justlucy

I would try to visit if at all possible. I am a first-year PhD student. I actually visited all three schools that accepted me and am so glad I did because I learned a lot about the energy of each department. In the end I chose to go to what was my second choice before I visited and as I am now approaching the end of my first year I know I made the right choice. At the very least I would take others' advice and communicate with as many people from the program as possible. Good luck!

I have been using the At-A-Glance Quick Notes Academic Year (Weekly/Monthly) Planner for years and swear by it. It's a little pricey (~$30), but it is worth it!

Thanks fuzzylogician! I followed your advice and was accepted into the class. I guess it was just a formality, I am glad I didn't spend all day working on it.

As a graduate student, I am enrolling in a summer language class in order to work towards meeting the program's language requirements. I thought the process would be as simple as registering for the class, since it is only a 200 level class to begin with, but the program requires me to submit a statement of purpose before enrolling. Has anyone had to do this for a class before? I understand having to do this for an 800 level class, but writing it for a class that I am only taking because I have to is proving difficult. Any tips?

My husband and I live in Belmont Shore, which is about a 10 minute drive from CSULB (only because there are a lot of stop lights on 2nd St. and that is the main street in and out of Belmont Shore). It is a great place to live! We live on 2nd St. in what is technically known as Belmont Heights, but we are a 10 minute walk to all the bars, restaurants, and shops in the shore area, and only a five minute walk to the beach. We pay $1050 for a one bedroom but I know there are lots of studios and cheaper one bedrooms in the area, the only problem is that most of them don't advertise on the internet. If you wanted to find a place around here the best thing to do is just cruise around for "for rent" signs in the areas around 2nd St. and 4th St. (where there are also lots of coffee shops and stuff). Another way to find a place would be to pop into a coffee shop on second street and grab a copy of the local paper, "The Grunion," which always has apartment listings in the back. Anyways, we have lived here for five years and have loved every minute of it! I would highly recommend Belmont Shore/Belmont Heights

I visited the University of Michigan, WUSTL, and Rice a few weeks ago, and Ann Arbor was by far the coolest area to live in. U of M has a really open campus, which was new to me having done my undergrad at USC. I was accepted into the Women's Studies and English joint program and had a private visit. Out of the eleven people I met with during my visit every one of them was warm and welcoming, the departments really felt like their own little communities. I also had a chance to meet with four PhD students who were all very friendly and who were happy with their progress in the program. I actually couldn't have had a better visit, which made my decision between the three programs easy! Hope that helps a little! Feel free to PM me if you have a specific question.

Hi bunnywantssomemoney, I would not worry about your GRE scores too much, I was accepted to U of M and my GRE scores were horribly low, which was not due to lack of preparation but just nerves I guess. When I went to visit U of M after receiving my acceptance I met with several people who were on the admissions committee and each of them mentioned the strength of my writing sample and SOP, so I would suggest that you work on making these strong. My strategy was to use my senior thesis as my writing sample and to show in my SOP that I have both direction and flexibility when it comes to my education. Hope that helps a little. Good luck! Hi crazyhappy, I was a comp lit major in my undergrad! I think that might actually be a plus when applying to the Women's Studies and English program. Like I said above, to bunny, the best advice I can give is to work hard on your writing sample and SOP. Of the four schools I was accepted to, the only feedback I received about my applications was about the quality of those two things. If you have a specific question about the process, feel free to PM me, its hard to give out general advice that your haven't already heard from everyone else

I live in Long Beach (Belmont Shore) and it is a great place to live, but if you are looking for more urban and diverse and you will be living in Irvine then you might want to check out the Santa Ana Arts District (just google it). I have never been over there but my younger sister and my husband's younger sister love to go over there because they have edgier restaurants and a big art scene and aparently the housing is cheap and they have lots of cool options like artists lofts and shared spaces. Plus, it will be a lot closer. Good luck!

Does anyone here have experience with the McKinley rental company? It seems like all of the large apartment communities are owned/managed by them?

We are also considering a summer sublet to allow us to get to know the area before we commit to a year long lease. Has anyone done this with pets? If so, what was your experience? The hardest part about this move is that I will be particiating in a summer program, therefore, we need something for June and it looks like most of the rentals go up for either summer sublet May-Aug, or regular lease Aug+Sept.

We would also love to live in a privately owned duplex or fourplex/townhouse and to avoid living in a large isolated apartment community, but like you said, there seems to be little resources for this sort of housing without actually scouting the area. I wonder if it would be of bad taste to offer to pay a student volunteer $100 or so to scout out for rent signs in the area when we get closer to our move date? I feel like even if we found something privately owned listed on craigslist, we would need someone to check it out for us before we agreed to anything anyways. Any thoughts? The trouble with the apartment rating sites is that everyone goes on them to complain, therefore, after limiting my search to a few large complexes, I was totally bumbed to find that they all have less than desireable ratings I guess if we end up going the large apartment community route, we will have to arrange a short lease just in case.

I am curious as to how everyone plans on finding a place to live. My husband and I are moving from California to Michigan and it will cost us almost all of our savings to do so, so we won't be able to make a trip out to look for housing. Also, we have a dog so we don't qualify for student housing. Therefore, our search is limited to Craigslit and other online searches. Just wondering if anyone else is in the same boat, and if so, what strategies are you considering to make sure you end up with a decent place?

So excited to say that I will be attending the University of Michigan Ann Arbor!

That was a horrible movie to watch a month before committing to grad school Hopefully after spending the last 15 years together my husband and I will fare a little better than they did. smellybug - Thanks for the link. I thought we had it rough! Will you be looking to rent an apartment or buy a house? So far looking for rentals near campus is difficult if you have a dog. My husband and I are trying to plan a trip out together to look for housing in May but we are already on a budget due to the move. As for the private visit, I was accepted to the PhD in Women's Studies and English, so I emailed Aimee in women's studies and she set up an itinerary for me. I paid for flights and hotel but they offer a $500 reimbursement with receipts. Good luck, we should keep in touch!

Sad to say I won't be visiting with everyone else but had a pretty amazing private visit last week. Now I am dealing with the issues of how I am going to move my husband, dog, and stuff from California to Ann Arbor, and where we are going to live.