You could spend a week or two in the city and take day trips to all the little neighborhoods to see how you like them. You could also test drive your commute to UMMC from said neighborhood; as someone who works at UMMC I have heard my coworkers driving through the city to get to work can be such a hassle since UMMC is right next to the convention center, the football stadium and the baseball stadium so on event days traffic getting there is rough within the city

Yes! The neighborhoods are relatively small. You could spend a week or two in the city and take day trips to all the little neighborhoods to see how you like them. You could also test drive your commute to UMMC from said neighborhood; as someone who works at UMMC I have heard my coworkers driving through the city to get to work can be such a hassle since UMMC is right next to the convention center, the football stadium and the baseball stadium so on event days traffic getting there is rough within the city

I honestly suggest doing this. Baltimore is known to be a city made up of neighborhoods and you don’t quite know how they’ll fit your vibe until you actually see them. We can explain how beautiful or how unappealing the neighborhoods are but you won’t know till you experience it! Baltimore has some really beautiful neighborhoods but also really run down/unsafe neighborhoods. Love Hampton, Canton, Hamilton, Mt. Vernon. But I also do love the cockeysville/hunt valley area in the county and find myself meeting friends there a lot as a middle ground area. Lots of shops, restaurants, breweries and close enough to the city the commute is not bad at all (I work at UMMC and live in Harford county suburb)