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Johnian

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Everything posted by Johnian

  1. Johnian

    New Brunswick, NJ

    The Rutgers Off-Campus Housing Service is a good place to start: http://ruoffcampus.rutgers.edu/ You can search for both apartments and roommates among other Rutgers students. I know the grad secretary in my own department generally will circulate names and info of new students looking for roommates among the incoming cohort, so that might be worth checking out within your own department - there may be other people in your class looking for a roommate as well! In Highland Park I know it is possible to find studio apartments, though you'll definitely save money by having a roommate. Good luck! Also, if the 'JA' in your user name refers to Jane Austen...I'm a fan as well .
  2. Johnian

    New Brunswick, NJ

    I'm a current grad student at Rutgers, and have lived in Highland Park for two years. I would say it's not very feasible to bike from Edison to New Brunswick; there aren't really any bike paths to speak of, and it doesn't seem very safe. People do bike from Highland Park to NB though. Again, there aren't bike lanes, but the side streets in HP are all pretty sleepy, and people bike on the sidewalks on the busier streets (when going over the bridge into NB, for example). There are places to lock bikes up around Highland Park and around Rutgers' campus as well. If you live in HP, it is also very feasible to walk to New Brunswick, and there is a NJTransit bus that runs through Highland Park to New Brunswick for days when the weather is bad. If your department is on one of the campuses other than College Ave, Rutgers has a good, free bus system connecting all of the other campuses to College Ave. As far as grocery stores go, the Highland Park Stop n Shop isn't great, but it's not outrageously expensive. It's where I've done almost all of my grocery shopping while here, since I don't have a car. If you're into cooking, you won't be especially impressed by it, but it gets the job done, and is in a very convenient location. HP also has a nice farmers' market that runs from June - November. There are lots of different produce stalls, and a baker and handcrafted cheese stall, so you can get most of your food there when it's around. If you have a roommate, you can expect to pay a lot less: I pay $650/month in a two bedroom with a roommate (so $1300 total). $900-1100 sounds about right for a one bedroom. Gas bills in the winter can get quite high - my first winter I had some pretty expensive ones (in the $300-400 range) before I bought some space heaters, bundled up, and got used to being a bit colder so the heating wouldn't be so much. If you'd like to be warm and cozy in the winter, I'd recommend finding somewhere that has heating included. I know several of the apartment buildings (Highland Montgomery, Harper House, and probably the other properties managed by the same groups) include heating in rent. Hope that helps!
  3. Yeah, it's the Coach USA bus (also seems to be called Suburban Transit). It still exists, I know people who use it to commute. Line 100 goes from NB to New York: http://www.coachusa.com/suburban/ It leaves pretty much every half hour. Hope that helps!
  4. There's also a bus that runs from New Brunswick to Port Authority. I forget what the normal price is, but Rutgers students get discounts, which makes round trip tickets $15 (a lot cheaper than the train!). It is, on the other hand, a bit slower than the train, depending on the traffic. NJ Transit (train) is, as you've posted, $26 round trip. People in my department do tend to live in NB/Highland Park during coursework, and after that many move to the city (or Jersey City). Beyond the expense, commuting several days a week is very time-consuming! Plus, the good thing about sticking around in the NB area the first year or so is that you really bond with your cohort - living farther away can make it harder to see people outside of class. For me at least, feeling connected to my cohort first year really helped to deal with the stress caused by transitioning into a PhD program!
  5. To the OP: All the advice so far seems good. I would emphasize one thing, which is that you almost certainly will need a first to get into one of the Ivies (though I guess it might depend on what sort of field you are going into). I applied from Cambridge last year with a 2.i and got into a very good state university which has been a great fit for me, but I didn't make it into any of the Ivies I applied to (which could be due to any number of things, but the above advice is based on what I heard from professors and other students when I was applying, not my own experience). With a strong application and a first, you should be very competitive. And of any American universities, I would think there will be someone at an Ivy League school who will be able to make sense of your Oxbridge transcript!
  6. wheel_of_fire, It's possible the Cambridge MPhil may help...of course, as you know, there's a variety of factors that contribute to one's odds of being admitted or not. I would say how you perform on the MPhil is quite important as well...getting a distinction definitely looks good on your CV. But again, who you've worked with and the kind of letters they write for you certainly matter. Basically, having 'Cambridge' or 'Oxford' on your CV won't send you straight to the Ivies. There are other really good reasons for spending a year at Cambridge or Oxford though (on the other hand, I wouldn't recommend doing the PhD here if you want to be a strong job applicant, you just can't get the kind of experience teaching you could in a U.S. program). It's an amazing international environment, and your options for a varied social life are dramatically better than in a U.S. program. If you can get decent funding, the travel opportunities are great, and yeah, if you're doing British lit of some sort, the resources are quite good (both Cambridge and Oxford have copyright libraries, plus the British Library in London is easily accessible from both). If you don't mind taking a year before starting a PhD program, I would definitely recommend spending a year at either university on a purely personal level, it's well worth it. Congratulations, and good luck making a decision! If you decide to go to Cambridge and have more questions, feel free to PM me. I'm doing an undergraduate degree here (should be fairly obvious at which college from my userid...), but am somewhat acquainted with the graduate scene. I absolutely love Cambridge, and would be very happy to talk about it!
  7. Thanks, will call later. That does all seem a bit disorganized. I was feeling rather concerned that not hearing didn't bode well for the funding situation...I guess we'll see. Sorry to hear you weren't offered any...perhaps some who were will decide to go elsewhere!
  8. While we're on the subject of Indiana...has anyone else who received the evite not otherwise heard from them? I guess I may email in a day or two if I still haven't heard anything, as I'm rather keen to know about funding before I let myself get too excited (the website seems to suggest they may not fund everyone in the first year?). In any event, just wondering if anyone knows what is going on, or is in the same boat!
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