lycoris

So, my mechanic just finished looking at my poor little '94 Civic and gave it the opposite of a clean bill of health. Fortunately, my dad can help me with the move out there - I have to drive, because of a kitty - so I'll replace my transportation once I'm in California. I was thinking about getting a scooter. Not a Vespa, they're too expensive, but something around 150ccs, that can go 50 or 60 if it has to and gets around 70 mpg. I saw somewhere on UCLA's website that there's free parking on campus for motorcycles and scooters. Aside from the fact that I won't be able to carry a surfboard on one of them, it seems like the perfect option, especially given the relatively rain-free climate. Anyone have an opinion about this? I was offered a spot in Weyburn but can't live in grad housing due to the afore-mentioned kitty. I'm looking at Venice, Palms, and Culver City. I'd still rather be on a bus line for my daily commute than drive, even with the scooter, but that'll be largely dependent on where I'm able to find a place to live. Other than craigslist, is there a good way to find a room? When I visited, folks suggested West Side Rentals as a better place than craigslist to find an actual apartment, but I really don't want to live alone. Thanks for the tips!

I'm pretty small, and I lived in Rogers Park (with two roommates, in a gorgeous 2000 square foot 3 bedroom, 2 bath apartment with a dishwasher for $1475 a month including heat, a block from the red line and a block from the beach) for a year. It was my first year out of college, so I was temping during the day and bartending at night and doing things like wandering around with my ipod and my giant headphones on and coming home from the bar at 3 or 4 in the morning or from seeing friends at 9 or midnight, and was sometimes unable to sleep and would walk by myself half a mile to this one convenience store that stocked my brand of cigarettes AND those convenience store sandwiches AND took credit cards AND were open all night. I went to the beach, by myself or with friends, after dark or before dawn, I circled around looking for parking and walked from several blocks away when I finally found it, I came from the bus or the train or the neighborhood bars. I never felt even remotely unsafe, and it was rare for me to walk the block from the train to my apartment after dark and NOT see a patrol car pass by. I always smiled & waved. Don't live up by Howard. Howard is sketchy. Cheap, but sketchy. The Loyola stop on the red line is fine, the Morse stop is extremely fine, and the Jarvis stop is sometimes a little sketchy but you'll probably still be safe there. You know where it's dangerous, where you're likely to get mugged? Lincoln Park. You know where you're likely to get your apartment broken into? Wicker Park or Bucktown. You know why? That's where the people with money live. Have city sense, but don't be afraid of Rogers Park and Edgewater, which are really nice neighborhoods that racist people will tell you are "bad" because black people (mostly African and Caribbean immigrants, but also a small African-American population) live there (and stupid but not necessarily racist suburbanites will tell you are "bad" because they've never been there but that's what they've heard). Look at the crime watchers website someone posted earlier in this thread; when the worst crime in a two-block radius in the last six months was some kid getting busted for marijuana possession or someone's car getting sideswiped, that's a pretty good indicator that nothing really bad's going down around there.

Really? One department is flying me out, putting me in a hotel. Pretty nice, right? The other has no funding. I was thinking I couldn't afford to go visit, but . . . I feel like I can't afford not to. Airfare is pretty cheap right now (around $200) and I have plenty of vacation time accrued at work . . . and I could use a few days in a warm climate. My sister is going to college sort of nearby, and can come in to the city if I come for the weekend. But, since I'm sinking $200+ on travel, I really, really don't want to spend even more on hotels. The department is going to try to put me up on a grad student's couch, but, especially since I'm coming out early, nothing is guaranteed. They have a "deal" with a nearby hotel for $70 a night (which, in fairness, is cheap for the area), but I don't really think I can swallow that. I have friends in the area, but one is already living on the other one's couch, so that's a no-go; I could impose on my boyfriend to impose on his friends, but a) I've never met them and he'll be going to school 3,000 miles away next year, so it might be a little weird to have his friends facilitate our impending breakup. And my little sister is about 30 miles away - and she lives in the dorms. I think she has a single, but still, while I may not yet be too old to sleep on a stranger's couch or a bunkbed in a hostel, I am too old to sleep on my kid sister's dorm room floor. Will it look bad if I use couchsurfer.com or, failing that, book a bed in a hostel? I mean, I don't want to be the weird hippie/transient prospective student, but I'm really pinching pennies right now trying to get ready for next year. What would you guys do?

So, one of my departments is flying me out and putting me up at a hotel. The other doesn't have any funding, but will try to secure a spot for me on a student's couch. I have friends in the area but not the kind of friends I can impose on, and the department's "special deal" at a local hotel is still $70 a night (which, in fairness, is a pretty good deal for the area). If the department can't rally a student-couch for me, will it look bad if I use couchsurfer.com or stay at a hostel? I mean, I'm 26, and I do it when I travel . . . I guess they don't technically have to know, but it may easily come up. Any words of warning? I'm in the humanities, so we're all a little boho anyway, right?

I went to Brandeis for undergrad. It's a neat school. Very self-contained campus. Campus housing for undergrads was OK but you could find a better deal on a less cinder-block-y place by living off campus. There are some places to be had south of campus (across the railroad tracks) but the majority of student-like housing I'm aware of is north on South Street and the streets that come off of it - Dartmouth St., Highland St., Bedford St., etc. Also some good places across the river on Crescent St. You should be able to find good things on Craigslist and on the Brandeis Classifieds: http://my.brandeis.edu/classifieds/ Having a car is a great help. The commuter rail (to South Station) has a stop right by campus, and there are shuttles that run into downtown Waltham from campus every day after 4 (double-check this, it may have changed since I was there) and busses to Harvard Sq and somewhere in Boston every weekend. They run later than the T, I think, which is great. Still, it's good to be able to get about on your own easily, since Waltham isn't exactly urban. Parking is easy and cheap in town and on campus, it's also useful that Brandeis is right at the I-90/1-95 interchange. What else? Downtown Waltham, Main & Moody streets, is small but has a bunch of good stuff, including affordable restaurants and a cool coffee shop (Cafe on the Common - if you go, say hi to the owner, Fred). Also the best Thai food I've ever had, Tree Top Thai, on Prospect St. just south of Main St. Waltham's not so bad if you don't mind New England to start with. And Brandeis has some very cool history profs. Hope that helps!

There is a USC thread, actually, it's just on the second or third page of the forum. Right next to where this one was, incidentally, before I posted in it again and bumped it up to the top. Thanks to everyone so far for your suggestions; I've spent a bunch of time plugging the neighborhood names into craigslist and seeing what comes up. I guess I'm going to have to get ready to pay $750 or so. It seems from craigslist like 2 bedroom apartments are the norm, but I've lived in 3 bedroom places ever since college, which is nice because cable and internet, which are generally the most expensive utility, are a fixed monthly cost - so premium cable becomes much more affordable when split three ways. How much do things like digital cable, high speed internet (say 5mbps, which should be plenty), and energy (electric/gas/oil/whathaveyou) tend to run? Obviously it can vary . . . Also, someone suggested earlier in this thread budgeting like $30/week for groceries - I pay $45 now if I'm good all month and don't eat out. Can anyone else suggest a good figure I can plug into my spreadsheet? Oh, also, where I live now it seems like there's no point in trying to search for an apartment more than 2 months ahead of time at most, and usually more like 1 month. I'm guessing LA is the same way, but I know sometimes in university communities (which can extend to off-campus housing in different neighborhoods if there's a message board or something that the students use) folks will plan a term ahead of time - ie in the spring quarter for the fall quarter. When should I get serious about apartment hunting?

): My boyfriend just got rejected from the school that is, so far, my top choice. There are still half a dozen or so more schools out there that we're both waiting to hear from, so there's a chance that something will work out, but I'm really, really bummed today. We work in different fields and even though we applied to ten of the same schools (plus a couple more in the same areas), we knew the chances of being able to stay physically together were pretty slim. Still, now it's starting to feel real - in six months or so, we won't be in the same city anymore, and I don't think either of us is sure what that will mean. We've been together a year, and things are great, but that's still not a lot of history to keep us going while we weather out the tough times and the distance. I am also finally having to accept that wishing fervently for things every time I see a digital clock read "11:11" does not actually accomplish much. Personally, I'd go for the great adviser over the great department, particularly if it meant being able to stay with my boyfriend (and not have to deal with the pain and expense of relocating). But if you are not 100% certain about the specifics of your field, the great all-around department is probably a safer bet.

I'm trying to figure out how my relative income will change next year, so I've spent some of the afternoon playing with calculators instead of the tedious projects I'm supposed to be working on. The the result is some fun (if not very accurate, and perhaps overly-optimistic) math, which I'd be happy to know whether anyone else finds even remotely accurate (I'm looking at you, Finance students): 1) If the stipend I've been offered is 48% of what I'm earning now, but the university pays 100% of my health insurance premium, and student transit passes are far less expensive than my current pre-tax transit ($50 a quarter instead of $80 a month), I figure I can start from a base of 9% less than I'm making now, which then makes the stipend 52% of what I'm currently earning. 2) If the amount I pay toward taxes (currently about 20.5 of my taxable, that is, post-healthcare, post-transit, post-retirement savings, income) and SS and Medicare remains unchanged (which it may not - I posted about that elsewhere, but does anyone know?), I get a little extra boost, because 20.5% of 52% of my income is less than 20.5% of 100% of my income, which brings me up to a whopping 53% of my current income. 3) Then, if I factor in that the funding package is supposed to be for 9 months and cross my fingers that I can get summer funding (through the U or from an independent source, or maybe as a camp counselor or temp or something) at a comparable level, and my anticipated income goes up by 25%, it becomes a full 66% of my current income. 4) If I also take into consideration that I spend approximately 42% of my current take-home pay (32.5% of my taxable monthly income) on debt that will be either paid off or in deferment next fall, I can assume that my costs will also go down enough that my relative income will appear to have gone UP by 26%, after taxes. (Yes, I am spending a ridiculous portion of my income making up for bad decisions I made years ago. I am THIIIIIISSS close to being, if not debt-free, then at least reasonably-indebted, and hopefully able to forget about it, more or less, for a little while - though I will continue to make small payments on my remaining student loans if I can.) 5) Of course, the cost of living in my new city will also increase by between 23% and 27% according to CNN (I'm a little confused about how to calculate that, exactly - they suggest housing will go up by 87% and groceries by 2%, but utilities will go down by 34%; the portion of my pay that I spend on different expenses is probably not the same as their figure, and I'm not sure how to adjust for that), so I'm looking at this as more or less a wash. Of course, I am a humanist, and not a CPA, so I could be completely wrong about all of this.

So, I'm currently paying about 20.5% of my total (is that Gross or Net? I can never remember) income in federal and state income taxes, FICA and medicare, after about 9.5% is deducted pre-tax for healthcare, transit card, retirement savings, etc. I think that I must be in the bottom tax bracket already (I do okay though), but I wonder whether anyone knows whether this talk about "taxes" is comprehensive or not. That is, should I expect to be paying the same 20.5% toward federal & state and social security and medicare, or do graduate students living near the poverty line get to be exempt from some of those tax-like things? And if the school doesn't withhold taxes from my fellowship, do I need to worry about paying MORE in taxes because of the amount my employer currently pays? Does anyone know if the rules are different in the state of CA? I know, I'm sure there's a website I can look at, but I thought it was worth asking. Maybe you know - or maybe you can give me a good URL?

Hi folks! Time to get this forum going again, I think. I have not heard from everywhere yet, but of my thus-far acceptances am leaning toward UCLA, partly because I have been wanting to take up surfing for years now but have not been able to in New England/The Midwest. Please don't laugh at me; I've taken lessons while traveling and think with a little practice I could get good enough to make it a life-long hobby. Maybe I'm wrong, but in any case I think that I think and feel better when I'm near a large body of water, and I'm not much for running on treadmills. Anyway, I have an old beater of a car that I think can make it out there and survive for a while, though I prefer to rely on transit when I can. I also have a (non-negotiable) cat. It is not likely that my boyfriend will be joining me, so I'm probably looking for an apartment with roommates (my own room, I mean, in a 2-bedroom or larger place shared with others). I don't mind an hour-long commute if it can be done on just one bus (or train, but I'm told the subway doesn't have a stop near UCLA), and I'm willing to re-learn how to ride a bike. I generally prefer an area that is more diverse (even if it is slightly "sketchy" - I'm small, but not easily intimidated, and I like to think pretty city-savvy), and like many humanists I enjoy older buildings that are reasonably well kept-up and neighborhoods that have a good neighborhood-y feel and are home to things like non-franchized coffee shops, ethnic food marts, arts and cultural institutions, etc. I know that you can't always have it all, but I've found you can often come close if you know where to look and who to ask for advice. I've been told I'll like Venice, but that Santa Monica is very yuppified. Someone also told me that there's a bus that runs down Sunset all the way from the beach to UCLA to downtown. Does that sound right? What other neighborhoods would you suggest, and what can I expect from them in terms of character and cost? My hope is that I'll be able to pay ~650 a month or less in rent. My stipend is starting at $17k for 9 mos and will hopefully go up slightly when I start TAing. Maybe I can afford more? Right now my rent takes up a rather small portion of my income (<25%) each month, but I'm making big payments on my student loans from undergrad, so my budget-sense is not necessarily accurate.

HA . . . are you waiting on UVA too? I decided they must be referring me to their MA program. This is what I don't get -- you've sent out acceptances. You've even sent out rejections. Why, if it's a waiting list, can't you just tell us that we're on a waiting list? ANY communication would be better than silence (or "Pending"). This is like a bad breakup - you know, the kind where you know it's going to end, but the other person doesn't have the balls to just do it cleanly, so she suggests a "break" for a while instead. Just end it already. Just reject me so I can get on with my life and start planning for somewhere that DID want me.

Guys - Chill out. You are clearly not communicating well. Neither of you. poiuyt, liszt, I'm looking right at both of you. I think I posted before that I was working as an SAT tutor when I took the GRE. In truth, it's the same test - just with more difficult content (vocab words, math problems, etc) to accommodate the expected four years of additional education. Are the test-taking tips I taught my students helpful? Sure, as long as the test taker's problem isn't test-taking anxiety. The place I found the SAT test-prep stuff most useful was on the writing section, which is almost exactly the same as on the SAT, and is clearly scored the same way (since I got a 6). It's all formula. Seriously. I'm pretty sure I made up the content in at least one of the essays I wrote, but I made it sound plausible and I wrote it in the order and style I knew they wanted. Someone suggested adding a science section. I'm pretty sure there are subject tests in several science disciplines. The thing about the SAT and the GRE general test is that, unlike the ACT, they are NOT testing you on what you know - they are, instead, testing you (or trying to test you) on your innate learning ability. You should, theoretically, be able to get an 800 on the verbal section without knowing every vocab word on it, as long as you know enough of them that you can infer from clues and eliminate incorrect answers. How well does this work in practice? Not very well, obviously, since folks who can afford $1500 for a test-prep course can raise their scores by 100 points or more pretty reliably. I'd like to note that the benefit of the test prep course vs. studying from a book has NOTHING to do with content - it's all about external motivation. If you need to have a weekly person-expecting-you-to-have-studied in order to get your studying done, then maybe the $1500 is worth it. If you're well-disciplined, you can learn everything they have to tell you from a book. You're also, probably, going to be much more successful in graduate school, where you'll have very little structure and very few people checking to make sure you've been staying on task. I hadn't thought about the extra financial burden of the tests (and other admissions costs) on some international applicants. I mean, those fees are obviously pretty hefty even for Americans, but I'm guessing that even upper-middle-class folks in some countries feel the cost a lot more sharply, since class is relative to others in your country, but those fees are adjusted to American incomes (and paid in USD). liszt, most US undergraduate institutions emphasize a liberal arts education, so no, there are not really "entrance exams" - just the SAT or ACT, either of which is accepted at most institutions these days. The system has advantages and disadvantages, but it seems to me that the large number of international students who wish to obtain advanced degrees at US institutions would suggest that we're doing alright at producing new scholars. You know, I understand everyone's objections, but - at the risk of coming under fire - I'd like to suggest that these costs are part of a necessary barrier to entry. There ARE fee waivers available for low-income test-takers and applicants, but for those of us who can, perhaps with some penny-pinching, afford it, the high price of the fees is one of the ways they make sure that we're really serious about what we're doing. In my field, it's pretty standard for a department to receive 500 applications for 10 (or fewer) spots. So, every time I'm applying to a program, adding to the stack of applications the department is going to review, I have to ask myself - is this place worth $100 to me? Is the 2% chance of admittance worth a $100 bet? (That's about the average, when you factor in the cost to send all the various materials and the schools' application fees. Some schools were, obviously, more or less expensive.)

I've never tried to look for a furnished apartment. Going through the university is probably your best bet on that, though I suppose. Depending on when you plan to arrive, you may also be able to find a furnished sublet for at least part of your stay. This is perhaps more likely closer to campus, but you can search all over on Craigslist. If someone is going abroad for research or just taking a leave for a quarter, you might be able to rent their apartment from them, with all of their furniture in it. Sometimes they'll even subsidize the rent a little for you if you'll water their plants or take care of their cat or something while they're gone. Generally, I don't feel comfortably living in someone else's home like that, but since a lot of people leave for the summer, if you plan to arrive some time before the quarter actually starts, it might be a good initial sort of crash-pad while you look for a more permanent place. If you have friends with a car, or if you have a driver's license and can rent a truck, you should be able to find inexpensive or even free used furniture very easily - it's just the transporting of it that can be a headache. When I moved two years ago, I got, from craigslist, a free couch, a free armchair recliner, a $50 dresser, three end tables for $15, and a dining room table and chairs for $50. I already had a bed my dad had given me, but those you can also get - mattress and frame, at least, nothing fancy - for $100 or less, often in very good shape (you'll want to check it out first, of course, and they'll expect you to pay cash and probably to move it yourself). Around the first weekend in September, which is Labor Day Weekend (the Monday is a federal holiday), there will be lots and lots of yard/garage sales, and you will likely be able to furnish an entire apartment by just wandering around on a nice morning. Craigslist also has a place for people to announce these yard sales. Partly, that's a big weekend for having yard sales, so people have them then; but also, that's a big weekend for moving (since the weather is nice and it's right before school starts), which means a lot of people are moving out and don't want to have to worry about their furniture, so they're happy to sell it for very cheap to anyone who will take it off their hands. My recommendation to most people would be: if you can get here a month or two early (Northwestern's quarter starts in late September, so I would say sometime in August), secure through the school or on craigslist a furnished sublet that runs through Sept. 1st (no later than Oct. 1st) and stay there while you search for apartments and furniture in the area and get familiar with what's available and where you are and are not comfortable. Chicago, particularly Rogers Park, has lots of nice apartments that are relatively inexpensive, but you'll get a much better deal if you can take the time to go searching. September 1st is, again, a very big moving date, which makes it ideal for most students. If it's not possible for you to come before the quarter starts, try to find, through Northwestern's housing office or online listings (or craigslist, but start with the other two) a furnished sublet for the fall quarter or as much of the year as you can. It's not pleasant to move in December, but I still think it's preferable to signing up for a full year in an apartment you don't see until you move into it. Also, i haven't checked lately, but my guess would be that most advanced listings will be available through NWU beginning possibly in March but more likely in April (if you're looking for next fall); right now I wouldn't guess there's anything. It's rare to find something on craigslist more than 2 months in advance of the move-in date, but it's worth looking because a search takes very little time/effort. If you haven't found anything by May, you could also post a wanted ad on craigslist for free. Hope that helps! Feel free to keep asking.

I applied to 15 programs, so very few people have the patience to listen to what all of them are. I've been accepted so far to a couple of big state schools that have good all-around reputations, and at this point I could very easily just bill them as having been my top choices . . . almost no one I know, outside of my recommenders and a couple other grad students and faculty at the U where I work, have any idea what it is I study or where the best programs are, so it would be pretty easy to convince them. Someone mentioned convincing herself that the school that did accept her was her first choice after all. The truth is, those handful of people who know about my field have not only been congratulating me on my two acceptances thus far, they've been chastising me for not being happier about it all. I guess I got so fixated on places I had decided were "better" (often without a real basis for that judgment) that I forgot that I didn't apply anywhere that wouldn't give me the best training available in the field that most interests me. I keep reminding myself that, in a process this competitive, it's all about "fit" - and even if I thought the fit was better at a school that rejected me, the truth is that I'm working from a limited pool of information. So are the schools, of course, but I just have to hope that they saw something in my application that I failed to see in their website, and focus on all the best points I know about the program, until the negatives melt away. I wished for a while that I hadn't told anyone I was applying at all, but the truth is I've been avoiding applying for three years now because I was so terrified of getting rejected, and by telling everyone all about my applications (only my boss and her boss don't know, but they've probably heard it through the grape vine by now), I made myself accountable to their inquiries; basically, I forced myself to go through with it. Am I afraid that a few people might judge me? Well, yes, but in all honesty, it isn't a big deal; I've generally found that others are far less harsh on me than I am on myself. Those not in my field have no idea what any of it means anyway, and at the end of the day their opinions don't matter unless they love me - and if they love me, they'll think well of me and be proud of what I have accomplished. Those who are in my field should understand the fraught nature of this whole process and not assume that some particular Ivy English department can stare into my deepest soul and identify my true future potential any better than anyone else. This is just the first step of becoming a scholar; and, while the place where I receive my training can make it harder or easier to succeed, they won't determine my productivity nor my ability to contribute over the next five (or fifty) years. Hooray! I get to be a scholar!

I actually do know someone who was accepted by the department (he was in History/American Studies) to an Ivy school but denied approval by the Dean of Graduate Students. This was almost ten years ago. It does happen (rarely), but you really shouldn't worry - they will tell you if there's a problem. If they are not telling you anything, it might just be because they got your address wrong. It never hurts to call and ask (at least, once you're in it doesn't).