aginath

Just noticed that the Red & Black has a crime map posted for Mar 25-Mar 31. http://www.redandblack.com/2010/04/01/athens-crime-map-march-25-31/ This might help with ruling out places you want (or don't want) to live.

As I said before, I'm on the edge of the Normaltown/ARMC area. I rent a 3-1 house for $725/month. Most of the 2 bedrooms in this neighborhood run $650ish. I have a friend who just rented one of the loft apartments on Baxter (towards the Alps Rd end; across from Gnat's Landing). It's a real nice 1-1 and he's paying $625/month.

I am a terribly social creature and one of the worst things about grad school was leaving 15 years worth of memories and friends behind while I moved 900 miles away to start anew. My assistantship is with the Grad School. I see people through there all the time and hear about all kinds of events. That has helped me pass info on to others. Pay attention to FB pages, Twitter accounts, and RSS feeds for the local/campus paper. Knowing about events means the potential for getting active. I follow the Athens Chamber of Commerce, College of Education Research Council, Graduate Student Association, and various local establishments (favorite restaurants and bars) on Twitter. I also got active in my department. When an email comes through about volunteering (and I'm free), I jump at it. That gets me around faculty and other students to make friends and find out about picnics, parties, and other events. Just doing these things, I've made a number of wonderful friends in my first year. I've been to tailgates hosted by a faculty member and got invited to a UGA football game with his family when there was an extra ticket. I've hiked up Stone Mountain in Atlanta with another faculty member and his family the week of Fall Break. Our graduate student association in the department hosts monthly happy hours at different bars around town and we always have fun. A group of friends and I are planning a trip to Gatlinburg, TN for the 4th of July to see the annual parade that happens at midnight. I'll add in the general disclaimer that "these results are not typical," but considering I was terribly homesick and wanted to cry for most of August, I'm very pleased with how things have turned out.

Yes, that is the same sense of the word ghetto. I mention it, because it's the one thing no one talked about and took me by surprise. As for being close to downtown, it's fun, there are cool little shops and bars, but there are no grocery stores immediately in the downtown area. Earth Fare is in Five Points, and while one of my favorites, it's not cheap. There is a Kroger at the west end of Baxter, too. There are others in the respective areas of town. FWIW, I'm married and we have 1 car between us. My husband works full time and has the car 99% of the time. From the end of November until late last week, I was always on the buses (finally got my scooter tuned up and the weather isn't as bad as it's been). They have their frustrations (as rising star pointed out, the website is awesome with good info), but overall I've been satisfied. I'm on the edge of Normaltown/ARMC. That puts me near the NE corner of town still inside the Perimeter. I've hopped the #7 up to Kroger to get a few groceries and then made it back out to catch the #5 home on occasion. Most routes only run once an hour and they can be regularly 5-10 minutes late. Build that in to your travel time and there's no problem.

I'm married with four-legged children. Before grad school, I owned my house with a big yard. I knew that wasn't terribly feasible moving across country. I rent a house off campus.

Cloverhurst @ Baxter is easily walking distance to campus. As for how those specific complexes are, I couldn't say. Also know that students ride Athens Transit for free with a student ID (you actually swipe it when getting on the bus). So, if it's bad weather, there is a way around. Something about Athens that I've found rather unique is that there are mini-ghettos throughout the city. It's not one area, but easily a half a dozen scattered about. There's one (Paul Doe) off Hawthorne (NW side near me) and another north of downtown off College and another there on Baxter near Rocksprings. Parts of the east side outside the Perimeter are more run down than they are ghetto. It is possible to live near these pockets and not have any problems at all. If you have a vehicle, make sure you bring valuables inside instead of leaving them in plain sight. Invest in renter's insurance. Get to know your neighbors (they make great look-outs when you're not home).

If you can find the niche pockets, you'll find friends of every kind. If it's the hip hop crowd, look at the historically black frats and some of the clubs in south Bryan. If it's GLBT, know that there was a rift between the non-students and students in the community (competing with one another instead of helping). Halo is the gay bar mentioned. They have drag shows and most of the staff are gay. However, it's getting a own rep as a "pretty" bar. There's a fairly decent sized Indian community. My friends used to live just north of campus and the complexes in the area had become a mini-community of sorts.

I graduated with my M.S. degree with a 4.0 and was damn proud of it. Most of my peers had a 3.75-3.9. During the orientation session for my doctoral program (it included masters students), one of our senior faculty members made a comment that blindsided me... I'm still waiting for the opportunity to visit with this particular faculty member, but I think the gist of his message was that graduate school should be an educational journey and mistakes are not only inevitable, but should be meaningful as well.

I was at a full time job with a state agency I had been with for more than eight years. I was making more than $60K and had awesome health, vision, and dental insurance. I'm now a lowly doctoral student and graduate assistant making $20K with a health plan that is administered through the campus health center. I honestly didn't let these factors influence me negatively (too much). I made sure the bills could be paid (downsizing in a number of areas) and that the health plan would cover the basics. Vision and dental were nice, but required. I can work on those as necessary.

I was terribly homesick the first two or three weeks we moved here (to Georgia). The first week was the absolute worst and I would randomly cry. As time passes, it fades, but I still get the occasional pang and we're now past six weeks. This weekend, for example, hurts a lot. This weekend kicks off college football. While it's a big deal here, our first game is away (oddly enough facing one of my old conference opponents). Back "home," it's a home game. After 15 years, I can describe the atmosphere of College Station down to the finite details. All of my friends are pouring into town this morning, gearing up for some awesome tailgating. The roads are jam packed with 80,000 other fans clamoring to find a parking space and get to the tailgates, too. There will be ribs and sausage and potato salad and cookies and pies galore. The beer will floweth forth as different friends float from tailgate to tailgate catching up on summer stories and talking about the season to come. Hugs and handshakes will close the gap of time. There will be satellite dishes set up with generators and big 60" flat screen tvs to watch all of the other games that are on before and after ours. About an hour before kickoff, they'll hear the firing of the canon signaling march-in by the Corps of Cadets. Lines at the turnstiles will start to fill-up making the wait to get inside Kyle Field 30 minutes or more. A dear sweet friend of mine who is a local police sergeant will be working security at the gate I used to use for entry. Somewhere in section 116, my old next door neighbor will be sitting down with his brother in my season ticket seats that I've held since 2000. The same family who has sit next to and behind me for all those years will show up and have new stories to tell of weddings and grandchildren. Down on the field, Parson's Mounted Cavalry will make the rounds of the outer track followed by each unit of the Corps as the Fightin' Texas Aggie Band plays faithfully from the stands. On the east side, thousands of students file into the seats ready to be the 12th Man. Scattered throughout the stadium, the faces of sweet little Aggies to be watch the pageantry gleefully waiting for their day to be one of those students. And as the clock ticks down to kick-off, you hear the drumline start up in the background. A roar starts to rise from the south end as the team starts making the journey from Bright to the field. Months of pent-up fanaticism boils over, for nigh is the launch of a new season...new hope...new memories. And I'm not there with them this time. It hurts. I miss them, a lot. But I have new memories of my own to make.

Unless you're attending the University of the Antarctic, I'm pretty sure you're safe.

Look at the CVs of faculty members who interest you. After reviewing two or three, you'll see patterns and best practices that stand out.

Honestly, this isn't something I would use as a major criteria to pick a program. It is definitely something to consider once the offers come in, but don't let it narrow your focus before you've even begun to apply.

Even in Texas, where refried beans are commonplace, you'll find them in the 'ethnic foods.' However, when I was in College Station, any decent grocery store had at least two aisles dedicated to 'ethnic foods.' That is to say Tex-Mex took up almost an entire aisle. Then you had space for Asian, Kosher, Mediterranean, and a few European-specific items. That said, I was once given a great recipe to make refried black beans. They're FABULOUS! I don't do refried beans in a can anyway, but these are even better than using pinto beans. I'm a little leary of trying TexMex in Georgia. I've seen a few places around town and there appear to be some chains. I'm more inclined to wander into a hole-in-the-wall joint than one of the big boxes, though.

The NE is definitely DD country. I didn't realize this until last summer. We flew into JFK, drove to Wallingford, CT, and took a side trip to Salem, MA. I think in the week plus we were there, I only saw one Starbucks and at least three dozen DDs. It was nuts. Oh, and dherres, hope you weren't a huge fan of sweet tea or even really tea in general. I spent my summers in CT and they're a fan of the instant stuff up there. Blech.

Started last Monday

If my husband drives me to campus, it takes roughly 12-15 minutes depending upon traffic (it's only about 4 miles). On days where he is on shift, I take the city bus. It's about 35 minutes from the time I get on the bus until I get off in the center of campus (and then it's another 5-7 minute walk from the student union to my building). Really, it's not all that terrible. I load my iPod with audiobooks and podcasts and go.

I thought I hated liquor laws in Texas, but the worst of it was not being able to buy beer before noon on Sundays. Apparently liquor stores are closed completely on Sundays in Georgia (and I've noticed the beer coolers get locked down inside grocery stores).

Are you talking about a departmental funding offer or federal financial aid? I would think these are apples and oranges. I do know that a school can change your financial aid offer even after you accept it. It happened a few years ago when a few banks folded and schools couldn't offer as many loans.

As has been said, it depends upon the new state and your intents. If you're planning to fully relocate and set up residence in the new state, you likely have 30-90 to transfer everything. If you're temporarily moving and maintaining a permanent address back "home," then you shouldn't have to worry about it. That said, Georgia law states that you have 30 days (though I don't know that I've seen it enforced and have friends who've gone almost a year without changing). We both surrendered our Texas DLs and transferred his car registration within two weeks, because we needed it for me to get an out-of-state tuition waiver. All told, it cost us $35 (each) for the license (10-year license) and $38 for the car registration. It was rather painless other than having to have birth certificates and proof of residency (lease/utility bill) and waiting in lines. Goolge the state and "drivers license." Georgia actually had a "New to Georgia" page that listed out what we needed to do. I found a section of the county tax office to explain car registration requirements, too.

I truly love Craigslist. Like I said earlier, that's what I used to compile places to look and we rented the first one we visited. Definitely! And street view also can't give you a feel for the the community within a community. Some areas don't make crime stats known, either. It might look well and good on street view, but it's in a high-crime area or just a bad area of town that's hard to get in and out of. There really isn't a substitute (yet) for going in person.

If I wasn't before, I am now. Classes start tomorrow, but I don't have class until Tuesday. Assignments are due in both of my classes that day. At least one of them includes reading the text book and summarizing (no more than 50 words) each chapter. :shock: I only have 11 more to go. :roll:

Not quite as far for me (only 900 miles), I did roughly the same. My husband and I flew out here in mid-June (we moved at the end of July) to find a place (he also interviewed for jobs and I met with my advisor). I came prepared with print-outs from CraigsList and a local weekly newspaper with rental listings. Somehow we got really lucky and loved the first place we saw, paying the deposit and first month's rent while we were here.

Most programs will want to see a writing sample (or three), including something research-oriented. Consider holding off another year before applying to doctoral programs unless you're planning on feeding straight into the program at your current institution. Most doctoral programs have a set minimum for both undergraduate and graduate GPAs. Not yet having one will bump you to the bottom of the consideration list. I would say no more than one letter from undergraduate, leaving you with two from graduate. However, as you have mentioned, you won't really have had the opportunity to make meaningful connections with faculty. I've not encountered many US programs that waive the GRE requirement; even when I stayed at my undergraduate institution to complete a master's they required the GRE for admissions. I agree with belowthree. This is a poor excuse for not wanting to take the GRE. You currently have two to three months to study for the test. If you're going to do it, do it. Don't do it halfway. In my experience, usually completing a previous degree from the same program leads to an advantage. Based on the whole of your post, I am assuming that you are planning to apply to the same program for your doctorate. If that's the case, these questions need to be directed to your advisor/committee chair rather than an open forum. They are likely more versed in master's students feeding into the doctoral program and can better guide you on how to complete the application to their liking. If, however, you are looking at applying to other schools, I would really, really consider waiting a year to have the appropriate materials gathered.

I didn't really consider geography in my list. I was in central Texas and applied to schools in Indiana, North Carolina, and Georgia; the closest one was 900 miles away. I looked a little at rankings of the programs, faculty members, and current research. The biggest factor was advice from my committee members from my master's degree (even though I graduated almost 10 years ago). I cleared all schools through them before applying to make sure I was making good choices.