pea-jay

I've spent time in both cities and taken extension classes in Davis. Davis is by far and away more bike friendly than Berkeley. Just look at the topography of both places. Davis is table-flat. Berkeley is...more challenging to put it nicely.

tea party

This month can't get over soon enough. My schools dont report till march and work up the ante in my going somewhere by announcing another round of layoffs. If I don't go, I have less than 50% chance of having a job in a few months anyway. Arg!

Before you rule out a professional moving company, get a quote. A reputable firm will always do them for free and you might be surprised to find it to be cheaper or at least worth it. I had that happen once to me and saved Buko bucks in the process. Not to mention the relief of not having to load or unload.

Century Boulevard

old flame

after shave

after life

I am. But I have job and family considerations that are prompting me to move as well.

fire balls

Not necessarily. Many cities have a minimum mandated temp for daytime and night time conditions. When I lived in Chicago, landlords only had to maintain a temp in the upper 50s indoors between 10p and 6a. It went up to the low to mid 60s during the day hours. One place I lived, the guy was a stingy SOB and followed the mandated minimums and cut off the heat overnight. It took some getting used to. The second place I lived, I lived over the boiler and had first crack at the heat. It rarely fell below 78 in the apartment. The place I stayed in NYC (also steam heat) was real messed up. One wing of the building was broiling hot and the other side freezing cold. Just something to keep in mind.

Sky Walker

arsenic poisoning

Since the OP who first brought this up IS familiar with NYC, its only Chicago that needs some background on. My cousins and friends still live on the north side of the city. It is a diverse area and probably the most "New York" part of the city, at least when it comes to density, living accommodations and transit service. You can do anything and get anywhere at all hours of the day. The combination of the Red/Purple/Brown lines allow for rail service that is most akin to NYC's local/express services with busses filling in the gaps. It's probably also the most expensive, outside of the highpriced downtown and River North condos and apartments. The extensive lakeside parks complete this area's attractiveness and beats a view of the East River any day. It's the closest thing to Manhattan outside of Manhattan. That said, I never personally lived on the North Side. My preferences were always for the Northwest side, inland from the Lake along Milwaukee Avenue. Also accessible 24hrs by train and occasional Owl bus, this area was grittier, funkier and more "real" than along the Red Line. I lived in what was best described as a Poler-Rican neighborhood with the odd mix of Puerto Ricans, Polish and young 20 and 30-somethings (singles and families) priced out of areas closer to the lake. Other areas further to the northwest were made up of your classic native Chicagoan, decendants of past immigration waves, now thoroughly American. Kinda like what you would find in the outer reaches of Queens. I've been to Queens, have family from there. It feels similar. For me, I am not the slightest bit intimidated by the size of either city. So when it came time to go back to grad school, I only had two cities I really would consider. Having lived in Chicago (ditto for my wife) we would have no real problem going back. Having visited NYC a number of times over the year, the allure of that place only seems to grow. Time to try something new. For you, I'm sure you'll probably enjoy it and I highly recommend checking out places along the Milwaukee avenue corridor (if you don't mind the extra commute) in addition to the north side itself. If at all possible try and visit the city before you make your decision.

Good lord, 20 schools, I cannot imagine the headache or expense that would entail. I am not an English major, but I did go with the two school scenario. Originally I seriously considered attending my previous grad school in Chicago where I completed 1/3 of my previous masters program along with three schools in NYC. I dropped the Chicago one after the city lost the bid for the 2016 Olympics--don't laugh, it's true--leaving three. I ditched one of the NYC programs after visiting the city and getting a weird vibe from the school. Thus I was left with two schools I would be more than thrilled to attend. In the end I think it was more the fact I want to be in *that* city that kept my focus very limited. We'll see how it all pans out.

The easy answer is the newer the unit the better. Energy efficiency codes are much improved over earlier decades as are the heating and cooling capabilities of the various climate control units out there. Getting an apartment in the middle of a large newer structure will pretty much ensure comfortable living space. Older structures will tend to be far more variable. I live in a rather old half insulated house and my primary source of heat is wood (yes there are places where this is still common) with electric space heat backup in the bedrooms. No central heat or AC. Needless to say temperature swings are quite wild indoors (45 lowest inside, 100 highest). I'm not thrilled about that but the house is in a nice area, is a cheap rental with a great landlord so I cant complain too much. I must say though, the next place I live will not require me to monitor a fire and periodically be a chimney sweep. Dirty job. Most of the time when it's cold, I wear extra clothes.

Great list. Hard to read but good info

I would want to contact only to know for what reasons my app was rejected. I want to know if it is something fixable like my GRE, wider mix of LOR writers or take a class (its been more than 10yrs since I did) versus a "fit" or "not good enough" due to something like my UG GPA, which cannot be fixed.

hunting accident

I'm pretty close to debt free at the moment (only minimal credit card debt) and working on building a savings war chest of at least $15K. I hope to get at least a modest amount of assistance somewhere and plan on utilizing loans elsewhere to cover school stuff and my portion of the family budget. I know this isnt an option for everyone, but my wife will be working FT, so she will cover the rest. That's the plan anyway.

I consider myself lucky to have a rather common name so I usually wind up hiding in mass anonymity of the web. Most of the stuff that is related to me is more or less permanently archived on various government web sites and is 100% job related. My colleague at work on the other hand...she is the only one on the planet with her name. Yikes.

lame excuses

report card

Big Bird