spectastic

i had a professor in religious studies once. he told me that there are three types of people... those who can count, and those who can't.

the problem with living on a sublease is that you don't get to pick your roommates. there's 4 of us, and one of them is a serious dumbfuck. never cleans dishes (there was this one time when the sink was full for a month, filled with his shit, until I put it all in a bin, and left it outside, it was disgusting; another time, one of the other poor roommates cleaned the mess up for him and followed up with a sign "I'm not your maid..."), always sets the AC super low, does nothing but play video games late into the night (the walls are really thin btw), and most recently, has a dog that he does not really care for. The dog spends all day, by herself, in his room. the dog acquired fleas, which it has passed onto my cat. the dog has shitted on the living room carpet, which I've cleaned up twice. Today was the third time. I knocked on his door at 2 am, as he was playing video games, as usual, except he came answering the door with a towel around him, and made him clean it up.
I'm not in the mood to berate someone, because that's seldom helpful, but this guy appears to be a lost fucking cause... it's like his mom wiped his ass up until he moved out of the house at 18, and doesn't possess the sense or responsibility to function as a normal citizen. I'm inclined to report this to animal protection services, because the dog doesn't deserve this either. 

In our case, we are obligated to sell--it is an affordable housing unit and the city has a clause on the deed requires that we live there or sell.
Even if this was not a requirement, we plan to leave the area and have no interest in being absentee landlords. Even with a reputable management company in your price range, you are legally responsible for a number of health/safety/occupancy issues and on the hook, if say, your cruddy tenants damage the building or violate housing ordinances (with fines levied by the city). Also, in a condo, I would argue you have some ethical duty to your neighbors not to turn your unit into a rental unless you plan to be very involved in managing it to minimize turnovers and ensure your tenants are considerate. In my experience, (student) renters are generally worse neighbors than owners and one bad renter can disproportionately reduce quality of life for several units around them.
That's just my personal take on it though, I'm not judging you for contemplating alternatives!
I used Trulia and Zillow primarily. Real estate brokers also post listings to their websites. I think I spent ~25 hours a week for three months on the house hunt and mortgage approval process, but some weeks took more time. It became my weekend and evening hobby.
__
PS since this thread is still getting attention: we will end up selling our place this fall for a profit of $60k, better than I anticipated. So the net difference compared to renting at our former rate (~-$1300/mo) is ~+$125k after 4 years. Maybe better since our condo utility rates are much lower than the apartment was. That difference means that aside from more expendable income (I buy lunch sometimes! Amazing!), we now both have decent retirement accounts and enough for a down payment on our "forever" home. Having started with pretty minimal savings, this feels good. But we also totally lucked out in a number of ways, such as finding a mortgage at a good rate and graduating from undergrad without debt.

the problem with living on a sublease is that you don't get to pick your roommates. there's 4 of us, and one of them is a serious dumbfuck. never cleans dishes (there was this one time when the sink was full for a month, filled with his shit, until I put it all in a bin, and left it outside, it was disgusting; another time, one of the other poor roommates cleaned the mess up for him and followed up with a sign "I'm not your maid..."), always sets the AC super low, does nothing but play video games late into the night (the walls are really thin btw), and most recently, has a dog that he does not really care for. The dog spends all day, by herself, in his room. the dog acquired fleas, which it has passed onto my cat. the dog has shitted on the living room carpet, which I've cleaned up twice. Today was the third time. I knocked on his door at 2 am, as he was playing video games, as usual, except he came answering the door with a towel around him, and made him clean it up.
I'm not in the mood to berate someone, because that's seldom helpful, but this guy appears to be a lost fucking cause... it's like his mom wiped his ass up until he moved out of the house at 18, and doesn't possess the sense or responsibility to function as a normal citizen. I'm inclined to report this to animal protection services, because the dog doesn't deserve this either. 

the problem with living on a sublease is that you don't get to pick your roommates. there's 4 of us, and one of them is a serious dumbfuck. never cleans dishes (there was this one time when the sink was full for a month, filled with his shit, until I put it all in a bin, and left it outside, it was disgusting; another time, one of the other poor roommates cleaned the mess up for him and followed up with a sign "I'm not your maid..."), always sets the AC super low, does nothing but play video games late into the night (the walls are really thin btw), and most recently, has a dog that he does not really care for. The dog spends all day, by herself, in his room. the dog acquired fleas, which it has passed onto my cat. the dog has shitted on the living room carpet, which I've cleaned up twice. Today was the third time. I knocked on his door at 2 am, as he was playing video games, as usual, except he came answering the door with a towel around him, and made him clean it up.
I'm not in the mood to berate someone, because that's seldom helpful, but this guy appears to be a lost fucking cause... it's like his mom wiped his ass up until he moved out of the house at 18, and doesn't possess the sense or responsibility to function as a normal citizen. I'm inclined to report this to animal protection services, because the dog doesn't deserve this either. 

This is a common myth that I see bandied around a lot, but I've done a bit of research on this and the consensus seems to be that it depends on a LOT of factors, including how long you intend to be in a place.  First of all, renting isn't flushing your money down a toilet; you're paying for a roof over your head.  It's just like paying for any other service.  Secondly, the assumption comes in that your maintenance costs will be nil in the house/condo; that you're going to at least break even when you sell the property (definitely not an assumption anyone should make in the current market); that your property taxes won't drive the cost of your mortgage above what you would pay to rent; and that, as someone pointed out earlier, that the cost of your homeowner's insurance (and mortgage insurance if you put down less than 20%) won't drive the cost up and over what you'd pay in renter's insurance.  Minus the interest and the agents' fees is a big minus.
 
Also about fixing up small issues to resell, you must consider the value of your time especially as a graduate student.  Do you want to worry about trying to sell your house when you are writing your dissertation and applying for jobs/postdocs?  Are you going to have time to work on fixing up that room or that deck or whatever when you are also studying for comprehensive exams?  I'm not saying no one absolutely will (in fact, many grad students buy!) but these are things to consider in addition to just the money.
 
I've heard it said that if you plan to be in an area for fewer than 5 years you should rent instead of buy.  Of course renting is profitable for the owners; that doesn't mean that it's a bad deal for the renter.  I mean, Coca-Cola is making a profit off your Coke too, but that doesn't mean that a Coke isn't satisfying.  Your money is gone but you weren't sleeping on the streets.  You might not have any equity in the place, but you DO have mobility (once your lease is up, you can move out and don't have to worry about listing and selling the place) and the luxury of free maintenance (pipe bursts?  Call the super, no out of pocket costs).  For some people - like myself - mobility is far more valuable than equity in a place, especially when I have no idea what my next move will be.  (My opinions are also colored by the fact that I live in NYC, so I wouldn't be able to afford anything here and more than likely I would have to hire a management company to rent my place out after I move.  One of my friends does own a 3-bedroom apartment here in the city, though, and he plans to rent it even if he moves away from the city.  It's very nice and he probably will make a little income off it.)
 
I'm not saying absolutely don't buy - in a lot of places buying is the way to go, as you'll save a ton of money.  But it's not true that buying is universally better than renting.
 
*
 
FWIW my younger brother bought a 4-bedroom house in suburban Atlanta (where we're from) for $125,000.  I think his mortgage is maybe $800/month.  (One-bedroom apartments in that suburban area can range from $650-800/month.)  He does sometimes rent out at least one of his extra rooms to roommates.  Mostly he finds them through personal contacts; I don't think he lists it on CL or anything like that.  He also bought the house because he planned to live there permanently; he can afford to pay the mortgage by himself.  I think the threshold, for him, is a bit higher for a roommate because any damages the roommate makes are to his personal property and he has to fix it himself if the roommate does not, unless he's willing to take the time and expense to take the roommate to court.  He hasn't had that experience yet, thankfully.
 
IMO if you're going to buy a property it should be a mortgage that you (and a partner) can afford to pay on your own without roommates, just in case something happens.  It's not quite like signing a joint lease with a rental company.  If you're renting an apartment and your roommate skips out on rent, you might be SOL on the apartment but you're not out any money.  If you buy a place and your shady roommate disappears on the 30th, you're out their part of the mortgage that month and however many months it takes you to find a new roommate.  If you can't afford it by yourself, you could put yourself in a bind.

Ok, I have a few cents to add. I'm not gonna lie, I didn't read everything before my post. So, I bought a condo right before a Master's program (and was planning on staying). I have to admit, it was the best decision ever. But you have to be careful, here is my advice.
 
- Get a condo. Houses are going to be so much more work than a condo already is.
- How much square feet do you think you need? Now buy something 75% as big. You do not need space if it costs much more.
- Get a 15 year mortgage. If you can't afford the difference, buy a cheaper property. You might not have to pay PMI then as well.
- Look for a mortgage with credit unions. They tend to have more flexibility.
- Location, location, location. Better a 400 sqft apartment near the university than 600 sqft slightly out of the way.
- Buy what you would want to rent, not settle down in. As much as you want to nest, when it's time to leave, you'll want it to be rentable.
- Think you'll fix things? You'll get around to 30% of it, it'll cost twice as much, and take three times as long as you expected.
 
Here are the details of my purchase:
 
I bought a 410sqft condo in a very desirable neighborhood in Austin, TX.
I was 82k and I put 15% down. I do not pay mortgage insurance. My interest rate is 3.425%
I have a 15 year mortgage and my payments are about 500/mo. Plus an additional 150/mo for taxes.
I pay 171 in HOA fees, which includes utilities, cable, and internet. So it costs me little over 800 a month, which is about what it rents for.
After about 2.5 years, I only have 60k in principal left, and luckily the property value rose. I'm looking at about 40k in equity.
It was worth it! But I settled for a lot less than I "wanted."
 
That being said, I ended up applying to PhD programs and fully intend to buy when I move. So, I'm probably going to lease my condo this Fall. I'm sad to go.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/business/buy-rent-calculator.html
 
Be sure to use the advanced settings to take into account things like security deposits, local taxes, etc. I also think their default assumptions for increasing property value are too high for most parts of the country, and the assumed rent increase too low.
 
We bought a year after starting grad school, and it looks like we'll save 30-60k over renting in just those four years (depends on whether the unit gains value or not, and even greater savings than that if rents continue to rise at 7-10% in our area as they have been). But we live in a very expensive rental market where condos, and our unit was bought far under market value so we are very confident of selling it, so the math was more in our favor than it might be for you. Origination fees should be fairly minimal compared to the unit cost, but if your margin is only 15k it probably isn't worth the hassle and lack of flexibility that come with home ownership--for example you can't move quickly if your neighbors are shitty or circumstances change. I honestly don't think it is worth it unless the savings are something you will really notice (eg more than a few thousand a year) or it is your dream unit. Better to save your money for a home wherever you settle for the long term after grad school, in my opinion.
 
Mortgage apps and house hunting were also essentially a full time job for a few months. Also, unless you can pay full asking price in cash, you will probably need to find a "non-conforming" loan (exceedingly hard to get post 2012 finacial reforms)--this is because most of us were previously in the work force (got W-2s), and when we switch to getting fellowships (1099-MISC) it is considered changing job type to "self-employed," and you are expected to have a 2-5 year work history proving sufficient income on the 1099s. Rediculous, I know, but try convincing the bank that your income is gauranteed despite the 1099 and you'll see how difficult this is. I had better luck with local credit unions that offered "portfolio loans," Fannie/Freddie and the big banks won't touch you.

does the gym have a bed and a kitchen?

i had a professor in religious studies once. he told me that there are three types of people... those who can count, and those who can't.

i had a professor in religious studies once. he told me that there are three types of people... those who can count, and those who can't.

does the gym have a bed and a kitchen?

does the gym have a bed and a kitchen?

does the gym have a bed and a kitchen?

Congrats.  Good luck with your decision!

You are right that academia is a place where things are blurry. This is because your experience depends a lot on your advisor. Two students who are performing exactly the same might be deemed "satisfactory" by one professor and "unsatisfactory" by another professor. I don't think this is entirely fair, because having inconsistent expectations does lead to inequalities across students in the department. And, for small schools like mine, there is usually only 1 professor doing exactly one topic, so it's not just a matter of "If you don't like the professor, work with someone else" because it really means "if you don't like this professor, you have to work in a different subfield". In addition, my field is also really small, so if many professor in a subfield are this way (it's possible for a subfield in my field to be almost entirely dominated by alumni of one or two faculty at a top 10 school), the entire subfield is now pushing away people. To this end, we're working on more standardized expectations of both professors and students. However, academia has very strong feelings about keeping autonomy of researchers and faculty, and to some extent, there is always going to be some room for interpretation by each professor.
While I hope that information makes you feel better that things may change in the future, the reality is that right now, that stuff won't help you. To answer some of the questions that you raised in this thread (either directly or indirectly):
1. How often would a professor compare a new student to old student? All the time. In fact, I think this is one of the main metrics that faculty member use to evaluate graduate students. On the LOR forms, faculty are often asked to rank this student compared to all of their other students. This is also a topic of discussion when a faculty member is presenting their student for acceptance to candidacy or other graduate school milestone. Since it is very hard to set absolute guidelines for performance in grad school (where everyone is doing different things), the standard criteria is "How does this student compare to other students?" Are they progressing as expected? Are they taking more courses? More TAships? etc. I agree with you that it's not very fair for the professor to compare you with his former students only, but that may or may not be a "kick in the pants" type comment rather than a formal evaluation. I think you can at least rest assured that when it comes time for the department to formally evaluate all of their students for funding, they will do so by comparing you to all students in the department, not just the small sample size of your prof's old students only.
2. When will your advisor deem you worthy/not worthy? I agree with you that one semester is too short to kick someone out. But your advisor is not saying "Based on your performance this semester, I am kicking you out". Your advisor is saying "So far, your work this semester is sub-par and I want you to improve". This is not a final evaluation of you---you can think of it as a mid-term review or just giving you some very important feedback. After all, it would also be unfair to wait an entire year, then make a final evaluation "You're kicked out because of poor performance this past year", when you had no warning or indication at all that you were underperforming.
In my program, during Year 1, we take 30 hours of courses per week (including time for reading and homework etc.) and are expected to work about 20 hours on research per week, plus a few hours for department seminars etc. During this time, we must come up (with help from our advisors) with two research ideas and carry them out. We don't have to fully complete them, just a proof of concept that it is a viable research idea and that we have encountered most, if not all, of the unexpected nuances and problems that would arise. At the end of Year 1, we defend both projects in front of a committee of 5 professors (including our project advisors) in a 3 hour oral exam. After this exam, the committee deliberates and determines whether or not you get to continue in the program or you leave with a Masters (or leave immediately with nothing). One very very important aspect is whether or not your advisors recommends you to continue onto a PhD with them. Your advisors being happy with your progress is the most important part---the other committee members are just there to make sure your advisors aren't being overly lenient or overly harsh and that the quality of student that continues is in line with department norms.
So, in my program, the direct answer to your question is after 1 year (or 3 semesters). However, your program is not making the same determination! Again, we get feedback from people at all points during the year so that we are able to do the best we can on the end of year exam. I think your advisor is following good feedback pedagogy by providing you with early feedback now, when you can still take action on it. It would be utterly useless if the only feedback you got was the final evaluation. I'm sorry that you don't like the content of the feedback and perhaps the advisor could have presented it in a better way (I wasn't there so I don't know), but I highly recommend that you reframe this information as constructive feedback designed to help you succeed, instead of a damning evaluation of your performance. 
3. When do people write papers? This depends a lot on the field. Most people in my program will be working on stuff that will eventually go into a paper almost immediately. There is no "transition period" where you only do classes and TA work. From the first day, we are doing work that will lead to a paper. I know this varies a lot from field to field though. Depending on the nature of the work, students in my program typically publish their first paper in year 2 or year 3. For people working on theory/mathematical modeling, a paper can be finished as early in year 2. For those running experiments or working with large amounts of data, the first paper may take longer to complete. 
In summary, here is my advice to you moving forward:
A. As others said, talk to other students in your program about normal progress and expectations. Talking to other students here is a good idea, but remember that things vary a lot from program to program and even advisor to advisor. So, while you will still benefit from hearing more perspectives, it's important to not apply something from another program or advisor to your situation without careful review.
B. Remove your own perceptions and ideas of what is "fair" so that you can properly hear the advice behind the feedback. I agree with you that your advisor may be unfair in determining your performance as sub-par. However, don't focus on that part. There is obviously something they are unhappy about if they are saying this. Find out what it is. You might have to talk to them more about a performance review and ask for specific areas to improve. As Eigen said, this may be a sign of lack of clear communication.
C. Still be yourself though. In step B, I suggest that you remove your own perceptions so that you can hear the "other side" but this doesn't mean that everything you think and feel is wrong. You are still you and you may be right that the advisor is acting unfairly. But you have to first distance yourself in order to understand what the other side is saying. Once you comprehend their point of view, then you can re-insert yourself and decide whether or not you want to do the things they are asking of  you. Sometimes professors ask for unreasonable things---e.g. they might ask you to work 60 hours per week and you may decide that this is not what you want to do. 
D. After B and C, think about where you want to be in the future. Maybe you want to first try out doing everything the professor wants you to do in B and see how you feel about it. Eventually, you will have to decide if working with this advisor is the right fit for you. Finding this out sooner is better than later! This is why I think doing "B" is really important---the longer you just think your advisor is being unfair and ignoring what they say, the longer before you are really able to decide what you would want. If you want to work with another advisor in the department, once you decide that, start talking to other professors. If you want to quit and start again at another place, get those steps in place.
E. Finally, I want to just disagree with VentureIntoNothingness's comment about academia being a cut-throat place and not for the weak. Sometimes, people accompany this with "needing thick skin". I really hate it when advisors and academics present it this way because it suggests that it's okay to bully or harass others in academia because we're "so cutthroat" and "weak students need not apply". This does not create a good atmosphere for our work. I agree that it is important for students and academics to be mature and aware enough to properly self-evalaute, handle constructive criticism and determine their own weaknesses (e.g. Step B above). But this is a far cry from calling those who cannot do this "weak". Also, I think the attitude that "academia is cutthroat, not for the weak" is a fatalist point of view that reinforces negative behaviour (such as bullying and harassment) rather than work on both improving students' ability to self-evaluate and handle critique as well as creating an inclusive work environment where bullying and harassment has no place.
(Note: I know that maybe VentureIntoNothingness did not mean their comment to condone bullying and harassment but instead meant it in the positive ways I wrote above. I don't mean to pick on you, VentureIntoNothingness! It's just that I see many academics defend bullying or other nasty attitudes with the cutthroat/not for the weak/needing thick skin phrases and maybe you are using them without meaning them in the same way!)

I've never seen a chick do a pull up, proper deadlift, or clean in my life. they always stick around the floor mats or treadmills, and only really wonder towards the free weights with their guy friends or bff. granted, I don't visit the gym all the time, but the pattern is pretty obvious. 
 
by clean I mean power clean. I've seen them do cleaning a lot hehehehe

these are nice
 
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002DGM4IU/ref=oh_details_o02_s01_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

what the hell? which school is this?
 
did you stab him in the balls with a sharpie (the metal kind)? 

trust Allah. he will guide you to the promise land. 

what the hell? which school is this?
 
did you stab him in the balls with a sharpie (the metal kind)? 

what's this deal where 80% of all the sublets you see are "for girls?" gender discrimination is not ok!

I can almost hear Nixon rolling in his grave. The fact that fracking is exempt from the clean air/water act really irritates me. I'm not in the business. perhaps it's inherently impossible to maintain air/water quality with the technology, but letting them loose like that is an open invitation to exploitation. This can be addressed by electing the right people into office, but I think the root of the issue surrounding this is just the lack of awareness among the general population. People would rather remain ignorant of what's going on around them until it's near the doorsteps. So we're electing the same muppets into office. climate change ranks lower than gas prices in this country. my roommate (who happens to be a high school teacher) doesn't believe in climate change, thanks to the overpaid republican morons in congress spreading Koch funded propaganda. I'm probably generalizing. maybe someone more politically apt than me can comment on that..

trust Allah. he will guide you to the promise land. 

trust Allah. he will guide you to the promise land.