Onwarrdz

Hi everyone, 
Would anyone be able to provide me with any encouraging words about moving to Ann Arbor? I'm starting my PhD there in the fall and am really having a hard time looking forward to moving to a small town. 
For reference, I'm Canadian and I've lived in Toronto and NYC, and am currently living in London. I don't drive and am not really in a financial position to buy a car and start doing it. I'm really used to being able to take super easy transit all around a city and having lots of interesting cultural things to do or tons of different restaurants and nightlife destinations, and just generally being in a big city. I've visited once last year for a few days, and found the whole thing a bit claustrophobic. I'm just really not a small town person. 
I'm trying to do research into it and I'm not really finding much to work with. The internet just keeps telling me it's a family friendly place (I'm finding this hard to take as anything other than it's boring, things close early and there are a lot of children around), easily walkable (this did not seem to be the case when I was there--there were so many highways and roads with no sidewalks and I swear 1/3 of the land was just parking lots), and better than other small towns in the Mid-West (which I can't help thinking is a bit of a low bar in this respect). Unfortunately I'm not really in to college sports either, so that whole thing is lost on me. It also seems difficult to get to other place around Ann Arbor without a car. The only option to Detroit was the Greyhound? And none of this seems to be made up by cheap rental prices either, given the captive market of students. 
People seem not to hate Ann Arbor though, so I feel like maybe I'm missing something. Is there an arts scene at all? What are the bars like (that aren't sports bars)? Are there areas that aren't crawling with undergrad frat boys? Is the food scene any good (I'm vegetarian)? Any good places to go dancing? Does everyone just take ubers and they're super cheap or something? 
I mean, I guess it's only a four hour train to Chicago, but that's hardly commuting distance. 
Does anyone have anything to say that makes the next 5+ years of my life seem less like a yawning expanse of boredom and me trying desperately to spend time elsewhere? 
Would really appreciate any tips at all! 
 
 

Northwestern is officially my least favorite department! They've been dragging this out for how long? A month?

I'm still waiting to hear from both Pitt and Northwestern. It's very nerve-wracking to be at the end of the queue.

Ok so I just went up and spoke to them (Columbia) and they said they will be rolling out admits/declines over the next two weeks. I tried to pry more but she wasn't having it.  I did confirm though that it is not sent by subfield - she input them in "the system" and the "the system" sent them usually within 24 hours and all decisions had not been made - she was inputting as she received them.  I think all of our assumptions based on previous years are deeply flawed...

Certainly better be! I do not have it in me for a 'results will be out last week of feb to early march'. I think I'd actually die. My soul would just give up, and leave my body behind. 

I really thought we would have heard from Columbia by now

Is this really happening....bracing for yet another weekend of waiting....

MRW it's Friday afternoon and my inbox is still empty

I have to say, I was completely unprepared for how painful this process would be. When I was applying to Masters programs I just submitted the applications and forgot all about it until I got the decision emails. This has been something I worry about constantly. If I go for a jog and am able to forget about it for an hour, when I get home and remember my worries, my first thought is "oh that was so nice to forget for an hour."

Who else is sitting around wondering what's going on at Yale and Columbia?

What the hell is happening on the results page?! Someone literally just posted about not using it for discussions and now there are like three discussions happening on it! Grrrr! 

I've been reporting them as spam as they are posted. I haven't looked back through to see if they've been deleted over time. 

Really hoping Columbia releases decisions soon..

in case anybody is interested: i just called up northwestern and the graduate program coordinator told me that they were still waiting to send out an entire second wave of decisions over the next two weeks so i guess the wait may still be a little while longer 

I'm assuming a rejection, but still hold out some hope. Intuitively, one would assume that if they only had rejections, they would just send them out in a form letter in a relatively short window, no? I can't imagine why they would stagger them for weeks if they were all firm rejections.

Hey!
I'm a Canadian, currently living in the UK. I've applied mostly to US schools, but also U of T (where I did my undergrad) and McGill. Obviously, have heard nothing at all yet. Also theory! 

Probably Brown!

How can we get people to stop posting forum comments on the survey? There are sometimes 3 "results" that are just communications in between actual results the survey was meant for. It's making it harder for posterity to understand the results

what is with northwestern slowly releasing like 2 rejections a week but only on Saturdays lol

Any Human Rights lawyer here? I feel like Northwestern's response time equals to psychological torture. X_X 

This is how I feel about Northwestern. It's been THREE WEEKS since they released some (all?) acceptances and a few rejections, and then NOTHING. It's driving me INSANNNEEEE.

That's crazy. But at least they don't drag things out like Northwestern. I didn't apply to Northwestern but I absolutely hate how this school handles admissions.

Omg!!!! It appeared and I'm in with full funding! Cant believe it!!! First decision of the year and Im pumped! I'm IR, btw

I just want something from Northwestern, lol. There and Berkeley are the only schools I've applied to that have released any decisions. Congrats to everyone who has been accepted thus far! 

OK not to beat a dead horse but omg I am honestly amazed @ Northwestern.. If they do the same thing as previous years where they just drag out the rejections for the entire month of February I'm going to... scream