janitor

I'd be happy to give you any info I have about apartment complexes, although I don't know a ton about them. You might also see about talking to other grad students in your department; generally people are pretty willing to share their experiences.

I posted this in another forum about having kids, so I'll just copy it here: I'll share my experience with children and grad school--hopefully it will help or at least illuminate. I didn't decide to go to grad school until I had worked for several years, and then it took my husband and me a couple more years to tie up loose ends, sell our house, quit our jobs, etc. before I applied and got accepted with funding to a MA program in English. At that time I was 27 years old and had been married five years. We planned on children, but not until I finished my coursework (I intended to go on for my PhD after my MA). Six weeks into my first semester, I found out I was pregnant. Oops. It took some adjustment, but we made it work. There are a few things in particular that worked to our advantage: first, in selling our house (right before the bubble burst on the housing market, thank god!) we made a profit, so we had some money put away. Second, my husband decided to stay at home to care for our daughter, who was born in June, just weeks after my first year ended. Finally, my program was really family-friendly and flexible, so I always felt supported and understood. Cut to two years later. I've finished my MA. My daughter is now 1 1/2. I spend that fall teaching full time as an adjunct faculty member and applying to loads of PhD programs. Our plan is to wait until I'm done with PhD coursework to have kid 2 (always our plan to have two kids). I was fortunate enough to be offered funded places at four schools. I visit a few of them, and make a decision (influenced by a last-minute first-year non-teaching fellowship offer). I accept the offer from this school on April 15. Less than a month later, on Mother's Day no less, I find out, once again, that I'm pregnant. This one was a little trickier. My son was born two days after Christmas. That second semester, when I was just two weeks postpartum, was really really difficult. At least I wasn't teaching. But I spent many late nights reading critical articles and 19th century novels while breastfeeding and rocking the new baby, and tried to research and write after both kids were in bed. Now I'm almost finished with coursework and I have a three- (almost four-) year-old and a fifteen-month-old. My husband still stays home (bless him). I am gone on average about 5 hours each day on campus (teaching, reading, office hours, etc.) and my kids seem to handle it okay. I also spend almost every night reading, grading, and lesson-planning. We get by financially with the help of assistance programs like WIC and food stamps. It's hard--I can't deny that. However, I know that in two-three years when I'm on the job market, my daughter will be in school and my son will be in preschool. I won't be worrying about maternity leave while I'm trying to get tenure. I won't be trying to mask pregnancy-induced nausea during my first year of teaching at a new school. All in all, even though my pregnancies were unexpected, I am glad it has worked out this way.

I'll share my experience with children and grad school--hopefully it will help or at least illuminate. I didn't decide to go to grad school until I had worked for several years, and then it took my husband and me a couple more years to tie up loose ends, sell our house, quit our jobs, etc. before I applied and got accepted with funding to a MA program in English. At that time I was 27 years old and had been married five years. We planned on children, but not until I finished my coursework (I intended to go on for my PhD after my MA). Six weeks into my first semester, I found out I was pregnant. Oops. It took some adjustment, but we made it work. There are a few things in particular that worked to our advantage: first, in selling our house (right before the bubble burst on the housing market, thank god!) we made a profit, so we had some money put away. Second, my husband decided to stay at home to care for our daughter, who was born in June, just weeks after my first year ended. Finally, my program was really family-friendly and flexible, so I always felt supported and understood. Cut to two years later. I've finished my MA. My daughter is now 1 1/2. I spend that fall teaching full time as an adjunct faculty member and applying to loads of PhD programs. Our plan is to wait until I'm done with PhD coursework to have kid 2 (always our plan to have two kids). I was fortunate enough to be offered funded places at four schools. I visit a few of them, and make a decision (influenced by a last-minute first-year non-teaching fellowship offer). I accept the offer from this school on April 15. Less than a month later, on Mother's Day no less, I find out, once again, that I'm pregnant. This one was a little trickier. My son was born two days after Christmas. That second semester, when I was just two weeks postpartum, was really really difficult. At least I wasn't teaching. But I spent many late nights reading critical articles and 19th century novels while breastfeeding and rocking the new baby, and tried to research and write after both kids were in bed. Now I'm almost finished with coursework and I have a three- (almost four-) year-old and a fifteen-month-old. My husband still stays home (bless him). I am gone on average about 5 hours each day on campus (teaching, reading, office hours, etc.) and my kids seem to handle it okay. I also spend almost every night reading, grading, and lesson-planning. We get by financially with the help of assistance programs like WIC and food stamps. It's hard--I can't deny that. However, I know that in two-three years when I'm on the job market, my daughter will be in school and my son will be in preschool. I won't be worrying about maternity leave while I'm trying to get tenure. I won't be trying to mask pregnancy-induced nausea during my first year of teaching at a new school. All in all, even though my pregnancies were unexpected, I am glad it has worked out this way.

I'm a second-year PhD student in English at KU. Welcome to KU! I'll add my voice to the fray and agree that you'll most likely love Lawrence. It's a wonderful town, and I think KU is a great school. A couple things that might be helpful: Re: parking on campus. It's not entirely true that campus is closed to parking. The main drag through campus (Jayhawk Blvd) and one cross-street are closed to through traffic (except certain vehicles and KU on Wheels buses) M-F 7:30 to 5. But there are side-streets you can drive on to negotiate around and across campus, and lots of parking lots in areas that I would still consider "on-campus." You might have to hike up "Mt. Oread" but it's definitely within walking distance. The KU on Wheels system is really quite excellent. I personally have a Park-and-Ride parking pass because I live in south Lawrence, close the the Park and Ride lot. These buses run more frequently during the school year than some of the neighborhood buses. So it's pretty easy to get onto campus without a car. But you are right in saying that you'll probably want a car if you want to get into KC, for example. There are some decent neighborhoods with apartments to rent in houses, for example, in the area north of campus (kind of in the indiana to mississippi/11th to 6th st corridor). But it's mixed...you might have some absentee landlords renting out houses to undergrad partiers there, too. I have a family, so we rent a duplex in south lawrence, which is not walking distance at all but offers pretty big places to live at relatively low rent (we pay $850/month for a three-bedroom with a yard, garage, air conditioning, etc.). Hope this was useful!