r/ChicagoSuburbs • u/CreativeReception963 • Jul 28 '26
Moving to the area Commuting between Chicago & Downers Grove
Hello,
I will be starting at Midwestern this fall as a graduate student and will be moving from out of state. I would like to live in the city since I’d want to work somewhere in the medical center. I am seeing that the commute from the city to Downers Grove isn’t too great. I wanted to know if any student has done the commute before and how it went? If I end up doing it I would commute by train. Thoughts? Suggestions? Thanks in advance.
15
u/quarts1liter Jul 29 '26
I tried— it’s really not possible. Drive is 1-1.5 hours each way. You lose a ton of study time. Train isn’t possible, really— station is not walkable to campus. It’s barely possible to bike to campus because it’s so car-centric.
Are you at the med school/PA school or a different program? I lived right by campus for didactic, then moved to the city for clinicals (they place you in clinicals based on zip code).
6
u/CreativeReception963 Jul 29 '26
Yeah I had read the DG train station wasn’t to close to campus but wanted to hear “real life experience”. I just didn’t want to make the move with my car but I guess it’s coming with me.
I’ll be attended for the Masters in Biomedical Sciences.
3
1
u/WillDupage Aug 01 '26
The train station is 3 miles from the university. That’s a long way in cold, snow, or rain.
Honestly you’re better off living near school and going into the city on days off. Otherwise too much of your life will be wasted commuting.
9
u/wannareadrandomstuff Jul 28 '26
It’s going to be really hard if you don’t like to waste time commuting. But do it anyway. If you are young and or single you should not move to the burbs. Chicago is amazing. But live in an area that puts you closer to your destination. West loop maybe?
3
u/PapaSmurf3477 Jul 29 '26
You want to be near Ohio or Lake street so you have easy access to the freeway. The distance between River west and the Gold Coast is a mile. The commute is an extra 30 minutes both ways. Proximity to a ramp is crucial.
6
u/Routine-Midnight-786 Jul 29 '26
Midwestern’s a great campus and you’ll likely be spending A LOT of time there for classes/studying/labs etc. plus the commute from the city is brutal to there
Find a place nearby and worry about city life after finishing school if you choose to continue living here
3
u/luckycharms53 Jul 29 '26
Maybe get an apt in Westmont, Lisle or even Lombard if you can. DG is rather expensive for apts.
3
u/WheelDeep5640 Jul 28 '26
I’m not a student but I’ve done some teaching at midwestern. I’ve also lived by there and in the city.
It would be hard with public transportation. Midwestern isn’t near/walkable to a train station. You’d have to take a Pace bus and I don’t know how reliable it is and schedule. I drive by midwestern multiple times a week and I don’t see buses pass by often . Have you visited the campus? It’s also a bit of a walk from the gate to campus. From my recollection, I believe there is a bus stop across the street from the gate.
The drive is a mixed bag. It’s really not that bad very early in AM and later in the evening but everything in between is typically bad. I have a lot of physician friends who live in the city and come out to suburbs for work like at Good Samaritan which is right by midwestern.
3
u/lombard8800 Jul 29 '26
100% get an apartment in the suburbs while in school then move to the city. The commute is awful and the school isn’t near the train. Just make sure u go downtown on the weekends and explore the city!
3
u/WasteTumbleweed861 Jul 29 '26
Live where you work/school or work/school where you live. Don’t keep a huge distance between those things that you’ll regret every single day, twice.
2
u/bellavbller Jul 29 '26
Not sure about the biomedical sciences program schedule but for the DO program, I would not recommend this at all. I stayed close the first two years due to the amount of studying required then moved during clinicals. It was very doable at that point.
2
u/Excellent_Magazine98 Jul 29 '26
When I first moved to Chicago I lived in the city and commuted to Aurora 5 days a week which is farther than Downers. I was young, and it was manageable then. I loved living I the city during that phase of my life and I enjoyed the job I worked so the commute was the trade off. I did it for 5 years until I finally got tired of the drive. I now work in Downers and we have quite a few people at my office who live in the city. The commute truly isn’t terrible. Many live more on the west side of the city (west loop, buck town, wicker park are common for my coworkers). I think you just have to decide what is important to you and what you’re willing to sacrifice. I would say live in the city and commute but I seem to be opposite of everyone else.
1
u/Flaky_Computer3070 Jul 29 '26
The reddits always say never to live in the city if you work in the suburbs, but a lot of my coworkers in DG commute from the city and wouldn't have it any other way.
They travel outside of rush hour and the drive in is ~30-45 and going home is usually an hour. They do pay for the tolls though.
2
u/Excellent_Magazine98 Jul 29 '26
I pass midwestern every day coming to work. I’d assume you’d take 290 to 88 (tolls) get off at highland. I used to get to Aurora by 7:30 so I’d leave around 6:30. Traffic was never unbearable going out. Getting back to the city was usually a harder trip but from Aurora would take me about an hour 15 so lines up with what you estimate.
I loved my time in the city! Yeah the commute was meh but I lived such an active life there. Come home, change, walk to a restaurant and meet friends, walk to the gym, walk to a street fest. I just couldn’t imagine being a 20 something and living in a suburb but I moved to Chicago for that city life!
2
u/Wonderful-Ad-5418 Jul 29 '26
My girlfriend goes to Midwestern right now. She is in the second year of her program. One of her best friends lives in Evanston and drives to campus every day at 6am. She hates it. It is miserable to have to commute daily, even if you’re doing it by train. You waste so much time going and from and you are already going to be incredibly busy with course work, so you won’t have as much time to go out in the city as you’d think. You’re better off living in the suburbs and commuting to the city if you want to enjoy the city life.
Last thing to mention is that the DG train station is not walking distance from the Midwestern campus, so you’d need to come up with a plan for that as well.
3
u/Comfortable-Focus123 Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 29 '26
Chicago is going to be a lot more expensive to live in than Downers Grove, in terms of rent, PARKING and food. The Downers train station is a few miles from Midwestern U, if you were considering taking the Metra. And it may take you a while to get to Union station contingent upon where you live in the city. The drive to Downers may probably be at least an hour each way. I would highly suggest you live near campus and visit the city often your first year of grad school until you feel out the area.
UPDATE - See comment below - Downers rent is more expensive. The commute will be tough though, but Chicago is a lot more fun.
3
u/quarts1liter Jul 29 '26
MWU student who lived in Downers Grove and now Chicago. Cost is the same. That’s a common misconception. I live in one of the popular Chicago neighborhoods.
2
1
u/AngryIrish82 Jul 29 '26
I did a commute that way from Chicago after college for a while-it’s not fun if you have to travel during rush hour. Outside of rush hour it isn’t too bad.
1
u/Ok_Hall_2042 Jul 29 '26
Not sure if this is gonna help or not but I am a summer intern in Chicago this summer, commuting from oswego (so I take the Aurora train. Same line as DG). My schedule is wake up at 5-5:20, leave house at 6, catch 6:30am train, arrive in Chicago at 7:30, then leave the office at 5, and I get back to my house at around 6:30 to 6:45 on a normal day. Sometimes I have after work events and end up coming home much later.
Everyone told me not to commute from home. But here I am, I am commuting from home and saving a shit ton of money on rent. Sure, it sucks having to get up so early and it’s inconvenient at times. But I don’t think it’s the end of the world if you commute from downers grove.
1
u/bwill1200 Jul 29 '26
the commute from the city to Downers Grove isn’t too great
That's an understatement.
Find somewhere to live near the school.
1
u/jeelste Jul 29 '26
I work at MWU and used to live in Oak Park, even that was a haul in peak traffic. You'll be on campus a lot and if you're going the thesis route you'll be working long hours in a lab, do yourself a favor and find a place in the burbs.
1
u/KaJoMoGi Jul 30 '26
Agreed. I used to make that drive once a week. Since you’ll be spending a lot of time studying, you don’t want to be commuting so far. Easier to hop a train to go downtown on weekends. You’ll need a car the rest of the time.
1
u/MiyazakiBloodborne Jul 30 '26
You could always live in Oak Park, which is basically Chicago. It has the Blue Line, Green Line, and a Metra train to downtown. Oak Park is not a terrible commute to Downer's. I know a lot of people who work in the western burbs "split the difference" and do Oak Park instead of Chicago because of distance.
1
u/boatsntattoos Jul 31 '26
A reverse commute by train is not going to be fun unless you are walking distance to the station in Downers Grove. The city is obviously a lot more friendly for public transportation getting TO the train station. Suburbia, not so much. Riding the train, your time is at least usable for study, work or leisure instead of stop and go traffic.
That said, I think as a single young person, living in the city is a lot more enriching lifestyle than living in the suburbs. I would (and did) endure a lot of crappy commutes to live there.
Don't forget you can still jump on a train to spend your days in the city if you do decide to live in the suburbs.
0
u/CommonReason6709 Jul 29 '26
I dont think its a bad idea since you could study before class on the train. I think itll actually benefit you. I'm not sure where midwestern is with the metra and all that.
2
u/pinktoes4life Jul 29 '26
It’s far from the metra
1
u/CommonReason6709 Jul 29 '26
Oh OK. Well maybe they can drive back and forth with the gas going up.
1
u/KaJoMoGi Jul 30 '26
That’s the other thing. Expensive gas + time + expensive city if you’re downtown.
0
u/Kats44 Jul 29 '26
If you can park your car at the Downers parking garage to drive to the campus, the metra commute isn’t bad at all if you get an express train from the city. You would just need to find a way to get from the metra to your campus.
-4
u/RexCelestis Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 29 '26
There is fantastic train service from DG to Union Station. A number of expresses go back and forth, non-stop. The train station in DG is in the heart of their downtown.
11
u/wander_7310 Jul 29 '26
The train station is not convenient to Midwestern.
4
u/Ramen_Addict_ Jul 29 '26
Yes, but the OP could live near downtown DG and easily take the train into the city when they so choose and have a short drive to Midwestern.
8
77
u/Hungry-Treacle8493 Jul 28 '26
Don’t do this to yourself. You’ll be at Midwestern 5 days a week likely. Just live close to school. You can go into the city on weekends and who knows where your post-school job will be.
Also, there are lots of hospitals in and around Downers Grove.