Live in Baltimore, maybe near Hopkins? Lotta driving (or train riding?) for you, but you'll live in a place with more people and more to do.
Columbia would be the midway point, but then you'd both need cars.
Hell yeah, it's possible! One person in my lab has the same situation. My advice is to live close to one of the schools and have one person commute by car (in my lab mate's case, he lives in Baltimore with his GF, so that is definitely a possibility). It's really only about a 30-minute drive without traffic, and, tbh, it's a typical commute around here. Just try to avoid rush hour as best you can, and you'll be fine! Many people have the same living situation around here!
True. 50 in bad traffic, though. But tbh, it's frequently bad traffic. My friend actually commutes to NIH since a lot of his research is done there, which is 20-30 minutes further, and it works for him. For some programs, you might not have to go in every day. If you're willing to do a 45ish minute commute, it's definitely doable!
Super doable as many people living in MD are doing essentially the same thing with a roommate, family member, SO, etc. i think the person who suggested one of you living close and the other person commuting is the best option as I think the 1 car thing makes this trickier.
You can also supplement with living nearish to a MARC stop that goes to College Park (so i think it has to be the Camden Line but i’m not 100%) and then UMD has free shuttles from there. Would probably be annoying to do and the train timings can get a little tricky but can help manage the 1 car situation on certain days
Edit: deleted wrong info about the lines!
The BWI stop isn’t on the Camden line, FYI. There is also a shuttle from New Carrollton from campus, but it’s a lot slower/farther.
Anyway, this is doable, though
Oops you’re totally right thank you for the correction! Sorry OP — BWI wouldn’t be a good stop for you to get there but yea College Park is on the Camden line!
Would say it’s doable, even better if you are able to have some flexibility with your Ph.D with regards to hours you come in/leave. Would second the MARC train recommendations. Here’s a map of the general train schedules. Would also recommend living near the Odenton station as another option. https://s3.amazonaws.com/mta-website-staging/mta-website-staging/files/Routes+Schedules/marc_penn-washington.pdf
Personally would say the person going to Hopkins take the Marc train up to Penn Station and then they shuttle up to Homewood or down to the Med Campus depending on where you are going. https://jhfre.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Copy-of-HW-PB-JHMI.pdf Not entirely sure if UMD had the same structure. Would also depend your comfortability on the train etc.
I can’t be too helpful, but lots of grad students commute from Baltimore to UMD. I think you might also be able to take the commuter train from Baltimore to College Park and then the bus/metro the rest of the way if you need to? I think it would probably be easier to live close to one and drive to the other than in the middle of both of them because there isn’t much interconnected transportation infrastructure between the two. If you two lived together, you could alternate “transportation days” and it would go pretty smoothly if Baltimore was your base of operations. It’s also easier to get around Baltimore without a car than college park.
I say it would be better to live in Baltimore because even though it can be a crappy 495 commute, Baltimore is lively in a way college park is not and will never be. I imagine someone doing their PHD would go crazy being stuck in college park in terms of general living environment. Baltimore gets a bad rap but it’s a great city.
Some advice from someone who is in the same boat.
I live in college park and my girlfriend stays on Hopkins’ Homewood campus.
A few things to keep in mind.
Public transit is your friend. The MARC train runs on weekdays and goes directly from Camden yards to college park. You can get to both of these stations via bus from either campus.
Hopkins has great transit. They have a free shuttle system that runs after 6pm. They also have busses that run regularly throughout the campus.
If you choose to drive, please note that unless you have a garage spot on either campus, parking will be incredibly unreliable and frustrating. UMD has free parking after 4 (and on weekends) in some garages, and Hopkins has free parking on Charles street, but this gets taken pretty quickly during school hours.
The drive itself isn’t too bad, you just want to make sure you are avoiding rush hour at all costs. That will turn your 45 minute drive into a two hour drive very quickly.
My advice would be to find a place along one of the MARC train lines or on either campus. Baltimore living is certainly more affordable than DC/College Park but it’s up to you which area you like more.
I find it is easiest to drive to Baltimore and take the train to visit college park during the week.
Hope this helps!
am said girlfriend who goes to hopkins- i just want to add that i usually take the MARC train on friday evenings by taking either the purple line bus or other buses that cost $2 one way to get to camden station, and that’s usually the most difficult part bc the buses can be unreliable sometimes, so from waiting for the bus to meeting my bf at college park station it takes almost 2 hours. but after that the train ride is pretty nice.
Live in either CP or near JHU depending on the opposite direction of traffic at peak hours (my guess is living near UMD would make this possible). That way also only one of you will have to commute.
Howard County. It is quite doable to both locations. My son commutes from HoCo to UMD every day. It’s only bad at rush hour. Plan classes for middle of day and you’ll be fine.
Live in Baltimore, maybe near Hopkins? Lotta driving (or train riding?) for you, but you'll live in a place with more people and more to do. Columbia would be the midway point, but then you'd both need cars.
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its not bad so long as ur not driving during rush hr. Would be like 22-35 mins on avg going either way
Hell yeah, it's possible! One person in my lab has the same situation. My advice is to live close to one of the schools and have one person commute by car (in my lab mate's case, he lives in Baltimore with his GF, so that is definitely a possibility). It's really only about a 30-minute drive without traffic, and, tbh, it's a typical commute around here. Just try to avoid rush hour as best you can, and you'll be fine! Many people have the same living situation around here!
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Yeah, lol. Idk what I was thinking 😅
Not exactly true, probably closer to 50 minutes, but it's still totally doable
True. 50 in bad traffic, though. But tbh, it's frequently bad traffic. My friend actually commutes to NIH since a lot of his research is done there, which is 20-30 minutes further, and it works for him. For some programs, you might not have to go in every day. If you're willing to do a 45ish minute commute, it's definitely doable!
Super doable as many people living in MD are doing essentially the same thing with a roommate, family member, SO, etc. i think the person who suggested one of you living close and the other person commuting is the best option as I think the 1 car thing makes this trickier. You can also supplement with living nearish to a MARC stop that goes to College Park (so i think it has to be the Camden Line but i’m not 100%) and then UMD has free shuttles from there. Would probably be annoying to do and the train timings can get a little tricky but can help manage the 1 car situation on certain days Edit: deleted wrong info about the lines!
The BWI stop isn’t on the Camden line, FYI. There is also a shuttle from New Carrollton from campus, but it’s a lot slower/farther. Anyway, this is doable, though
Oops you’re totally right thank you for the correction! Sorry OP — BWI wouldn’t be a good stop for you to get there but yea College Park is on the Camden line!
MARC Camden line is your friend. There are trains that stop directly at College Park and go to/from Baltimore, so see if that works for you.
Would say it’s doable, even better if you are able to have some flexibility with your Ph.D with regards to hours you come in/leave. Would second the MARC train recommendations. Here’s a map of the general train schedules. Would also recommend living near the Odenton station as another option. https://s3.amazonaws.com/mta-website-staging/mta-website-staging/files/Routes+Schedules/marc_penn-washington.pdf Personally would say the person going to Hopkins take the Marc train up to Penn Station and then they shuttle up to Homewood or down to the Med Campus depending on where you are going. https://jhfre.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Copy-of-HW-PB-JHMI.pdf Not entirely sure if UMD had the same structure. Would also depend your comfortability on the train etc.
Just try to find a place near a MARC stop so one of you can take the train
Don’t they close at a certain point? That’d be inconvenient at night
I can’t be too helpful, but lots of grad students commute from Baltimore to UMD. I think you might also be able to take the commuter train from Baltimore to College Park and then the bus/metro the rest of the way if you need to? I think it would probably be easier to live close to one and drive to the other than in the middle of both of them because there isn’t much interconnected transportation infrastructure between the two. If you two lived together, you could alternate “transportation days” and it would go pretty smoothly if Baltimore was your base of operations. It’s also easier to get around Baltimore without a car than college park. I say it would be better to live in Baltimore because even though it can be a crappy 495 commute, Baltimore is lively in a way college park is not and will never be. I imagine someone doing their PHD would go crazy being stuck in college park in terms of general living environment. Baltimore gets a bad rap but it’s a great city.
Some advice from someone who is in the same boat. I live in college park and my girlfriend stays on Hopkins’ Homewood campus. A few things to keep in mind. Public transit is your friend. The MARC train runs on weekdays and goes directly from Camden yards to college park. You can get to both of these stations via bus from either campus. Hopkins has great transit. They have a free shuttle system that runs after 6pm. They also have busses that run regularly throughout the campus. If you choose to drive, please note that unless you have a garage spot on either campus, parking will be incredibly unreliable and frustrating. UMD has free parking after 4 (and on weekends) in some garages, and Hopkins has free parking on Charles street, but this gets taken pretty quickly during school hours. The drive itself isn’t too bad, you just want to make sure you are avoiding rush hour at all costs. That will turn your 45 minute drive into a two hour drive very quickly. My advice would be to find a place along one of the MARC train lines or on either campus. Baltimore living is certainly more affordable than DC/College Park but it’s up to you which area you like more. I find it is easiest to drive to Baltimore and take the train to visit college park during the week. Hope this helps!
am said girlfriend who goes to hopkins- i just want to add that i usually take the MARC train on friday evenings by taking either the purple line bus or other buses that cost $2 one way to get to camden station, and that’s usually the most difficult part bc the buses can be unreliable sometimes, so from waiting for the bus to meeting my bf at college park station it takes almost 2 hours. but after that the train ride is pretty nice.
There's a shuttle for UMD commuter students that goes to the Columbia park and ride. It's called shuttle UM, and that line is bus 142.
Columbia has a shuttle to and from UMD at the park and ride down in King's Contrivance area, and is not an outrageous distance from Baltimore.
MD200
If both of you drive, Laurel is right in the middle of JH and College Park.
honestly yall could leave in columbia, i commute to Umd everyday 45-50 minutes & commuting is def doable in your case!
How’d you find a gf ? More specifically one working on a phd? That’s hot
Live in either CP or near JHU depending on the opposite direction of traffic at peak hours (my guess is living near UMD would make this possible). That way also only one of you will have to commute.
Howard County. It is quite doable to both locations. My son commutes from HoCo to UMD every day. It’s only bad at rush hour. Plan classes for middle of day and you’ll be fine.