csApplicant Posted February 19, 2009 Posted February 19, 2009 help! chicago, baltimore, new york city, ann arbor, san diego or seattle????? please explain why? could you also tell me which one (s) are at top and which one(s) would be at the bottom and why?
socialpsych Posted February 19, 2009 Posted February 19, 2009 Wow! Sounds like you have some great options there! I personally would go for San Diego, but warm weather matters a lot to me. It just makes people happier and life better...I don't know. After I got in to Chicago, people told me pretty uniformly that the city as a whole is great but the part of town that U Chicago is in (if that's where you're thinking of going) is crap--i.e. dangerous and not particularly accessible by public transportation. I consider the location to be pretty much at the bottom of my personal grad school list (which doesn't include most of the locations you listed). I think in NY it would totally depend on the funding/housing you are getting. With good funding it could be amazing, but otherwise, probably miserable. Have heard only great things about Seattle. Best of luck!
csApplicant Posted February 19, 2009 Author Posted February 19, 2009 baltimore? that one is kind of a crap shoot. no one seems to have any information about baltimore.
frankdux Posted February 19, 2009 Posted February 19, 2009 i live right outside of chicago and did a masters at UIC. honestly, i don't like chicago. i hate the traffic, the public transportation is somewhat dirty and dangerous at night. there are too many dangerous parts of the city. some things are just ridiculously overpriced, and the weather stinks for at least half the year. i'd move to san diego in a heartbeat. and i probably wouldn't mind seattle either. of course, every major city is going to be expensive. but the weather in san diego is phenomenal. and UCSD is in La Jolla which is somewhat upscale and much safer than downtown chicago.
socialpsych Posted February 19, 2009 Posted February 19, 2009 baltimore? that one is kind of a crap shoot. no one seems to have any information about baltimore. Yeah, sorry, nothing here. Why is that?
UnlikelyGrad Posted February 19, 2009 Posted February 19, 2009 What, in particular, do you want to know about these cities? I'm pretty familiar with Seattle and have a moderately good feel for Chicago and Baltimore. But I don't know what you want to hear. The environment you choose depends so much on your personal preferences that I'm not sure anyone could help you without knowing a bit more about you. Like: what sort of weather do you prefer? Do you like big cities or small towns or something in between? What do you do in your spare time? Are you married or looking for someone?
Dubya Posted February 19, 2009 Posted February 19, 2009 Personal preference: SD, Seattle, New York, Ann Arbor, Baltimore Ironically, my top choice is in Baltimore.
psycholinguist Posted February 19, 2009 Posted February 19, 2009 Seattle is a great city, but if you move there you need to be prepared for hugely dreary winters. They're awful. Sometime in October or November it clouds over and begins to rain; this continues until about mid-April or May, and then it dries up for the summer and autumn. I'm barely exaggerating. In January you've pretty much forgotten what sunlight looks like. That said, there isn't much snow, there's LOTS of greenery and environmentalism (Seattle once built a park on top of a freeway tunnel), the scenery is just stunning, and their main public library is, without a doubt, the weirdest building I've ever been inside. New York City is, in a word, intense. Every other car is a taxi; people are just waiting for you to hurry up already (example: if you take a few seconds to do up your bag after making a purchase in a store, the cashier and most of the people in line behind you will check their watches very conspicuously); and by the end of a single day there you're convinced that a 20-storey building is tiny. Of course, the culture there is hard to beat, but it's a pretty overwhelming place. I consider myself a city-person, but I, personally, wouldn't want to live in New York. It'd be too much for me. San Diego is lovely. I'm still trying to decide whether to go there myself. Some people don't like the fact that there really aren't any seasons there. Heard mostly negative things about Baltimore, though I've never been there myself.
Andorin Posted February 20, 2009 Posted February 20, 2009 I used to work at the Homewood campus in Baltimore for a while. Homewood/North Charles region is really quite nice, but on the whole the city is a bit of a hole, expecially the region around the med school. It really doesn't have a lot going for it, although I understand that if you drive and don't mind living in a somewhat more suburban regions it can be quite nice. The Chesapeake bay is also easy to get to if you're into that kinda thing, which makes it quite nice. Visited UCSD and impression is that the city is nothing special, and the university is so far out it may as well not be in a city. The campus is really quite ugly in a brutalist fashion as well.
synthla Posted February 20, 2009 Posted February 20, 2009 NYC is overrated. And overpriced. Having once lived there for 4 years, I would agree. Although the majority of residents have drunk the kool-aid. It also smells like human waste most of the time, except when it's recently snowed, but then you don't want to go outside.
Louiselab Posted February 20, 2009 Posted February 20, 2009 New York City is, in a word, intense. Every other car is a taxi; people are just waiting for you to hurry up already (example: if you take a few seconds to do up your bag after making a purchase in a store, the cashier and most of the people in line behind you will check their watches very conspicuously) Hey, listen, those lines in Duane Reade... An old lady tried to cut like she didn't know where the end was and everyone in line started screaming "Get to the back of the line!!" Ah, home... The midwest will be quite the change for me. I wonder if I can mellow out... I second that, though. People either love NY or hate it, it entirely depends on you.
ewurgler Posted February 20, 2009 Posted February 20, 2009 Ugh, Not San Diego. I've lived here for 5 years and the lack of change really gets to me. It is 80 degrees year round, leaves never change color and you never get to wear a scarf! The area ucsd is in is horribly stuffy, isolated and makes you want to die because you pay so much for rent. There are cooler places to live in sd, so if you end up there, send me a PM and I can hopefully make your grad school life a little happier. Personally, I love chicago and seattle. The area U of Chicago is in isn't quite the city center and not as close to public transport, but it is still nice!! Obama lived there!
Tonights Posted February 20, 2009 Posted February 20, 2009 Baltimore is not a happy place to live. My best friend lives there. To quote her, and Futurama: "It's shank or be shanked!" She was molested by a homeless transient last year at a laundromat and hasn't fully recovered. I realize that kind of thing can happen anywhere, but it's got a really good chance of happening in Baltimore. There are something like six times more murders there than in New York City and astronomically high rates of assault and burglary. A popular graffitoed euphemism for the city is "Bodymore, Murderland." I actually didn't apply to Hopkins purely because of my familiarity with the area. I know I wouldn't want to live there and I wouldn't feel safe or happy. So if you're picking based on location, there's some stuff for you.
ewurgler Posted February 20, 2009 Posted February 20, 2009 Baltimore is not a happy place to live. My best friend lives there. To quote her, and Futurama: "It's shank or be shanked!" She was molested by a homeless transient last year at a laundromat and hasn't fully recovered. I realize that kind of thing can happen anywhere, but it's got a really good chance of happening in Baltimore. There are something like six times more murders there than in New York City and astronomically high rates of assault and burglary. A popular graffitoed euphemism for the city is "Bodymore, Murderland." I actually didn't apply to Hopkins purely because of my familiarity with the area. I know I wouldn't want to live there and I wouldn't feel safe or happy. So if you're picking based on location, there's some stuff for you. Duh! Haven't you seen The Wire? Just kidding. But I was tempted to apply to a school there so they would pay for a trip and I could see what it was really like.
Tonights Posted February 20, 2009 Posted February 20, 2009 Duh! Haven't you seen The Wire? Just kidding. But I was tempted to apply to a school there so they would pay for a trip and I could see what it was really like. I actually haven't seen The Wire. Lost is basically all I watch. XD Baltimore is kind of interesting. One minute you'll be driving down a street that seems moderately okay and then you'll go 12 more feet and it'll be like HOLY SHIT ROLL UP THE WINDOWS!!!!!
dagger Posted February 20, 2009 Posted February 20, 2009 I actually haven't seen The Wire. Lost is basically all I watch. XD Baltimore is kind of interesting. One minute you'll be driving down a street that seems moderately okay and then you'll go 12 more feet and it'll be like HOLY SHIT ROLL UP THE WINDOWS!!!!! It's kind of true. On the other hand, I stayed in a row house about a 5 minute walk from the inner harbor this past summer. Granted the area had gone through a fair amount of gentrification and renovation, it was really nice. I kind of fell in love with the city. I can't speak to the areas near any of the schools though.
MaximKat Posted February 20, 2009 Posted February 20, 2009 Interesting topic Anyone wants to share an opinion about Urbana-Champaign?
magiclogic Posted February 20, 2009 Posted February 20, 2009 I hate New York, especially if you are driving, parking tickets, traffic, etc.. San Diego would be my top, weather is great, you can drive to LA or Tijuana. But public transportation is not as good as NY's, you will need a car. Chicago is great but weather is horrible, Seattle is great too.
csApplicant Posted February 20, 2009 Author Posted February 20, 2009 maximKat. yes, i would. B-O-R-I-N-G. in the middle of nowhere and boring is my opinion. that is why i did not apply there.
Victory Posted February 20, 2009 Posted February 20, 2009 I went to law school (briefly) in NYC. I came from Los Angeles, and even I found it *incredibly* distracting. Just take into account taking multiple subways to get groceries (and carrying them up flights of stairs) after a long day of class or studying. The nearest Ikea is in NJ, so either find stuff on the street, pay for overpriced shit, pay for overpriced delivery, or get ready to make several long and painful weekend trips. The process of finding an apartment will make you lose faith in humanity. Keep in mind I was out there in '06 when the rental market was out of control, and I found my place without a broker or broker fees. I was also dirt poor. In NYC, $$ can solve all of life's little problems. :mrgreen: I don't want to discourage you, as NYC is a wonderful city. Just think long and hard about going to graduate school there.
Comfect Posted February 20, 2009 Posted February 20, 2009 As a Seattlite I can say that I love my city; as someone whose grandmother lives just north of Hopkins, I can say that Baltimore is quite a nice city if you stay at Hopkins or further north (my cousin who lives in the inner city had a shooting right in front of her apartment though); as a prior visitor I can say that New York is very crowded but also very exciting and San Diego is gorgeous, warm, and not quite as bustling as the others (well, besides completely-not-bustling-in-that-sense Baltimore). Hope that helps!
Phonologist Posted February 20, 2009 Posted February 20, 2009 Baltimore is like any other city: it has nice parts and bad parts. The bad parts are bad and the nice parts are nice. Hampden, North Charles, Fell's Point, Canton, and Federal Hill are all very nice areas in the city of Baltimore - quaint, tree-lines streets, nice living options, shopping, bars/pubs, yuppies, etc. It's a lovely city. It's unbelievable how ignorant people can be of these things. When I tell people in San Francisco that I live in Oakland, which is directly across the bay, I still get weird looks and people ask me why on earth I would want to live there. They live right next to the city and don't know what an objectively nice place it really is. So I guess my advice is to take what people say with a grain of salt, unless they're personally familiar with the area or have lived there. Case in point: the one person in this thread with significant first-hand experience with Baltimore had good things to say.
Yellow#5 Posted February 21, 2009 Posted February 21, 2009 I went to undergrad in California and it is nice to have great weather every day. I saved alot of money on boots, coats and sweaters, and I never seemed to spend money on anything, because walking around in good weather and going to free outdoor activites was plenty to occupy me. I don't know about San Diego specifically, and there is a big financial crisis in CA at the moment, but generally anyplace in CA is a great place to be a student, because it's just so easy to be poor there. I've visited the campus in Seattle and it is also very pretty. The climate is cloudy, but it's mild. If you like green better than sand and sun, you'll like Seattle. I met a professor from UW on the bus when I was site-seeing and he chatted with me all about the university and we went to lunch -- of course, he was vegetarian! The social atmosphere there, like California is very laid back and casual, which is nice. There are alot of homeless people and people with bad drug habits over by the Pike's Market area of the beach, but the UW area is pretty nice. Almost every area of the city has some lake nearby, so the environment is quite beautiful. I currently live in Boston, and I find NYC a bit overwhelming and disgusting and smelly in the warmer months in some areas. It's a great town though, in a lot of ways. If I went to school there, I would try and live outside of the city and try and get all my classes in on 2 or 3 days to limit the commute. Then, it might be a quite decent arrangement, and probably a bit cheaper too.
ewurgler Posted February 21, 2009 Posted February 21, 2009 I guess I should say what bothers me about san diego. It is ridiculously expensive--even if you live in the not so nice areas. I liked it for the first 2 years I lived here, but then it gets old. I get sick of having to drive everywhere, I get sick of paying huge amounts of money for rent and having nothing left to spend to do fun stuff, and I get sick of having the same weather every single day. It is very touristy, and therefore a lot of the "fun stuff" to do is really expensive. If you want good restaurants, you will have to pay for it!! Sure, you can go downtown if you like a "night on the town," but with parking nearly $15 alone, it is way too expensive to be worth it. If you surf, you will like it. But if you live having spare change to grab a drink, for about it--it all goes to rent.
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