talpostal

I haven't, I don't get as much Ann Arbor beer as I'd like.

Huge Michigan beer fan here. The best breweries are Founders, Bell's, and Short's (which only distributes in Michigan). Breweries that are smaller (and therefore harder to find) but still terrific are Greenbush, Dark Horse, Kuhnhenn, and Jolly Pumpkin. Right Brain and Griffin Claw are both pretty good as well. If anybody here is reallllly serious about Michigan beer, tickets go on sale for the largest beer festival in Michigan this Thursday morning. It's in Ypsilanti in late July and it's absolutely amazing. I would definitely recommend buying tickets well in advance of the event because it's guaranteed to sell out. http://www.mibeer.com/beer-festivals Edit: I should also add that Michigan is in the middle of a huge mead kick right now as well. B. Nektar Meadery, Schramm's Meadery, and Kuhnhenn are potentially the three best meaderies in the entire world and they're all in metro Detroit. You all should try some out if you're able to find it in stores.

Didn't do anything on your list. My main thing in high school was sports.

For those who are already in grad school, are you usually busy enough on Fridays and Saturdays that you can't go out?

Mostly craigslist, but also uloop, zillow, and roomster. I'm not really a Bud Light guy either but I identify with that crowd a lot more than the "drink a glass of wine and be in bed by 10" crowd.

Everybody on craigslist seems to want a quiet vegetarian roommate. How do I get in contact with the Bud Light-drinking bros? That kind of crowd is in Capitol Hill and U District, right?

Officially accepted my offer for UW's museology program. Yeehaw!

When do students usually sign leases for the Fall?

Am I crazy for leaning toward living in the University District? I really like the idea of walking to campus and can deal with living in a more crowded/noisy area as long as it's not crazy crazy but it seems like every grad student lives somewhere else.

Ann Arbor is entirely, entirely separate from Detroit. It's a great college town and a great place to live. It consistently wins all sorts of accolades for being one of the best places in the country to live: http://www.annarborusa.org/live-here/facts-rankings

Unless there's a big cost difference or you really, really, really hate snow, you can't go wrong with Michigan.

Really? On my visit a few weeks ago Belltown seemed quaint. I think I'm going to shoot for closer to the campus.

I'm in the same situation as you except with UW instead of San Francisco State. While applying GWU was more or less my dream school but now that I'm actually looking at the offers UW with the scholarship is less than half the price of GWU (and the cost of living is significantly lower as well). Is GWU the best program? Probably. Is it worth paying an extra $35,000 to go there? Almost definitely not.

I don't homebrew but I definitely enjoy craft beer. Somehow it doesn't surprise me that the person who starts a homebrewing thread is an archaeologist

I've never been or had any interaction with A2 management but the price may be cheaper because it isn't in a very good location. That apartment isn't too far from the nursing school, med school, and Rackham, but it isn't very close to city stuff and is in a slightly obscure neighborhood. I would bet that a fair amount of grad students would be living there.

I'm on the verge of accepting my offer, I'm heading out to Seattle this week for an open house. For current students, is there anything in particular that I should check out or keep an eye out for?

Let's talk about beer again.

They only distribute to about half of the country but see if you can get your hands on some Founders beer. In Michigan they're just as well-respected as Bell's and Founders is known for making top-of-the-line stouts and porters. Founders Porter and Breakfast Stout are both 100/100 on ratebeer and although they're mega-rare Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout and Canadian Breakfast Stout are considered some of the best beers in the nation.

The biggest event of the year is the Michigan Brewers Guild Summer Beer Festival in Ypsilanti July 25th and 26th. Pretty much every brewery in Michigan is there, and there will probably be nearly 1000 different varieties of beer. Most of it is rare beer and beer that's specifically brewed for the festival, so it's about as good as it gets. Tickets go on sale May 1st and will sell out so I would recommend getting them shortly after they go on sale. Another big one would be the Michigan Brewers Guild Detroit Beer Festival in late October.

Where are you based? My knowledge outside of Michigan is limited but we have some pretty huge ones all over the state.

They're very hard to find outside of beer festivals and big tasting events but if you like beer on nitro taps you would love it out of a firkin. What they do is put the beer in a mini-cask without outside carbonation and it gives you awesome taste and texture that you can't find anywhere else. The downside is that they have a super short shelf life which is partially why they're so rare.

Hopslam is great. If you're in Michigan you can find it in stores still if you know where to look. I also hear that Dark Horse Double Crooked Tree is being distributed right now and that may be better.

Beer snobs will tell you to drink most beers at "cellar temperature" (IE slightly cold) because it gives you the best taste of all of the flavors. This, coincidentally, is why beers like Coors Light have so much invested in serving their beers "super cold" or having the "mountains turn blue"--they know that their beers don't taste good and want it served cold to mask the flavor. That being said, drink beer the way you want to drink beer. If you like a cold Guinness you're not going to get the full flavor but if that's how you like it, that's how you like it and anybody who tries to make you feel bad for drinking it that way is a jerk. As for cheap beer, PBR has always been popular with hipters as a blue-collar beer (locally they drink Stroh's too, for the same reason). Personally, if I'm buying a yellow fizzy beer I'd much rather have Blue Light or Yuengling.

North Campus is architecture, music, and engineering so I do not expect that you would be having classes there. I recommend that people try and find housing close to Central Campus because Ann Arbor is great when everything is walkable, but 2 bedrooms for under 1k total is going to be hard to find. As a rule of thumb, I feel like anything within walking distance is going to be in the $550-$600 per person range. As you may have seen, though, if you're willing to drive (or live on north campus) things will get cheaper very quickly. I would definitely recommend paying extra to live where you can walk to downtown, though. It's definitely worth it.

Michigan is a top-notch school and I would recommend it for just about anybody. If you mind cold weather and snow or prefer a large city setting, though, Washington is probably for you.