whateverneveram3n

Actually, according to the school's webpages, the two places I was waiting to hear from that are both on break this week give school employees Monday and Tuesday off. So I was pretty surprised to hear yesterday.

YEAH, I'll say.

"Worst Rejections...EVER" thread, page 4.

That should be illegal. There should be fines. There was a story in another thread about someone that got an accidental acceptance email somewhere, which was then followed up by another email saying "sorry for our horrible mistake", with rejection letter attached.

I heard from NYU yesterday, even though they're on spring break this week.

You should ask whichever parent has the job w/ insurance to ask about COBRA coverage for you. When I was out of school for a while, I believe I was still able to be covered by my folk's insurance for another nine months or so, with just slightly higher premiums. This could help bridge the gap between school and finding yourself a steady job w/ health insurance of your own.

Coincidence that the SATC on tbs right now is the one about "soulmates"?

Hm...those endangered species types never end up working out. Maybe there's an even further endangered subset that actually do work out--but I have not found any evidence to this effect so far. =/ Feel free to prove me wrong. On the other hand, why so serious? Don't postpone fun just because your future is still up in the air. There are definitely positive lessons to be learned from even simple flings.

yeah...we'll see. :| that's if I don't call them up first and say, "eff you guys, I'm withdrawing my application since I'm obviously already rejected anyway and you guys just don't have the stones to write a proper email." I wish I were more kidding about that than I really am. :| I think I should discontinue my phone service from now til the end of the month to prevent such outbursts.

Just this morning. =( So now I'm down to one, that has said I will hear "before or on Apr. 1". :|

well, here I am, too. one school left to hear from and also hoping for a miracle. I'm also hoping to just plain hear from them at all before I totally lose my sanity.

Thanks for the empathy...my app was for math, so the Courant Institute.

Judging from the results page--a lot of people are hearing from NYU today...mostly rejections so far, myself included. =(

Not many. And I mean that absolutely (there may only be a half-dozen days like that), and relatively (when compared to the number of such days in other parts of the country). I'm not trying to start some east-midwest war here, that's not my bag. Plus, there are plenty of places in the midwest that do have pretty brutal winters (like the Dakotas and Minnesota, etc.). Just not central IL. You're right to say that winters aren't necessarily just about the snow, but honestly, I found the winters there to be pretty warm anyway (yes, even with the wind chill). Look, it takes all sorts to make a world, and this may be the perfect place for some people to live. All I'm doing is throwing in my $0.02, and mentioning the things I wish someone had told me before I up and moved to C-U/central IL for a while. (I mean, that is the point of this thread, yes?) I would've hoped that my "this is merely my own opinion" vibe was discernible from my previous posts, but here's a reiteration just in case.

The way I found a roommate for an apartment I was already renting was by putting a classified in the Seven Days. (I think it was $20 for a two-week ad at the time--so, not free, but a lot of people do read that paper.) You could try craig's list, too. The more specific you are in the ad about what sort of a roommate you are looking for, the better. I said that I was looking for a female about the same age as me, preferably a student, who was relatively quiet and tidy, but not uptight. That sort of thing. I ended up getting about half a dozen good prospects that came by to check out my place at various times. Some of those people I decided I'd be compatible with, and then started making calls back to those compatible people based on the order they had contacted me in. Hope this helps!

When I was living there, I worked a job that was probably a couple thousand -ish shy of that. I was able to live on that, but it wasn't a breeze, to be sure. You'll want to live w/ a roomie (if you live downtown), and do a lot of your own cooking/bringing bag lunches as opposed to eating downtown or even on campus. (If you're not on the meal plan, buying food on campus can sometimes be pricey.) That having been said, Burlington has plenty of fun stuff to do in your free time that doesn't cost anything (like hiking or biking along the waterfront) or very much (like the movie theater--I think it was six bucks w/ your student id), so if you have to be a broke student, it's a good town to be a broke student in. I would suggest checking out the craig's list postings to get a better idea of the current going rates for the type of apartment you'd be interested in. Another good resource is the local indie paper, Seven Days. (Google them for their webpage, I believe they post their classifieds online.) I didn't have a car, so had to live pretty close to campus, where rent is higher. But if you are able to live farther away and commute in, you could probably save well on rent (although I can't speak for what the price of gas is going to do in the future ).

bahaha. this is a good one!

I have only driven through it; seems like a regular little Vermont town tucked in among some mountains. Therefore pretty quaint and quiet, but scenic! (If you like more activity, you'd probably have to head off to Burlington (about an hour away) or Rutland (not nearly as vibrant, although I hear they're trying to do some community restoration) or Hanover/Lebanon, NH (don't know much about it other than that's Dartmouth country). Be forewarned that driving in that part of the state (i.e. the chock full of mountains part) can get a little sketchy in the winter sometimes, but since South Royalton is pretty near the interstate, getting between there and the larger towns should not be so bad, as the interstate is obviously kept in better condition than other roads.

Oo, I can help here. My degree from UVM was in applied math and physics (although I only went there for my senior year). Due to the presence of the medical college (which as dowjones said, is well-ranked/regarded), the physics dept has a decent number of faculty w/ cross-appointments in medicine/bio., and I got the impression that the graduate level research in the department was therefore often skewed towards those topics. So you at least have the benefit of not having to compete against many other topics for faculty attention in the physics department. Past that, I can't really claim any specific knowledge about the biophysics studies, or their status in the biology department, as I was a math-physics student who admittedly spent more time in the math dept. while at UVM. But hopefully these general impressions are of some use.

I completely agree with everything dowjones said. It is a rockin town and you will LOVE it there! If I had a beloved pet, I would bet said pet's life on you loving the town. My advice is to live downtown--everything is within easy walking distance. There's a great little art-y movie theater downtown (you know all those "playing in selected cities" stupid commercials? well, that theater gets a lot of them...), a great co-op grocery store, lots of awesome restaurants, the waterfront--and that's just downtown. The best part is surely Church St--there is a five (six? I forget exactly, too lazy to count) block portion of it that is only open to pedestrian traffic. This street is filled with outside dining/cafe seating in the warmer months. Out of town, in the surrounding area there are tons of hiking/skiing/other outdoorsy opportunities. As dowjones said, it is consistently lauded in the media for being healthy, having a great quality of life, etc. It's also a very safe town--I'd often walk back down the hill from campus to my apartment by myself when working late in the library--the streets are well-lit, and the downtown is young, so as long as you're not out TOO late (like, past 1 or 2am depending on the weekday), there will be other people around. I wouldn't wander north of Pearl St. by yourself at night, though, that part of town can get a little dodgy, especially on the weekends. The university does run a campus bus that does (free) loops from campus to various points downtown at night, 7 days a week--very nice in the middle of winter. I lived there for a couple years, during part of my undergrad. Then I moved to the midwest for a job, and am totally missing Burlington! To temper my paean to B-ton, I should mention a couple caveats: 1. Downtown can be a little loud on the weekends, at least when the university is in session. It does vary on the part of town though; if you want more fine-grain advice on the cool streets/blocks to live on, I'd be happy to post another note. One place I lived was generally quiet, another (closer to campus) was usually louder. 2. Rent downtown is not cheap. A teeny efficiency will cost you at minimum 650/month. If you live downtown, you will probably want to consider living w/ a roomie to cut down on costs. But really, you get what you pay for. Nothing beats walking between classes everyday with simultaneous views of the Green Mts, the Adirondak Mts, and the sixth largest lake in the US. It's drop-dead gorgeous. Edit: as far as the weather, Astaroth, I can't much speak for the winter, because I'm pretty biased. I grew up in that region, so am used to the winters. They do not shut down the school for much there , to allay that concern. I wouldn't say Burlington winters are that much worse than Boston's (but as for the more rural parts of VT, up in the mountains, that may sometimes be a different story). The summers were actually really warm for me, despite the fact that the winters can be somewhat cold--if my memory serves me correctly, upper 70s or lower 80s (Fahrenheit, say about 25 - 30C) were common temps for the summers. Still cooler than you may be used to, but I would guess that's at least on par with whatever UK summers tend to be like.

Means they've already had several days above 60F so far this calendar year, and we're scarcely to the middle of March yet. They only had snow cover for a total of like 7 or 8 days this winter--and I guess that's not 'un-normal' for C-U. Supposedly, 50 inches for the whole winter is the snowfall record, set back in 1970-something. (For comparison, areas in the northeast posted record snowfalls of 190-something inches last winter.) All I'm saying is: if you're from Florida, that one week of snow cover may be enough to keep you away; but if you're from more northern climates--central IL winter is going to be pretty mild for you, and that may or may not be something you like. Me, I miss the snow; others may feel differently.

:shock: No way, man. Downtown Champaign is totally dead for a town of this size!, or at least that's my humble opinion. I did part of my undergrad in Burlington, VT--a place that is only technically the size of Urbana, but whose metro area pop is pretty much the same as C-U's metro area pop. Honestly, if I had to judge the size of C-U based on just the vibrancy of downtown, I'd say it was half the size of Burlington. (I lived in C-U for a year after undergrad.) Now, I don't know if that means that Burlington is totally rockin' (probably), or that C-U is dead (will give the benefit of the doubt), but I hardly think "booming" is an accurate description. I'm willing to compromise at "existent". Also, IMHO, people litter a disgraceful amount in this town. In turn, I've been told by an international buddy of mine that when he was going to school in Pennsylvania, he heard that us northeasterners were "rabidly anti-litter, very self-policing and all". So maybe I'm just guilty as charged. Anyway, hopefully these thoughts are of use for someone. I wish I had something nice to say about the town to round off this note of negativity...OH, well, the rent is really cheap. I had a sweet 2-br place w/ a balcony for 700/month; over westward in Champaign proper, in a really quiet neighborhood. A place of similar quality in Burlington would've cost at the very least 1200/month for sure. (I guess, you get what you pay for.) Grocery prices tend to be ever-so-slightly lower out here, too--or so I've found. Also, if you hate winter--they have pretty pansy winters out here, so that might be a good selling point depending on your preferences.

how does that even happen?! do tell (if it's not too personal, etc.) congrats to both you dudes!

didn't hear anything either way today. at this point, i have no idea if that's good or bad. :|

Eh, no news for me here. Or in my email inbox. Oh well. Congrats, btw!