ayudell

I recently purchased a Nexus 10 but I'm not sure if it is really a productivity tool or just a toy. Do any engineering students use their tablets (ipad or android) on a regular basis? How do you use them? I wasn't able to find a good calculator app for the tablet, so that is a major strike. I have a smartphone which seems to have 75% of the functionality of the tablet. I am starting a PhD program in ME and was hoping to use the tablet for reading papers on the bus, but if that is the only thing I can use it for, I will be printing the papers! Thanks!

I have lived in a 12 unit brownstone with my wife in North Uptown for three years. We really like the area: great restaurants and grocery stores within walking distance, walking distance to the Lake of the Isles and easy access to the heart of Minneapolis' bike trail system. Being in the north part of Uptown gives us really easy access to I94 and the U. If we were to take the bus (which runs about every 15 min) it would take 15-30 minutes to get to the U depending on which route you took. Driving is probably more like 10 minutes. You could bike to the U on dedicated trail in 40 minutes although you wouldn't want to be coming back alone after dark- the Greenway goes through a not-so-nice part of town. In fact, once you learn how to use the trail system, you can get anywhere in Minneapolis on dedicated bike path. The scene in Uptown is mostly older undergrad students and young professionals. If you want to go to big party bars, there are plenty of those. There are also nice places to have a quieter drink on Friday nights which is more our scene. The restaurants are very good in Uptown and you also have quick access to 'Eat Street'- Nicollet Ave. If you are in the mood to listen to live music and pay $7 for a beer, downtown is only a $10 cab ride away. I think in Uptown you can expect to pay about $1 per square foot in rent. It is probably slightly more expensive than other neighborhoods, but you lose access to the trails and the lakes. I have spent some time in Northeast and St. Anthony which are also very nice with similar qualities, but we love the trails too much to move. I would personally avoid Seward as there is more crime there than in Uptown or NE. Something that we found out is that the motorcycles are very loud up and down Hennepin and Lyndale in the summer. The loud ones seem to go by a couple times an hour when the weather is nice so if this would bother your sleep, you might consider living a block or two from those main roads. I was recently accepted to the U and will be staying in Uptown- we really like it. I would recommend it if you want to have access to the great walking and biking trails for which Minneapolis is famous.

I currently live in Uptown in Minneapolis. Many of the (off campus) leases in Minneapolis forbid move-outs between November and April, so there is really not much available right now. "Sooner is better" is sage advice, but you should consider waiting until spring to find an apartment when there will be more options. I can't speak with any authority about on-campus housing timeframes.