everyone else. Studying at home allows you to do it in a more comfortable environment with a lot less stressful atmosphere.

I second this - studying from home is better. During undergrad, I studied in the library less than 10 times throughout the entire 4 years. I just found it to be easier and more comfortable to study at home.

On the flip side, some things suck, like when your brief is due by 8:00AM, and not a minute later. Or when you need to look up something in the library or use the printers. But you figure out a rhythm and it becomes pretty easy.

For 1L for me, it sucked a bit because classes were 5 days a week, and sometimes going in for one class was crappy. Next semester, for 2L, I only go 4 days a week and nothing before 11:00AM, so traffic won't suck as bad.

The dean of admissions at my school said that because of my commute, I could put in a request for an earlier or later schedule depending on what fits my needs. So, I will probably put in a request for a later schedule (starting around 10:30ish) so I have more leeway in the morning. The traffic won't be any better, but at least I won't have to leave my apartment before 9am.

For those who commuted by car - would you recommend staying on campus to study until after rush hour to lessen the commute time? In my case, I would probably have to stay until around 8pm. My commute w/out traffic is about 25 minutes.

I think this REALLY depends. I have no intention of studying at home, because I'm easily distracted. I NEED to be in a library where I have nothing else to do, otherwise I'll get up and clean the house/make dinner/watch tv/whatever. Of course, I'm pretty ADD so maybe I'm the exception rather than the rule.

[Puttanesca]

So is the general consensus that a 45 minute commute each way to law school during 1L is manageable time-wise? I really don't want to have to move if I can avoid it. I like where I'm staying - I'm living in a building that's less than 5 years old, have a nice courtyard view, and all the amenities I could ever ask for. More importantly, I'm paying significantly less than market rate and am getting free rent in September and October.

[kalvano]

So is the general consensus that a 45 minute commute each way to law school during 1L is manageable time-wise? I really don't want to have to move if I can avoid it. I like where I'm staying - I'm living in a building that's less than 5 years old, have a nice courtyard view, and all the amenities I could ever ask for. More importantly, I'm paying significantly less than market rate and am getting free rent in September and October.

Is it ideal? Nope. Is it that big a deal? Not at all.

[mscarn23]

I commute an hour each way and am (currently) ranked #1 at a school in the 30-40 range. I use the time to memorize concepts, cases, etc., and actually find that the 2-hours of relative silence and isolation is helpful. Having said that, I worked for several years prior to attending law school, have a wife, and treat school like a job as opposed to a social thing which probably makes my geographic isolation a bit less difficult. If I wanted to hang out with people outside of school, do study groups, or join clubs, it would probably be much harder with a big commute weighing me down. I think that if you want to be very business-like about your studies though, it really isn't a bad thing; fewer distractions, less opportunity to kill hour-after-hour hanging out in the student lounge as opposed to knocking out your work, etc.

Maybe the commute will make your social-life a bit less full (nobody is going to want to drive 45 minutes to hang out with you, and unless you either don't drink or plan on crashing on people's sofas, you're not going to be partying very much near school), but that probably won't be a bad thing grades-wise.

[TTH]

Late to the party, but I think as long as you're responsible enough to make the commute on time, I think spending 90 minutes in the car each day could be relaxing.

[Puttanesca]

The point of this thread is now moot. I have switched to a law school that is only about a 10 minute drive away, so the commute will no longer be an issue. (I did not change my mind on a school b/c of the commute; it was due to a last-minute scholarship increase). Thanks to all who contributed to the thread!