basille

Hey I received two offers and a waitlist and two rejections. But I have accepted the UIC offer because it was such an excellent fit for my interests and for the work that I hope to do. How about you?

Normally I would agree with you, but I actually think the U of C grad housing is excellent. They have a large number of apartments, their buildings are pet friendly, and the rents are very affordable. I have friends in the MPP program, btw. Anyways.... your school is located to the south of the Midway, on 60th Street, but there isn't much beyond that point. It almost immediately becomes Woodlawn. If you wish to be closer to shops, restaurants and grocery stores, I would recommend the housing closer to 51st (Hyde Park Blvd), 53rd, 55th, etc. There are a number of apartments in that vicinity. Parking is a bit nightmarish, but I have several pals that rent spaces. I think they are first come first serve, so I would investigate both the apartments and the parking spaces once you decide that you are accepting U of C's offer.

Oh, don't I know. Having spent some time on the East Coast, I can say that $18K in Chicago will stretch much further than $20K in NYC. Good luck!

My pleasure. Chicago is, in my biased opinion, a great city.

Be happy to help. In actuality, there are not a lot of hotels in Hyde Park. In fact, I don't remember even coming across one. Your best bet would actually be to stay at the hostel downtown if you can get a space and are looking for something REALLY cheap. The Harris Hostel is actually really, really nice and is in a great location downtown. http://www.hichicago.org/reservations.htm If you are driving, you could consider staying in the suburbs, where it would be considerably cheaper. If you were not driving and were flying into O'Hare, you could also get a room out there. It would be a hell of a commute to U of C in the morning (Blue line to red line to bus - prolly about an hour and 45 minutes minimum) but you would save money on hotels. Ummm.... actually call Wooded Isle Suites if they are still around. They are pretty close to U of C. Don't know the prices, though. 773-288-5578 You might also want to try the Ramada LakeShore. They tend to be cheaper. http://www.ramada.com/Ramada/control/Bo ... andInfo=RA Not sure when you are travelling, but there is a convention at McCormick the weekend of the Mar 22-26, so the cheaper rooms are going to be snapped up already.

I second this. We have both trains and buses. You don't need a car.

It can be done, but it will be pretty tight. Rents vary based on the neighborhoods you live in. Some of the schools have a fair selection of grad apartments, and as long as you find a place for less than $700, you should be ok. Try to find a place that has heat and water included. That will help significantly. If you use public transportation and buy a monthly pass, that should run you about $900 a year. Electric bills average about $400 a year for a small apartment. Food costs for one person in Chicago are about $3500 per year minimum (not including restaurants). Basic phone service would run you about $600 per year. And if you found a place for around $700 per month, your rent would be $8400. Almost all places require first month and security deposit. Sooo.. that would be roughly $14000 for the absolute basics in Chicago. Hope that helps.

Good luck with those remaining schools! I really love Chicago. I have spent time in a number of major US cities and Chicago always tops my list. Good food, good entertainment, pretty affordable rents and a lovely-looking city to boot.

Tsk.. this admissions process is something else. The more I hear from people going through it, the less I understand it. I applied to the PhD program at my current school and was not offered an admission. Since I am a current student they offered to discuss the decision with me, and I think that I am going to take them up on their offer. I'm curious to know if it was more an issue of qualifications or an issue of fit. Prior to this whole process, I never gave the notion of "fit" much credit. But I am beginning to see how heavily that weighs into the process. I am looking to do research. I don't have a lot of clinical therapetuic training through my MSW.. I followed more of a research/policy track. I'm really interested in learning more about the social determinants of health - what ecological functions impact the health decisions and health behaviors of certain populations. I really like the idea of exploring social capital and health behaviors, but I haven't really thought it through fully. Education is a very interesting area of study. I've taken one or two classes on urban education and found them very interesting. I've also done some research in high schools. Lots of work to be done in this area! What do you hope to do?

That was my reply up there. I always forget to sign in.

Hey I didn't think I would find too many social work students on here, but it never hurts to check. I was accepted to the PhD program. I am actually just finishing up my MSW from a different school. I am so excited about my UIC admission. It had the right mix of things that I needed - it was really the ideal program for me. It is hard to find faculty that are working with homeless people, active drug users and incarcerated people (even in a social work program if you can believe it!), so I had a tough time scouting out appropriate programs. Don't get me started on how social work schools don't really support students that want to work with the "undesirables." But UIC fit to a T ... I couldn't be happier. Have you heard anything from your programs yet? I've checked in on the soc forum now and then because I have some pals that applied to soc programs and I kept telling them to visit this site. So I've been checking to see if they had signed up. Which they never did. Tsk..tsk..tsk!

I've had NWU pals that have lived in Evanston and liked the proximity to campus. The downtown has really sprung up in the past few years and so there are many little places to grab a nibble. And there is a new movie theater and plenty of nice little shops. That said, the biggest complaint tends to be that the nightlife in Evanston is somewhat stilted and not as good as you could get in Chicago. Those pals that attended NWU but lived in Chicago tended to do so because they wanted to be closer to the action, so to speak. If you live near the purple line, you'd be just fine. The commute from the city to NWU via the purple train line runs from 20 to 35 miuntes depending upon where you live. Apartments can be a shade cheaper in Evanston, but not by much. I've not known anyone to accept NWU housing, so I can't speak to that. I know that when I lived in the Lincoln Park neighborhood, there were a handful of NWU students that would grab the purple line at the Fullerton stop. Lincoln Park is a very active area and so I imagine they liked the nightlife.

Let's see. If you want to live on campus, you'll be living in Hyde Park. There are a number of apartment management companies in the area, though the student apartments are fairly priced and tend to be located close to campus. Hype Park is somewhat isolated from the rest of the city, so it doesn't really have the "big city" feel that the neighborhoods on the northside have. Hyde Park is connected to the city via the Red line and Green line trains. Neither are particularly close... you generally take the bus to the train, which will then take you straight downtown. So if you are looking for a neighborhood with a large selection of restaurants, shops and places to hang out, I wouldn't recommend Hyde Park. However, since Hyde Park is pretty far south, if you don't want to commute then I would recommend living on campus. That said Hyde Park around 57th and 53rd Streets does have a nice little assortment of places to eat. There isn't a whole lot to do in HP, in my opinion, but it isn't totally barren either. And the rest of the city is accessible by public transportation. I lived in a different neighborhood before beginning at U of C so I didn't opt to commute since I knew I was only going to be there 2 years. Hyde Park itself isn't tremendously crime-ridden, though it does have its share of issues. Break-ins seem to a slight problem as of late, but they are taking steps to solve this problem. HP is surrounded by some rough neighborhoods. HP is around the 5500 block. Woodlawn is the next neighborhood over and it's pretty rough. Around the 6300 block it can get pretty rough. Bronzeville and Kenwood are neighborhing hoods as well (around the 4300 block). They are also fairly rough. Most students find that they do not really need to venture into these neighborhoods, so the threat to students is minimal. Grad student housing at U of C would be my first bet. Most of my friends lived in grad student housing and had good experiences for the most part. If that housing was not available, I would check with the companies listed on this webpage: http://apartments.uchicago.edu/realtors ... elist.html Parking is somewhat of a nightmare in the residential areas. If you are looking to live away from Hyde Park, I'd be happy to share info on the northside neighborhoods as well. From where I live, near Wicker Park, it takes me 35 minutes by car and about 70 minutes by train/bus to get to U of C. As a whole, the university and the area immediately surrounding the school is not too problematic. Campus security does routinely patrol the campus and there are the obligatory emergency boxes. The university is bordered by rough neighborhoods but few students have any real need to venture into the areas, so it is generally not a problem. Things do happen in the vicinity of campus, however. Woodlawn has its share of community violence, as do the neighborhoods to the north of the school. But this is generally self-contained and does not really impact the students much. So it is a presence, but not generally a reality that students will encounter as they are communting to and from classes. There have been reports of break-ins and forced entrances into apartments. The best advice is to just be mindful of your surroundings and use the campus buses late at night when commuting. Lock your doors and windows. Walk with friends at night. General tips for living in a big city. It depends on the neighborhood. Chicago is an interesting place that has areas of very high rents and very affordable rents. And sometimes these areas are only blocks apart from each other. In general, there are some neighborhoods that are more expensive: Gold Coast and surrounding hoods, Lakeview, Lincoln Park, Wicker Park and Bucktown (in parts). UK Village, East Village, Logan Square, Lincoln Square tend to be more affordable. Hyde Park is mixed - there are some expensive places, but a fair number of reasonably priced small apartments and studios. And U of C has very fair grad student apartment prices. If you are considering Chicago and wish to live on campus, I would check into these first. Their rents are quite affordable. I also posted a link above to some rental management companies that generally have pretty fair prices. It is more expensive living in a city than in a suburban and rural area. Groceries are a bit more costly, but I think this is likely because taxes are higher. Gas prices are pretty high. Commuting is about $75 for an unlimited CTA pass. When I first moved to Chicago, I was able to make it on minimum wage working FT. Course I lived in a rough hood and had a roommate. But I have several friends in my program with me at U of C that have made it work off of part-time employment and their school loans. Students with stipends should fare ok since Chicago is, for a large city, still fairly affordable.

I live in Chicago and have for many, many years. I'd be happy to provide information (and opinions!) to prospective Chicago residents. I'm also pretty familiar with the major universities (U of C, UIC, Loyola, DePaul). On edit: I am going to include a whole bunch of helpful info about Chicago right up front, and then people with specific questions can feel free to ask away. The city of Chicago is divided into 77 distinct community areas. Each area is pretty unique, and the cost of living varies depending on which area you live in. To make it more confusing, some community areas have neighborhood names that mark a certain set of blocks. For example, in the community area LAKEVIEW, there is a neighborhood called BOYSTOWN, which is where there have historically been larger numbers of GLBT individuals and businesses. 1. This link will take you to a map of the 77 community areas: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_areas_of_Chicago 2. This link is an excellent overview of the different neighborhoods within the designated community areas: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neighborhoods_of_Chicago 3. Here are the community areas for some of the major universities within Chicago city limits: IIT: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas%2C_Chicago UIC and Rush Medical College: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near_West_Side%2C_Chicago U of Chicago: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyde_Park%2C_Chicago School of the Art Institute of Chicago, DePaul Downtown Campus, Roosevelt University, Columbia College, John Marshall Law: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Loop Loyola University Chicago: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogers_Park%2C_Chicago DePaul University Lincoln Park Campus: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_Park%2C_Chicago 4. Here is the link to the Chicago Transit Authority. A monthly unlimited pass (trains and buses) runs $75 a month. http://www.transitchicago.com/ Be sure to check with your university to see if they participate in the U-Pass program. This generally allows you to pay $75 per semester, and it is generally added directly to your tuition bill. U of Chicago does not participate, sorry to say. 5. Many people are concerned about crime in a large city like Chicago. When you have identified an apartment that you like, you can always check the neighborhood crime stats at the following websites: http://www.chicagocrime.org/ http://12.17.79.6/ctznicam/ctznicam.asp 6. Finding an apartment is a challenge, but nowhere near as challenging as in most major US cities. The rents vary depending on neighborhood, as do the amenties and whatnot. Chicago is a pretty dog-friendly city and the rental market is not brutal. Parking, on the other hand, can be very brutal in some neighborhoods. Lincoln Park, Lakeview, Wicker Park and the Gold Coast will make you rue the day you ever bought a car. But, in these areas, you can find parking arrangements with parking lot comapnies, and if you can afford it, you can generally rent a parking space for $99-200 per month. Some of the best online resources for finding an apartment: http://chicago.craigslist.org/apa/ http://classifieds.chicagoreader.com/ch ... n=oid%3A8& 7. This page should give you a general idea of the cost of rent in some of the more popular Chicago neighborhoods: http://www.apartmentpeople.com/ranges.asp Incidentally, the Apartment People are a good resource for people looking to live on the North Side - particularly Lakeview, Wrigleyville and Lincoln Park. They will help you find an apartment at no cost to you: http://www.apartmentpeople.com If you are interested in Bucktown, Wicker Park, UK Village or East Village, I might recommend North Clybourn Group: http://www.northclybourngroup.com/f-forrent.htm For other North Side neighborhoods, I have heard some good things about the Apartment Guys: http://www.myapartmentguys.com/id77.html I did all my apartment hunting through craigslist, but then again, I am very familiar with Chicago, so it was easier for me.

Yin - I posted the Depaul link. I have a pal that just completed the MA program and is currently teaching a course there. If you'd like some more info, please feel free to drop me a message. - basille -

Any social work MSWs or PhDs out there? I'm guessing this is the best spot to place this. Howz it going? Any good news? 1 program a yes for me thus far... waiting on others.

I don't have much to add... Except that this is my absolute favorite grad acceptances/rejections site. There have been versions of this idea for as long as there have been people typing away on their home computers. But the design and function of this site are super user-friendly, which is why I come here. Soooo... even if the idea is not 100%, unequivocally, without a doubt, brand-spankin' new, it's still my favorite site. So...um..... piss off, "guest."

Speakin' for myself.. I already have a Masters.