Nikara

For a research project, I need to find the basic demographic census information for Xenia, OH for the 1960, 70, 80, and 90 censuses. I know that the information is out there, and generally looks like this: http://www.ci.xenia.oh.us/uploads/CD%20Forms/Demographics/General%20Demographic%20Characteristics.pdf For the life of me I can't figure out how to access similar information for previous years. Anyone out there wrestled with census information before? Which website should I be drawing from? Thanks for any help!

Weather- I'm a native Angeleno, and I found this winter to be rather cold, but I've been assured by anyone living on the East Coast that this was a rather warm winter. I used a real winter jacket, but I'm a bit of a wimp with the cold. This past winter it only really snowed 3 times, and stuck once. Again, this is rare. A couple of winters ago they got two feet of snow in a storm, but that is also rare. Generally, it is somewhere in between. I really don't have a good way of judging because of how warm this last winter was. Sorry that I can't be of more help! Karima- What kind of housing are you looking for?

The lighting/windows are fine, but it is a bit cinderblocky. They aren't the nicest apartments ever, but they work well for me.

There is some turnover from year to year, as people graduate. As far as I know, most students stay in the apartments for the entirety of their grad experience. It depends on how many people are graduating any specific year. I'm pretty sure there aren't any open units- I believe that they are all full.

Are you more interested in international disasters, or domestic ones? It is generally a growing field, although it isn't all that well established yet. A good place to start is looking at the FEMA Higher Ed List. It has lists of all of the programs in the US in different areas of study. For example: Emergency Management, Homeland Security, International Disaster Relief and Humanitarian Programs, and Public Health. I haven't ever found any sort of rankings for these specific programs, but that should at least give you a starting place for your research.

In my program we have one person who commutes from Philly and two (!) who commute from DC, and are full time masters students (but not funded). Lots of people commute in, and it is generally against traffic, since most people are going into the big city in the morning. I live in Conover Apartments, and I enjoy it. It's very quiet, and there are plenty of families with here (one family with two kids out of our set of four apartments). There is a small playground, and lots of grass to play on out front. The kitchens are sort of pathetic if you enjoy cooking (like I do), but function for basic needs. I consider the value of the apartment to be excellent, but I come from Los Angeles, so all of the housing here seems super cheap. I don't know anything about the other apartment complexes, but I can ask one of the other students in my program tomorrow who was also here as an undergrad and knows more about the area. In my very small department there are three students with children/wives, and they don't seem to have many additional difficulties because of that. It's also fun to have the babies at some of the events for the rest of us!

In undergrad I majored in English with a Biology minor. I'm about to start a Masters program in Disaster Science and Management. While what I studied in undergrad didn't relate to my masters (although the ability to write is always useful), I got a lot of job experience in Disaster stuff. I've spent the last two years working full time in the field, so I'm going into the program as the student with practical, instead of research, experience. I'm a bit nervous about catching up on the research aspect, but it seemed to me that lots of students in my program had similarly diverse backgrounds. I explained how I came to be interested in the disaster stuff in my personal statement. It also helped that my English professors remembered me talking about Emergency Management stuff with them occasionally during office hours. They could attest to my ability to be a strong student, even if they couldn't talk about my particular subject. I got into all three places that I applied, with funding from two.

So, I'm super excited to be going to Delaware in the Fall! I'll be there for 2 years getting my Masters. I got to visit the school, and found it to be completely beautiful. I can't wait to try out the East coast for a while. I've been a California girl for a long time, so this will be quite an adjustment.

The general safety rule for USC is that North and West of campus are fine. Hoover and Jefferson is definitely fine. University housing will all be safe, and serviced by campus security.In general, as long as you are smart around campus, you will be fine. I lived on and around campus for four years, and I never felt unsafe.

Just got back from my open house on Friday. It was a really great experience. I got to meet several of the professors and students currently in the program, and got all of my questions answered. On the plane I wrote up a list of any question that I could think of about the program. I didn't actually intend to ask many of the questions (as they were a bit too personal/revealing), but surprisingly, many came up anyway during the course of the day. It gave me direction with what to look for during the day. We spoke with the current students both with a faculty member present and without (during lunch). The latter was definitely more useful, as we could ask some of the "harder" questions about the program, and also ask a bit about the silly student things (cars on campus, where to live etc.). The interview for research assistantships were very interesting. We each spoke with 3 professors from the department, and each one asked different questions. The head of the program basically told us individually what our odds are of getting funding (which will be decided this week). They didn't really appear to be looking for that much new information, just confirming what was on the application and clarifying things. They also accepted lots of questions about the program (although we were somewhat questioned out by then!). It made it a bit awkward after, because we had such different experiences. One girl before me walked out and shared that funding was really tight this year, and she wouldn't here until May! Yikes! Then when I met with the same interviewer, she was very encouraging about my getting funding, and that I would hear in the next two weeks. I only point this out, because you need to watch your words- not everyone will be getting the same story, and there were some awkward conversations later amongst ourselves about how the interviews went. While I got to get to know the program far better at the end of the day, I also got to know my potential cohort pretty well too! There were 8 of us in the program, and we all had lots of conversations throughout. I could see some budding friendships just from that. I'm very glad that I went to the open house, even though it was very expensive to do. It really helped cement my decision for next year.

It seems to me that while there are some newbies around for this year, there aren't any current students to answer questions. I've applied for housing through the university, which is relatively reasonable priced. Sorry, don't know anything about the Math department!

I'm going to my first (and probably only) admitted student open house on Friday. I'm really excited and nervous. My school didn't do any interviews, so this will be my first time on campus and my first time actually meeting anyone from the school. It is a day long event, and seems to be pretty well structured. I'll be flying cross-country for this, without financial help, so I hope it will be great! Any advice for this type of thing would be welcome.

Hopefully, I'll be going to UDel, depending on the funding results. I think I'm going to send a deposit for graduate housing today. This school is my top choice, and I'd prefer to have housing taken care of. I'm from CA, so there is no opportunity for me scout out apartments in person. On another note, I'm probably driving my car cross-country for this. Will I have to change the registration/license for my car? Thanks!

I got accepted to 2 of my schools last week! Yay! But both of the emails indicated that I have to wait to hear specifically from the department to learn about funding. I'm applying for a Masters program. All of the programs have indicated that some sorts of funding are available for Masters students. I'm just not sure how long to wait before I directly email the departments to ask about my status. I don't want to sound annoying- they did admit me, after all! Thanks...

I finished my app really early- It was submitted in late November. I received an email telling me to check the application website. When I scrolled down on that page, there was a link to the admission decision. I haven't yet heard anything from the department.