red_crayons

A tote. I don't need to think much about practicality next year. My building will be very central on campus, less than a 5 minute walk from 4 places to eat and a gym, and with a bus stop right in front. Two of my classes will be there; the third will be less than a 5 minute walk away. The four main lecture halls where I might see a guest speaker on campus are all with 5 minutes, too. The farthest I might ever walk would be 10 minutes, to go to the cinema in the evening. After being at the beck and call of students for 3 years and having two offices and walking over 90 minutes a day while I'm at WORK, I'm SOOOOOO excited to cut back on the walking and wear pretty shoes with heels and carry impractical bags.

A lot of places come furnished, I think, because most renters are students. There is nowhere like an Ikea around to buy cheap furniture, so a furnished apartment is very attractive for a lot of people, and landlords are just responding to that. That said, many landlords will gladly move furniture out of an apartment for you, and put it in storage or offer pieces to other tenants. This has happened with all 4 landlords I've had in Ithaca. My current apartment, for example, came with some ok furniture and some very ratty furniture. A few items are stored in the building, a few were just thrown out, and I'm using a couple things JUST until I can buy my own to replace them. I wouldn't write off a property just because it comes furnished. Explain that you have your own items that you will be moving with you, and ask if they can move out the furniture. If they initially say they won't, explaining that it's a make it or break it factor for you might help to motivate them. I think only a minority of landlords would hold firm on only offering their apartments furnished.

You might find something in Cayuga Heights, but just double check the bus situation! In general, I'm very winter weather-averse, so I like to live very close to a bus route. It makes life a LOT easier. Others may have a higher threshold for walking in slush and snow, and therefore not mind living in more out of the way places.

A lot of Cayuga Heights has zero bus service. It's mostly a big residential area, with no neighborhood feel and no shops or restaurants or anything. It would be difficult to get to campus for more than half the year. You generally have to go up hill and then back down hill - literally, uphill both ways - for anywhere from 10-30 minutes, which is no small feat in the winter, given that it snows a couple inches most days and gets dark at 4. It would be pretty hard to get to a grocery store without a car, too. It's very family oriented, with lots of profs and professionals. It's Ithaca's "suburb", complete with big houses and suburban politics and rich people with fancy cars and poor public transportation. If you're on the bus route, it comes every 15-30 minutes weekdays from 8 to 9ish, and once an hour until 1 or 2. On Saturday it's similar. Sunday buses only run from 9am ( I think) to 6pm, which is a huuuuuuuuge inconvenience, since you're so so far from anything useful. Don't take anyone's word that you're close to a bus stop - try to ride the bus there, or from there to campus, to see what the walk is like and how often it comes. If you like walking a WHOLE LOT, or never plan to leave the house, or don't mind driving all the time, it would be fine. But really be careful about checking out buses if you plan on using public transportation!

I know exactly what you mean! I'm staying in my apartment for that reason. It's on the top (3rd) floor of a big house with 4 apartments, and it feels very independent somehow, like a house. Maybe because there are windows on each side? Because the stairs come up to my door but don't keep going? I don't know. When I moved in, I totally had that "adult" feeling. I've slowly gotten some furniture I like and had my boyfriend make me some artwork, and it's starting to feel homey. And more adult.

YES. LinkedIn is key. It's maybe not as popular in academia - this thread, at least, is giving me that impression - but it's HUGE in the private sector, and also very popular among public (=governmental, public university programs like extension) sector folks, too. I'm working on a project that designs trainings for different community groups through partnerships among universities, HUD, USDA, and EPA (kinda). LinkedIn is really useful for the project director. She's added me and coaxed other colleagues onto it. It's increased her visibility and the visibility of our project. I think she might have even gotten some contractual work through it, although I'm not positive about that. It's used as a recruiting tool, too. My boyfriend is using it to contact HR people at companies he wants to work at. His father, a veteran marketing guy, used it in his recent job search and ended up with a cool position in a start-up. If you have any thoughts about working outside academia, or collaborating with people from industry/government/etc, it'll be a good way to make yourself more visible to those groups. Personally, I'm still not sure if I want to go the academic route long-term yet. Even if I do, I KNOW I want to work with non-academics and maybe publish outside academia, and so I want people to have a way to see what I've done and why they should work with me. If I end up out of academia, I want that profile to be up to date so that people from outside can find relevant professional information about me and see how awesome I am and hire me at their big corporation. Because it evolved primarily as a business tool, unlike Facebook, it's much more professional, too. I never friend people I respect professionally on Facebook - I think of it as very separate from work. But I'm connected to some Facebook/college friends on LinkedIn - the ones who have ambitions and are already building Careers. Generally, LinkedIn is geared toward linking coworkers, so the kinds of information people put up is different, and useful.

To get from my house downtown to Kennedy, on the ag quad, takes 20-30 minutes. I walk about 5 minutes to the bus stop, wait 0-5 minutes for the bus, spend 8-10 minutes on the bus, and walk another 3-4 minutes on campus. I could go to a farther bus stop where a bus goes straight to the ag quad every 20-30 minutes. It's about the same amount of time total - 20-30 minutes - since the walk there is longer. I just have to plan in advance more to make sure I get to the stop at the right time. When I lived in Collegetown, which is technically very close to campus, it took me 20-25 minutes of walking very uphill to get there, and I would be sweaty and tired. I really prefer living further away and taking the bus, and NOT showing up sweaty every morning. But YMMV. The Cornell-downtown shuttle (first bus scenario) comes every 6 minutes 7:30am-about noon, and every 12 minutes about noon-7pm. Other campus-downtown buses come at LEAST every 30 minutes, but the routes are all staggered, so it's functionally it's more often. Here's the TCAT bus website: http://tcatbus.com/ Many people take their bikes on the bus uphill on bus racks and ride them home. However, in the morning the bus racks are in high demand, so it doesn't seem like a good thing to count on. Everyone I know does this commute, grad students and young professionals and the occasional undergrad alike. With one exception, I guess, but she moved in with her boyfriend who already had a lease somewhere else... Edit: As far as reliability of the buses, it depends on the time of day. The middle of the day, they often run early. From 4-6, they often run just on time or a little late. You get to know what's going on, and you can plan accordingly. I think people miss buses midday because they get there just on time, when the bus went by 5 minutes earlier. The bus drivers are also pretty knowledgeable about other routes, which is helpful. If you're trying to get somewhere weird or wondering when a bus 30 comes, you can ask another bus driver who stops, and they'll either know, or they'll radio to other buses to get you the answer.

Congrats on finding a place! Lots of people really enjoy East Hill. There is a nice wine store, a cafe/coffee shop, a grocery store.... which might have just gone out of business, though... the shuttle to campus, a drug store... it's a little satellite town. You'll want to have access to a car, though, if you plan to leave the area on the weekends. The buses to other parts of town are complicated on the weekend routes, although they seem to be pretty efficient during the week. Yes, and if you walk 5 minutes, you'll be able to catch a few other bus routes that come about every 10 minutes on weekdays, and every 15-30 on evenings and weekends. Free bus passes to all new Cornell students is a university policy. It's programmed into your student ID, and you just wave your wallet in front of a sensor when you get on the bus. I believe it works 24/7. After that, to have bus access during the week, you'll need to buy a bus pass. Weekend service used to be free for students who didn't buy bus passes, but I'm not sure if that is still the case. It's like $200 a year when you buy it. Who else has received the Welcome to Cornell email and postcard??? I was so excited when mine came! Even though I'm not moving cities and my office is only moving about 1000 feet across the ag quad... But now I need to figure out how some things, like parking and bus passes and email server, will work. I'm transitioning BACK from staff to student, after going the other way almost 3 years ago. They changed my email server last year, which meant I had to start using Microsoft Outlook/Entourage. I really like Entourage for Mac, actually. I don't want to have to move to the Cmail server, bleh, why would I want two Gmail accounts??? But I think I'll be able to get around it. Plus, since I'll be working a little bit still (regular employee under a contract, but minimal hours), I don't know where I would fall in terms of bus pass and parking eligibility... But those are just details. I'm super duper excited! Yay being a student! Yay going to lots of random talks every week again! Yay for going to Pixel and Stella's on a regular basis again! Yay for having some say over my schedule! Yay for grad schooolll!!!!

Thanks, Yang and watergirl. I'm glad to be wrong on this!

My school (Cornell) tells me that stipend money is treated as income. I tend to trust Cornell's tax advice, since with 10,000+ employees and 4000+ grad students, they have very robust and centralized HR and accounting practices. I'm planning on SS/Medicare being taken out, since it's taken out of all other forms of income. I will have to report my stipend (scholarship and/or TA/RA) as income earned on state and federal taxes, and pay taxes on it. SS and Medicare are FEDERAL = same in every state. Maybe, though, there are differences depending on the size of the stipend, or how it's classed by your university? Our stipends here come with restrictions that we can't work many additional hours, so maybe they fall into some class of exempt salary and they just CALL it a stipend, to confuse us and fall more in line with academic norms? Perhaps if it's classed as a scholarship and isn't expected to cover total grad expenses it's not taxed like income, thus the no SS/Medicare deducted?? Confusing! Maybe I'm sticking my neck out too far, and what I have to say only applies to my university! Or maybe I'm in for a pleasant surprise and SS/Medicare WON'T be taken out... 10% more stipend income than I'm expecting next year... Can't argue with that!

I'm pretty sure this is NOT true. I had SS/Medicaid withdrawn from my wages when I was making about minimum wage/14k per year, and I had it withdrawn this year, making (finally) enough to live comfortably on. I was working at 1 very legitimate (but underfunded) place when I was making those poor wages, too, so I'm pretty sure their accounting was correct. I had it taken out from my $8/hour student job as an undergrad, too. It was a lower proportion when I was making minimum wage, but it was still taken out. For the wages I've earned, SS/Medicare has always been a bigger chunk than actual taxes. You don't get it refunded at the end of the year, either. It also depends on the state and your deductions. A single person with no children with student loans in deferment starts getting taxed by the government at a really, really low amount - 10K or less? Standard deduction for one childless, single person is around $5500, and I forget how the one exemption (for yourself) adjusts it... I should know, I just did my taxes. Then, NY state charges EVERYONE taxes, so when I made minimum wage, I got my federal witholding back, but had to send half of it straight to the state! I could talk about this more competently if I had tax tables in front of me. But the bottom line is SS/Medicare is ALWAYS taken out, and you don't get it back, and even if you don't have to pay much federal tax (which you'll owe SOMEthing for, surely), you should still watch out for state taxes. Edit: Just for the record, for my 18k/year job (comparable to many stipends), I would have gross pay of about $770 and net pay of about $600. That's 23% taken out for tax and SS/Medicare. And I only got about $150 as a federal tax refund that year, and paid $75 state taxes, which means overpaying tax by only $3 per pay period.

If you have a fellowship at Cornell, no. Might not be the same for other schools. At Cornell, you don't need FAFSA for RA/TA either, although many other schools require it. Cornell lets departments determine how to dole out financial aid, and it's not (to my knowledge?) need-based. FAFSA is to determine financial need. If you're NOT funded at some point and want to be eligible for federal loans, THEN you'll need to fill out the FAFSA. You're in a private college (Engineering, right?), so the land grant status means nothing to you if you have funding. It does mean that the department is paying more for your tuition than if you were in a program on the contract (=land grant) side. If you ever take out loans, however... I'm sorry. Engineering tuition is way up there, maybe over $30k per year? You'll find that these tuition differences between the schools is a politically charged issue for the grad student assembly. You should probably confirm all this with your department, too.

Can I join the Cornell party? Woo hoo, Cornell! I'll be in the Communication department, and I've been *ahem* pretty active in the Ithaca/Cornell threads lately...

I'm REALLY excited about that, too.

I think some of the "I don't have time" stuff depends on the discipline. But for the field/specific department/type of work I'm going into, I agree with you, and I plan to do something similar to what you're talking about. I'll at least be able to pick up a few extra hours of work for the first and last year, when I have fellowship; years 2-4, when I'm RAing/TAing, I might just have to stick to the stipend. Plus, one of my current jobs, in the same town as the program I'm going to, wants me for as many hours as I can work, so I have the opportunity, too. Basically, the money I'll earn there will go into making larger payments on the car I plan to buy over the summer, which will hopefully get me ahead of the game for the 3 years when I won't have a chance to work. I'm also lucky to be going somewhere with generous stipends - about $22k for academic year, plus about $4600 for the summer (2 of which are guaranteed given my particular situation, and the other 3 are not guaranteed but have always been available where desired in the past). They give nice stipends, though, because it's in a very isolated location, and it's the only way to attract the best talent, especially in engineering and literature, where people could just as easily go somewhere in a better location. As far as managing money, I have been poor for most of my life. It sucked, but I know my priorities now, and how to budget and manage them. For me, good food is key. I would rather eat something different and tasty every night than have money to socialize or travel during breaks. Next comes certain entertainment - working iPod, working computer, Netflix, internet at LEAST on my phone, with home connection secondary because of access on campus/at work/in library. If I don't have that iPod though, I just can't function. I enjoy repurposing clothes and furniture and household stuff, so I can always do that if I'm on a tight budget. Lower on the list comes travel, socializing, visiting family (I've spent 3 Christmases alone since starting college). I figured these things out early, and my friends and family are accepting of it. Living cheap is just something I've always done, because that's what we had to do in my family growing up, and sometimes done well... The year after I finished undergrad, I lived in a tiny studio by myself that cost $700 a month, paid my own phone bill and utilities, ate out at least once a week, went out 3 times a week or more, paid for textbooks, and bough myself clothes at least once a month on $14k one year. It was hard, but I did it, and had a full, exciting life. For me, at that period of my life, it was important to KNOW my expenses. I didn't have pets or vehicles or children or other things that might cause unexpected financial issues to come up. Doing that, I could prioritize and enjoy myself just fine.

Let me emphasize again that I've been fine without a car for over 6 years. I guess I'd say that if you have a car, and you're relatively confident that it won't need a lot of expensive maintenance (it's a Subaru or Honda, for example), it might be worth it to bring it along. But as a grad student, even with a Cornell stipend you won't easily be able to absorb unexpected, expensive car repairs. Also, think about your living situation. If you live with 2+ people, your rent and utilities won't need to be more than $450 or $500. If you want to live with one roommate, it could be $500 or it could be $700, depending on where and what. If you want to live alone, rents start around $700 for something tiny, and $800ish and up for a proper one bedroom, and then you'd have utilities and internet on top of that. Having a one bedroom is great, but having a car on top of it could get really difficult. Parking on campus sucks and is expensive, too. Either plan an extra $600+ per year (I think?) for parking, or just assume you'll take the bus to campus and use your car for personal things. Parking in town is easy, though, especially in Fall Creek. Lots of places have driveways, although few have garages. Depending on where you are in Fall Creek, street parking will probably be easy and close to your house. For me, since I've lived here for a while, I have enough off-campus interests and friends that I'll probably spend a lot of time running around, going places, visiting people, going to community activities, etc. I'll still take the bus to campus every day, but I'll probably drive somewhere 3 or 4 times a week. Also, think about your discipline. If you're into environmental issues or community causes, there are lots of networks to tap into in the area. If not, you might find that off-campus life just isn't interesting to you, and you might not have the need to get away from campus and your immediate neighborhood as often. As for the winter issue... 4WD is nice, but downtown it's not essential. In town, though, the main roads stay clear ALL THE TIME. Maybe once a year there will be a big storm that keeps people off main roads. As long as you go slow on side roads, you can get where you need to on the cleared, main roads. And going up/down hill is annoying, but most of the time that's fine, too, since those roads get enough traffic to stay clear. If you actually drove to campus from the outlying areas every day, it would be a different story. But in town is generally fine. I'm looking for either a gently used Subaru (4WD) or a new, cheap Toyota or Nissan or Honda (under warranty=less worry, cheaper loan), just for reference.

I'll be... working! But much, much less - half time. It's necessary to have some income for my peace of mind. I know this very well. Working 2-3 days a week and making enough to not touch my savings for fixed expenses - rent, food, etc - and having enough time to travel/loll around will be ideal for me. It'll be nice to be on campus a couple days a week, too, to meet with faculty, have lunch with working friends, get stuff from the library, mix up my running routes... I'm not moving, not even to a different apartment, so I don't have to deal with that. I already know some of the people in my future program. I'm looking forward to having time to myself, entire days to spend at the farmer's market and in the kitchen, places to wear pretty clothes, sunbathing - all those lovely summer things I didn't have time for last summer. Plus, I'll take the end of June and most of August off work completely.

Growing up relatively poor, this has been the case my entire life. $18k for my first post-college, half time (...so I could lurk around campus and keep taking classes ) job seemed like a miracle. Two jobs and almost double that salary right now seems too good to be true. I've paid down college debts, visited my family, bought a new (not all from Salvation Army, oh the hipster/undergrad life) wardrobe, furnished my apartment, sorted out some health issues (which required expensive and frequent doctor's appointments) AND saved up to buy a car this summer. I think I really lucked out in the last few years, so I'm feeling pretty well set up for going into grad school. Even though my income will go down a bit, I'll have a lot of weird financial stuff behind me, and I can hopefully coast through school. When I get paranoid, I comfort myself with the thought that nothing will be as bad as it was growing up, when my whole FAMILY's income was less than my stipend is going to be. Plus, just knowing that I'll have something that I can count on for FIVE YEARS is hugely comforting. Plus, I'll be really marketable on the other end, so if academia doesn't work out, and/or I DO get into debt in grad school, I'll have options for paying it back...

Well, I've lived in Ithaca for 6.5 years without a car. But I'm getting one before I start grad school here in the fall. Why? - It's hard to get to where my family/friends live from Ithaca via bus and plane, but very easy via car. I have seen my family less than once a year for the past five years, and now that I'm going back to a student schedule, I want to be able to get out of town during breaks. - The buses do go to grocery stores, but I cook a LOT at home, and I can't manage carrying everything home on the bus. I've tried. They have improved the lines to Wegman's lately, which is nice. There is also more weekend access to the mall area, where there is a Tops grocery store, too. - I'm frankly just tired of standing around waiting for buses after years and years of relying on them. I want to feel like I'm moving forward with my life by going to grad school, and having more freedom over my schedule (=not planning around bus schedules) is something that I've realized is important to me. Waiting for buses is a minor, but constant, irritation to me. - There are a lot of cool things in the area - restaurants, weird little antique stores, wineries, state parks, etc - that I haven't had a chance to experience fully, because you can only get there by car. If I'm staying here for another 5 years, I want to feel like I've been able to experience everything that I'm interested in. Plus, I'll have new things to do, which is important after being here for so long. These are my personal reasons. There are very compelling reasons not to have a car in Ithaca, though. The bus system will get you where you need to go, for sure. There's also a car share program that I currently use for errands about once a week. You pay a small monthly/yearly fee, and a small hourly fee, and they provide the car, gas and insurance coverage. You can sign up whenever you want, and there are a few Fall Creek-ish cars, which I use regularly. It's really nice! Ithaca Carshare

A pet peeve: This is basically a marketing lie, it's open to everyone. Even for the beers, anyone can come in and hang out.

Yes, Collegetown is the undergrad ghetto. I'm sorry that's all you saw of Ithaca! Students pretty much stay there, which means it's nice to go for a drink or cheap food, but you can go to other parts of town and mingle with young professionals, old hippies, and other grad students in relative peace. There are a few grad student oriented bars downtown, as well as plenty of restaurants, a few of which are both cheap and delicious. Undergrads don't really go out until 11 or later. Even though bars close at 1, a lot of undergrads socialize on NYC time, i.e. really late. The bars in Collegetown are crowded from midnight to 1, basically. Downtown, like I mentioned, are more bars and restaurants. There is an independent cinema, as well as the really fantastic Cornell Cinema. There is the Ithaca Actor's Workshop, so there are lots of plays and performances. There are a couple guys who do concert promoting, so there's several music options every weekend night, and hipster dance parties at least once a month. There are literally hundreds - maybe 600? - clubs on campus, with many of them performing regularly. On a given Friday night, you could choose from several a capella options, maybe a comedy improve group, at least one classical music option (often famous touring acts, too!), and often readings by famous authors. There aren't really any CLUBS in Ithaca, though, despite a few well-meaning efforts in the last 6 years. I LOVE the Farmer's Market, personally. It's open on the weekends from April to December, with satellite locations May to October near downtown. Having a car can expand your options, too. There are lots of hiking and swimming areas within a 10 minute drive of downtown, and dozens of wineries within an hour. Yes. Every Friday they have $1 beers at the Big Red Barn on campus. BRB is the "grad student union", although in practice it's just a dining hall open to everyone with occasional guest speakers on various topics that grads care about. The $1 beer starts at 4 or so, and it's a big event. The usually serve at least 1 nice regional microbrew, and Stella. I used to go regularly (...as an undergrad with grad friends), and I've been a few times again lately. It's always fun, and I always meet someone new. I don't know much about BRB events, but they seem to happen a few times a week. Every day there are dozens of public talks on campus. That can be a nice way to meet people beyond your department, since most of them have public receptions with mingling and free food. The Chapterhouse is a bar between Collegetown and downtown. It's a grad student bar, and I think a lot of interdepartmental mingling goes on there. It tends to be heavily life sciences/social sciences folks, though. Probably not as cold as Chicago, and definitely not as windy. Much warmer than where I grew up in Maine, and much shorter. It's really tolerable temperature/snow/wind wise. It actually gets a lot less snow and warmer temperatures than surrounding towns because of its location on the lake. The bad part is the grey. It's NEVER sunny. Never ever, from mid-October to mid-April. It gets depressing and feels longer and worse than it actually is. But then it goes from winter to summer in 2 weeks in April and you're REALLY happy to be here.

Huh. My university coaches everyone to put GPAs on their resumes. For i-banking, executive positions out of the b-school, for English majors going into Americorps, for fellowship applications, for EVERYTHING. Career coaches and professors here say that if you don't have your GPA, employers will think there's something wrong with it by default. Maybe this is different for academic positions. But this thread doesn't jive at ALL with what I've heard from where I did undergrad/will soon be going to grad school. Edit: Of course, they also say to include GPA if it's more than 3.3 or 3.5. If you're below that, they say not to include it, and basically imply/believe you're screwed for life. Because this place is so warm and friendly...

Yeah. They also have deals with Dell and IBM, although I don't know if it's above-and-beyond normal educational deals like with Apple. I would call the store to check about when you'd be eligible for those deals. I think you need a NetID (=active Cornell email account), but that might not be a hard and fast rule.

Well, I know that. I also know that Mac OS is based on Unix.

I LOVE my new Mac. It's changed my life. I see in your sig, matcha, that you're coming to Cornell. The Cornell Store has a special deal on Apple products. Usually the academic rate is 5% off or something, but Cornell gives 8% or so. Don't know why. A $1000 basic Macbook is $911, in any case. The nicer version, the one with the aluminum shell, is well under $1000 with the Cornell discount. Office for Mac is mixed. Entourage, the Mac version of Outlook, is nimble and nice looking (unlike the Windows version?!?) AND has a really powerful, fantastic project management feature that lets you integrate contacts, messages, calendar items, notes etc, into one project. It is really, really great for my own productivity. Excel and Word, on the other hand, are sort of a mishmash of comfortable Mac design elements/features and Windows-style features, which makes them tougher to navigate. Academic licenses, also at the Cornell Store, are $75 or so for the entire Office suite. When Macs die, though, they die spectacularly and suddenly, and the only way to get them repaired is to send them to Apple. BUT Apple has fantastic warranties for up to 3 years, I think. You can buy the warranty - which is usually less than $200 - at any time. So, you can wait until your computer breaks, and as long as it's within that warranty period, you can then buy the warranty, and report the breaking the next day and get it fixed under warranty. Also: Spaces. You can have different desktops for different tasks. It's great for limiting internet time-wasting when you're trying to do a paper. Put them in different spaces, and it's easier to ignore the distraction! Wireless networking is effortless on Macs, too. They're so smart. Mmm... I had a horrible, horrible experience with an HP laptop. The fans started dying within a year, which put extra stress on the electronics and it slowly and painfully died for the next 3 years - barely limping along to the end of my undergrad, and then swallowing up 4 years of my life. Ok, that's enough. You see where I stand.