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i plan to house hunt after i arrive at atlanta but i won't get there until after aug 10 and i'm afraid that most places will have been taken by others by then. has anyone done this before, looking for places after getting to atlanta? how long do you think it will be for a non-picky person to find a place? i have been cautioned against making any commitment about places before seeing them. i see the point of that but i'm very tempted to secure a place before arriving there. this is not the first time i am moving to a new place but it is the first time i'm doing it alone so i really hope to have everything arranged beforehand. do you think it will be a good idea to commit to something temporary before getting there? is that even possible?

i'd say a n. american degree is the best if you plan to stay in the US after you finish your degree. also, if you plan to do a phd (presumably in the US), definitely get your masters in n. america unless HKUST is ranked much much higher although HKUST is the best university in HK. i'm from HK myself. i can tell you what to expect if you go to HKUST. HKUST is really isolated. expect to go out and hop bars only during weekends. people in HK are nice and friendly, and the city never sleeps so you won't get bored when you're outside the campus. however, expect to compete against lots of students from mainland china who have very strong technical skills and have no life aside from studying. and right, my guess is, most of your instructors will be chinese. what i'm trying to point out is, if you're not chinese, expect some cultural shock.

robot_librarian, thank you so much for the info.

I will be doing my grad studies at GSU. Do you think it'd be possible for me to live alone in Atlanta with about 19k a year? I am not going to drive, so I need to live near a MARTA station I guess? Can anyone give me some suggestions as to where I should live?