long_time_lurker

I won't be returning to my program in the fall so I figured I'd chime in. You really have to clear your head and think about why you entered your program to start with and whether staying in the program will be more beneficial than leaving it. In my case, I had the same feelings as you in regard to whether I really saw myself spending my thirties working on something I may not want to do. I was only interested in private sector work and the employers that came and gave talks mostly offered jobs in academia (no thanks) or private sector employment involving research intensive and theoretical work that I'm not all that interested in (as opposed to more applied work). The key though was that I was offered my old job back for the fall and another side job at the same employer where my salary will increase compared to what it was, and will be more than twice my stipend. It didn't help the case for staying that I would have to quit the job I worked part-time this year to complete my coursework. Now in your case you say that not only do you have no job lined up but you have no idea what you would do. In that case it's pretty irresponsible to just pull up your stakes and walk. I would pick a project, register, etc. and spend the next couple of months sending resumes out to any job for which you're qualified. If you get something, then you can walk away from the University. If nothing pans out, you can at least go back in the fall and collect your stipend as well as gain more experience. If you can teach a lab, do so, and you can put that on your resume so you can adjunct or teach high school. You'll gain research and lab experience on your project that you can put on your resume. You also may grow to like your project and decide to stay at the University. It seems you have nothing to lose by staying and a lot to lose (no job, no income, etc.) if you leave right now.

If living at home is a possibility why not do that and commute to West Chester, or wait until next year and apply to schools in Philly and commute there. Even if your parent asks you for $100 a week for room and board that's way less than it's going to cost to live in Pittsburgh or DC if you did GW.

It's an easy drive but parking can be very tight over there. If you plan on using public transit it's not bad but you may get the same experience living in Jersey or on the Island and find yourself with an easier commute as the trains from there go into Penn Station. Metro North goes to Grand Central which is on the East Side, and Columbia is on the West Side. Even buses from Jersey (or even PA) go to the Port Authority and it's a 1-train ride up to Columbia.

This is a very good point. Hopefully the folks who fret about coming up with a first, last and security deposit, moving costs, etc. can prepare beforehand so they are ready to shoulder the up-front costs so that they can reap the benefits later.

I was in a similar boat to you 2 years ago, sans the moving part. I ended up repairing the car for over a grand; a few months later I had noise coming from my wheelwells the same week Toyota was offering 0% financing on new cars. I ended up trading the car in. So I highly recommend not repairing the current car. Also if you can try and trade in your car at CarMax. My local dealers were offering me a $1200 trade-in and CarMax offered me $3000 cash or trade-in. CarMax parts out their cars so they will give you a good value even if your car needs work. Also you are under no obligation to buy a new car from them, they give you a binding offer to buy your car. Meanwhile the traditional dealers offer you a $1200 trade-in and then proceed to inflate the sales price of the car they're selling you by $1000. Also don't rule out a new car. I know the whole depreciation argument of buying used vs. new, but the financing on a new car is generally much better. When I looked for cars I qualified for 0 interest for all 5 years whereas for a used car it would've been 5.9% APR. Also, you are buying more time, namely when you are doing your program, that you won't have to worry about the time and cost of doing repairs to an older car.

This is of no help whatsoever to you folks who are moving, I'm just posting for the benefit of those who do a search in the future. Do think of the cost of moving when you are sending applications and considering admissions offers! Personally, and maybe this is only because I've lived in NY my whole life, but I could never imagine moving anywhere to go to school or take a job, something a lot of people on this forum seem to do. I have to hand it to you folks. I only know from friends who've moved (and I'm talking at most 120 miles) what a pain in the neck and how costly it is. So do think of the moving hassle and expense if considering an offer from school A in your hometown or current locale and school B further afield.

Bite the bullet and live in the dorms especially if you can do it on a semester basis. You will meet people when you get here who will want to be your roommate. You'll also get a job and you will accumulate your first, last, security, and broker fee (if applicable) and the documentation (i.e. paystubs). Remember your annual pay must be at least 40x the rent. Dorming obviously isn't ideal but it beats signing a lease on a place sight unseen - a recipe for disaster.

Another thing to consider is that with an MS in Math you can certainly do adjuncting. At CUNY you get about $65 an hour for adjuncting (and it's not that hard to get a position either in STEM), most courses are 4 credits, and if you teach at least 6 credits you get paid for an office hour. You can get eligible for health insurance too after a few semester (check out the Professional Staff Congress (PSC) that's the union at CUNY). So if you get 2 courses a semester for fall and spring you're going to make another $17.5K.

This is how it works too if you do work for state government. You have to pay up front and then you get reimbursed once you send in your train tickets and hotel receipts. 2 tips: 1. Don't reserve your travel or hotel until as close as possible until the event. Especially for conferences often the hotel rate is a special rate for the conference so you don't have to worry about price fluctuations as it gets closer to the conference. 2. If there is a limit to how much you can get for transportation (i.e. train or airfare) don't book the train or flight until the price gets really close to the reimbursement limit. Again, as you said, no reason to book unnecessarily early and give the school a free loan. 3. If 1 and 2 don't work, sign up for a new credit card, they always offer 0 interest for around 12 months which is always plenty of time to get reimbursed.

If you're from out of town and have no particular reason to be in Jersey then you probably want to look in Westchester or Putnam instead since you want to take PT. Metro-North stops steps from campus and will be much cheaper and faster than NJ Transit. Trains from the Harlem and New Haven lines stop at Fordham. Valhalla or Hawthorne might be good fits. You'll get the same suburban quiet feel where you'll get to keep your car.

Most definitely, I'd say close to half my department does. Anywhere along rt. 80 or something that gets you to it (like 17, 208, etc.) will work. Just avoid Paterson, Passaic, and the towns south of the GWB along the Hudson River like Pal Park and North Bergen (these aren't bad, but aren't good either).

h No doubt I wouldn't live in the Slope period, whether or not I was going to SB, but the drive isn't [i[that bad, particularly if it's timed right. You figure this person will be going east when everyone's going west, and vice versa. My in-laws live out in Suffolk and I spent another 10 years before I got married visiting my wife out there. The Belt can definitely suck but really from the Slope you would take the BQE to the Expressway or better yet take the streets; actually the Slope is right near one of my favorite shortcuts which is Atlantic Ave to Penn Ave to the Interboro. I don't see any reason why his/her drives will be any more than an hour and a half. Figure no Friday classes so no nightmares on spring Friday afternoons, no rush hour crawls. I get to Mattituck from Staten Island in 2 hours so SB isn't going to be 2 - 2.5 from Brooklyn. On the other hand you are right on the money on the overpriced hipster hell that that whole part of Brooklyn has become. Poster is better off moving out to the Island unless something else is keeping him/her in Brooklyn. Many people work at the Brookhaven Labs who are young and/or out-of-towners and rent places around there. I never got the impression from them that housing was hard to find or overpriced.

15-20 minutes is walking distance. You really ought to expand your horizons if you want to come here (or any city like Boston, Chicago, LA, etc.) $1000 on a share means a 2br for $2000 or 3br for $3000. You can check out padmapper but I think that's quite unlikely in the Village. In fact in today's Post there's an article with a graphic that states the average price of a 1br in the city is over $2600. On the other hand if you drop the 15-20 minute requirement there are plenty of places a train ride away where you can get a 2br for under $2000. Assuming you want to do public transit, anywhere in Jersey along the PATH (like Hoboken) or HBLR will work (just stay out of the parts of Jersey City away from the water and Newark), in Brooklyn along the L train (but don't go too far as it gets seedy), the N/R train (e.g. Sunset Park and Bay Ridge). You can go up to Inwood too, it's affordable and you would get to NYU in under an hour. Where you want to go will depend on your sensibilities. Personally I find anywhere along the L now to be Hipster Hell - Dante's unwritten tenth circle. If you're into that scene though you might like it.

Until I paid my Master's loans off (I did well on an investment) I just left them in deferment. As long as you are enrolled you do not have to make payments. Remember, though, that the interest does accumulate on the balance. Something you may want to look into is private loans. The company I did my Master's Stafford loans with (loans that had an interest rate of 6.8%) offers private graduate loans at 3.25% APR. So, you can take a loan from the company (I don't want to make this look like an ad but I'm sure you can find it by Googling or PM'ing me) and use the loan to pay off the higher rate loan. Not even considering compound interest, the difference on a balance of $20,000 is $710 a year. A potential rub may be if your Master's or undergrad Stafford loans are subsidized during deferment. You will then have to figure out whether paying 3.25% during and after your schooling is better than paying 0% in school and 6.8% when you get out.

Cheap is being used as a relative term here. The UES is hardly cheap, but compared to let's say the Village or hipster Brooklyn, it is. Also as pomo alluded to, many of the cheaper locations are really in Spanish Harlem but the ever truthful realtors advertise them as UES.