rising_star

Housing can be expensive in Princeton. Check out http://point.princeton.edu/tigertrade and click on housing to get an idea. Here are some excerpts though... "seeking housemate for a 2 bedroom, 1 bath house a 5 min walk from campus, near Nassau and Washington. You would pay $800/month, including utilities, or $900, including parking." "looking to share a nice, spacious, 2nd-story, 2-bedroom Lawrence low-rise apt. with shared kitchen, living & dining room, and bath. Rent is currently $504/month, plus about $10/per person/month for utilities. On the shuttle route, or 15 min. walk to campus" university-owned, I believe "Roommate wanted to retain 2 bedroom Butler apartment (large unit) for 2006-07 school year. Apartmentmate is a friendly female 3rd year grad student. Apartment is fully furnished except for your bedroom. Rent is $365/month+util (but lower rent can be negotiated for a commuter student.)" university-owned "Magie Apartments, 7th floor, 3 bedrooms, apartment furnished, bedroom unfurnished, laundry in basement, lower rent than comparable apartments (continous lease for several years) projected to $470/month/person." university-owned "We have one bedroom open in a three bedroom house, 10min walk from campus. The place is great - hardwood floors, front porch, new kitchen, spacious bedrooms and common areas. The room for rent is $725/mo plus utilities." I hope that helps.

Why is it that advisors are so out of touch? I mean, I didn't have anyone to ask (there's no dept at my school), so I just sort of winged it based on internet searches and trying to find professors in my field of interest. Any idea why your advisors ideas were so off?/

Why not? What've you got to lose?

Lots of people bike, particularly around campus. Campus isn't big but sometimes biking is convenient, especially since graduate housing can be a bit far away. One warning, campus has a slope so you'll get used to pedaling uphill if you aren't already. I know nothing about hiking except that the Outdoor Action preorientation program uses lots of hiking trails in nearby states. You could proabbly email them and ask if you wanted to get a good sense of what hiking trails were available. As far as New Brunswick, depending on where you're goin in NB, you might be better off taking NJ Transit. It's only a 15 min train ride (4-5 min on the Dinky and 10 on the NE Corridor line) away. If you've got more questions, be sure to ask.

How early do people generally start looking for housing? How much does housing typically cost (i'm thinking 2bd/2ba type accomodations)? Are things affordable in Athens or outrageously priced? How common it is for people to go into Atlanta for things? How safe do you feel on campus? In the surrounding areas? What do folks do when they want to escape from the campus life? Do you ever feel like you live in a 'bubble'? As an undergrad, what has your interaction with grad students been like? How would you describe them? I'm visiting in a week. Are there any places in particular that I should check out? Places to avoid?

gt6, why would you advise staying away from the buses? Personally, I think MARTA is overpriced for the services it offers. They haven't really upgraded the system much since the 96 Olympics while the Atlanta suburbs have grown massively. As is true in most cities in the South, a car is pretty much necessary. Although years ago I went tons of places on MARTA with my family. We'd drive to the cloest train station and park rather than fight traffic all day (particularly true for things like baseball, football, and basketball games). I have to say that I love Emory. It's campus is fairly pretty though some of the building can use renovations. The area is great. Midtown is a great place to be near. ENJOY!

Climate change research annoys the hell out of me. I mean, we have no way of accurately contextualizing annual temperature change because temperature recording dates back 150 years, at most. Seems kinda ridiculous, particularly given that we infer that the earth periodically gets warmer and cooler. I mean, the Medieval times were known for being colder (which might explain the dearth of good literature from that epoch). I digress... Going on visits to a couple of schools at the end of this week. Still waiting to hear from the University of Miami. I'd love to go there, for the weather if nothing else. Last I checked, they hadn't even met. :shock: I plan to email them on Monday since AAG ends today...

Did you apply to US or Canadian schools? I have a friend that's heard back from several Canadian schools already...

They might not take it out but that doesn't mean you don't have to pay them. IE, I have to report any scholarship money that I get that now as an undergrad that pays for more than tuition. I have a scholarship that covers room and half-board, which I have to report to the IRS. They even give me a tax form, sorry can't remember the name of it, to use. And then on my 1040-EZ I have to write "sch" out to the side of the income to let the IRS know it's a scholarship (which I presume means I can't efile). I'm a bit unsure of how that whole thing works because I've never had to do it before (this is the first year my school sent the amount on an official IRS document and such). I'd imagine that you have to pay some taxes out of an assistantship/fellowship because it's income you're using for noneducational expenses.

<!-- m -->http://housing.rutgers.edu/ie/fees.html<!-- m --> is a link to prices for on-campus housing at Rutgers. <!-- m -->http://ruoffcampus.rutgers.edu/avgrent.asp<!-- m --> is a link to prices for offcampus housing. As far as I can tell, the on campus housing is priced fairly, although it's probably not as nice as what you could find on your own. What I calculate is that your share of a 2bd apartment for 12 months would be around $7200... After that you'd have about $10K to live on, or a little over $800 a month. I think that's certainly manageable up here but you'll be spending a lot of time shopping at ShopRite, Target, Wal-Mart (like any other grad student really). I hope that helped some more. I rechecked the train schedule thing because of what Andrew said. To get to NYC, it's one train (the NE Corridor line) that typically takes right around an hour. To get to Philly, it's two trains. The first is NE Corridor going towards Trenton. Once you get to Trenton, you transfer to SEPTA. The SEPTA train alone takes almost an hour to get from Trenton to 30th Street Station in Philly but it is cheap (like $5 to go to 30th street and $7 to take the train to anywhere that SEPTA goes). The most convenient airport to get to via train is Newark Liberty International but if you're bringing a car you might find it easier to drive to Philly. Again, I don't have a car so everything about driving is a bit weird to me. Where are the actual Rutgers students??

I'm also looking into UGA (the Department of Geography). How is the housing situation for graduate students? What do things typically cost and when would one need to start looking? Do graduate students live predominantely in offcampus housing? Is a car necessary or is public transportation enough to get you everywhere you need to go? What is the city's cultural atmosphere? Are there lots of arts (theater, galleries, concerts) activities going on? Are they expensive? Are there any good coffee shops? Good bookstores? Does football take over the campus in the fall? Do lots of students really go to the Florida-Georgia game in Jacksonville? Do you have any sense of what the graduate student community is like? Are there bars and things that grad students can do that undergrads don't? Really, I'm fishing for any informationt that I can get. Thanks in advance for your help.

I know that UGA is still deciding on Graduate School assistantships and such. They said I should hear by the middle of March, which is rapidly approaching.

OMG, that sounds just like home. I don't know if you know anything about the Florida State-University of FL rivalry but that's pretty much what it is. I grew up in a football town and I actually miss the hoopla and having ESPN's College Gameday come to town and all of that. (I mean, this is Tallahassee where we kicked the reporters covering the 2000 election recount out of their hotels because football fans had booked those rooms 2+ years in advance. The reporters were offering money to anyone and everyone in their desperation to find some place to stay within 50 miles.) Soooo exciting. And being out of the Bible Belt will be nice too. I just realized that my OSU visit is this week (Thursday-Saturday afternoon). They haven't given us an itinerary yet. Any suggestions on things I should make sure that I see or do?

UGA is out of the running? Sad!

Thanks for the great info. I'm a bit wary of Big 10 football, having grown up as an SEC football fan (Go Gators!) and a FSU hater (problematic since I grew up in Tallahassee). It would be nice to be in a football atmosphere again. Is it difficult to get student tickets to the game? (I think of how until FSU revised their system students would camp out for half the week to get tickets to the games, particularly UF v. FSU). Who is OSU's biggest rival in the Big 10? Is there a strong religious preference on the campus (besides Father Dan)? If so, what is it like? Do you have any idea where most grad students live?

I need the advice too. I haven't a clue. Because my thesis work is going poorly. I haven't had spring break yet, instead I have midterms next week and no motivation to prepare for them. *sigh* This senioritis thing is not good.

Wait, meridionale. Which school did you decide on?

Building on what Andrew said, some professors aren't doing research in an area anymore but it isn't because they aren't interested in it. Sometimes they do what they get funding to do. There's a prof I'm interested in working with at one school that doesn't do research in that area anymore but is still eager and willing to work with me.

Are rankings even published for geography programs? I agree with what Andrew said about researching the interests (and publications) of the professors at the schools that you're looking at. That's how I arrived at the schools that I applied to although now I wish I had cast an even broader net. Florida State has a cluster of faculty working on political geography (including their DGS)

I disagree on both points. Providence isn't any more wintry than other New England cities. Yes there's snow but you're right near the coast so the climate is a bit more moderate. At any given time, it is usually only 3-4 degrees (Fahrenheit) cooler in PVD than it is in NYC/NJ/DC (okay, maybe 6-7 for DC). Brown is definitely not second rate. It is one of the 8 Ivy League institutions. Granted in many fields it's name is less recognized than some of the other Ivy League schools but the name recognition certainly does help, just like a degree from any Ivy gives you some name recognition that you wouldn't get otherwise. To the OP, good luck. I think Providence is a charming town. Brown itself is on a huge hill and most of the city is below it so be prepared for that. There is a great regional theater there (it won a Tony for best regional theater), Trinity Repertory Company, if you're into that sort of thing. And that is actually all I know about Providence. I visited five or six times.

Hey Cheryl, I don't actually live in New Brunswick but I can say some stuff about mass transit. NJ Transit is pretty good. From New Brunswick's train station, it takes just over an hour to arrive at Penn Station in NYC. You can also go south to Philly using NJ Transit and SEPTA (Philly's mass transit system). I have no idea how much a car is actually needed. If you go to http://www.njtransit.com you can look up all the bus routes for New Brunswick and get an idea of where they go. Hope that helped. Sorry I can't be of more help.

Would it be possible to go to office hours (or call during them) or stalk them? Just a thought!

Sorry, that one above was me. I don't know anything specific about econ at FSU unfortunately. The area around campus refers to a lot of different places since FSU is huge and borders on several different neighborhoods. The College Avenue side of campus borders on downtown Tallahassee which has a bunch of construction right now (they're building high rise condos, bleck). I should say that even the high-rise condos aren't that high because there's a height cap in Tallahassee. The area by the stadium is... different. It borders on some of the more predominantly African-American communities where a lot of FAMU students reside (I'm think of the Gaines street area). Also by the stadium is Jackson Bluff Road, home to tons of FSU and TCC (that's Tallahassee Community College) students. Then there's the part of campus that borders Tennessee St., which is populated mostly by businesses and also includes 'The Strip', a group of clubs/bars. The Strip is still popular but nothing like it was when I was younger. Tennessee St has lots of fast food places that stay open either 24 hours or until midnight or 2 am on weekdays and 4am on weekends. The McDonald's on Tennessee Street is, for whatever reason, a place lots of people go after going clubbing. :? don't ask me. I should also note that during Homecoming (FSU and FAMU), Tennessee Street frequently gets blocked off or is bumper-to-bumper or has a million cops on it. That is one road that you never want to speed down, trust me. Across the street from part of campus (more like the Theatre and the Loop, a pizza place), is Frenchtown. I suspect this is the place you've heard bad things about. Frenchtown is a predominately black neighborhood. It used to be known for prostitution and drugs but that's not true anymore. The city and local community leaders have spent years trying to turn around the area's image and it's working. They're building all sorts of new businesses. In fact, one of the more popular student coffeeshops, All Saints Cafe, is in Frenchtown. Only once in my life (I lived in Tallahassee for 17 years and spend pretty much all my vacations and summers there) have I ever felt unsafe in Frenchtown and that was only because it was late at night, I was by myself, and I think I heard a car backfire. Needless to say, nothing happened to me. Have people told you that anywhere specifically is dilapidated? I'm curious to know because I really don't think that's true anymore. Nice is relative in Tallahassee. I like the canopy roads and heavily wooded areas so I don't think campus is that nice. That isn't to say that the campus itself isn't pretty. A fair amount of green space, several gorgeous fountains, etc. (I haven't really walked around FSU in about 5 years...) Tallahassee is filled with tree-huggers. If you ever commute long distances (by which I mean 6+ miles), you'll understand quickly. Basically, we like the trees too much to cut them down to widen roads. Which means you sit in traffic. It's really only bad during rush hour and even then only in certain places. The rest of the time, I can get anywhere I want to in town in 15 minutes or less. Very nice. But, like I think I already said, you pretty much need a car. There are no grocery stores in close proximity to campus. Oh, and don't live in the Alumni Village.

Is it true that crime has been increasing in the area? What's the campus like? Are there lots of things to do off campus?

What other schools are on your second round list? (forgive me for not knowing but did you hear from all of the first round schools already?) I am currently wishing I'd done a second round when I considered it (for the Feb 1 deadline). I had bad feelings about apps then and they turned out to be true... GOOD LUCK!!