SomeoneThrewMyShoe

The Conover Apartments? I happen to be at a coffee shop right across the street from them. My friend lives there and you have the benefit that they're basically on campus (literally a 5 minute walk from the Green max). For future years, let me say you can DEFINITELY find a better apartment for less money. They're not bad but they're not super nice. Conover is kind of pricey in comparison to what you can find in Newark. There are also a lot of apartments on the shuttle routes (Studio Green, Rittenhouse, Pinebrook, The Retreat) so you can avoid a parking pass/driving to campus . Also for Conover you'll have to buy a parking pass to park in the lot outside of your aparment (I think it's over $300, which is a ridiculous expense for what you're paying in rent but whatever). One of the worst parts of UD is the riduculous cost of a parking pass. I ride the shuttle onto campus. The very few times i need to drive to campus I'll pay the $7 to park in a lot that day. Again, I don't live in Conover and I can't speak to all the complexes in and around UD, but that's just what I know!

Yeah if you live in Newark near the school, you won't have a bad commute at all. My friend lives in Maryland (since we're so close to the border) and she has a 20 minute commute max. If you get more into the suburbs/outside of Newark, that's when you'd have maybe a 30 minute commute? And thanks so much! I study political communication! They're all entirely unexpected but I'm absolutely thrilled!

So downtown Newark traffic is kind of annoying, but that's just the few streets surrounding the school. I live a few miles away from the university and it's about a 15 minute drive or shuttle ride. As far as the highways go: the Delaware Memorial Bridge, going to Wilmington, and headed towards Philly there's usually some annoying rush hour traffic. But again, that's on major highways. All in all it's pretty easy to get around, I'd say. Nothing out of the ordinary.

So this is actually a concern for one of my schools because they focus a lot more on research over teaching (and I love teaching so I'm super concerned). When I brought up my concerns to multiple advisors, they indicated that it's important to have the research be the main focus in your doctoral program. Just make sure you have some teaching experience in general just so you're a bit more marketable as a job applicant. I'm going to take as many teaching opportunities as possible (the program I'm worried about offers summer sessions, winter sessions, etc) so I'm going to do more to build a pedagogical portfolio, but "emphasis on research over teaching is what you want in a grad school" is what I've been told by my advisers. I've been told that with a good enough research background and some teaching experience - you'll be diverse enough to teach at an R1 or something smaller if you so desire.

Does anyone have any experience asking schools for alternate dates to visit? I'm 90% set on one of my schools, but I don't really feel comfortable committing until I see it. I'm going to be in Iceland during their visit day and don't know how to ask to come up a different day/it feels uncomfortable asking them to plan for me to meet people when I'm there. Should I just not or is there a nice way to ask that doesn't seem intrusive?

There are some places to hear live music - mostly local bands at surrounding bars. Also - if you head into Wilmington (20 minutes away), there's a great barcade there called 1984 that'd I'd highly recommend. They have live music/karaoke all the time. They also sometimes have bands tour to various bars in Wilmington, but for more popular bands, you'll have to go to Philly. And there's tons of on campus events - stuff throughout the week and on the weekend the activities board has recent movies playing in the student center for $3. We're a pretty bike friendly campus in my opinion. Tons of bike racks around campus (there are certain areas you have to walk your bike because they're pedestrian heavy) and most of the main roads surrounding campus have bike lanes. As far as trails around - a friend of mine was in a group for that/there are sometimes bike races on Main Street? I don't ride so I can't recommend any specific trails - sorry!

I've lived in Newark for almost 2 years and have loved it. It's a typical college town and pretty low key You'll probably be shown most of Central campus (North Campus is mainly res halls and South Campus is our health and sciences etc). If you get to South Campus, you have to try UDairy ice cream. Central campus has most of the academic buildings plus the Green. It's also right near Main Street, which has amazing restaurants and all the bars. I would 10/10 recommend the food at Klondike Kates. Deer Park Tavern is also pretty well known just because it's an older tavern. If you're into nature, White Clay Creek State Park is huge and gorgeous as well. For breakfast, you should try Home Grown (which is also my favorite bar) or this waffle place called The Perfect Blend. Also if you're a sandwich person, try Capriottis. Basically, there's not a SUPER lot to do, just hang out with your friends, go to the mall, go out to eat, etc. But we're about 40 minutes from Philly and under 2 hours from DC which is pretty great, so you can days/nights in the city without having to live there.

Hi everyone, *insert stereotypical long time lurker first time poster* I need a little bit of advice on how to respond to an email. I'm super fortunate that I got an email last week saying I had an interview at Syracuse (yay!). The email didn't mention anything about if they were coordinating travel/reimbursing anything. I live about a 6 hour drive away and my car is on her last legs so it's not really a possibility for me to go unless I take a bus (9 hour ride), a train, or a flight (both very expensive). Is there a formal/polite way to ask if they're funding my travel? Is that a dumb question - should I assume that if a school requires in person interviews that they'll fund it? Do I ask for alternatives to in-person interviews? Should I just throw my computer out the window and retreat to the forest to live with the bears? Any advice is super appreciated. Congrats on everyone's successes so far - I have been reading this forum for a while and you're all crushing it!