so47

Leaving tomorrow morning for my visitation weekend at Cornell! The Chemistry Dept looks like they do a very nice job of it, lots of good events planned. They also assigned me a "student host" who is a first year in the program, which seems like a great idea to get some one-on-one opinions on the program. Very excited, can't wait! Hopefully when I get back I can soon say I am definitely going to Cornell!

These are all privately owned to my knowledge. I'm not sure how hard they are to get, since I have never applied myself. But I am pretty sure the Left Bank one is for grad students and professionals only, which would probably cut down on demand. Now that I think of it, there is another nice but smaller luxury complex that is grad students and professionals only at 35th and Lancaster, called the Old Quaker Building http://www.reinholdresidential.com/oldquaker/ so that might also have a slightly smaller demand. I am not sure exactly how many months early, but in general, housing (not just luxury) fills up much faster for the University areas than other areas of the city, because there are 2 huge universities right here with students fighting to get housed, and a couple smaller schools too. Early as in, I know a lot of people who get their leases signed in November/December for the following school year. So, my recommendation would be as soon as you are sure you are going to UPenn, start applying to these places. These buildings MAY not go quite as fast since they are upper-end and a lot of students are on a strict budget, but I am not sure about that. Like you said, they are very nice and have good locations, so they might still be in high demand. So overall, just be safe and apply early.

That is actually a very hard question to answer. I will do my best to answer it, since I have lived in the UPenn/Drexel area of Philly for the past 5 years. I understand your reservations with craigslist, I actually had someone try to scam me through a housing thing on Philadelphia craigslist. But unfortunately, a lot of the decently-priced apartments are privately owned by people who just own a few properties that they rent out. These type of landlords don't often use many other sites, and often do list on craigslist. If you are looking for a decent size space, these are the types of people you would rent from, they often have huge row houses broken up into decent size apartments for a reasonable price compared to the big apt complexes. Other than that, most people find their apartments through word of mouth when you live here. I have always found housing through people I know. But you can try some of these bigger websites that some of the larger property owners use: http://www.4wallsinphilly.com/ http://www.campusapts.com/findanapartment.htm http://www.phillyapartmentco.com/ http://philadelphia.apartments.com/ http://philadelphia.apartmentguide.com/ http://www.rent.com/rentals/pennsylvania/philadelphia-and-vicinity/philadelphia/ But, the most important thing is to look at the address. And don't generalize "West Philly" because if you look for housing with that label, you could get anything from 30th St to 69th St, which includes some VERY bad areas. University City is the mroe specific neighborhood you probably want, it includes the area on and directly outside of the main college campuses which are all lumped in there. UPenn, Drexel, and USP are all right next to each other, and the nicer housing is close to campus (though it is a lot pricier than West Philly, but you are paying for the convenience of being close to campus and the increased safety) The technical boundaries of University City are: but this is a bit vague and I would not recommend all of these areas. The best way is to look at a map of the areas like these: http://www.universitycity.org/about_ucity/boundaries and look at the edges. These areas are where it is hit or miss. I would avoid anything west of 40th St on Market, Chestnut, and Walnut St. It stays nicer though the streets south of these though. I would also steer clear of anywhere north of Spring Garden St, in addition to anything between the river (~27-28) and 32nd. Keep in mind these recommendations are only for this neighborhood, there are other areas of the city where these streets are completely different. So, when you find a place you are interested in anywhere on the web, pop the address into google maps and see where it lines up. Don't automatically throw out craigslist, just be cautious and do research. I would also recommend not signing a lease until you visit the apartment. A lot of these apartments are in rough shape from having college kids live in them for years, and you don't want a nasty surprise when you move in. Sorry, that is a lot of info, but I hope this helps!

Sure, it can't hurt to try! I seem to hear a lot of people are waiting for UPenn, but Cornell has been more on top of it (I heard back at the end of January), and their first Visitation Weekend is this coming weekend. And they are pretty good about answering emails, either email chemgrad@cornell.edu or you could go straight to the admin Pat Hine ( pah3@cornell.edu ). Good luck!

I go to undergrad in Philly, and I can give you the names and sites of some luxury apartment buildings around UPenn, but I have not lived in them myself. Domus 3411 Chestnut St, Philadelphia, PA 19104 http://www.domuspa.com/index.htm Stratum 20 South 36th St., Philadelphia, PA 19104 http://www.the-stratum.com/ The Radian 3925 Walnut St, Philadelphia, PA 19104 http://www.radianapartments.com/index.asp The Left Bank 3131 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104 http://www.leftbankapts.com/ Those are all I can think of right now...The first 3 are the closest to UPenn, all within a block or 2 of campus, though in different directions. The last one is a little further, but still only 3-4 blocks from UPenn's campus. I would suggest browsing around their sites and seeing if you can find reviews on the buildings to get info about the actual management and apartments.

Who said anything blaming only Yale? Maybe most of the people who were posting only applied to Yale of the schools that have not given responses, so they are sharing their own experiences. If I started complaining about UPenn not giving responses when I hadn't applied that wouldn't make sense. So let's not be to quick to judge. I say if people want to vent their frustrations about this process to people going through the same thing, just let them. It's not like it's hurting you if other people are ticked off at Yale...

Yeah, I feel exactly the same way as you about Yale at this point. Ambivalent decision wise, just irritated to have heard nothing. Although I am not that booked with visits, wow you are going to be busy! I limited myself down to applying to 5, and have only heard back from Cornell and UNC-CH (my hardest ones too! lol weird) so aside from Yale, the other ones were a safety school and a middle-ranked school, which just don't seem worth visiting considering my other admits. So how many are you visiting? Like 6? That is crazy but congrats on all the admits! Hope you find a great fit.

I actually have not written them yet, because I thought I remembered it saying all over the application that they were unable to give status updates on the application. But it might be worth a shot anyway. Would I write Admissions or the Chemistry Dept?

I have to say, all these schools withholding their decisions for so long irritates me. I have not heard a peep from Yale, but I got accepted to higher-ranked programs over a month ago! At this point it just feels really pretentious, like they are so good they can take their time because they don't have to make the students happy....in comparison with Cornell (a higher rank), who is constantly sending me things trying to show that they really want me there. Yale and these other schools drawing it out this long just leave a really bad taste in my mouth. For me, I got into my top 2 choices, I am visiting them and even if I get into Yale at this point I am not planning on visiting. Maybe I am being a harsh judge, but I am afraid that that kind of attitude within an institution would not mesh with me anyway.... End rant. Sorry had to get it out, it has been irritating the crap out of me.

Yeah, I have heard a lot about talking to the grad students. Cornell actually assigned me a first year grad student to be my "student host," and she offered to give me a personal tour and such. So that seems like a good way to talk to someone one on one about it. Are the grad students really honest about it though? I just wonder if they are under a lot of pressure from the department to make the school look good lol. I'm surprisingly a bit nervous about the visit! I know I shouldn't be because at this point they are trying to impress me, but I can't help but be a bit antsy about it! Are the faculty interviews you do pretty informal? Or should you treat it more like a job interview and prepare detailed questions about their research?

So has anyone gone on their visits yet? My first one is Cornell this weekend, I am so excited!

Does anyone know if there is any resource showing a geographic breakdown of the neighborhoods? There is a lot of good advice on this forum, but when I search for housing it's a bit difficult since I have no frame of reference for what addresses are actually in which neighborhood. A lot of the the realty sites and craigslist seem to add the terms like "Fall Creek" and "Downtown" in so they come up in searches, but aren't actually that close. I tried doing a Google search and this is the best I found so far: http://wikimapia.org/7140880/Ithaca-NY, but I still feel like I have no idea where some of these neighborhoods are and which streets they include (like Downtown for example). I'm sure these terms just become more familiar when you live there, but it's a bit confusing from the outside! I go to undergrad in Philadelphia, and I am used to being able to guesstimate locations by the numbered streets in the address lol.

So do you guys have recommendations of sites to use to look for housing? I heard someone in the Ithaca,NY forum say craigslist, but I have had some sketchy experiences with craigslist (someone tried to scam me through something to do with housing) so are there any other more reputable housing sites for the Ithaca area?

Hehe I have also been waiting for someone to post this! I am probably 95% sure I am going to Cornell next year. I loved it when I looked at it for undergrad, but was just way out of reach financially at the time. So when I started looking into graduate school, and realized it is one of the top 10 for my area, it has been my #1 choice ever since! It's the full package of what I want, the program seems like an amazing fit, it is geographically closer to my hometown which is very important to me, and I love the school overall. Plus their financial package blew my others out of the water, which just makes it an easier decision! Now I just have to visit the department to make sure the people fit too! I am going for Chemistry, specializing in the Bio-Organic/Chemical Biology area. I'm going for the visitation weekend March 5-7, so I am VERY excited. I feel like I already have my mind made up, and just really want to visit to make sure. I am visiting another school too, but unless I HATE all the profs and grad students at Cornell, I really don't think there is much of a chance of me going elsewhere. I am currently finishing my senior year as a chemistry major at Drexel University in Philadelphia. Another reason I love Cornell, I am SO done with living in the city. I am ready to settle back into a much more suburban setting. So...YAY for Cornell!

We shall see...I was planning on just going with the University Housing to make it easier, but it might be worth a trip to check...My spring break is the last week of March and I'll be up at my parents near Albany. If I am feeling ambitious I'll set up some appointments and make a day trip out of it, looking for apartments. Maybe I'll get lucky and find someone at my Department's accepted student weekend who is also looking for housing...We'll see. I'm not TOO concerned yet...it's just lurking in the back of my mind. I'm mostly just so excited about starting there (MOST likely lol-still resisting sending in my acceptance paperwork until after I visit the Dept, though it would take A LOT for me to change my mind lol)

Thank you so much! You gave a bunch of really helpful information! I will def keep all this in mind when I look into housing later. It's so odd to me, it seems like people sign leases really late there! I go to undergrad to a school in very urban Philadelphia, and if you don't have your housing set up by around this time for next year, you are screwed if you want to live anywhere close to campus/not in the ghetto. But at Cornell my program offers a TA training program in July, and it seems like a lot of people don't set up housing until then! That just seems so foreign to me! So I really shouldn't be worrying about it yet I guess, I am just thinking ahead since I don't graduate until mid June and need to be there July 6th for TA training...stupid trimester schools. Again, thanks for the help and I will be sure to contact you with more questions

Yay! I'm glad I found this topic, it is very helpful. I am visiting Cornell the weekend of March 5-7, but have pretty much already made up my mind to go there! I am very excited as already trying to plan housing and such. I'm kind of thinking that the easiest way for me to do housing is to live in University Housing the first year, since I don't see me having the opportunity to get up there to look at housing in person, and I don't feel comfortable signing and lease on a place that I have never seen. So I'm leaning towards just living in Hasbrouck my first year, then moving off campus after that. Is there anyone around who actually has lived in the grad student housing? The one question I have is about the furniture provided. They say that the single student housing has twin XL beds... Personally, I haven't had a twin XL bed since freshmen year and don't really want to have a twin bed in grad school. Will they store furniture you don't want? I'm thinking it's a know from the vague statements on the web site. Are the bed frames easy to take apart? I would like to get a queen bed, then stuff the mattress and frame they provide underneath it. I would prefer an unfurnished apt, but they only have them available in studios and 1 bedrooms which are like $900 bucks a month...

I don't know specifically about Caltech, but what I was told by my research advisor and other faculty members, the general way it works is like this: They split the applications into 3 big piles, the stand-outs, the weakest, and the ones in between. They accept the stand-outs right away, and reject the weakest right away. Then they spend the rest of the time debating on the ones in the "in between" region. So, if you know that some of Caltech's decisions have gone out already, I wouldn't automatically consider it bad news. It may mean that you weren't one of the very top candidates (and since Caltech is ranked for #1 for chemistry, I'm sure they get some REALLY competitive applicants so that is hard to do anyway) but it almost probably means that you are in contention. It means that you are a competitive enough applicant that they think you might fit into their program, so take that as a compliment. Also, that is VERY general, there are some schools that I know don't follow the pattern. Like I don't think anyone has heard from Yale yet, and looking at last year's forum it looks like they don't let people know either way until the end of February. Also, I already got accepted at 2 of my top choice schools, and have not yet heard from my safety schools yet, which makes NO sense since I should be a much stronger applicant for those schools than the top ones. So all in all, try not to stress too much. As much as we try, there is no way to know what is going on unless you are on their selection committee!

lol I do know you! Small world even on the internet! I'm really interested in Waters and Crimmins. Also like Johnson, Kohn, and I think I put Lawrence and Nicewicz down to interview with when I visit too. What about you?

I think it's kind of odd, I heard back from my top two choices first, but no word from my "safety schools," which is the complete opposite of what I would expect. I'm obviously happy about it, just still surprised no word from the safeties and thought it was odd. Anyone else see this? Also, I didn't have to interview at any of the schools I applied to/go accepted at. I applied to only East Coast schools, so is that just a West Coast thing? Or I just happened to apply to schools who don't interview lol. I'm kinda glad I didn't have to, but I just didn't realize chem programs did it at all until I saw a bunch of people on here mention interviews.

Well I am looking to do synthetic organic chem, more specifically synthetic bio-organic, preferably with medicinal or biomedical applications. Accepted at: UNC-CH: Visiting March 12-14 Cornell: Visiting March 5-7 Still Waiting on: Yale RPI Dartmouth I'm heavily favoring Cornell at this point, but am waiting until I visit to make the final call. I have a list of profs at each school I am interested in, which I am hoping to whittle down when I go and actually meet them.

I also think it depends on the school. I just arranged my visits for Cornell and UNC. Cornell pays for everything, as long as you do it 21 days in advance and go through their travel agent. UNC also had a travel agent you have to go through, but they said they only cover $300, so I assume anything over that is on you. Luckily it worked out that my UNC flight only costs $209 so it's in their limit, but my Cornell one is $417 so thank god I'm not paying that one! But pretty much you told the travel agent where you wanted to fly out of, they come back with some choices for time, and then you just give them the info and they did it for you. I have heard some schools make you book the flight yourself and then reimburse, but I haven't had that yet.

Have you tried to arrange your UNC visit via the visitation website they setup? I tried, but my PID they gave me doesn't work. I tried calling them and they don't answer either phone line, so I emailed them and finally got a one sentence response that they will be fixing it this afternoon. Have you had any problems with it? And do you know if they are covering travel expenses as well? The letter only mentioned lodging...

I am sure of this one, it is in my acceptance letter: Cornell: March 5-6, March 26-27 These ones I am fairly sure of, from their websites but I'll check when I get the official info (Accepted at UNC-CH, still waiting on Yale though): UNC-CH: March 12-13, March 26-27 Yale: March 25-26