music

If you're not an idiot, you're no more likely to be in a compromised position than in any other major city, regardless of whether you're in a so-called safe or dangerous neighborhood. If you're not smart about your surroundings, you could be in danger even in the nicest area, because criminals are actually capable of travelling between neighborhoods, you know. Savannah-in-the-world's advice on this was great. You would do well not to be complacent or judgmental about your future neighbors. ETA: someone in Hyde Park, a supposedly nice area, recently got stabbed by their roommate. Soooo, no guarantees there either.

Relatively typical would be: 6am: wake up, emails, social media 7-10am: reading (humanities student) 10-12pm: gym 12-1pm: lunch 1.30-4.30pm: class 4.30-6pm: writing/reading 6-7pm: dinner 7-10pm: yoga, chilling out, emails, maybe a social event, but no work My goal is to work "normal" hours, or equivalent, so that when I do have a family (starting with my hubby moving here in August) my schedule will allow for family time which aligns with his hours. I'm not someone who has a desire to work all hours of the day and night, and as you see I place a high priority on physical and mental health

General advice and practice is between 47th and 61st, east of Washington Park/Cottage Grove. You could commute, but it hardly seems worth it. Check uchicago marketplace for sublet listings in this area.

Spring break is not long enough on the quarter system! Instead of feeling like the end of week 2, it feels more like week 14 I finally don't feel like such an imposter, although my self-confidence is still quite low and my anxiety high, in terms of long-term likely performance (especially comps, which for us are a huge ordeal at the start of 3rd year - all older students make them out to be this mystical, impossible week of pain and certain death, preceded by an entire summer spent living in the library, memorising everything ever written in Ethnomusicology).

I-House is also fantastically diverse (in terms of nationality, age range, degree level etc), plus you're right on campus. I considered it, but the cost for the room that you get turned me off. FWIW, I-House seem to always have vacancies even throughout the school year, so IDK if it's really that competitive. Maybe they just struggle to fill certain rooms. For $800/month, you could try marketplace.uchicago.edu and look for a roommate. You'll find something very nice for that money if you're ok to share with 1 or more others. Consider getting skype tours of wherever you look into. Or look for sublets - if someone wants to keep their room whilst they're abroad for a year, chances are it's a good place to live, or they'd save the hassle of subletting and just end their contract.

Last I heard, there are people without PhD aspirations who are able to engage in meaningful and/or intellectual conversation. Perhaps I am behind the times. My husband seems to manage to hold a conversation (including with my cohort, about our PhD subject) just fine. Try to think about who you are insulting when you make rash, stereotypical, demeaning statements.

I find this to be sickeningly elitist and snobbish.

J-1 does allow for exceptions for off campus work in case of exceptional financial hardship through unforeseen circumstances, like if a scholarship is withdrawn or your home country currency crashes. I've not yet heard of anyone being granted this though.

47th to 61st is fine. Stay east of Washington Park. Most live between 51st and 59th just because it's a shorter commute and that's where most of the university free transport goes. Many students are scared of people who are economically and racially different from themselves, which leads to a lot of dumb paranoia around HP's neighbouring communities. That's why housing south of the Midway is cheaper. Lots of UC's newest buildings are on 60th/61st, and it's totally safe. University police patrol down to 63rd. Just check out the uni bus routes and plan accommodation accordingly. Not only for safety reasons but also because when it's cold, you want to know you can get home without walking for 30 minutes. I found this out during the blizzard.

Varies a lot depending on the size of the apartment, which utilities are included, and how many bedrooms. The Residential Properties website shows prices. I'm paying $811/month for a tiny 1-bed place including all bills except wifi.

I live in grad housing. I'd say it's your best bet in HP. The management is decent, the rent is reasonable, the upkeep is great, and they don't turn off the heating once it's above 40 degrees like MAC do. The big downside is that you can't choose exactly where you live.

But on the other hand, don't feel obliged to rush into a decision. I had a really tough time deciding last year and made my pick about 3 days before the deadline. My decision actually changed around maybe April 10, and I'm very glad that I held out til I had all the info I needed rather than being pressured into choosing early just for the sake of wait lists. In the end, if you got a bunch of good offers you deserve to be in that position of making a call, and doing it on your own schedule. Once you have accepted an offer somewhere then yes, by all means the polite thing to do is to inform your other choices.

Our work probably is no more interesting to anyone else than jobs like accounting/sales/whatever seem to us. If you present your PhD as a job to your SO, expect them to engage with it on that level. We (as a society) tend to assume that people don't want to talk incessantly about their jobs, so your SO is most likely working on the basis that you're fine with that. Perhaps also try not to make the assumption that he isn't passionate about his work, or that leaving work in the office is a bad thing. My SO is not in academia but totally engages with my studies and values them highly, even though I treat the PhD like a job as much as possible. He often asks questions about class and my papers and when they relate to how his own knowledge intersects with what I'm doing, we will chat about it, and he can be really helpful. I actually have to encourage him to talk more about his own job, which I respect and totally want to learn more about, because I think he really sees PhD as a lifestyle and his own job as therefore somehow less interesting.

My place is 420 sq ft, and it's...ok. IMO the layout is more important than the size. Annoyingly the way my apartment is set out (doors, kitchen etc) means there's just no good way to arrange furniture, so I can't fit a kitchen table in, nor entertain guests. I don't really think it makes any difference in terms of how much time I spend at home vs on campus though. If I want privacy and more control over my environment, I stay at home. If I want to be around people or need certain resources, I go to campus. That will stay the same once I move to a bigger place with my SO. It will just make weekends more pleasant

Your research will surely be affected somewhat by the quality of your living situation. If you have roommates keeping you up late/waking you early, time taken up with dealing with house situations (no matter how dumb they seem - I spent a year living with someone who would run into the bathroom for their hour-long morning routine the second I got back from the gym and needed to shower before working, without fail, which wasted hours of my time), or a general low mood, that is likely to have a negative impact upon productivity. Quality of life was a high priority when I decided where to apply and I am really glad I made the decision that I did, ie, turning down NYU because I didn't want to commute or have no option but to live with roommates, which may or may not have turned out to be ok. You do you! If this is something which is instinctively important to you, then stick with your guns.

Depending where you live, the best way to access the L is either the 55 bus to the green line, or the 15 bus from 51st St to green (@51st) or red (@47th) line. They all go directly to the L stop. Most people use the 6 bus to get downtown though, or sometimes the Metro. Both of those run close to the university. Google maps will tell you more, or check the transloc website/app. I too am from a rough part of London and figured all the talk about Chicago being unsafe was BS, but actually, you're hyper-visible in the "wrong" neighbourhood here because of the intense racial/wealth segregation by area - and I say this being married to a black man, who also doesn't want to live anywhere requiring a potentially dodgy commute (http://www.radicalcartography.net/index.html?chicagodots). I would recommend living (inclusively) south of 47th, north of 61st, and east of Cottage Grove. Most prefer to be south of 51st, north of 59th, and east of Ellis. Or else commute via the 6 bus or Metro, which some do. People are not all home by 9pm by a long shot, undergrads love pulling all nighters, and there are 4 night shuttle routes to take account of that. You just have to be wise (to an extent reflected somewhat by your own demographic) as to how you get home after dark. I've personally had no issues, but guns and gangs are a real thing on Chicago's South Side, and some risks are not worth taking.

This quarter is getting gradually better. I think it's partly getting to know my cohort and feeling like they are real friends, not just classmates. It's reassuring to know that they are also human Having side projects like summer funding applications also somehow alleviates the stress of coursework. Now the winter just needs to turn into spring and it'll be alllll good.

I'm managing on that, plus international taxes, plus flying home to the UK 3x a year (about $1000/time). You'll be fine if you just make a budget and stick to it. I find food to be cheap, and tbh my expenses beyond rent and food (and flights) are next to nothing, thanks to the free transport around HP, free healthcare and free gym membership for PhD students. There's also enough free events going on in HP that you can have fun on a budget too. Bear in mind my $811 for a 1 bed w/ utilities is seriously hard to come by, and my apartment is only 420 sq ft. Realistically you're looking at more like $900-1100/month for a 1 bed, or maybe $750-900 for a studio. Everyone manages, and everyone has the same stipend, so you'd be just fine.

Yeah, I used to think it was fun...skiing, snow angels etc. Actually, more like hell on earth in these quantities.

See you in March It's nice here, except the snow.

They did them last year, FWIW. I remember doing mine with a 10 hour time difference, jet lag and a very dodgy hotel wifi connection.

Define 'work'...I mean I think if you're enrolled in a PhD program, you're full time, obviously including once you're done with CW and into TAing/writing up/whatever. Part time would be stuff like the weekend MBA courses, I imagine. The pricing is comparable/better than elsewhere, unless you can find a private landlord (very difficult in HP, thanks to MAC). The service level and convenience make it good value. I don't think there is dorm-housing, although there might be some 2-bed apartments available. FWIW I pay $811 including all bills, for a 1-bed, 15 mins walk or 5 mins free bus from the library, on the main shopping street in HP. It's good enough that I'll try to find a subletter and stay here for the summer. Also, if you decide to take up your place at UC, there's a website where students/staff/faculty post classified ads for subleases and apartments, so it's really easy to find something at super short notice should you decide not to go for grad housing.

There's quite a few others. UChicago, UCLA (if you're a US student), NYU... I didn't look too closely at a whole lot of programs, but I found plenty of options where you could live comfortably off the stipend with no tuition-related outgoings.

Grad housing is safe, convenient, usually well-managed and comparable value to other properties in HP. Definitely better than MAC which owns almost every apartment building in the area. Living in HP is pretty worthwhile bc of the multiple free buses and shuttles that will take you home when it's cold/snowing/you have too many books to carry. There's enough stuff going on in HP that you can get pretty much everything you need here...except a nightlife. Unless the library counts. Most people advise not living south of 61st street, which you can really only judge for yourself. I would feel fine there as a white woman, but then I come from a big multiracial city and know how to behave in that kind of environment. Some people fear relative poverty and people who look different to themselves. On the other hand, guns are a real thing. Kenwood, the area just north of HP, is fine and also served somewhat by the university transport. Some students (mostly business school or later years in PhD) live in the loop or North Chicago, but the commute sounds nasty and unreliable.

I am never ever coming back a week late again. No conference is worth being a week behind by week two. Ugh. My classes this quarter are just not fun or relevant to my area. One of them seems to be intent on giving all the students either sleep deprivation or intense anxiety issues. Or both. Suffice to say that the joy of first quarter has gone, and I've been brought well and truly back to earth. Also, it's very cold, and I miss my bf who's a long way away SAD much?