Graduate Students with Families

[XOwlfan]

I've been going through various searches and threads to see what information is available through the forum for graduate students who have families in tow. I found this thread () that talks about what it is like being a grad student with a family, but I wanted to start a thread that might highlight the benefits and challenges locations or universities might pose for potential grad students with families. Feel free to post about your own experience here.

Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, CA

Hands down one of the best experiences we ever had. We lived in on-campus housing and found an incredible base of support among other young parents. We ended up with a close circle of friends, and we took turns babysitting for one another--I can't recall a single time where one of us was left in a jam without childcare. There is a also playground on campus that was built new when we lived there. We were also walking distance from a number of movie theaters, Target, a mall, and tons of restaurants. The seminary offered several family friendly events throughout the year as well, with tons of free food. =) The only challenge I can think of came down to the cost of housing off-campus (outrageous), the cost of childcare (if you needed something full-time), and the quality of the public schools. For families with little babies, it is near perfect though.

University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT

First of all, the area is breathtaking. The kids have ample space to play outside and surround themselves with nature. The public schools near UConn are incredible (though lacking in diversity....unless you go to the Windham area schools, which unfortunately do not provide the same quality of education). Four seasons--beautiful! Friendly. The biggest challenge we found was a sense of isolation--we had a really hard time finding other graduate students with families. In fact, we were often the youngest parents anywhere in the area (we had our daughter when I was 24). Now that our kids are in elementary school, we feel that age difference a little more. Our kids' peers have older parents and are well-established, while we are still in a tiny condo and getting by on one mid-level career income with part-time work on the side. The other challenge was finding childcare when our kids were under age 3. We NEVER found a full-time space for them, even after 2 years on a waiting list. When our daughter turned 3, we finally had options. Because of this, I had to pursue my masters degree part-time. UConn is aware of the difficulty of finding childcare in the area and has information available for students with a list of home daycare providers in an effort to address the issue. However, we found that the really good quality home daycare providers were full. We finally settled with a cheaper home daycare part-time (the woman was nice and kept our kids safe but let them watch a lot of TV and never provided them with any lessons or structure). I wouldn't recommend the area for students with younger children (unless you have a stay-at-home parent and won't be in need of childcare), but if you have school-aged kids, this area is fantastic.

I'm curious to know what others have experienced as parents at other universities. I'm applying for doctoral programs now and the quality of life for graduate families is super important to us.

[rsldonk]

I chose my MA program because of proximity to the house I own. It sort of sucked to commute, but I made it work. I will say though that Utah State University has some decent student married housing.