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If you're considering Portland you might want to consider the University of Oregon in Eugene, OR. It's only ~2 hours from Portland and as I understand they have a museum studies type MA.

I don't think a car is necessary for living in the Emory area. There are buses and shuttles that serve the Emory area and bring you to shops and restaurants so all your basic needs are accessible by public transit and/or walking (there are some hills though!). Having a car makes life easier but lots of people get by without one.

Typically they are administrated by the owner. Both of my agreements have been somewhat informal. Of course I signed a lease agreement indicating the amount of rent, due date, and other major points but if smaller details needed to be worked out that was done verbally. I never had to do a credit check or have co-signers. One landlord had me give a security deposit equal to one month's rent, one had me give first and last month's rent but no additional deposit. One owner had me give proof of enrollment, the other just took my word for it. It all depends on the landlord, in my experience.

For folks heading to Emory I want to plug their off-campus housing board. It's smaller and way more focused than something like Craigslist. I found two fantastic places to live using the site. Both were basically "in-law apartments" (a small studio or one bedroom apartment on the back corner of the property of a larger home) in the Briarcliff area (the large/nice homes ~5 minutes walking distance from campus). One other suggestion I have is only for folks who are okay dealing with sales people. There's a business called ProMove that helps people navigate the many many apartment complexes in Atlanta. It's free for renters and basically you sit down with a representative and give your geographic area, price range, move-in date and size requirements. They make a map of all the places that fit your criteria and even call all the complexes to see if they are running specials and/or have availability for your move-in date. The thing is, the way ProMove makes money is from you visiting complexes and saying they referred you and from the referral fee they collect if you actually sign a lease with one of the complexes they suggest. This means that they will call you and try to encourage you to sign with one of their client's complexes. I'm pretty shy and can have social anxiety, but over time I've become less sensitive to aggressive sales people so I felt fine just telling them no or that I'd found a place and they should stop calling me. Your mileage may vary. The service isn't perfect but I think it's a good way to get started as long as you're okay with the "sales" aspect.

MARTA = Metro Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority MARTA is the agency that oversees all the buses and trains in Metro Atlanta (meaning it covers several of the counties that make up Atlanta). There is a light rail train system that has the "plus sign" routes described above but there are also buses. MARTA buses are not great but they are okay. Like most public transit, they are sometimes late, sometimes crowded, and don't run as frequently as you'd like them to. On the other hand I found them serviceable for getting around the Emory area. Also, there are some buses that run from the Emory area to the rail stations, which can then give you access to the rest of the city. Regarding safety, I don't know what level of risk you find acceptable so I'm not sure I can give a solid answer. I didn't find the buses and trains in Atlanta to be any worse than they are in San Francisco or in New York City. There are always the hustlers, the intoxicated, the rowdy and the pick-up artists looking for true love. Sometimes that can be annoying or even feel threatening but for the most part I was able to ignore it. Obviously you always need to be aware of your surroundings and protect your valuables though.

How strong of a cyclist are you? Ithaca has a lot of very steep hills, both on the Cornell campus and in town. Hills + ice, snow, sleet and sludge = danger. During the winter the roads are fairly well-maintained but I not necessarily cleared off right away. The sidewalks are often icy. During the winter you're better off on the bus than on a bike, in my opinion.

Finally heard back from everywhere that I applied so now I can make my decision. I'm gonna be a Duck (University of Oregon)!

I went to undergrad at Cornell and was very involved in LGBT life, both informal social stuff as well as organizations on campus. This was a few years ago so things may have changed but here's my experience: 1) Overall Ithaca as a city and Cornell as a school are liberal, queer-friendly places. 97% of the time I felt totally safe and comfortable (I am a white genderqueer butch-presenting person). Cornell's LGBT resource center at is a great place to start getting acquainted with the community. 2) There are always assholes. I encountered a fair amount of homophobia from fellow undergrads, often young men who had never spent any time around gay people before coming to college. One night I was walking home from a party and someone called me a dyke and threw a beer can at me from a moving car (I was on the outer edge of Collegetown). However I think this was largely from the younger undergrad population. I never had any issues with professors, graduate students, administrators, school staff, local businesses, etc. 3) There is one specifically gay bar/club and while it's fun it's the same crowd all the time so it can get old. I'm not a huge bar person so it was fine for me. I went a few times a semester when I felt like dancing. Also, it's an under-over club, meaning people who are over 18 but under 21 can go if they sign some paperwork promising not to drink. That's an FYI because there will be young undergrads there 4) There are fairly frequent private parties/house parties/planned outings (to bars, to movies, someone's birthday, etc), especially in the men's community. The women's community is smaller and slightly less partyish but still fun. The women's community is more likely to be comprised of a blend of Cornell students, Ithaca College students, staff from both schools, and locals. The men's community I found to be mostly Cornell students but I could easily be wrong about that. 5) There are quite a few on-campus LGBT organizations and an LGBT rep in the student government. 6) Ithaca is a college town. It's fairly small. The queer community sometimes feels a little small. The dating pool sometimes feels small and/or "incestuous" (in that people end up dating their friends, or their friends' exes, or whatever). Again, I was an undergrad so I saw a lot of interpersonal drama that I think can be attributed to youth/inexperience. I don't think the drama was at all specific to Ithaca/Cornell. 7) Like most of Cornell, the queer community is overwhelmingly white, cis, and upper middle class. 8) I keep referring to the men's community and the women's community because while the two groups came together for some parties or on-campus activities, for the most part they were pretty separate. I have found this to be true of queer communities all over the place and the separation is no worse at Cornell than it is in San Francisco, Atlanta, or San Diego (other places I have lived). In my experience at Cornell there were few trans* folks who were out and active in the community. I hope this has changed in the intervening years but I don't know. Hope this helps. Message me if you want to talk more!

I haven't heard back from NYU or UC Irvine. I want my rejections so I can accept my offer from Oregon without any lingering doubts!

I think wait list spots tend to open up in late March/early April once applicants have heard back from all their schools. It doesn't hurt to keep in touch with the school where you are waitlisted and let them know you are still interested but just know that they are probably still waiting on responses from their admissions offers.

Anyone know about the queer/lgbt life in Eugene?

Just accepted off the wait list at University of Oregon! Yay, I'm going to grad school after all!

I'm pretty sure that UCSD funds their students through TA positions. However, they are not necessarily in the anthro department. I know several first-year PhD students in the department (I work for UCSD) and they TA for the undergraduate "core courses" -- multi-quarter interdisciplinary courses that combine social science and humanities studies (example: Making of the Modern World -- http://roosevelt.ucsd.edu/academics/gen-ed/mmw.html). I don't know for sure that this will apply to the incoming cohort but I think it's likely.

Heard back this morning. Not admitted, as I suspected. Glad I can stop wondering.

I e-mailed Chicago last night and got an official response this morning. Not admitted to the PhD but offered a spot in MAPSS with 50% tuition remission. It's still a lot of money but I'm going to give it serious thought.