what lies ahead

Madison is a very veg-friendly city. As a liberal, environmentally conscious city with one of the biggest and best Farmer's Markets in the country, Madison is a great place to buy and eat fresh vegetables! Many local restaurants consistently use fresh, local ingredients. And if you eat dairy, you could come to no better place. The dairy in Wisconsin is like none other. A great, exclusively-vegetarian restaurant I've been to is Green Owl Cafe, http://thegreenowlcafe.com/, which has delicious vegetarian and vegan versions of everything you can eat with meat, from spaghetti and "meatballs" to the their vegan bloody mary. Their menu includes American, Mediterranean, German, Indian, and Mexican-style food, with no meat in sight. It is on Atwood Ave, in the Near East, which is an approx 10 to 15-min bus ride from downtown/campus. Another exclusively-vegetarian spot to grab a bite is Mother Fool's Coffee House, an artsy cafe also in the Near East on Williamson Street. Probably a 10-min bus ride. http://www.motherfools.com/. I've never been there myself, but it's a local favorite. Another great option is Monty's Blue Plate Diner. A local favorite, it is a traditional diner-style restaurant with a wide variety of traditional American and unique dishes that provides a vegetarian and vegan option for almost every item on the menu. It is also on Atwood Ave, near Green Owl. http://www.montysblueplatediner.com/ Here is a list of vegetarian and veg-friendly restaurants and grocery stores in and near downtown: http://www.vegmadiso...estaurants.html Of these, Alchemy's, Bunky's, Dobhan, (all on Atwood, and delicious!) and Bandung are Near East. If you are in the campus/downtown area (campus and downtown are adjacent to one another), there is a plethora of restaurants on State Street and near the capitol, many of which are veg-friendly. Look for East Asian restaurants like Rising Suns (delicious thai restaurant on state), Tibetan food like Himal Chuli, and Ethiopian restaurant Buraka for great vegetarian options. State Street Teahouse Dobra Tea is vegetarian-only. Although ethnic, especially Asian, restaurants are likely to offer many vegetarian options, most Western food restaurants in the area are vegetarian-sensitive and offer plenty of veg options. Madison also has several delicious Indian restaurants, which are of course great for vegetarians. In the downtown/capital area, Mirch Masala (haven't eaten there myself) is on the Capitol Square, and the absolutely delicious Maharani (one of my all-time Madison favorites) http://www.maharanimadison.com/ is on W Wash just two blocks from the Capitol Square. As far as cleanliness goes, you don't have to worry. Madison has an excellent, diverse, and reputable restaurant scene, and the restaurants in the central area are all clean and well-maintained. Now as far as living west of the Capitol, that is a good location. It's on Lake Monona, which is beautiful. Many students live there, but it is not rowdy like some student areas. Anything near the Capitol is an excellent place to live, since you have access to campus, downtown, Capitol Square, restaurants, shops, and all events and festivals going on downtown. I'm not sure if I understood you correctly, but I gather you would be at the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. You're not going to be able to walk there from Near East or W of the Capitol to there in less than 1/2 an hour, probably. However, it is totally easy to take the bus! Both inter and intra-campus buses come regularly and many different buses go between campus and the more central downtown area, as well as to the Near East. Here is the bus website: http://www.cityofmadison.com/metro/ (or you can use Google Maps to plan your bus trip). As a student, you'll get a free bus pass which you'll have to renew about every semester. You'll be able to take the bus from west of the Capitol in about 10 mins, and from the Near East in maybe 20 mins, depending on where in the Near East you live (closer to Campus like on E Johnson, or further away like Willy St or Atwood Ave.) Also, you should consider a bike, if you enjoy biking. Madison is a great biking city. I think that if you want a truly walkable distance to the west side of campus, where it seems like you will be, I would look for apartments in the Regent Street/ Camp Randall Stadium area. It is not a bad area for students to live; it is right next to the Monroe St/ Vilas neighborhood area, which is a charming and quiet residental neighborhood with lots of shops and cafes, a nice lake, and a Trader Joe's grocery store. Let me know if you have any more questions I can answer! Hope that helps.

Thanks, @WannabeSLP! I hope that the search will pick up soon. In my experience people in Columbus *are* very nice! I agree that I'm better off anyways without the unresponsive landlords; my boyfriend always says the same thing. I've started to look on Facebook marketplace and have posted a detailed ad on craigslist (as someone on this thread advised, I believe). Hopefully one of those will yield results soon. So far, though, all I've received in response to the latter are offers to rent me an apartment in the heart of the undergraduate area (E 13th-15th Ave, Indianola, Chittenden, etc.,) and pass it off otherwise, despite my specification that I'm not looking for anything in the University District that's east of High. Pretty impressed with people's ability to fail in reading the ad, and/or their belief that they can pull the wool over my eyes in regard to the location. I may just wait until July and hope to snag a great Victorian Village location! Those generally become available about a month in advance, if that. Does anyone know if any of the Victorian Village apartments, not counting the super-expensive ones, have central air?

Hi Christa! I would say definitely go with Near East (on or off East Johnson Street) or James Madison Park area (same area as McBride but it's really the only expensive building around there)! You can find something affordable there and there are lots of cafes, bars, restaurants, coffeeshops in the immediate vicinity. It's walking distance to campus, on a park and a lake as well as three blocks from the capital (the center of downtown.) You're also only about five blocks away from State Street, the main street in Madison which runs between the university campus and the capitol. Plus, in Near East/East Johnson and in the James Madison Park/Capitol Hill area neighborhood it's quiet enough to study, away from the heart of undergraduate residential areas. Near East is also closer than Willy and, depending on whether your classes are on the East or West side, than Vilas, to campus, yet still residential.

Hi everyone! I received and accepted an offer from OSU's Slavic Linguistics MA/PhD program with a GTA a couple of months ago, but then just yesterday and today respectively I also received (unfunded) offers of admission from the University of Minnesota's terminal Linguistics M.A. Program (took them long enough! 5.5. months!) and Tilburg University's Research Master in Language and Communication. I would have absolutely loved to go to Tilburg, as it is perfect for my field, I love Europe, and there are so many great resources in the form of faculty and institutions there. Unfortunately, I don't think it's financially feasible. The "immigration fee" alone is 600 Euro. I would much rather live in the Netherlands than in Ohio. Sigh. Plus, it's a terminal MA whereas OSU pretty much accepted me for all the way through PhD.

Hi everyone! I am having a lot of trouble with my apartment search, and I was wondering if anyone else is having the same problem Background: I am going to be starting my MA/PhD program in Slavic Linguistics this fall, and I need to be in town on August 13th for TA training. So, I'm looking for a place with an August 1st start lease. I am moving from Madison, Wisconsin My ideal place would be the Short North, but I'd also be very happy with Victorian Village or Southwest Campus (most of my classes are going to be in Hagerty Hall.) I visited Columbus in March, and it was very expensive for me to do so. I will not be able to visit again. I did not know, however, that this would result in such difficulty finding an apartment. I have been looking for apartments for several months now, and especially recently I have begun to run into a recurring problem. I e-mail landlords of apartments I'm interested in to express my interest and/or ask questions. The landlord responds, asking me if I can come to a showing. I explain my situation, saying that I can't come to a showing, that I need to see pictures, but that I'm very interested to move forward. The minute the landlord hears that, he doesn't respond. My impression is that there's such demand for these apartments, that the landlord doesn't want to hassle with sending pictures or, if there are pictures already, with responding to or dealing with me at all the second I say that I can't come to a showing. I found a listing for an apartment in the Short North that was perfect (with pictures) and e-mailed the guy about it. He said it was still available and here are the times I could come see it. I explained my situation, and anticipating the same response from him as from the others, said that I was sure I wanted it, and could I please have an application? Surprise surprise... He immediately stopped e-mailing me back, and still hasn't responded. I am getting frustrated. Am I the first out-of-state grad student these people have ever dealt with? It's a university with 50,000 students! Any advice would be great. Also, I don't have anyone there that could go see an apartment for me. I do have some acquaintances, but would feel very uncomfortable asking them unless it was a last resort. Thanks!

Hi Christa, if you are flexible with your price range (or are ok with having a roomie) McBride Companies, whose apartment building, the beautiful, modern McBride Point on James Madison Park http://mcbridepoint.com/ I have lived in for a year, are consistent, communicate effectively, polite, professional, and respond very quickly to maintenance requests. They have someone clean the entire apartment building common areas twice a week. The only thing about them is that they are very strict about their rules. No posters on the window (which can be difficult in the political climate here in Madison, especially when everyone else has signs!) and no candles in the apartment (lit or not), etc. The other problems with them is that the garage parking is not included-- off-street parking is pricey in Madison, thousands of dollars a year-- and that the materials in the apartment are not as quality as they make them out to be. For instance, sound travels more easily through the walls than the management claims, resulting in conflict between neighbors who each think it's the others fault. The window shade broke really easily, the walls are often not sturdy enough to mount anything, and the kitchen cabinets were designed poorly (tall, narrow, and deep) for an under 5' person such as myself. But if you're looking for a quiet, mature building with great maintenance, respectful landlords and a great little grocery store attached to the building, on a great park and lake, with coffee shops, the capitol, downtown, State Street, and campus at a moment's reach, go with this building. Also: absolutely under no circumstances should you rent with the Embassy Apartments. Their management company is particularly nasty and genuinely seems like it's out to get the students, and the apartments are not of particular quality, either. My boyfriend lived there and during his year and a half there they seemed to intentionally spy on him and try to find things to charge him for. One time, when something I ordered online accidentally got delivered to their address (his old address,) the company pretended they didn't have the package until we sent the police in there, who confirmed that they did indeed have it but had sent it back to the original sender, despite my e-mail asking them to let me come and get it from them. They cost my boyfriend and I lots of money and my dress for New Year's Eve (the contents of that package.) Other companies I've rented with have been Mullins (won't bother you, but might show up unannounced to show your apartment, and their kitchens appliances tend to break down easily), and the management company at La Ciel (nice enough apartments, I never had any trouble with them, if you don't mind living in the heart of a busy undergrad area-- but it's very close to campus, and it's a highrise so if you get a higher floor you'll be fine. We were in the penthouse, which had low ceilings but no noise at all.) Good luck! Let me know if you'd like any input on which neighborhoods to live in (for grad students I generally recommend the East Side or James Madison Park area, Monroe, or near west near UW Hospital if you don't mind a 15 min commute.) mrpbn7, check out my response to Christa regarding McBride Point! When you do decide to relocate to downtown, McBride Point would probably be the best choice for what you're looking for, and I think has good quality for the money based on the extensive research on modern apartments in Madison (not easy to find) I did for myself. It's on James Madison Park, which is on Lake Mendota, three blocks from the capitol, Capitol Square, and the Farmer's Market, and has great businesses around it like Bradbury's Coffee Shop, Gotham Bagels, and Bartell Theater. You'll be close to the best bars and restaurants in town like Genna's, The Old Fashioned, Brocach, Graze, Nostrano, Harvest, 43 North, L'Etoile, The Tornado Room, Natt Spil, Paradise Lounge, etc.

I just wanted to post with my final decision. I received and accepted a Graduate Teaching Associateship offer for OSU's MA/PhD program in Slavic Linguistics. I will be moving to Columbus probably at the start of August, as I need to be on campus for TA orientation on the 13th. I am incredibly excited to fulfill my dream of finally returning to school, but a little nervous about 30 hours a week of TA work, teaching Russian, and having to re-adjust to the academic lifestyle after two years in the workforce! It's also crazy to know that I will be in Ohio for the next five to six years. If anyone else is going to OSU, let me know!

I was, too, actually, but luckily was given a TA-ship. Good luck to you, too, Enzian!

Also: is anyone here leaning towards OSU at all? Enzian, samanthalubb, anyone else I don't know of who's been accepted?

Thanks! I just received a funding offer from them, as well, so the likelihood of my decision in OSU's favor is increasing. I might be messaging you, yet!

Enzian: Very cool! My primary interest is in Russian-English bilingualism, specifically code-switching; I'm also a native Russian speaker. I wonder when we will be hearing more information from the Slavic Department at OSU. One thing I've been able to gather is that the program may be quite small, as I only saw about two M.A. students on the list of graduate students on their web site.

Hi Enzian! I've also been accepted to this program! Are you considering going? What are your areas of interest?

Hi all, Anyone else accepted into OSU's M.A. Slavic Linguistics (or Literature) program?

Hi all, This is my first post here. Anyone else applying to M.A. programs? So far, I've been accepted to the OSU Slavic Linguistics program. According to the results board, someone else was admitted to the same program-- would be great to connect with that person! Also, has anyone applied to BC or U of M for the Linguistics M.A.? Thanks!