I am coming in for fall semester with my husband. I have the housing list from Laura and have called various people but it has not workind out yet. Can anyone suggest an apartmnt?(we dont want a house). I am willing to pay more but place has to be safe,clean and updated.
Is it better to get the place before coming down thereor should we wait untill we get there?

I think it's better to get a place first, that's what I did...just keep your eyes open and keep trying...be patient...right now a lot of people who are about to finish 1st semester are snapping up all the apartments and moving. Many people move after their first semester here to better digs.

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PGY-1 Psychiatry

Get the most expensive apt. possible. Good accomodations on Saba are hard to come by. If you won't have a car live in the bottom. Buses are unreliable.

The buses have been reliable this semester; at least in my experience. You do have to be standing on the road at about 7:20 to ensure you don't miss the bus.
It is true I have heard one or two 5th semester students complain that in the past the buses have been unreliable.
I also highly recommend that you either get a car or make arrangements to carpool with a buddy if you live outside of the bottom, it is just more convienient and you get to listen to music, unlike the bus. The bus only runs early in the morning and after classes in the afternoon, and it sometimes gets full if your not right there to hop on when it pulls up. It's hard to predict; sometimes I would be one of three or four people on the bus.

Regarding accomodations....it all depends on what you require, and what you mean by "good". I pay $800 a month for a two bedroom, one bath house in Hells Gate, two tv's, three beds, fully furnished with microwave, fridge, etc, recently remodeled. I would pay about the same for a similiar house in Texas.
It was easy for me to find, I just asked around to other students. Never even looked at the housing list. I do pay for electricity and cable and propane cooking gas, many places include those things in the rent.
Most people lived in the dorms 1st semester, unlike myself. 98% of my classmates who lived in the dorm found suitable off campus apartments last month and are moving right now to their 2nd semester digs.

Advice I would give to incoming students is this: a few upper semesters (2nd through 5th) like to try to scare newbies about how hard classes are, how each semester is so much tougher than the last, how hard a time they've had it...blah, blah, blah. First day I got here someone said to me "keep your head down".
I guess it feeds their egos to say "look what I've been through". Maybe it's not deliberate...I don't know.
But what I have learned that they are often on the correct to a lesser or greater extent with their complaints, but you have to seperate the facts from the emotional component of what they say. Med school is stressful. Just live one day at a time, plan carefully for the future, and do what you have to do today and you'll be fine.

(p.s.--most upper semester students are not whiners)

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PGY-1 Psychiatry

Wolfgang,

Those are good advices. I will be arriving on the island on September 1st--a fe more weeks. It is exciting and nerve racking!

Shawnxyz