davolicious

One little quirk about housing here, while housing is extremely affordable, and there are lots of choices, don't expect to have a ton of roommates. I don't know if it's a city law or a state law, but there is a maximum of three unrelated people who can live in each dwelling. That is, at most, you and two roommates. Hypothetically, if there were two brothers, or two sisters, or something, then you could have four people, but that doesn't happen too often.

So far, Penn State is the front runner among schools who have accepted me, but I'm very concerned about housing. I have a wife and two kids, and would really like a three bedroom place (although we could probably make a two bedroom work, in a pinch). People have said that there is housing for families, but forrent.com (the main site I'm using for comparisons among schools) has literally nothing in the area. Basically, what I'm asking is: how much should I expect to pay for a three bedroom apartment in the area?

In at Penn State, glad to hear they fund everybody who gets in. Apparently they are only expecting 8 or so in their cohort this year...

That really stinks Sara, I'm sorry to hear that. Hopefully things turn up from here though!

I count myself among the few, the proud, the wait-listed at Indiana-Bloomington. You all are going to think me a horrible jerk for saying this, but as I was getting accepted by other schools, I was tempted to leave my name on the list, hoping for an eventual acceptance (if only to boost my acceptance percentage). I know, I'm a jerk. Anyway, I ended up writing them an email today letting them know they didn't need to keep me on the list any more. Somehow it felt like pulling the plug on life support, but I'll get over it. I think.

A lot of it depends upon your situation. For example, I'm married with two children, and so in addition to the quality of the school itself, and it's fit with my interests, I also have to look at the cost of living, quality of elementary schools (which is still a couple of years away for my kids), and other community considerations. If family is important to you, how difficult will it be to visit your family? How readily available is public transportation, or parking? Another important question regards funding competition. Of of my undergrad professors tells horror stories about her graduate experience, at a school where funding was extremely competitive among students. They would hide each others textbooks, delete or alter files, and otherwise harass each other. That can be something to look at. For single people, especially those with external financial support, many of these issues may not be important, so the decision may be easier. So far, I've been accepted at all but one of the schools that I've applied to, and I'm seriously weighing each of them (except for my undergraduate institution, I'm going to let them know pretty soon that I won't be coming here). I do think it's very important that once you have made your decision to not attend a certain school or schools, that you inform them promptly so that, as you said, they don't waste time and resources. Those are just my thoughts, those of others may be more relevant or helpful, so hopefully others will post too.

Thanks for the heads up! Sadly, that's the same weekend of my MSS presentation, and I think I may be under contract to present because of funding... I'll have to see what I can do.

Penn State is setting up a phone call, which, based on prior posts, suggests an acceptance. Anyone who was accepted know if PSU has set a date for their campus visit?

Washington State just accepted me! Of course, at this point I don't really care about them that much, but hey, I'll take what I can get!

Lincoln is a town of about 250,000 people, that resembles a quiet suburb of a big city. The cost of living is insanely low here, rent is very affordable, and there are quite a few options as far as housing goes. While Lincoln does have a few options for entertainment and culture, there isn't a ton to do, especially late at night. There is a bus system, which is free for university students, but the city lines usually stop between 6 and 7 p.m. (I don't know what time the university system shuts down however). There are two main campuses for the University of Nebraska in town, and they aren't very far apart (about 15 minutes or so). One of more of the agricultural campus, and the city campus is pretty much everything else. College football is huge here, and although we've had some letdowns over the past decade, Nebraska is poised to be a major contender again (I don't want to start a flame war about teams here). What this means is that on Saturdays during football season, the city almost turns into a ghost town, except for campus/downtown. If you don't like football, this is a great time to do shopping, run errands, and so forth, since you won't be competing with crowds or traffic. Student tickets for games are inexpensive, and fairly easy to come by. They're going to be expanding the stadium (again) in the coming years to accommodate even more fans, and Nebraska has the longest consecutive game sellout streak in the nation. If you have other questions, let me know, as I've lived here for about 20 years, and did my undergraduate work here.

I know this is a little different than most students, but I'm going to be bringing my wife and two young children with me to grad school. I'm almost definitely coming to OSU, and since we'll be there for five years or so, I'm looking for a place in an area that will be family friendly and safe, as well as having decent schools. How far from campus am I going to have to live in order to find something like that that's affordable? Also, my undergrad university has a dry campus. How big of a distraction (if any) is having a wet campus?

I got accepted at Ohio State, Arizona, and Nebraska, but sadly was waitlisted at Indiana. Further sadness, I haven't heard from my top three choices yet, while others have, soooo.....

I'll be going, got my tickets already. Hopefully we'll have a decent group going.