museCS

OK, I'll do my best here. I have lived in Calgary for 17 years and have spent the last 7 of them as a student at U of C.

Calgary is a pretty expensive place to live, rent-wise. Expect anywhere from $1000-$1200 or more per month for rent in the NW area (where the university is located). I agree with the previous poster that you could live anywhere along the C-Train tracks and have very easy access to the university, and probably with lower rent. Keep in mind that if you live near the C-Train line in the SE, it will be about 45 minutes on the train to get to the university. Not fun, especially in the winter. On a bright note, all students get a U-pass (a universal transit pass for all City of Calgary transit - busses, C-train) that is included in your tuition and cannot be waived. This allows free (already paid-for?) transit. For grad students, you get a U-pass for Fall, Winter, and Spring/Summer, where undergrads only get Fall and Winter. I think this year it was about $250 as part of my tuition and I got transit passes for the whole year. Not a bad deal since a transit pass is $75 or $80 per month normally.

Groceries are not too badly priced. Consider shopping at Superstore rather than Co-op or Safeway to save some $$$.

Utilities - they're pretty expensive, but many apartment buildings will include most of them in your rent, so keep that in mind when you're considering rental properties and pricing. You'll have to pay for your own phone and probably internet though. Most people I know just used a cell phone, and there's internet connectivity at school if you need it.

Hmm, what else? Calgary is a truly beautiful city, although it's getting big and crowded, IMO. Banff is a short (one hour and 20 min or so) drive away, edmonton is 2.5 hours away, and the States aren't too far either. I've loved living here, although I'm more of a small city kind of person. Calgary gets about 7 months of snow per year (October or November until April) which can be depressing, but good if you like to ski or snowboard! I read somewhere that Calgary gets 300 days of sun per year - it's not always warm but it's sunny! Summers are usually hot and dry - ranging from +10 on a cloudy day to +40 on a sunny day. The weather changes in an instant, and I have personally experienced snowstorms in every month of the year (although not all in the same year!).

I hope this helps. Please feel free to ask any questions you might have. I'll do my best to answer!