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I will shortly be looking for a place to rent and would like to ask the following. How far from the law school do you live, and how do you get to class? Thus, it is a two part poll. Thanks for your input.

40 miles, and by car. No other way to get there.

I wouldn't recommend it if you have a choice.

35 miles: car -> commuter rail -> subway -> walk, 90 minutes door to door; if running really late drive for 45 minutes (off rush hour) to pay $30 in parking and $8 in tolls. I still managed to get through second semester 1L like that without too many problems.

Living on campus my first year then finding somewhere nearby. It's an urban area with a shitload of traffic and is a bitch to get to otherwise. It all depends on what your area is like.

i live between 1 and 2 miles away and i'm a big fan of it. i bike most days and don't have to pay for parking.

11.3 miles / 17 minutes. Except for 5 miles it is all interstate. I cannot imagine that this will be a problem.

About 7 blocks away....and I'm further from campus than 80-90 percent of my section-mates last year.

Kendi wrote:11.3 miles / 17 minutes. Except for 5 miles it is all interstate. I cannot imagine that this will be a problem.

Same. No problems and cheaper rent!

about 5 miles out, and take buses to school

around 4 miles out. take the new train (no homeless and crazies) or the bus (lotsa homeless and crazies). por gratis.

4-5 minutes walking distance.

I intend to bike 4 miles, but maybe not in winter.

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1L, public transportation or walk to school (under 2 miles).
2L (new school), not sure yet.

If you live further away, it's hard to get to school-related stuff. There will be meetings and orientations and times when you want to go home, but have to come back later to school. It's kind of a pain in the ass.

On the other hand, it's nice to have some distance between home and school. You can get pretty wrapped up in freaking out over stuff at school, so having a little buffer zone is nice.

I like living further away, but I also own a house, am older and married, and my wife works close to home. I'm not going out to bar review every Friday.

it really depends on where your school is. I left my car with my parents because it is 100% unecessary in my city. I live 4 miles from school. In nice weather I bike in shitty weather i take the bus. Both options fall in the 30 minute range, biking taking a little shorter, pub. transport taking a little longer. The problem with having a car is that it costs so much money. For my classmates who drive to school everyday (a surprisingly high number), they spend about 200 per month more than I do on transportation costs because of gas, car insurance and parking at one of the garages near the school. I have no idea why anyone would do that when there is dependable public transportation in the area.

Living on campus, at least for 1L. Walking (obviously) to class.

It'll be my first time dealing with actual seasons, so I'm willing to cough up a few thousand extra in order to not deal with trudging through snow.

If the campus you are going to (i.e. Upenn) is in an unsafe area you should probably also weigh that as well in terms of the possible benefits of living away from campus and commuting in.

I want to thank everyone for his or her comments. There seems to be no great disadvantage or concern about living a half-hour (or so) from law school. I thought law school might be different from UG, apparently not.

There is no way to do two polls in one (in reference to percentages) so I broke out the numbers (below). Not surprising is that over 82% reside within 10 miles of the school.

At first it was a surprise to see that 40% use public transportation. Then it turned out not to be so surprising when I saw that my annual parking permit is nearly $2K.

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I lived about an hour and a half away by bus but 15 minutes by car and inaccessible by foot. I don't drive so I had to take p.t. I had to wake up at 6am just to get to my 9am on time. I took a bus then the train, then another bus and then I walked from the stop about 5-7 minutes. I'd say having my own vehicle instead of relying on the very unrealiable transit system would have put me ahead. Even if just a little bit. I spent 3 plus hours a day either on a bus or waiting for a bus. They tend to be late sometimes. Ahem, I mean a lot. If one is late then you miss your connect. Before law school I lived in a fairly large metropolian city (not NY) and the unrealiable transit system there is definitely better than the transit system in the city I went to law school in. There are more options. If I missed one or if it was late, chances were I would be able to take another bus route a block over to the same place.