UGAgrad07

Can anybody tell me about the apartments on/near Pensacola St.? It looks like it's really close to Dodd Hall. Also, I'm considering Jefferson Arms & Jefferson Towers. They're owned by the same company. Does anybody know anything about these properties?

As someone who straddles the liberal activist/fraternity member divide, I can say with confidence that no one social group in Athens is so oppresive that you can't escape it. True, about 18% of UGA's undergraduate population is in a Greek-letter organization, but Athens is a really diverse community to be as small as it is (around 100,000 permanent residents). Athens has a thriving arts/music/culture scene, and there are a variety of cultural events (especially the Human Rights festival) and community events (especially the Twilight Criterium, a nighttime bicycle race through downtown Athens) that really help make Athens a great place to live for all kinds of people. UGA has an incredible array of large-school research advantages but it hasn't changed Athens' small town feel. At the risk of sounding cliche`, Athens really does have something for everybody. I earned a B.S. in Psychology and an M.A. in Religion here, and after 7 years I'm sad to leave. Regarding places to live, there are a number of complexes which are difficult to find online, but easy to find by driving around town. My recommendation to anybody who is moving here is to come here for a day or two and just drive around. My favorite area to live is just West of the dorms, off Bloomfield. It's a quieter area with houses and smaller apartment complexes, and the UGA bus goes down Milledge Ave. so a bus stop for the campus bus is never more than a block or two away. I enjoy it because I refuse to pay for a parking pass, and Athens is a *very* bike/walking/public transportation friendly place. I agree with the post that advised against North Ave. and Riverbend Rd. In my experience, any kind of gated community that you can find online (the Woodlands, the Retreat, the Reserve, Abbey West, etc) are all going to be full of rich white undergrads from Atlanta suburbs. As a graduate student, your best bet is to find the smaller complexes around campus (Dearing Gardens, Bloomfield Terrace, The Springdale, Mi Casa, etc). Also, some of the older areas of town (off Hancock Ave., Reese St., and other cross streets between Milledge, Broad, and Prince Ave.) are being rejuvenated. A number of older, smaller houses are being renovated in that "craftsman" style that seems to be so popular. Finding great housing in Athens is relatively easy, but the easiest way to find it by far is to come here and look around campus, particularly west of the dorms and right around Five Points (where Lumpkin St. and Milledge Ave. meet). Congratulations to anybody who's been admitted to UGA for Fall '08! You'll love it!

Hey everybody, Just got admitted to FSU's Ph.D. program in Religion and now I'm in the apartment hunt as well. I'd really like to live within walking distance of Dodd Hall, which looks like it's in the southeast corner of campus. Can anybody tell me about the area around the south gate? I found a complex called Jefferson Towers that looks really attractive for grad students in that area, but I have no idea how that area of town is, or whether Jefferson Towers is prohibitively expensive. Can anybody inform me about that area of campus/town, or provide any other names of places I might check out that are close by? Thanks!

Just checked the status page for UCSB's program and it *still* says there's no decision available. Has anybody heard one way or the other from UCSB?

Rejected from Rice, rejected from Emory, waitlisted at FSU. Waiting on rejections from UCSB and UNC-CH. Were any of you people at the SECSOR (AAR/SBL/ASOR) conference in Atlanta this weekend?

Just got done talking with a professor at Rice. I'm out. 0 for 2 now, waiting on UCSB, UNC, and FSU. No reason to hope for any of them. Man, this sucks. UPDATE, though a minor and perhaps meaningless one: I'm waitlisted at FSU.

Thanks for the peace of mind, mconsul. I applied in American at UNC, but the prof I wanted to work with, Tom Tweed, announced in January that he's leaving for UT-Austin. Since he's gone, I can assume they won't want me. Likewise, I'm assuming FSU isn't going to want me because of the ahistorical nature of my interests, and considering theirs is an American Religious History program, I'm afraid they won't think I fit. With UCSB, I had to send off my application before I got an opportunity to retake the GRE, so I had to send out my old scores, which included a Verbal of 630 (88th %), which I'm sure is low enough to be tossed out immediately. Which is why I'm hanging all my hopes on Rice. In most of these programs I applied to American Religious History/Cultures/etc., except Rice where I applied to the Mysticism/Gnosticism/Esotericism program. My past research emphasis has been Religion, Mass Media, and Popular Culture. I don't know how many people have been admitted with these interests in the past, but a quick look at Rice's student list doesn't seem to indicate that. They seem to have a lot of Philosophical Theology people. I mean, there are numerous other people doing more things similar to me, but I still think I would fit in well with the other things already going on there.

Adding to the information pool: I applied to Emory, Rice, FSU, UCSB, and UNC-CH. I got my rejection from Emory last Friday by mail. Haven't heard a word from the other schools, and of course I'm panicky. A colleague of mine was accepted to UNC-CH and was notified by phone in mid-January. Another colleague has been admitted to FSU and Vandy in American Religious History. She was told that she was the only one admitted at Vandy in that specialty. I initially felt good about Rice: I talked to four of the professors by phone, and one offered to edit my personal statement twice before I sent it in. Now that it's fast approaching mid-March, though, I'm worried sick. V:680 (96%) Q:610 (61%) A:5.0 (53%) GPA:3.99 (4.0 in grad work in Religion/English/Anth/Psych departments) MA in Religion & Literature, 2 regional presentations, book proposal under review, section chairman for regional AAR conference. What gives?