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We moved from Colorado to Pennsylvania for PA school. We are a family of 6 and moved 6 weeks before starting school to get settled, get our barrings, and the lay of the land. I'm sure a single person might need less time then that to get settled. We didn't have a place lined up before moving. We had family we could stay with until we found a place. It took us a week to find a place. We didn't have the luxury of coming out before hand to find a place. 

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I also moved about 6 weeks prior to starting PA school. I wanted to get all settled in and figure out which grocery store, dry cleaner, pizza joint, etc that I was going to be frequenting once PA school started. I could have accelerated things but I enjoyed taking some time in the city I was going to call home for the following two years.

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My girlfriend and I moved from California to Boston to go to PA school this year. Moving was rough, but we were able to make it work. If you're moving a bunch of stuff, look into getting a pod/upack portable container (from u-haul) for your stuff. It cost us $1500, but we literally packed all of our stuff into it and it was shipped to Boston for us to pick up and decorate our place. We got there two weeks before school started, for many of the same reasons that beattie228 mentioned- getting to know our local area was a big help once we were started with classes. 

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My husband and I moved from Utah to Connecticut. We used Upack which was a little cheaper than the pods company but still very expensive since we used two containers instead of just one ($2500). The convenience of not having to drive a huge u-haul across country was definitely wort the cost though.  We packed up the containers and it took about 2 weeks to arrive in CT. If you decide to use pods you will need to have a place to live/sleep in the meantime until you actually drive out. We gave ourselves four travel days across country and we took each of our vehicles. Before the move we flew out to CT (we combined this trip with our honeymoon since we got married a month before my program started) and gave ourselves a week to find a place to live, although we found a great condo on the first day of looking, signed the lease the next day and we were done. We arrived in CT one week before my program started which didn't give us a ton of time to organize our whole place before I was off to school. I would recommend moving in no later than two weeks before your program starts especially if you have a lot to move. I didn't really feel like I needed much more time than I did to adjust to the new place we were at.

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single, married, kids?  planning or possibly staying in the area?  cost of living high?

 

I say this because the nearly three years I was in school across the country, I spent a lot of money and effort shipping all of my crap and acquiring a nice vehicle and apartment to try and make myself really comfortable.  

 

What I SHOULD have done was stored/sold everything and gone out there with next to nothing, gotten a small and cheap (but safe) place and filled it with cheap but functional thrift store furniture, or even rental furniture.  I don't think I ever sat on my couch, or turned the television on, maybe a handful of times during some of the less demanding clinicals.  It went by SO quickly.  Eat/sleep/work/repeat.  

 

In fact I posted in a thread about how I regret not buying and pulling a 5th wheel/trailer out there, but I was in a very warm area so I don't think that is going to work for you.  Would have cut my costs in half or even more and I would not have noticed the difference.  

 

Anyway, if you plan on staying or you have a bunch of kids, that won't work, but if not, do it the cheapest, easiest way.  Who cares what your car and place look like so long as it's safe and reliable.  

 

And yeah I used Door to Door pods type thing myself and am about to call them up and get them delivered for another $~2500.  Uhaul, Pods, Door to Door and Upack are the main competitors - each has subtle differences in size, cost, service, so you can tease that out if you need to .   

 

Good luck!

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I'm not married and as of right now my bf isn't moving with me to school. I will most likely move back to Portland after school, but who knows 2 years from now. Not sure about the cost of living in the Lehigh Valley area. All my furniture is from ikea so I've been debating if I should get rid of it vs move it cross country with me. I don't have much stuff so the cost of a pod doesn't seem that worth it to me.

 

Thanks everyone for the advice, it's been helpful!

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That to me is an attractive sort of freedom.  If I were in your shoes, I might be tempted to give up everything (sell/give away) I possibly could, with the exception of clothes and like basic toiletries.  Should be down to a couple suitcases and a couple boxes.  Pack it up in your car and go.  

 

I mean seriously for two and a half years you'll need:  

 

1.comfortable bed

2.dresser for your chonies and sox

3.dining table to eat and study

4.a couple of chairs

5.MAYBE a separate desk and comfortable chair (probably worth the trouble)

6.most people (not me) a TV setup and couch.  

7.  wifi gear for home, misc stuff like a couple of lamps.

 

that's it.  show up a couple months early and you can find serviceable, perfectly good stuff between a thrift store, pawn shop (for the TV) and like walmart.  a few hundred bucks.  if you need help moving it, there's your class facebook page and rental truck from home depot.  

 

repeat when moving back home.  dump all that crap, back in the boxes and back you go.  so easy, no muss or fuss.  

 

yeah i'm jealous.  i am still drowning in material crap I don't even want anymore, even after years of working to cut it down.  good luck!

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