flying_frog

Logistical question about September 1 being the most common moving day: How does this work? If everyone moves on September 1 how do people manage to move out of their old apartment in time for the new tenants to move in? Do landlords/outgoing tenants not need time to clean the apartment in between? Even without that it seems like there'd be chaos if you tried to move before the tenants had quite left your new place, or weren't done moving by the time the new tenants arrive at your old place.

Hi! I'm also from London and moving to Cambridge at the end of august to start my PhD. Accommodation sorted, visa arrived yesterday, now to sort out shipping.... thanks for the links!

I'm trying to decide between the math PhD programs at UMass Amherst and Northeastern. I visited both schools and met with some faculty and some students at each. The impression I got was that the department of UMass is more of a community: there's a weekly tea, professors and students talk to each other when they run into each other, people seem to know each other, the students also seem enthusiastic and happy and friendly. It's also a sort of hub within the five colleges area, with professors from nearby colleges coming to give seminar talks, etc. Northeastern has the advantage of being in Boston, near Harvard, MIT etc, so there's a much larger range of seminars and graduate courses that I'd be able to attend, which I think would be awesome (if overwhelming). It also hopefully means there will be far more grad students around working in my area who I can talk to. But when visiting I definitely felt less of a sense of a community than I did at UMass Amherst (no department teas, no common room / lounge, didn't see much interaction between different professors). The students were friendly but less enthusiastic, though I spent less time with them than the Amherst students so it's hard to judge. In terms of faculty interests, both departments seem similar (in the sense that I don't know exactly what I want to do, but there are roughly the same number of people in each place who I can imagine working with). So... anyone with experience of either Northeastern or U Mass Amherst, your thoughts would be appreciated! (And if you're at Harvard or MIT and thinking "no way would I chat to someone from Northeastern", or "yeah, NEU students definitely are/can be a part of our mathematical community", that would be helpful to hear.)