Absolutely, positively this. Getting to the Boston area from Worcester is going to cost you in every way, shape, and form. There’s a reason why rents are cheaper out that way :nodding:
Yeah, definitely avoid Worcester. From RI I can get to either Worcester or Boston faster than anyone can get from Worcester to Boston.
I have some more specific advice pertaining to this, since I am currently in one of the graduate programs at presumably the same fine institution. The most important of these is that I drive by the relevant Mass Pike exit on my morning commute (exit 17 in Newton), and the just-under-three miles from the exit to “parked in the parking garage” takes about fifteen minutes during the big commute times, plus another 5 minutes or so to walk to class.
There are about a hundred people in my class, and I think exactly one lives outside of 495… and he regularly goes to the gym at 6:30am so he can save himself the stress of commuting with everyone else. The vast majority of people live in either Brighton or Brookline, since those are the two areas where you can easily use public transportation to get here, and they’re also really great spots for the younger crowd. Brookline is the much more family friendly of those two, but it’s also really expensive.
I also chose to live a bit west of everything since I have family in central MA and eastern CT, and the big problem with that is that most of the towns to the immediate west of Boston are, of course, really expensive. I’d really try to avoid going farther than probably Framingham, though.
P.S. If by any chance you’re entering one of the business programs, shoot me a PM and I can probably tell you more than you’d ever want to know.
Noo. Noooooooooo. Disabuse yourself of this way of thinking ASAP. Always plan on your commute taking longer than it should.
I used to live in Brookline and paid $650/month for one room in a shared apartment with four other people. My mother bought a 1-br/1 bth condo in Brookline – tiny, tiny place with a kitchen so small only one person could stand in there at a time – for $200,000 in 2001 and it sold in 2012 for $375,000. Brookline is very expensive. (Very nice area, though. I’d move back if I ever won the lottery.)
About commutes: I lived in Brookline and commuted to Northeastern University. It was a 2-mile walk or a ~40-minute T ride. I would walk to work in all weather rather than take the T, because at least I could bank on getting there on time when I walked, even if it meant arriving frozen or soaking wet.
Yeah, on the east coast, I would assume a 40 minute commute on paper is closer to a 90 minute commute in reality. Without traffic, my drive to my office would take maybe 15 minutes, it takes about 40 most days. My sister lives about 8 miles from me in Northern VA, going to see her from my house in NW DC is an expedition. Sometimes we pick a place halfway to meet.
Would the commute from east to west be more manageable?
Not if either end is in Boston.
It’s hard to comment without a specific commute in mind. There are some bottlenecks that will impact one commute and not another starts a few towns over. The time of day is also critical, if you can leave for work by 6:30 you’ll have a very different commute than if you leave an hour later.
If you can commute outside of the rush hour the drives aren’t that bad. Depends on where you are going though. I use to go to the Longwood hospital area a lot, and there is no highway close by, so any time of the day I could easily spend 1/2 hour getting to a major route. Now going to Cambridge it’s almost all highway for me and off hours I can make really good time. If you have to get somewhere in the rush hour you are stuck. And you never know what road or bridge or tunnel they will start construction on next, giving you a two year period where it’s all going to be worse.
We moved to Lexington, Massachusetts when I was almost 12 (from rural Northern Quebec, ha) so personally the move to the metro Boston area was like paradise for my family. My father worked in Cambridge at the time and the commute for him from Lexington was really easy.
I live in the NYC area now, for my husband basically, but I love Boston and the rest of my family (sibs & parents) are all still up there. Amazing public schools, kind of a relaxed college town vibe with lots of diversity and Halloween was always nicely atmospheric. I actually really liked growing up in Lexington but it might be just slightly too suburban for you depending on which school you are going to attend. If I were to move back I’d probably choose Brookline.
ETA: looks like you are out in W. Mass? My sister used to do the reverse commute from Lexington to UMass Medical School in Worcester. It took her 55 minutes each way from Lex. Probably Wayland would be easier.
I assume you’re thinking of living near Boston and having your wife commute to Worcester, because coming from east of BC you’d be taking the T.
So counter-commuting, Chestnut Hill (not that you’d live there) to Worcester would indeed be quicker than Worcester to Boston, but still significantly slower than an ‘empty roads’ drive. Starting from west of route 128 to Worcester would probably get the east-to-west commute pretty close to non-rush hour timing (though making the trip in to BC longer obviously).
As somebody raised in Texas, I’ve seen enough flat flatness to last me the rest of my life. On the East Coast, heading west of the Coastal Sprawl can take you to beautiful, uncrowded country. There may be more people than rattlesnakes, scorpions & coyotes. Again, something I can live with.
Hope the OP gets the practical answers he needs. The Boston area has plenty to offer & areas nearby have even more. From Houston, we can drive for hours. And end up in Dallas. L L Bean has shipped me items that help even in a wimpy Gulf Coast winter (layers, it’s the layers!)–so send for their Winter Weight catalog.
There’s nothing that flat, certainly. But head up to northern NH or Maine and you can go dozens of miles without seeing much of anything but scrub pine and distant mountains. There are huge swaths of forested land, mountains, and remote coastline that meet most needs for rural terrain.
The scale out west is bigger, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have true rural here in the east. The one thing we’re missing (besides elevation) is true Wilderness. We have some federally designated Wilderness Areas but they can’t really match what you can find out west.
Oh dear!:eek:
I have to agree with Shagnasty. A commute from Worchester to Chestnut Hill would be horrible. You would have to deal with I-495, the Mass Pike, and I-95, the interchanges for each being their own nightmare. And then probably another 30 minutes of navigating surface streets and stoplights on either Rt 9 or Rt 30.
You would be better off finding a place in Waltham or Framingham.
Or move to Bradford and take the commuter train in. It’s a 45 minute ride that way, and I bet the drive from Wusta isn’t shorter most days.
To Rand- hope it works out for you, and that you enjoy your time there. We’ve not lived in that area for over 20 years, but BITD the provincialism was just as described, and we left for the Far Far West when our girls were small because of the weather, the corruption, and taxes. My husband and I were raised in upstate NY (Saratoga/Schenectady), I lived in Philadelphia (Penn student), Syracuse, and then RI/VT/RI for 20 years. 18 of the RI years were spent on a farm in western RI surrounded by city land owned by the Providence Water Board, and it was extremely rural, and exactly my cuppa tea. I worked in Providence, Central Falls and Warwick. Never crossed a bridge unless I was going to One Pelham East in Newport. We went to Boston on a regular basis- I even got in some rock climbing in Quincy Quarries. You get used to the driving. You get used to the T. The trick is to stay safe, and to not let the a holes bother you, and enjoy what the area has to offer. I have to admit, I don’t miss the winter, but as a kid I knew no better, and we dealt with it.
I commute 40-45 minutes now, for 32 miles x 20 years. The bridge is 2 miles long, and some mornings, you can see Mt Rainier, or to the north, Mt Baker. Boston is a 5 hour nonstop flight away, and having been there last September, that’s about right 
When you get older like me you’ll remember the times you could do all that!
I received a list of places I should look near the area. Do any stand out as exceptionally good, bad, etc?
Jamaica Plain
Roslindale
Dorchester (be careful about which part of the area, though)
Watertown
Belmont
Waltham
Cambridge
Somerville
Arlington
Framingham
Newton
Brookline
South Boston
Hyde Park
Medford
Malden
Quincy
Dedham
Chelsea
Revere
Burlington
Woburn
Reading
Lynn
I agree there are rural areas in the eastern United States. I grew up in the Adirondacks myself. But we’re talking about the East Coast.
OK, that’s quite a list 
The rule of thumb is, the closer you are to Boston, the more expensive your rent will be. There are places in Dorchester and JP, for instance, where the rents are closer to 2K, depending on the location (for the record, Dorchester, JP, Hyde Park, South Boston [aka Southie], and Roslindale [aka Rozzie] are all within the Boston city limits). The more gentrified the area, the higher the rent, the higher the rent, the more desirable the area. That’s what’s happened to a good portion of JP. Hyde Park and Rozzie are the two of the more outlying neighborhoods where it takes a little more effort to get into Boston proper, as in you might have to take a bus then a train then another bus. They both retain a lot of their rough-around-the-edges flavor. They’re both blue-collar for the most part, and both have their nice areas as well as not-so-nice (Hyde Park’s is the Fairmount section, which borders Milton. Rozzie’s is the area immediately around their very lively very neighborhood-y square).
I’m surprised nobody suggested West Roxbury. It’s the most suburban of the Boston neighborhoods and there’s a direct bus route into downtown. Price-wise I’d put it with JP in the gentrified/family friendly sense, though.
You’d get more bang for the buck if you go outside of Boston. Quincy is still a relative bargain AFAIK – rents are going to be high anyway – but you’ve got 3 Red Line stations, a plethora of bus routes criss-crossing the city, a downtown area that’s slowly being revitalized (there’s quite a few restaurants around), and a lot of young professionals as well as families.
You’ve just listed most of the Boston/inner suburbs area, which range from expensive tony suburb to serious inner-city. Might be better to say what you’re looking for and ask for suggestions about where to look for that. Biggest issue, from what I can tell, is how close to you want to be to Boston Col- uh, Chestnut Hill? If you want to walk there, obviously you’ve got your geographic area set.
If you don’t mind driving an hour every day, there’s a lot more possibility. If a half-hour T or bus ride is OK, then that’s a different set.
But the other questions include whether schools matter, do you need a detached house and yard, or do you want city living, are you planning on renting or owning, and of course, what can you pay. On that last one, be prepared; unless you’re coming from San Francisco, you will be shocked by housing prices (even after preparing yourself with this warning, you’ll still be shocked). I strongly strongly strongly recommend doing some on-line searching to get used to the prices before visiting in person.