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LunaOscura

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Everything posted by LunaOscura

  1. That's fantastic then, you'll love it here Compared to many other places, rent here is pretty cheap! I pay around $550/month for a studio apartment (all utilities and internet included). There are one bedrooms in the area for $500 to 600ish. I have a few friends that pay as little as $350 to $400 a month living with a roommate or two. When you're scoping out a place, you'll want to make sure to confirm the rental price includes heating oil/ natural gas for the winter. Maine is strange in that many places still aren't gridded so oil trucks come and deliver to people's houses and the bills can be pretty high in the winter if not included in rent. Oh! Also check out places in Old Town. Old Town and Orono are connected in one big loop and lots of grad students live there too. Old Town is a mill town, so be warned that during the summer it can definitely smell sourish if you're downwind. Other than FirstClass, Craigslist is definitely a good place to search. Also, you can contact someone in your department (perhaps your advisor if you already know them) and they might be able to let grad students in your department know you're looking for roommates. I'm with the School of Economics and we get emails from prospective students seeking roommates and housing in general, so it's definitely worth a shot. Welcome to UMaine!
  2. Hi! I'm just finishing up a master's at UMaine and have lived in the area for the past 2.5 years (I'm originally from Missouri). Are you from Maine or New England? What program will you be joining? Master's or PhD? I would most definitely advise living in Orono! Most of the graduate students live in Orono and although it's a tiny place, it's got its own charm and is wonderful if you are into any sort of outdoor activities (hiking, cross country skiing, snowshoeing, biking, kayaking, etc). If you chose to live in Bangor, you will be very unconnected from the larger graduate student community as most of the social activities are in Orono (unless you find other grad students to share a living space in Bangor). If you will have a car, lots of grad students visit Portland (2 hours) or Boston (4 hours) during breaks. There are some amazing national and state parks (Acadia is spectacular in the fall and at Baxter you can climb Mt. Katahdin, the highest peak in Maine and the end of the Appalachian Trail). Bangor is a very small city (about 35,000 people), but there's a mall, some larger shopping centers, movie theaters, and more restaurants. Have you received information on your FirstClass account yet? FirstClass is one of the systems the university uses for email and while it's terrible for email, there is a forum on there called "housing" where you will have the best luck searching for housing with other graduate students or in quiet areas. I had an absolutely horrible experience my first semester here because I was moving from out of state without ever having visited and no one advised me on areas that would be absolutely infested with undergraduates and partying. ****Stay away from the two major "student living" apartment complexes within a mile of campus: Orchard Trails and The Grove, no matter how great of deals they may seem, they are horrid places to live. I live in a tiny complex within walking distance to campus (less than half a mile; I don't have a car, so contrary to what everyone may tell you, carless living is completely possible in Orono) called College Park. A lot of other graduate students live here and it's very quiet. If you are willing to live with other people, you will most definitely get the best deal living with other graduate students, and like I said, the FirstClass housing postings are the best place to search for other graduate student roommates. As some background, I moved to Maine to complete the last half of my undergraduate degree at a very small college and fell in love with the state. I knew I wanted to attend grad school, so I applied for a fellowship at UMaine and ended up moving to Orono to complete my Master's. Before moving to Maine, I lived in St. Louis. If you are from a city, or any urbanish area, Orono can be a culture shock at first. It might seem like there is very little to do or see, but it's a great place to live- you just have to be a little more creative in finding things to do. And like I said previously, if you are ever missing the city, Portland and Boston are both within reasonable driving distance. I'm moving to Arizona this summer to begin a PhD program, but if you have any other questions about Orono, UMaine, or Maine in general, please feel free to contact me!
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