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foldingtime

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  1. This is a month later, so perhaps a bit late. Also, to be clear, I don't go to UMD, so take what I say with a grain of salt. My SO went to UMD, so I'm pretty familiar with it, and we still go there about once every 2 months (I'm a Georgetown person). Still, I've never actually lived at UMD, so that's why I'm offering this prefatory comment. Since you live in College Park, I'm sure you have a good idea of what the costs of living in DC would be. Yes, 1300-1400 a month is doable with roommate(s). It would be stretching a bit in, say, Dupont or Georgetown, but almost anywhere else in the city would work. How much are you able to spend just on rent? In how small a space are you willing to live? What's your favorite part of the city? I'd say your best bet is Columbia Heights or Mount Pleasant; which, I'm guessing, are where most UMD people live if they want to be in the city, since they're both just off the green line. Or, if you want to come in a bit further on the Green Line, you could live off U Street. It's just as lively there, and a bit closer to downtown and all that. My suggestion is to pick your favorite part of the city and then pick somewhere where you can walk to that place. Then, check to see if it's an easy commute to UMD. My favorite parts of DC are Dupont and Adams Morgan. So, I live in Adams Morgan. I can, and often do, easily walk to Mount Pleasant, Dupont, Columbia Heights, or Woodley. While AdMo is fairly close to the Green Line, it would be a pain to walk to and from there everyday, day in and day out. When I use Metro, I use the Red Line. Rents in this neighborhood are roughly 2grand a month for a full 1 bedroom, or about 1300 for a studio. If you look around Adams Morgan, U Street, Columbia Heights, Mount Pleasant, you should be able to easily find a nice 2 bedroom for around 2500 or so. You should be able to find a big 1 bedroom or 1 1/2 bedroom for around 2000. I guess, really, it depends on: 1) how far you can stretch your 1300-1400, and 2) how close you are willing to live with your roommate. If you're having more than 1 roommate, then, of course, things change a bit. I hope you go for it! I love DC. It's a great city for walking around and exploring. DC has a completely different feel to it when you live here. Most people I know that don't like DC don't actually live here. So, they say, for example, "Ew! Adams Morgan! That's a place for Frat Boys!" because Adams Morgan is a madhouse Friday and Saturday nights, filled with drunk college kids. If you can, visit your favorite neighborhoods during the middle of the day on a regular weekday. That's how I fell in love with Adams Morgan. You'll probably hear all kinds of things from people about each neighborhood. Make sure you find out how close those people actually live to that neighborhood. For example, you'll hear people say that Columbia Heights is dangerous. Well, yes, certain parts of Columbia Heights aren't too great (14th and Girard). And, yes, there've been 3 shootings there in the past year (two of which were random, the other right next to the Metro stop). Overall, though, it's a great neighborhood.
  2. Oh yeah, it's definitely possible. If you're willing to commute, that opens up your options quite a bit. You could walk or take the bus to the Red Line and live in Silver Spring; you could live further out, then Park&Ride at the Metro take the Red Line down in; or you could even drive into the city. Or you could do all 3 a different day of the week (some days are a rougher commute than others). The RedLine will be jammed packed with people during regular commuting hours, but you'd quickly get used to that. I only ride the Metro about once a week, and I love it (I live in the city). I have friends who ride it every day, and they hate it. If you end up living here, you'll see that everyone has different feelings about Metro.
  3. The area around Catholic, Brookland, is one of the few areas in DC that is both relatively safe and relatively cheap. It is also, mind you, a very boring part of the city--mostly family homes and whatnot. BUT, it is right on the Red Line, which takes you anywhere you need to go. Now, in most parts of the city that are not dangerous, 1200/month will get you a tiny studio apartment. In Brookland, 1200 will probably get you a nice 1 bedroom. Which means, that if you dig and dig, I'd bet that you can find a half-decent basement apartment for around 1000 or so. If you can find a place anywhere else in the city for under 1000 (without getting a roommate), then it is probably in a part of the city where you do not want to be (that is, somewhere unsafe). So, basically, what I'm saying is, if you're willing to live somewhere "rough," then you can get a place for under 1000.
  4. i hold wit de saussure's assesssssment of speling; that is: only high skool english (or french, or greek...) teachers (id est, prescriptive grammarians) care about it.
  5. yeah, i was rejected from purdue--- they wrote that they admitted a class of twelve (they only admit those that they can fund). i was quite disappointed (im never sure how to spell that word).
  6. i guess i kinda freaked with slu because their website is, "yay we're jesuit! jesuits are awesome! jesuit education is the way to go!" also: "we want to edumacate your body, spirit, and mind!" ok--- hold on a sec! stay away from my spirit, whatever that is, alright! but your posts have calmed me down a bit. i'm still considering slu, they have a couple professors i like.
  7. englishgirl- i emailed the admissions coordinator--- i forget the email address, but her name is jill quirk. she said no news until april (which, now that i look at the date in the bottom corner of my screen, dosen't seem so far away (how long has this process been going on? i began studying for my gre lit in july!)) i wouldn't feel too nervous if i were you, though-- i'm pretty sure most non-waitlisted people received rejections already. good luck!
  8. that's a crazy article--- i mean, why would anyone want to go to florida now? i'm an MA for purdue, so we'll see; hopefully some medieval people turn them down and i can go there.
  9. linden-- i'll tell you first off that i'm waitlisted at purdue, so take my advice with two pounds of salt. having said that, i would look at which school is better for you, for your interests. for me, purdue is much better than florida at medieval, so i would easily choose purdue over florida. what is your field? florida is ranked above purdue in overall rankings, but to me placement record is more important. if you feel comfortable, ask the schools what their placement records are. to me, purdue is much better than florida, but that's because i'm a medievalist. i know many who think florida is much better than purdue (just look at the results page of this website: tons of people apply to florida, how many apply to purdue?) so you need to look specifcally at what field you're in. as far as money, i can tell you fairly certainly that both places are fairly cheap to live. this is gainesville, not miami. also, you need to take my advice with salt here. i love cold weather, so i love purdue over florida. most people love florida because it is always warm. gainesville is a bigger city, but purdue is only an hour or so from either indianapolis or chicago. take all of these things into consideration. if it were me, though, i would put most value on academic considerations, namely, which department is better in your area of specialization? which school has more professors that would you like to work with? keep in mind also that, because this is MA, if you end up hating the school, you can go somewhere else after two years (of course, it will be easier to go somewhere that is good at your area of specialization if you have a good MA in your area of specialization)
  10. pg county as a whole is known as a bad county. they cant find enough cops to work in this county. seriously. in general, the cheaper the rent, the worse the area. so---college park is actually pretty reasonable rent-wise, because the area is so bad. but, to be fair, much of that "badness" is just rowdy students. that, and the purse stealing. takoma park ive heard is pretty nice, but really i dont know that much about it. its on the border, so actually its in montgomery county, which is known throughout maryland as ultra-liberal-- which means, in this case, tons of taxes. but really, i dont know takoma park that well. they've been trying to gentrify silver spring, but it hasn't quite taken yet. silver spring has been a bad area for a while; it's actually getting better, but not as good as the rest of montgomery county, safeness-wise. i work with a guy who lives in silver spring. he's lived there a year and he's had his car stolen, his laptop stolen, his radio stolen (the latter two both from within his locked apartment), and his next car dented from a hit-and-run. this is where he lives now, which is a couple blocks from where he used to live. where he used to live was cheaper, but it was so bad that the cops literally always had a car there. as in, the cops rotated parking outside of his apartment building. still, although he's considering moving somewhere away from silver spring, he's yet to do it. why? because everything is at his fingertips. also, the rent is pretty decent (he pays 700 for a 1 bedroom, but acknowledges when we talk about it that it would be cheaper if he shared a 2 bedroom with someone). he's willing to live with the risk of things stolen now and then to have everything he could possibly want within a few minutes walk or ride. one thing you should keep in mind is that AU has a metro stop. are you willing to ride the metro to school? do you want everything at your fingertips? are you accustomed to living in an area that might have some crime? how much are you willing to pay for a little (or a lot, depending) safety? if it were me, and i wanted to live close to school, i would try to find a roommate, and then look for neighborhoods where you can pay for your safety. finding a good place requires much looking around, and you may even want to pay a realtor. dc is like a lot of places--- areas that are right next to each other can be completely different. areas five minutes apart can have 1000/month difference in rent. actually, now that i think about it, if it were me, i would find someone that i could trust to tell me about every little area, and then go hunting. (which wouldn't be hard considering my girlfriend's mom is a realtor for that area). if you dont know or cant find anyone with that knowledge, then try to find a good realtor. i think paying them a little would be worth it in the long run. and if you have a roommate, the cost wouldnt hurt as bad. (you can always find a roommate somewhere if you dont already have one). finally, my last option would be, if you dont feel like doing all that, then get a place near the end of the metro, maybe gaithersburg. a really safe place, which along with rockville has pretty much all the stuff that silver spring has except not as much crime. and if your living in gaithersburg, or whatever metro stop you choose, you're only a five or ten minute metro ride away from all that stuff that gaithersburg lacks (musuems, clubs, 24-hr chinese food, etc).
  11. the new round of waiting (2007) has begun. i applied to a bunch of english ma/phd programs and im going crazy, especially so as i didnt get into any programs my first time around (though i was applying for creative writing then, medieval now). ill be happy to get into any of the schools i applied to, even my lowest safety school (saint louis university), but hopefully ill get into one of my top choices (cornell, notre dame). anyway, i'm writing all this because im nervous already and i know a bunch of other people are (cf., soyouwantto, whogotin) as well, and i check this and other sites every day and there is never anything new on this site. last time my whole extended family knew i was applying and didnt get in anywhere and i felt like i was fufilling their opinion of me. now im applying again after a year of working a lame job, and they all found out again im applying. i just want to get in somewhere! now my rambling shows how nervous i am.
  12. just wanted to add what i know about college park. first off, although alot of students cut on umd, i think the campus is really pretty. tons of green, and about a million trees and squirrels, all in the middle of an ugly little town. college park is cheaper than the surrounding area, but it is a high-crime area. i dont really know how it is at other schools (other than where i got my undergrand, a small little town in nowheresville), but at umd you will receive an email about once every other day from the campus police about a mugging or attempted rape or something. DONT WALK AROUND COLLEGE PARK ALONE AT NIGHT. also, and this is probably the same at most huge state schools, parking is horrible. you will have to walk a half mile (literally) from class to class. like i hinted above, this is a very expensive area, and the stipend is not that great (usually, though it depends). pretty much everything you could want is within 5-10 minutes (max 20 min, if you're creative). again, my biggest complaints are the crime and the insane prices--- umd housing, if you want a decent apartment, probably only ranks behind new york, boston, and la--- and their stipend is nowhere near analogous to most colleges in those cities. all the same, im applying to go there.
  13. im sure that this topic has been glossed in other forums, but im hoping for a more in-depth answer. im applying to two religious schools and im wondering what its like for students like me, that is, students who are not religious, or who even dislike religion. any responses would be welcome.
  14. im sure that this topic has been glossed in other forums, but im hoping for a more in-depth answer. im applying to two religious schools (saint louis university and notre dame), and im wondering what its like for students like me, that is, students who are not religious, or who even dislike religion. any responses would be welcome.
  15. hey, thanks minnesotan and othello, you've both made me feel quite a bit better already. ive said to myself repeatedly, "they rejected your writing style, self, not your ability as a scholar," (or something like that, not as formal), but still there lingers the doubt. just out of curiosity, how was the mfa program? as for me, ive been in drudgeville that last couple years. i didnt reapply last year because i was drained from applying/getting-rejected the previous year; so, my mind/future-plans were all muddled. but, really, im glad to have not reapplied last year, because i know i would have come at it from the same angle; simply, i would not have taken the process as seriously as it warrants. so, in that regard, being rejected and subsequently taking time off have helped me in approaching my future much more than, say, if i would have been accepted to some school to which i didnt really want to go, or if i had been accepted at my top school and walked around with some my-writing-is-amazing air; being rejected and taking a year off (or two years, depending on how you view it) having given me a context. and if there's anything that writers need---as my family and friends have been intimating for years---it's context.
  16. for more of my stats: i went to a complete no-name state school small branch, my gpa was 3.6 (not sure what it was in my major, but certainly it was higher), and no, i'm not choosing schools based on name only--- im interested in medieval english with an interdisciplinary philosophy approach, which schools like cornell and purdue and duke and buffalo are good at. also, last time i applied (idem) only to creative writing programs and my writing style is quite avant-garde, to say the least (which is not to say that that is why i was rejected, but--- anyway, you can see ive been overanalyzing this ad infinitum).
  17. im nervous because i applied two years ago and didn't get in to any of the 7 programs i applied to (creative writing)--- or should i say, "to which i applied." im planning on re-applying to english programs (not creative writing) in the fall and am extremely nervous. im so hyper-aware of what i did wrong last time (asking the wrong professors (my advisor was a complete jerk), not taking the gre subject test, writing my personal statement at the last minute, etc), that im spending most every waking moment preparing for this. ive already bolstered myself for rejection, but im planning on applying to a ton of programs, because if i only apply to 7 again and dont get in i know it will bother me. make sense? i scored over 1400 in the gre standard last time (and still im considering taking it again so as to get a more impressive score) and i know i can do well in the english subject test--- i've been reading the nortons like crazy, etc. also, i know two professors that i would visit and talk to, the one of whom gave me a "he-was-my-best-student-ever" recommendation last time. anyway, itd be nice to know if anyone is as nervous as i am. i cant help it, and i dont think itll go away. im certainly looking at dream programs like cornell, duke, virginia, washu and yale, but also at more realistic programs like purdue, rochester, uconn, unh, etc. i have this huge list of schools, because, because of last time i am extremely worried. anyway, thanks for reading,
  18. yes, we're all too smart to be superstitious, but--- does anyone else have some dumb superstition like me? for example, i can't talk about graduate school with anyone around me like friends, family, etc. it's stupid, right? but i can't (or don't want to) control it.
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