purpledinosaur

Hey, I've lived in Montreal for 6 years (from Ottawa originally). Can't give you the views from Americans, but Montreal is a pretty bilingual city especially if you stay in the downtown area or go further west towards Concordia and Westmount. The plateau is also English-friendly (east of McGill). Housing is not bad in Montreal. You can find amazing deals if you look a little farther than downtown (for example, I have a huge, beautiful 3 1/2 for super cheap, because it is 20 minutes on the metro or bus from downtown). Montreal is also a very safe city. Actually most of the problems I have heard of were from the student ghetto or other areas around residences (like the extra undergrad housing at Lionel-Groulx metro), because people know that certain students who walk around with their laptops in hand and their iphones out in the middle of the night are easy prey. For real though, really low crime rate. I have only heard of about 3 incidents in my 6 years here. The closer you stay to McGill the more expensive and shitty the housing. That said, I have a friend living in a beautiful but pricey apartment up the hill on Peel right now, which is near the MNI. For finding housing, most people in Montreal use craigslist as far as I know. It's helpful if you already know someone here, because often the best apartments are found through friends. In terms of where we hang out, well... Thompson House is nice. Their menu has greatly improved and it's a fun place to have a beer and hang out with other grad students. I don't really know where neuroscience students hang out specifically, since I'm in music (but my dad's a neuroscientist at Ottawa U!). The plateau is a pretty cool place to be, although housing prices there are rising. Sorry for the small essay. I hope something in there helps!

Haha, thanks! I don't know, I haven't heard anything from CUNY yet. Or any other school except Chicago! The old waiting game...

Actually, in terms of everything I have heard, good programs will fight to keep their top applicants by admitting them as early as possible and offering competitive funding. I'm not sure what kind of school or program we're talking about here, so it's hard to give specific advice, but I have heard of many funding packages being negotiated by students who say, "Program A offered me this funding package with these benefits. Would you be able to make a competitive offer?" and then going from there. Sometimes they will not be able to compete with the other school, and that is okay too (maybe you want to go there anyway for other reasons). Sometimes they will up their package if they know that they have a competitor who is similarly ranked and will appeal to you. You say that you are being aggressively recruited, so I would say that unless you are talking about schools with less funding, you have a pretty good chance of negotiating a better deal. Good luck and congratulations!!

I think I was unclear: the acceptance was to Chicago, not Columbia! Sorry bout that. But yeah, I was a little shocked that Chicago didn't even interview me... Just straight up accepted me. Well, via email, so a little unofficial, but official letter should be coming soon.

@InquilineKea: U of Chicago has always been one of my top schools. I like all the people I've met from my department, I love the campus, and the interdisciplinary nature of the department seems perfect for the kind of research I'd like to pursue. I'm quite intimidated by the school in general and I'm having a hard time processing my acceptance in general, but once I've done that and heard from some other schools... well, U of C is pretty highly ranked in my own pro/con lists!

That's really helpful! Thanks emilyrobot. Here in Montreal, Ethiopian food is way overpriced, so I am psyched that it is affordable in Chicago! We have lots of good Indian places, especially in my hood, but our Thai food is not always the greatest. I will try to scout out some ethnic markets as well, and I'll check out Green Zebra--it sound lovely!

Yeah, I felt like my January 26 acceptance was way early. While emailing back and forth about a missing part of my application with a prof at Columbia, she mentioned that they wouldn't get back to people until March. Seems like a crazy big gap, no?!

Music Forum??? What? Where?? Sorry, I'm such a noob. I'll be there as soon as I find it!

Wow, Open Produce looks great! Vegan-friendly, open til 2 am, organic and local produce?? Woot! Thanks for the tips, InquilineKea! Also: yay, U of C/vegetarian buddies!

http://www.theppk.com/2012/01/vegan_sausage/ BOOM. Seriously, this sausage is so good! I just made some. I'm sorry that this is off topic, but... I just had to recommend it for any veg*ns out there who are looking for a sausage substitute. Also, I live in a major city in Canada, and I have always had way smaller grocery bills than my non-veg*n friends. But that is mostly because I tend to almost always cook my meals at home rather than buy things. And I bake my own bread, making seitan from scratch, etc.

Hey, I'm a new user who just got accepted to the University of Chicago! I visited campus briefly in November after a conference in Minneapolis and I absolutely loved it. I was wondering what living in Hyde Park is like, though, since I will probably want to live there in grad housing at least for my first year. I mostly cook at home since I'm a vegetarian; are there good grocery stores in the area? The only veg restaurant I know of is the Chicago Diner (I've never been but I'm excited to try!) but that seems really far away and I don't know of any others. Anyone know anything about that? I've heard that it is quite safe, can people who have lived there confirm that? What's it like getting to downtown Chicago? I didn't actually go downtown when I visited in November, partly because there was plenty to do on campus and partly because I am a shy, shy mouse who can only travel small amounts out of her comfort zone at a time. Is there a good bus route downtown or something? As I said, I really loved Chicago when I visited, so I'm super excited at the thought that I might be living there in the near future!!

"Music theory...? What's that?" Usually followed shortly thereafter with: "Umm... what are you going to do with that PhD?" And of course, the one everyone gets, "Oh purpledinosaur, I'm sure you'll get in EVERYWHERE!" Usually spoken in an infantilizing tone of voice.

Things I do: Knitting something (scarves are good: hard to mess up and very repetitive). Checking google reader. Reading the same paragraph over and over. Midnight baking, resulting in post-midnight noms. Eating all the edible things in my house. Calling people to complain about PhD applications. Drinking wine. Watching funny YouTube videos (more time than I would like to admit)