On finding a place to live for residency

If you match, move your must

If you end up matching in another city, it can be stressful to decide what area to stay in. Each city has its 'good' parts and 'bad' parts. There are 2 excellent sources of information when it comes to deciding on a place to stay.

1. your senior residents

2. internet

Senior residents are a tremendous source of information.

They know a lot of stuff when it comes to locality, places to stay and apartment choices. Most of the time, interns will often end up staying in apartment complexes that already have employees and other residents from that hospital. Do not hesitate to ask the program co-ordinator for emails of the PGY2 or PGY3 residents so that you may correspond with them. Often, the PC knows which 2-3 apartment complexes most residents stay in. see here about writing to seniors

Target a zone
If you are looking to find a house or plan to have a apartment that is specific to you needs, a good place to start is a website called www.city-data.com. This website is a treasure trove of information regarding a lot of small and big cities and you can search on the forums to see if there are particular areas you want to avoid. 

Do your homework
This way once you decide on a particular zone. you can look up the apartments or houses in that area. Good places to start are apartmentratings.com, rent.com and apartmentguide.com. This way you will be able to get some feedback of the quality of the living situation. Once you have decided on 2-3 places that seem right for you, go down to the office and ask for a tour. 

Cash in on your connections

Make sure you tell then that you are a PGY1 resident/ intern at the University or community hospital and ask if they have move in specials or packages for employees of that hospital.  This way you can save a decent amount of money.