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I’ll be attending Fairfield University this fall for a graduate program. I have decided to live in New Haven or NYC because Fairfield County doesn’t appeal to me. I like New Haven and it is obviously less expensive and more convenient to commute to Fairfield, but I’d like to try living in NYC for a year. Even though I’ll be a full-time student, my fall schedule is rather light (I expect something similar for Spring semester):
The Wednesday class doesn’t meet every week so there will be some weeks when I only have classes on Monday and Thursday. I of course need to factor in being on campus to meet with professors, my advisor, peers, and to use the library. Still, I don’t expect to be there THAT much, and I’ll try to confine meetings to the two or three days I have classes. If I do live in NYC, I figure my commute will be around three hours round trip. I would need to get to Grand Central, take the Metro North to Fairfield Station, hop on the Fairfield University shuttle to get to campus (I’m told this only takes about 10 minutes), catch the shuttle back to Fairfield Station, and get back to NYC. Am I crazy to attempt this? If I were to attempt this, how do I make the commute more efficient? I assume I should focus on Manhattan because living in Brooklyn or Queens would add even more time to the commute. What neighborhoods in Manhattan should I consider due to their proximity to Grand Central? Also, in terms of monthly expenses, I would need an unlimited MetroCard ($104) AND a card for Metro North, correct?
How are you financing all of this? Are you planning on working while in grad school? Besides NYC being the most expensive area and choosing to live near Grand Central which will be more expensive, sounds like a huge pain to have to commute all the way there for school. Why not live in NYC after ur done with school?
That’s exhausting and extremely expensive option (considering New Haven and Fairfield are quite cheap for the area). You’d be better off finding a cheap hotel in the city every now and then rather than spending all that money on an apartment and train fare.
Unless you have a compelling reason to be in the city (like a job), I wouldn’t recommend it.
Curious as to why you wouldn't just live near Fairfield University? If Fairfield itself is too suburban for you, what about New Haven or Stamford? Commuting from Fairfield to NYC three days a week seems totally unnecessary, time-consuming and costly.
I see no reason why you wouldn't want to live closer to your university.... The pros do not outweigh the cons, especially since the only reason is that you want to give living in NYC a shot... You have the flexibility to visit NYC whenever you want as a student. You'll save a lot more money living in CT and without the exhaustion of the commute you'll be open to doing a lot more things. You would need a monthly metro card and a monthly metronorth card (additional $300 a month with web ticket purchase).
Edit:
I wanted to add that with the savings of living in Fairfield and not commuting, you could even afford to get a hotel for a fun weekend that you want to spend in Manhattan, for example.
Thanks for the responses. A few things: I AM considering living in New Haven. As I said in my initial post, I'm deciding between New Haven and NYC. I don't want to live in Fairfield or Stamford. In terms of cost, if I lived in New Haven, I can choose to take my car or rely on public transportation. I did a comparison between different options. I'll post it here for you to see and hopefully I can get more advice.
Expenses for living in New Haven WITH car: insurance, gas, maintenance, Metro North card for visits to NYC, Metro Card for NYC subways
Total commute for days I travel to Fairfield: about 1 hour, 15 minutes
Expenses for living in New Haven WITHOUT car: bus, monthly Metro North Card, some type of Metro Card for NYC subways
Total commute time: about 1 hour, 45 minutes
Expenses for living in NYC: unlimited Metro Card, monthly Metro North Card
Total commute time: about 3 hours
Rent will obviously be more expensive in NYC than New Haven. I am looking for a room share. I guess the smart move is to live in New Haven and ditch my car.
EDIT: Possibly a dumb question, but I'll ask anyway for confirmation - if I purchase a 10 trip peak or off peak package, are they 10 round trips or just one way?
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