lydibird

I haven't had a Michigan winter yet, but I've always lived in a snowy climate. I'd bet Ann Arbor would be on top of plowing, salting, and such so if you're used to driving in snowy conditions I can't imagine there would be too many problems. If not it could be a little nerve wracking especially if you happen to be driving in heavily falling snow. I'd be much more worried about finding parking near campus! With such a good, free transit system it isn't really necessary to drive, anyway. I've heard that people who live in Ypsilanti generally drive to the Ypsi transit center and then switch to a bus. According to the AATA website it's about a 45 minute ride from there.

Pretty much my situation. When I heard the amount of my stipend I felt like I was going to be rich! I've lived off 1/4 as much quite happily.

Thanks for everyone's advice! I did crunch the numbers last night and it turned out I've already spent $1500 on repairs in the past year. Goodbye car! I also talked to my parents about it and have decided to go ahead an buy another used car. Not sure about the price point yet. I need to do some more number crunching first. I probably could deal with not having a car. I was carless the first 2 or 3 years of my undergrad, I was fine, and I could do it again. I just plain don't want to. No matter how good the public transit is it takes longer, grocery shopping is a huge pain, I hate feeling like a burden for asking friends for rides (even if I know they don't mind), service isn't as good at night... For me the reduced anxiety and annoyance are worth the extra money every month. I figure a car can be my one luxury. I'll be sharing an apartment rather than living on my own, I very rarely eat/go out (as in once every couple of months I'll spend about $10 on a meal), and I don't have or want cable. I'll be saving a a bit less than I'd hoped, but I'll still be able to save. Not to mention I only have average credit and a car loan will help me to build it up for when I want a mortgage. Not to say I won't take advantage of public transit. I'll probably end up taking the bus to campus every day. I do need need to research what interest rates I qualify for. I didn't realize new vs used loan rates could differ that much, but I highly doubt I qualify for 0% interest! If the difference is that large I might reconsider a bare bones new car. From my basic research it looks like several lenders consider fairly new used cars (1-4 years) at about the same interest rates. Besides the fact my family might disown me for buying new ? The month to month cost is lower no matter how I look at it. There's no denying that having a new car under warrenty with great gas mileage would be nice, but it is just more expensive. Let's assume I buy an $8,500 used car rather than an $18,000 new one using a 3 year loan. The monthly payment would be a little less than half that of the new car. Assuming I spend an average of $200 a month on repairs (which is more than I've spent on my current car in the past year and I didn't have any problems until about a year ago making the lifetime average even lower) the monthly cost is still less than than new car. Add lower insurance premiums for used cars and any difference in gas milage would not make up the gap over the year, especially considering I'm not likely to be driving a lot a grad student. And I haven't even touched value depreciation! That said, if I buy a lemon I'd get rid of it and then just go carless until I could buy a new or 1-2 year old car out of pocket. I don't see that happening, though. My entire immediate family has always bought used cars from the same dealer and mine is the first that went bad so quickly. As long as you're careful, check it's history, and have a mechanic check it out before you buy lemons can usually be avoided.

standing room

I have a 2001 Mitsubishi Mirage that I bought outright about 2 1/2 years ago. In the past year it's upkeep has been irritating. Every couple of months there's some other repair that I need to do. I don't have all my receipts on me right now, but in the past 6 months I've spent at least $600 on repairs, probably more. I just found out that I have another $1000 repair. I also know that I will have to either fix or repair my passenger side door before I move. I'm not sure what the problem is, but it shouldn't be open. I have no clue how much this would cost. According to a bunch of car value calculation websites my car is worth about $2000 in pristine condition, which it's not. So I'm quickly approaching (maybe surpassing) my car's value in repairs over the past year. I'll be moving about 1600 miles in August to start my masters program. I'm really excited about it. I don't need a car to live in my new city, but I do like having one and I'll be able to afford one. My plan A was to keep my current vehicle, save my pennies while in school, and buy a nicer (2-3 year old car) when I graduated. Now that I'm faced with such a large repair, though, I'm wondering if it's really the best plan. I'm trying to decide if I should: 1) pay the bill and pray I don't need another repair any time soon. 2) Buy another old outright (around $2500) 3) buy a car 3-5 years old with a down payment of about $2000. I'm tempted to just buy a nicer car, but I really want to make the most financially responsible decision. Since I can't/won't buy new there are guarantees that said nicer car won't need major repairs within the year. I don't have a whole lot of money in my bank account right now and need to keep in mind that I'll need money for moving, first and last month's rent,living expenses until my stipend begins (end of September?), apartment furnishings, etc. I'd expected to be more than fine, but adding in a down payment for a car and monthly payments after that... Before I found funding I applied for federal loans and I could advance myself enough to live on for the first couple months. With my stipend I could pay it off before the end of the year. Is that a really dumb idea? I've thought about just going carless for a few months and buying one 2-3 weeks before I move. It would be a pain, but I would save money on car insurance and gas, and probably for a lot of random purchases (clothes, food) as well. I can walk to one of my jobs and the other would only cost about $8.00 a week for public transportation. I obviously need to crunch the numbers when I get home, which won't be for about 4 hours. Anyway, thanks for letting me vent. Any input is welcome!

1. Research assistantships (or assistantships of any sort) are pretty rare for masters programs, but there are some available. It depends on the school. I know that University of Michigan has about 4 "University Library Associate" positions every year and one or two "Public Library Associates." I think Indiana University and UNC-Chapel Hill have similar programs. They are extremely competitive, though, and can't be counted on. Generally this information can be found on their website and may require an additional application. At large schools you may be able to find TA type positions in other department/programs if their own grad students can't cover them all. Once again, that's fairly rare but has and can be done! I guess my point is that no one can count on an assistantship. Be sure to apply for any and all scholarships you might be eligible for, starting with American Library Association scholarships and be prepared to take out loans. 2. I didn't apply to UNC or Illinois so I don't have stats or anything. If you have relevant experience, great LORs and essays, and competitive GRE scores lower GPAs can be overcome. There are actually a couple threads related to low (under 3.0) GPAs getting into grad school: You could probably get some tips by reading it. 3. Again this depends on the school. Most of the schools I looked into seem to really care about getting students experience. A lot schools even have requirements for real life experience in order to graduate. Especially at large schools there are tons of student jobs in the campus libraries and they often have programs in conjunction with archives and public libraries. 4. These might be obvious, but they helped me tremendously. If you haven't worked in a library before, do it now. If you have, keep working there! If you can't find a paid position volunteer. Make friends with librarians and use them for a LOR or two. Professors are great, but a librarian will know more about your skills/ability/knowledge in the information field. Good luck!

I was wondering this, too, but I'm another youngin' (23). I'll be moving about 1600 miles to get to school. I moved home from college every summer during my undergrad so I've nearly got it down to a science, but it will be a a bit more difficult this time around. I have to fit everything into the tiny car I have right now. So far the plan is to spend a couple weeks this summer sorting through my junk and seeing what I can toss out. While I love Smithsonian, what's the point of saving my 4 years worth if I never re-read them? I've already talked to my grandma and she's going to let me use her vacuum packer for my linens, blankets, and clothes so that should cut down a fair amount of space. When the time comes I'll stuff everything I can into my car and either pay to store the rest for the 2 years of my masters or leave it at my parent's. I'll look at thrift stores/Craig's list for whatever furniture I need and buy a new mattress. I'm actually looking forward to that as I don't think I've ever had a brand new mattress! My main worry is paying to ship the few things I "need" but don't have space for. How much does it cost to ship books? Would it be less to ship my clothes? I have too many books and I just don't think I can decide which to bring with me!

I do think part of the problem is that a lot of college students think that they deserve a degree merely by finishing their program. It seems like everyone just expected the economy to fix itself while they were in school and didn't prepare for reality. Instead of spending time looking for opportunities to get real life experience while in school (lab jobs, teaching/TA/UTF, internships, etc) they play video games for 14 hours a week. Even half that time spent working on some sort of tangible project would have helped their job search tremendously. Theoretical knowledge isn't enough to land a job; it hasn't been for a long while and students should go into their degree program knowing that. I graduated a year ago. Out of those looking for work, everyone I know who got involved with their education more deeply than simply doing their assignments and passing exams has found employment relevent to their degree. Maybe my friends and I have been extremely lucky, and I'm not saying that the job market isn't bleak and depressing right now. Obviously the number of jobs available would remain the same even if everyone in college were making the most of their education. That said, there are tons of ways to "get experience" while still in school. If more students took advantage of them then maybe more of the nation's recent graduates would be able to compete in the job market.

I'll probably end up living near North Campus even though I'll spend most of my time in Central Campus. The AATA website has a trip planner that gives an estimated ride time: http://routes.aata.org/ Since I don't know the area it was helpful in deciding how far out I was willing to live.

I've been looking from a distance as well. It's tough and a little scary. Luckily I finally found a roommate that I feel pretty good about and she's doing most of the legwork now. She lives in AA already so she can rule out any dumps that looked okay online.

I'm not in Ann Arbor so I don't really know much, but I was thinking SpiceTree as well. I looked it up on apartmentratings.com and there were a couple raters who said they had the catalytic converters stolen from their cars and were told it wasn't uncommon. You have to take everything online with a grain of salt, but it's made me reconsider. Fortunately I found a potential roommate who lives in Ann Arbor already so now I have some help on the other side. We're looking north right now and I think that's where I'll end up.

I was a little surprised that there wasn't already a thread for UMich. I can't be the only one headed there this fall! I'm heading into the Library and Information Science masters program. I'm apartment hunting right now, hoping to find something soon. Not having a place to live is stressful.

Right now I'm in the same situation. With my work schedule and travel costs there is no way I can make it out to apartment hunt! I'm with all the people that contacted others already living there to help them out. I wanted a roommate, so I contacted a group affiliated with my church (I imagine that any sort of national/international organization/group/club with a chapter where you're moving would be willing to help you out!) to help me find a roommate. They got me in contact with a grad student going into her second year who was looking for a roommate and we're working together to find an apartment that will suit us both. Since she's already living there she can check apartments out in person and make sure they're livable. We haven't settled on anything yet, but we haven't been in contact long. Since I found my roommate through an organization I trust I'm not as wary about the potential crazy roommate as I would be if I answered a craigslist ad. I'm still a little wary, mind you, but I'm pretty sure she won't kill me in my sleep or anything.

screw you!

Well, my job is related to my field, but it's entry level and completely dead end. I like my job, but now that I know a huge change is coming I can't wait to move on. I basically sit at a desk waiting for students to ask for help, so I spend a lot of time reading, blogging, checking message boards, etc. Ocassionally I've worked on something related to my future plans, but I do feel a bit guilty about that. I finally told them a month ago that I'd definitely be leaving this summer so at least I'm not hiding stuff anymore. I think the advice to take one day at a time helps me the most. I'm not leaving my current job until August and while the idea of waiting for months to get started on my new life is incredibly frustrating I know that in the long run I'll be glad that I stuck it out.

beetles

I applied last application season and deferred admission to try to figure out the funding situation. It just resolved itself and I have absolutely no reservations about attending University of Michigan SI this fall. Last year there were a several of us considering UMich, but I (as a creepy lurker) haven't seen many this year. Anyone else thinking about attending UMich?

I'll be going to UMich, but decided to defer for a year in order to save some money. I'll see you in 2012!

chocolate chip

I am! I'm also looking forward to meeting people, although I haven't decided where I'll be attending. Hopefully the visit will make that a bit more clear. Michigan is my top choice at the moment.

ravenous beast

opposite sex

I'm interested in this as well. It's nearly impossible for people in my field to get funding. Yea professional programs! I'm looking at $65,000 to $80,000 (including living expenses) in order to get my MLIS (I have to go out of state for my degree). I've made it through undergrad with absolutely no debt, but I'm still hesitant to take out loans for that amount. I doubt it would actually end up as those numbers; I'm sure I could find a job and pay at least for living expenses on my own. Making this decision is driving me NUTS! I still have a couple of chances at nearly full funding that I'm waiting on, but I'm a pessimist/realist and am trying to decide what to do if nothing works out.

university student

come again?