Commuting from Portland area to Oregon St University (Salem, Corvallis: house, school) - (OR) - City-Data Forum

mrjones23 · 10-15-2009, 06:00 PM

Thinking about applying there and I don't want to live in corvallis and I prefer to stay in portland or near it. My girl might be going to school in portland too. How bad is the commute going to be?

kander63 · 10-15-2009, 06:06 PM

That's a long drive, especially if you want to live in the city of Portland. According to Google maps, it's 1.5 hours to Corvallis from my house in Northeast PDX. It's just over 80 miles, so that's optimistic - with traffic, it could be more like 2 or 2 1/2 hours.

If you lived in the far southern suburbs you could cut that down. From Wilsonville, for example, it's about 60 miles to Corvallis, and you'd miss most of the Portland metro area traffic. That's still a lot of miles to put on your car and gas to put in your tank though.

If the issue is being close to your girlfriend as opposed to being in Portland per se, you might consider the Salem area, which is about halfway between Portland and Corvallis.

mrjones23 · 10-15-2009, 06:21 PM

Well my girl is gonna live with me so she needs to be close to portland

kander63 · 10-15-2009, 06:35 PM

Well, unless she's willing to live halfway in between Portland and Corvallis, you're going to be spending a lot of time in your car. Unless you're a die-hard urbanite, I would recommend living in the far southern suburbs, such as Wilsonville. That will shave 30-45 minutes off of your commute compared to central portland.

mrjones23 · 10-15-2009, 06:40 PM

The problem is I'm a city person. I like to have everything within access to me. Shopping, bars, nightclubs, sporting events, etc. I can live in suburban areas but only if its in reach of a city.

backdrifter · 10-15-2009, 09:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrjones23

The problem is I'm a city person. I like to have everything within access to me. Shopping, bars, nightclubs, sporting events, etc. I can live in suburban areas but only if its in reach of a city.

I'd reconsider applying to OSU if I were you. Maybe try PSU.

anyone101 · 10-16-2009, 01:46 AM

Even from Wilsonville it's a long ass commute. If possible you want to stay in Corvallis or Albany (closer to the I-5 corridor). The cost of living in these areas are reasonable. Or consider backdrifter's advice about reconsideing OSU if moving to Corvallis is a problem.

mrjones23 · 10-16-2009, 01:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by backdrifter

I'd reconsider applying to OSU if I were you. Maybe try PSU.

I did some research and found PSU is a horrible school and its like community college pretty much. Bottom tier school.

backdrifter · 10-16-2009, 03:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrjones23

I did some research and found PSU is a horrible school and its like community college pretty much. Bottom tier school.

You do have to ask yourself... How good is your education going to be if you're having to commute for hours everyday?

PSU has a handful of really good departments, so it depends on what you're studying. But I agree about the rest to an extent. I may end up going there, but only out of necessity and not by choice. It does not have much prestige outside of those few good programs. But also a lot of it is what you put into it and try to get out of your education. The faculty at the school isn't necessarily bad either, even if the student body makeup and the class profiles suggest the school isn't that great. It's still possible to do well there.

figmalt · 10-16-2009, 10:33 AM

PSU is definitely what you make it, and the quality varies by department. True it has a lot of part time and adjunct faculty, but they pull from other universities (like OHSU) and the city so that you get people who are in the thick of it. That's a good thing. It's not some vacuum academic world in the middle of nowhere.

With that said, it's not like it's the only university in or around Portland. There's UP, Reed, Lewis and Clark, Pacific, George Fox, WSU-Vancouver, etc. You may want the prestige of a school like OSU, but in reality, if you're just starting school as a freshman, you get more bang for you buck at PSU or PCC. I went to both so that I could work and support myself through school, and even at PCC most of my classes were taught by Ph.D.'s the class sizes were smaller, and I don't feel like I got a "bottom tier" education. My employers certainly haven't cared.