i know, i'm not partial to the east coast, but dizzamn...philly IS where i was born.

Well, I'd like a school that can teach people to become proficient writers. Anyone can write, but few places can give you guidance that really matters.

Really, I want a place that isn't stingy with the money that's a good school with decent rep.

yes tell me about this 50/month deal.

i can attend either the King's college London or the Royal Halloway.

Im 99% certain i would go to the King's college if i hop the pond because it has a dedicated film department. Royal Halloway only has only a fine arts department.

I'm in atlanta right now, going to ga tech. I hate that ****ing school. It's not exactly liberal arts so you're in the clear. but I like atlanta alright. However my perspective may be skewed because I'm still a bike newb and atlanta is the only place I've ridden, but it seems like it's about 3 miles to anywhere I want to go, but it is pretty expensive. I have a 5 bedroom house in midtown across from campus for like 1850 or so. But I am looking for a place to go once I graduate so this thread is helping me as well. However I've heard atlanta's at the bottom of the list for good places to ride, so you may want to consider that too. And the schools here, well, I don't know much about the liberal arts here. There is the atlanta college of art and design, but I think SCAD's taking that into it's fold and I don't know how good they would be at writing either. And it's like 2.75-3.50 PBR's and 5-8 guinneses. if that gives you an idea of the cost of living.

ha, I just escaped SCAD. and yes, they are buying it. SCAD has it's own brand of imperialism. The entire city of savannah wasn't enough for them. Atl is next.

Yeah. ATL just got ruled off the list. Sorry, the warm weather couldn't save you.

I'm a Madison, WI native. Just moved away to do something different for awhile.

It's pretty small as far as a city goes-- one of those places you could thoroughly map out in a few months. Nightlife and music is decent, but there's a definite lack of people in the 23-28 age range. Seemingly everyone's graduated and moved to a bigger city. So you're left with 1) younger college kids (scads of 'em) and 2) a more older, settling-down crowd. Live there long enough and you'll feel like you know everyone.

Downtown is small and integrated with one end of the UW campus. State St, the "main drag" is undergoing a long trend of replacing culture and color with chain stores and a giant "performing arts center." The state capitol is beautiful, but many condos are snatching up the views and adjacent neighborhoods. Really the best things about Madison are the lakes-- canoe, sail, fish, swim, all that. Ice fishing in winter. But it's also a curse, as it compresses and restricts the growth of downtown areas to a narrow isthmus.

It's a very pro-bike town. Lotta student commuters and year-round badasses (though people still think you're nuts for riding in snow). We've got a glut of bike shops (Yellow Jersey, Revolution Cycles being regared as the best) and hey, it's the home of Jonny Cycles and the annual Lord Of The Chainrings alleycat. There's also the Freewheel bike coop, but it's a couple miles south of downtown-- always kinda distant from where I lived.

Rent, expectedly, gets more expensive as you near campus. Williamson St. is a little pocket of countercultural-ish people, but even that area has seen a lot of rent inflation and, sadly, condo development. Yuppies. The near east side of town would probably your best bet. Expect $500+ for one bedroom apts, something like $800 for two bedrooms.

Didn't mean to write so much about it, but I'm a wee bit homesick...

don't go to dallas

You've got another vote for Philly from me.

There was recently an article in the NY Times about Philly that you might want to read. Many Philadelphians were offended by it, but I think it generally portrays Philly in a good light and is therefore good for the city. It used to be freely available on their website, but now it appears that one needs to pay to view it. Here's a text-only version from Google's cache: http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache...+borough&hl=en.

I'm currently at Drexel University. Supposedly Drexel has a great education program (I'm a technical major, so I'm not intimately familiar with the school of education). Penn is also great for the humanities, if you can get in.

No hard feeling's I'm getting the hell out of here in a few months as well. And that warm weather thing's just a rumor, it's cold today, damn it.

Some more crap about Philly:


In Philly, the average distance is about the same. From one end of the city to the other (in any direction) it's roughly no more than 8 miles (for the city proper).


Real estate prices vary a lot in Philly. A luxury one-bedroom apartment on Drexel/Penn's campus will cost $1850. For the same price and a lot of luck you might be able to rent a three or four-bedroom dilapidated victorian row-home with the kitchen in the basement.

For the bare minimum (i.e. splitting a one-bedroom with a roommate and/or dealing with infestation and/or "gentrification"), you could probably get a place to live for about $250 a month (including utilities).


If you're into beer/food, Philly has an awesome bar/restaurant scene. If, like most students, you care about your wallet, there's a nice bar on Drexel/Penn's campus that has $2 draught specials every Thursday (that includes everything on tap, not just the crap like light beer and PBR (yes, I said PBR)). Not that I'd suggest choosing one's higher education based on the availability of cheap alcohol, but I don't know how to finish this sentense. If you don't mind spending a bit, there are places like Monk's that have hundreds of beers both on tap and by the bottle. I don't remember where I heard this, but I believe Monk's sells more draught Chimay than anywhere else in the world (including Belgium). Also, there are lots of really great local micro-brews.

Ha, beer keeps coming up as far as living costs. I really only care about rent for a liveable one bedroom apt. or even studio. I don't drink, so the whole calculating cost of living through beer doesn't work for me.

Thanks the all the help guys.

I don't know when I'll get out of here, I hope it's soon.