Ann Arbor, MI

[shinigamiasuka]

Hey guys! New Wolverine here. I'll probably go with a single student studio for my first year despite the costs, and then move off-campus if I want to. Plus, I'm in engineering and the Northwood I apartments are really close to my department.

 

If anyone living in Ann Arbor has any advice regarding my decision, please do share.

 

Btw, have you guys seen the new Munger Apartments on Central Campus?

[AudreyMLS]

Hey shinigamiasuka, 

The Munger apartments do seem like they could be a good option. For other readers, the Munger Apartments are a graduate residence still under construction.

When I took a peek at the construction site, they felt more like they are in Ann Arbor downtown than on campus. Though, they are really only a block off from the Michigan Union. 

[1729]

I find the on campus housing in UMich quite expensive. Are there any cheaper apartments close by for single occupancy, for like, less than 500$ ? 

Thanks

[SSCCATAGAPP]

Does anyone know about how Umich housing works? Is it hard to get into the graduate housings (northwoods?)

 

P.S. if anyone has an apartment near either central or north campus and needs a roommate, please pm me!

[shinigamiasuka]

Does anyone know about how Umich housing works? Is it hard to get into the graduate housings (northwoods?)

 

P.S. if anyone has an apartment near either central or north campus and needs a roommate, please pm me!

 

If you have a uniqname, click on apply now on this site: http://www.housing.umich.edu/applications/single-graduateLook for the housing availability at different dates and choose the most appropriate.

 

I got an email after they opened up housing contracts (it was on 4/6/2015), so then I booked myself a studio apartment in Northwood I for $875. It's going to be my first time there, so I wanted to be somewhere both safe and close to my department.

[turbodream]

Hi All,

 

I'm looking for a quick 4 week sublet in Ann Arbor (June 21 - July 18). I'll be attending the ICPSR program. I'm open to different living situations if anyone wants to share a room or a solo room would be nice or rent me your basement or teepee or whatever. I'm also flexible on price as long as it's fair. 

 

About me: 30y/o, male, sociology PhD student at UC Irvine, very clean, easy-going, mostly vegetarian.

 

Thanks for reading. Any help would be appreciated. I can be reached at cwgibson_at_uci.edu.

 

Chris 

[shinigamiasuka]

Hi All,

 

I'm looking for a quick 4 week sublet in Ann Arbor (June 21 - July 18). I'll be attending the ICPSR program. I'm open to different living situations if anyone wants to share a room or a solo room would be nice or rent me your basement or teepee or whatever. I'm also flexible on price as long as it's fair. 

 

About me: 30y/o, male, sociology PhD student at UC Irvine, very clean, easy-going, mostly vegetarian.

 

Thanks for reading. Any help would be appreciated. I can be reached at cwgibson_at_uci.edu.

 

Chris 

 

Have you checked airbnb?

[DCW4TW]

Ann Arbor native here   I know I'm replying to an old comment but I'd just like to clarify... A2 is the most diverse city in SE Michigan (ethnically...I do agree that it's majority middle-upper class).  All other areas are predominately either white or black.  I find A2 to be very diverse.

[ChemEnthusiast]

So what do you guys think about Munger? is it a good place to stay for your first year as a graduate student?

[katethekitcat]

Hi everyone! 

If you're looking for housing at UMich next year: please consider Telluride House! We're a living community made up of graduate students, undergraduate students, and faculty members. Room and board is FREE! (Yes, this sounds too good to be true, but I assure you, it IS true.)

You can find out more about the house and find the application here. (The website still reflects our fall application cycle - the new one should be posted within a week, but it will be identical except for deadlines). The essays can take quite a while, so the earlier you get started, the better! You can apply even if you haven't heard back on an admissions decision yet.

[ChemEnthusiast]

54 minutes ago, katethekitcat said:

Hi everyone! 

If you're looking for housing at UMich next year: please consider Telluride House! We're a living community made up of graduate students, undergraduate students, and faculty members. Room and board is FREE! (Yes, this sounds too good to be true, but I assure you, it IS true.)

You can find out more about the house and find the application here. (The website still reflects our fall application cycle - the new one should be posted within a week, but it will be identical except for deadlines). The essays can take quite a while, so the earlier you get started, the better! You can apply even if you haven't heard back on an admissions decision yet.

Hi Kate, this housing option sounds really great but I am wondering what is the commitment that you have to make with this program. I am attending as a graduate student so I would love to find out the time commitment for such a great opportunity.

[katethekitcat]

On 1/10/2016 at 0:43 PM, ChemEnthusiast said:

Hi Kate, this housing option sounds really great but I am wondering what is the commitment that you have to make with this program. I am attending as a graduate student so I would love to find out the time commitment for such a great opportunity.

Hi ChemEnthusiast, 

To live in the house, you commit to:

• 30 hours of community service per semester (our house designs their own service projects each year; individual service projects you choose to do in the community also count)
• Give one, 1-hour talk to the house each year about whatever topic you like (we've had talks about the secret service, water and drought, fashion, particle physics, everything!) 
• Help run the house: serve on a committee, attend house meetings, etc. 

On average, the workload comes to be about 8-10 hours a week. Overall, I think it's definitely saved me time though: for example, not having to cook or go to the grocery stone alone saves me that 8-10 hours a week, and it's made graduate school a lot more affordable for me (I am a master's student, not a funded PhD, alas).

It should be noted this type of community is not for everyone. Living here can be intense at times! But if you enjoy exchanging ideas and are willing to invest time and ideas to the place you live, it's really a great place (one of my best experiences of graduate school). 

Check out our website or message me for more details! 

[Razan]

Hi @katethekitcat, 

This sounds like a really cool program! I have 2 questions:

1) What is the privacy like in terms of adjoining bedrooms and bathrooms? Bathroom to bedroom ratio? Unisex or single-sex?

2) My sister has applied to UMich as an incoming freshman (undergrad) and I have applied as a Grad Student for the 3.5 year Master of Architecture program. Is there any way to link our applications? If accepted we would be happy sharing a double. 

Thanks,

Razan

[MementoMori]

Hi all,

I'm looking at moving to Ann Arbor in the summer to begin grad school in Nuclear Engineering (which I believe is North Campus).  I am married, with two kids and two dogs.  Finding a pet friendly 3-4 bedroom home in Ann Arbor seems tough (~2k/month budget), so I'm looking at Ypsilanti.  Couple of questions for anyone in the know:

1) Is the commute doable year round, or does the snow/ice sometimes render the roads impassable?

2) If you are car-commuting, how does parking work?  Do you have to park further away and bus in?

3) Are there any other outlying areas or towns where a lot of grad students live?

[ghanada]

19 hours ago, MementoMori said:

Hi all,

I'm looking at moving to Ann Arbor in the summer to begin grad school in Nuclear Engineering (which I believe is North Campus).  I am married, with two kids and two dogs.  Finding a pet friendly 3-4 bedroom home in Ann Arbor seems tough (~2k/month budget), so I'm looking at Ypsilanti.  Couple of questions for anyone in the know:

1) Is the commute doable year round, or does the snow/ice sometimes render the roads impassable?

2) If you are car-commuting, how does parking work?  Do you have to park further away and bus in?

3) Are there any other outlying areas or towns where a lot of grad students live?

Hi MementoMori,

I'm a grad engineer myself and used to live in Ypsi for a while when I first moved here. I do agree that Ypsi is a great place to save money. But there are some challenges.

1) The commute is definitely doable year round as Ann Arbor is pretty good about plowing roads right after snow storms. Although inevitably there might be a day or 2 each winter where there is a nasty storm that will keep you off the roads. But the buses pretty much always run, even in those cases.

2) Parking is unfortunately a huge issue in Ann Arbor, especially campus parking. You don't have a ton of options being a grad student working on North Campus. If you decide to drive, I can think of 2 best bets. The first is to acquire an orange or yellow permit, which is fairly inexpensive. This allows you to park in commuter lots that would then require you to take a campus bus (the blue buses) to get to any of the campuses (South, Central, North). These buses run frequently and are pretty quick. The major drawback with this method is that often times these orange/yellow lots fill up quickly in the mornings so it can be difficult even finding an open space even if you have an annual permit.

The second option for driving is to drive your car to an AATA commuter lot (called Park and Ride) and then take the AATA city bus into campus. These lots are huge, free to park, and never run out of spaces. And since you are a student the AATA buses are free to use. However, these buses run less frequently than campus blue buses and also make more stops. So this method takes more planning ahead of time.

Besides those options, there's not a lot of on-campus parking options. There are metered visitor lots around North Campus but that can get expensive if you have to use them for long periods of time or all day. There's also "After Hours" permits available. These are pretty cheap, but this permit allows you to park in any lot (even the blue lots, which are normally only for faculty), but not until after 3pm. So in case your schedule works out that you just need to be on campus later afternoon/evening that could work.

Now, depending where you live in Ypsi, I would honestly advise you to not drive at all if you live on an AATA bus route. I used to live in an apt complex off Washtenaw Ave which went along the #4 bus route. So I could just catch the bus directly and get to Central Campus in under 30 min. If you need to get to North Campus, you would just have to transfer to a blue bus, which would add another 10-15 min not including wait time.

3) Most engineering grad students live in the Northwood grad housing, which is actually very family friendly, but I don't believe they allow dogs. Or many grad students live in the northern neighboring apartment complexes like Traver Ridge. These apartments are further north than North Campus, which makes them cheap since they are even further from downtown Ann Arbor. And there are a lot of buses that go from these apartments directly to North Campus. The problem with Ypsi is that it is trickier to get to North Campus from out there because most the bus routes only get you to Central Campus or downtown Ann Arbor, which means you would pretty much always have to do a transfer to get to North. This was fine for me because my office happened to be on Central Campus. But this is one of the main reasons not a lot of engineers want to live in Ypsi, even though it is super cheap.

Other cheaper areas to live are closer to South Campus, where the football stadium is. This is a mix of grad and undergrads so there could be more parties and it can sometimes be louder with more foot traffic, particularly on home game weekends. And finally, the last main pocket of grad students might live more west/southwest, this would be areas near the 94 freeway. So off Liberty and 94 is Manchester West apartments, and if you follow 94 going south from there you will find many large complexes all the way down toward the Briarwood Mall like Harbor House or Valley Ranch Apartments.

[katethekitcat]

On 1/22/2016 at 0:49 AM, Razan said:

Hi @katethekitcat, 

This sounds like a really cool program! I have 2 questions:

1) What is the privacy like in terms of adjoining bedrooms and bathrooms? Bathroom to bedroom ratio? Unisex or single-sex?

2) My sister has applied to UMich as an incoming freshman (undergrad) and I have applied as a Grad Student for the 3.5 year Master of Architecture program. Is there any way to link our applications? If accepted we would be happy sharing a double. 

Thanks,

Razan

Hi Razan - I've just sent you a private message answering your questions.

[MementoMori]

On 1/31/2016 at 2:39 PM, ghanada said:

Hi MementoMori,

I'm a grad engineer myself and used to live in Ypsi for a while when I first moved here. I do agree that Ypsi is a great place to save money. But there are some challenges.

1) The commute is definitely doable year round as Ann Arbor is pretty good about plowing roads right after snow storms. Although inevitably there might be a day or 2 each winter where there is a nasty storm that will keep you off the roads. But the buses pretty much always run, even in those cases.

2) Parking is unfortunately a huge issue in Ann Arbor, especially campus parking. You don't have a ton of options being a grad student working on North Campus. If you decide to drive, I can think of 2 best bets. The first is to acquire an orange or yellow permit, which is fairly inexpensive. This allows you to park in commuter lots that would then require you to take a campus bus (the blue buses) to get to any of the campuses (South, Central, North). These buses run frequently and are pretty quick. The major drawback with this method is that often times these orange/yellow lots fill up quickly in the mornings so it can be difficult even finding an open space even if you have an annual permit.

The second option for driving is to drive your car to an AATA commuter lot (called Park and Ride) and then take the AATA city bus into campus. These lots are huge, free to park, and never run out of spaces. And since you are a student the AATA buses are free to use. However, these buses run less frequently than campus blue buses and also make more stops. So this method takes more planning ahead of time.

Besides those options, there's not a lot of on-campus parking options. There are metered visitor lots around North Campus but that can get expensive if you have to use them for long periods of time or all day. There's also "After Hours" permits available. These are pretty cheap, but this permit allows you to park in any lot (even the blue lots, which are normally only for faculty), but not until after 3pm. So in case your schedule works out that you just need to be on campus later afternoon/evening that could work.

Now, depending where you live in Ypsi, I would honestly advise you to not drive at all if you live on an AATA bus route. I used to live in an apt complex off Washtenaw Ave which went along the #4 bus route. So I could just catch the bus directly and get to Central Campus in under 30 min. If you need to get to North Campus, you would just have to transfer to a blue bus, which would add another 10-15 min not including wait time.

3) Most engineering grad students live in the Northwood grad housing, which is actually very family friendly, but I don't believe they allow dogs. Or many grad students live in the northern neighboring apartment complexes like Traver Ridge. These apartments are further north than North Campus, which makes them cheap since they are even further from downtown Ann Arbor. And there are a lot of buses that go from these apartments directly to North Campus. The problem with Ypsi is that it is trickier to get to North Campus from out there because most the bus routes only get you to Central Campus or downtown Ann Arbor, which means you would pretty much always have to do a transfer to get to North. This was fine for me because my office happened to be on Central Campus. But this is one of the main reasons not a lot of engineers want to live in Ypsi, even though it is super cheap.

Other cheaper areas to live are closer to South Campus, where the football stadium is. This is a mix of grad and undergrads so there could be more parties and it can sometimes be louder with more foot traffic, particularly on home game weekends. And finally, the last main pocket of grad students might live more west/southwest, this would be areas near the 94 freeway. So off Liberty and 94 is Manchester West apartments, and if you follow 94 going south from there you will find many large complexes all the way down toward the Briarwood Mall like Harbor House or Valley Ranch Apartments.

ghanada - Thank you so much!  I'm going to be referencing your post often over the next couple of months!

[ljo377]

Hi all! Just booked a flight to visit Ann Arbor for a few days with my partner while I consider where to ultimately enroll for grad school.

I've skimmed most of this thread and have a decent sense of what to check out, but please let me know if you have any specific "can't miss" recommendations for what to do, eat or drink while we're there. Seems like walking through an arboretum, etc. might not be ideal for this time of year (though we're southerners)! Also, what's the best coffee shop in Ann Arbor? Best brewery?

Finally, we've done some cursory housing searches and it seems like most places only come with one parking spot. Is that common in Ann Arbor? Are there housing options where we could park two cars? Or other solutions that come to mind? I'm sure I would be walking or taking public transit to go to class during the day, but with crazy work and school schedules it might be tough to coordinate during other times (especially if I ended up interning in Detroit); plus it would be a pain to sell one of our cars!

[ghanada]

On 2/17/2016 at 4:00 PM, ljo377 said:

Hi all! Just booked a flight to visit Ann Arbor for a few days with my partner while I consider where to ultimately enroll for grad school.

I've skimmed most of this thread and have a decent sense of what to check out, but please let me know if you have any specific "can't miss" recommendations for what to do, eat or drink while we're there. Seems like walking through an arboretum, etc. might not be ideal for this time of year (though we're southerners)! Also, what's the best coffee shop in Ann Arbor? Best brewery?

Finally, we've done some cursory housing searches and it seems like most places only come with one parking spot. Is that common in Ann Arbor? Are there housing options where we could park two cars? Or other solutions that come to mind? I'm sure I would be walking or taking public transit to go to class during the day, but with crazy work and school schedules it might be tough to coordinate during other times (especially if I ended up interning in Detroit); plus it would be a pain to sell one of our cars!

Hmm, I'm a bit biased after having lived in LA and Boston before Ann Arbor. I don't think there are necessarily any restaurants in Ann Arbor (or even Michigan) that are so amazing it would convince someone to move here. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of fun and interesting spots that will find a special place in your heart after living here, but relative to any major city, you won't get that "wow" factor in dining experience. 

But I will provide you with some of my personal favorite places in Ann Arbor that I think would be great options for your visit as long as your expectations are tempered. For pure quality of food, I absolutely love Cardamom. It is an Indian restaurant that is legit good compared to big cities. But it is near North Campus in a strip mall, so you would go there if you just want great food and don't care about seeing the town. In downtown (where all the action is), my favorites are probably Frita Batidos, Mani Osteria, Aventura, and Jerusalem Garden. The latter is particularly good for a nice lunch. For weekend brunch my favorites are Sava and Cafe Zola, which are also good, upscale drink places. My favorite coffee shops are Mighty Good, Literati (which is also a wonderful bookstore), Comet, Lab, and Espresso Royale. For tea, Crazy Wisdom is a really cute and eclectic bookstore and tea room with great space for studying. Unfortunately, the most popular big name breweries in Michigan are not close to Ann Arbor (Shorts, New Holland, Dark Horse, Bells, Founders, etc). However, the most popular non-undergrad bar/breweries are probably Arbor Brewing Co (ABC) and Jolly Pumpkin. Both are great for happy hour, above average bar food, and lively atmospheres. Although both of those places, along with Biercamp are particularly boisterous and electric in the summertime. Some other good sports bars that have a huge selection of local beers on tap are Ashley's and Hopcat. Those both have rotating taps that will give you a chance to try many different types of Michigan beers. For more fancy drinking experiences I recommend The Last Word which is a speakeasy spot for good cocktails. For desserts and drinks La Dolce Vita and Black Pearl are both good options. The former is nice in that they have a special downstairs area where you can sit on lounge chairs and couches while you eat and drink with a great atmosphere. Oh and the most famous restaurant in Ann Arbor is Zingerman's Deli. It was featured in the movie "The Five-Year Engagement". Locals have mixed feelings on this. Their menu is extensive and well known for sourcing local farms for everything, which is really wonderful. But the sandwiches themselves are usually just good and not necessarily superb. They are also considered a bit overpriced. But the storefront it is attached to is charming and quaint, with a super friendly staff that will let you freely sample fresh breads, cheeses, meats, olive oils, etc. Whenever I go there, I spend some time sampling food and talking to the employees and enjoying the entire experience of Zingerman's moreso than just popping in to buy a quick sandwich. 

As for things to do, depending on the weather that is tricky. The Arboretum is quite nice (I run in there many times throughout the week), but the winter doesn't do it justice. It will likely be cold, muddy, and dreary if you are visiting anytime within the next month. Another great naturey area is the Argo Cascades and Canoe Livery. Again, this is better for the summer, but even now you can still go on nice trail walks and enjoy the scenery. During the summer you can rent kayaks there and also just go tubing down the river sipping beers and relaxing. 

Entertainment-wise your best bets are the plethora of shows that are offered on a regular basis. A good place to start is to check out The Ark and the Bling Pig if you like small venue concerts, particularly folk, country, singer/songwriter stuff. Also see what the Michigan Theater and State Theater have going on when you are here. Sometimes indie movies, sometimes classics, sometimes shows. One of my favorite "hiddem gems" if you like classical and orchestra type of music is to check out UMich School of Music, Theater, and Dance's daily free performances. Most of these shows you can just drop in with no tickets or waiting. 
http://www.music.umich.edu/performances_events/event_display.php?f=m

If you just want quick time wasters in downtown I really like Vault of Midnight, which is a comic/board game shop that even has a back room where you can play games. And another classic spot is Pinball Pete's Arcade if you just want to play some old fashioned arcade games. Other things to see are UM's Museum of Art. This is a decent size art gallery that is free to just walk around in. Nothing amazing, but worth checking out. If you want to take in the beauty of UM's campus, I recommend you walk through the Law School Quad as well as their library. You will feel like you are in Hogwarts. And if you want to see pristine, modern buildings, go check out UM's Ross School of Business. All of these things are within a few minutes walk of each other. 

If you happen to be here on a "nicer" weather Saturday, I highly recommend the Kerrytown Farmers Market. It is small, but quite lively and really in the heart of where the locals live. The Kerrytown Market area has a lot of cool arts and boutique shops that are great for a Saturday afternoon.

And to answer your car question, the parking varies a lot from place to place. Yes, many of the more townhome type of places will only have 1 carport or driveway spot. But those places are also usually in neighborhoods with decent street parking, or at least in areas that give out residential parking permits. Other housing areas are big apartment complexes in which parking is never an issue, though they might have covered parking areas that you would have to pay extra for. But all in all, I don't think it is ever a problem to have more than 1 car, even if you do only get 1 designated parking spot in the actual residence. 

Ok, hope that helps. If you have any other questions, feel free to shoot me a message.

[ljo377]

@ghanada Thank you so much for taking the time to share all of your wonderful recs - just what I was hoping for! We will definitely check some of those places out on our visit in a couple weeks. I have one more housing question; will PM you. Thanks again!

[stillalivetui]

Does anyone have insights about living in the Munger Graduate Residences?

[Jerry221]

I would like to get some advice as an older graduate student who may be heading to the University of Michigan in the fall. I enrolled last August in a graduate program in a college town in the Midwest that was smaller than Ann Arbor by 30,000 but similar in that the university dominated the town. It was not possible to visit the previous university beforehand and it turned out to be a bad fit for my research area so I left at the end of last semester. I have been accepted for fall admission to GWU, UMichigan, and UChicago. While my departure from the previous program was due to the poor fit for my research, my semester of graduate school in a small college town was not what I expected. I went there alone and it was certainly the most socially-isolating six months of my life. I'm an outgoing, sociable person and it was a weird experience. Some of this was due to the department which was low-ranked and not very selective so approximately 50% of the graduate students had already been living in the area. The other grad programs at the university had a stronger sense of community because students came from outside the area and bonded together. My department was like a commuter school where grad students never socialized outside of official functions. Somehow I expected graduate school in a college town to be fun as well as challenging but it wasn't either. Certainly no Halloween or Christmas parties. Yes, it was a truly dreary five months although I ended up making some friends from other departments and one friend in the department who was finishing up his PhD after what he described as years of alienation.

The University of Michigan has a stronger academic reputation and this time I will be visiting before making a decision, but if anyone has any advice for someone heading to Ann Arbor as an older, single graduate student it would be appreciated. Is there a strong sense of community among graduate students in most departments?

Thanks.

[ghanada]

On 3/14/2016 at 0:25 AM, Jerry221 said:

I would like to get some advice as an older graduate student who may be heading to the University of Michigan in the fall. I enrolled last August in a graduate program in a college town in the Midwest that was smaller than Ann Arbor by 30,000 but similar in that the university dominated the town. It was not possible to visit the previous university beforehand and it turned out to be a bad fit for my research area so I left at the end of last semester. I have been accepted for fall admission to GWU, UMichigan, and UChicago. While my departure from the previous program was due to the poor fit for my research, my semester of graduate school in a small college town was not what I expected. I went there alone and it was certainly the most socially-isolating six months of my life. I'm an outgoing, sociable person and it was a weird experience. Some of this was due to the department which was low-ranked and not very selective so approximately 50% of the graduate students had already been living in the area. The other grad programs at the university had a stronger sense of community because students came from outside the area and bonded together. My department was like a commuter school where grad students never socialized outside of official functions. Somehow I expected graduate school in a college town to be fun as well as challenging but it wasn't either. Certainly no Halloween or Christmas parties. Yes, it was a truly dreary five months although I ended up making some friends from other departments and one friend in the department who was finishing up his PhD after what he described as years of alienation.

The University of Michigan has a stronger academic reputation and this time I will be visiting before making a decision, but if anyone has any advice for someone heading to Ann Arbor as an older, single graduate student it would be appreciated. Is there a strong sense of community among graduate students in most departments?

Thanks.

Ann Arbor is the quintessential college town in my opinion (although I did my Masters in Boston which is arguably up there but I consider it more of a college "city"). Seriously, probably more than half the population of Ann Arbor is somehow associated with the university. If UMichigan was not located in Ann Arbor, there really wouldn't be a reason for this town to exist. But with that, there is no guarantee of experience. To me, your experience is what you make of it. I have moved around the country a number of times now, usually by myself without knowing anyone, and I have had no problems finding friends and social outlets in any place I have lived or traveled to and I am by no means a social butterfly. I think Ann Arbor works the same way. I know some people here who have practically no social life, but I think that is what they prefer. I am on the "older" side of grad students, I'm 32, but I probably do some sort of social outing just about every single day, from small things to grabbing coffee or lunch to going to bars for trivia or to watch a game, to bigger things like movies, bowling, mini-golf, arcade, concerts, sporting events, etc. Ann Arbor and the rest of Michigan have all the opportunities of any other reasonably sized city so the options are always there. 

Now granted, I recognize that depending on your department, that may largely affect how you divide your social groups and interactions. I can tell you that some PhD programs here, like social psych, don't have traditional "labs" where there's a designated lab office in which all the students/staff work in and interact on a regular basis. That also means they don't have "lab" functions like parties, events, etc. So often times those grad students aren't close with their labmates, but rather rely on making friends within their department through classes or collaborative projects. Whereas, for instance in the engineering departments, we have central lab locations in which I get to interact with my co-workers on a regular basis so my labmates tend to be my closest friends, and they are not necessarily in my own department. We do tend to have designated lab social outings and events because of the way our labs are setup. However, that also means I am less close with my actual department cohort since I don't see them as much. But either way, most departments have hundreds of grad students so there is always a way to make friends and have social gatherings in some way or another if that is something you seek. Basically, what it comes down to is that I don't know anyone out here who has made an effort to be social and not find success. 

I'm not sure if that answers your question or not, but hopefully it helps a bit. And heck, if you come visit soon and have some free time and want to grab a coffee or something, shoot me a message.

[ciistai]

Hi all! Thanks to everyone who's contributed to this thread so far - very valuable info all around! I'll be moving to Ann Arbor this fall to start my PhD, but I'm currently in Toronto. I'm not far from AA but obviously it's quite a faff to get over there, especially given that I don't drive, and I work full-time during the week, with no off-time available to me (I have to save what I have left for fieldwork this summer). I do expect that I will have to go over there to find an apartment, but I want to kind of figure it out in one weekend.

My questions are: is it possible to wait til late April or May for this, or will all apartments be taken?; and, are there any notorious problems with housing specifically in AA that I should look out for? (for example - I did my Master's in Oxford and a few of my friends wound up homeless when we had bad flooding in January 2014 - they had no idea their neighbourhoods tended to flood, and rented basement apartments there!!!)

Also can anyone share recent experiences with finding a roommate through the off-campus housing site? I'm a woman and graduate student in my mid-20s and am hoping to room with another graduate student (preferably not a man) with a similar schedule to mine. I'm kind of hesitant to reach out to the rest of my future cohort - I get kind of concerned about living with colleagues in case there's a roomie spat! Likewise though I'm just a little worried about rooming with strangers due to some bad past experiences which were fine for dealing with as an undergrad but I'd rather not re-experience as a graduate.

Thanks in advance!!!

[BellaBendrix]

11 hours ago, ciistai said:

Hi all! Thanks to everyone who's contributed to this thread so far - very valuable info all around! I'll be moving to Ann Arbor this fall to start my PhD, but I'm currently in Toronto. I'm not far from AA but obviously it's quite a faff to get over there, especially given that I don't drive, and I work full-time during the week, with no off-time available to me (I have to save what I have left for fieldwork this summer). I do expect that I will have to go over there to find an apartment, but I want to kind of figure it out in one weekend.

My questions are: is it possible to wait til late April or May for this, or will all apartments be taken?; and, are there any notorious problems with housing specifically in AA that I should look out for? (for example - I did my Master's in Oxford and a few of my friends wound up homeless when we had bad flooding in January 2014 - they had no idea their neighbourhoods tended to flood, and rented basement apartments there!!!)

Also can anyone share recent experiences with finding a roommate through the off-campus housing site? I'm a woman and graduate student in my mid-20s and am hoping to room with another graduate student (preferably not a man) with a similar schedule to mine. I'm kind of hesitant to reach out to the rest of my future cohort - I get kind of concerned about living with colleagues in case there's a roomie spat! Likewise though I'm just a little worried about rooming with strangers due to some bad past experiences which were fine for dealing with as an undergrad but I'd rather not re-experience as a graduate.

Thanks in advance!!!

Hey! Hi! I'm also moving to Ann Arbor this fall, though from a bit more to the south (aka, Chile). I'm also looking for housing options, so if you have any ideas, insights, or whatever, just PM me :D!