Arizona: City of choice? (Phoenix, Tucson: transplants, transfer, neighborhood)

[ezraelle]

Hmm.


I've lived in Chicago, Detroit, Ann Arbor, and will be moving to Arizona in approximately a month. Talk about short notice. I'm a college student with an incredibly open mind (think big city liver: tat's, Rancid/Transplants adoration, perpetual coffee shop inhabitant) but also ambitious (think big again: pre-med student), so I'm looking for a city that'll suit my vibe. Unfortunately, I've never even BEEN to Arizona. Considering the amount of time I have to move, and the money it'll be taking, I don't have time to tour the state 'till I find my own niche. I'm into the idea of Arizona having hiking weather year round... but, being from Michigan, I'm not really sure what I'm getting myself into. Please... help will be taken straight to heart...

[vegaspilgrim]

What you're saying doesn't make a whole lot of sense. You are a college student (so am I), you're living in Michigan, you like "urban" amenities like coffee shops, and you want to go to medical school. Ok, I got you there. What does that have to do with some vague notion of "moving to Arizona," a place you know nothing about, on some whim? No offense, but your lack of research doesn't exactly sound like a plan an "ambitous" future doctor would take. Have you already graduated college? Are you transfering to a college in Arizona (ASU, UA, or NAU)? Obviously if you were going to ASU, you'd be living in Tempe, if you went to UofA, you'd be living in Tucson. Or are you dropping out of college to move here?

Enough with the perplexion. If you like coffee shops, weird stuff, etc, you would probably like Tempe. You sound like the 3 Roots type. As for hiking year round-- sure, anything's possible, but at what cost? If you want to be outdoors during the daylight hours in the summer and not get incinerated by the sun, you'd have to hike from around sunrise to no later than 7:00am, or from 6:30pm to sunset. The early morning hours would be the best, but you'd have to be on the trail by 5:00, at the crack of dawn basically, to enjoy it. If you try walking around during the late evening, the sun will be lower in the sky, but you'll still be sweating like a pig. When it's 109 degrees out, like how it's been the last 2 weeks day after day, you can actually feel the heat stinging in your eyeballs! I can only be outside in that temperature for a one hour dose at a time, or I'll start getting a headache.

Most people who move here from the midwest either love it or hate it. There isn't much in between.

[M TYPE X]

Originally Posted by vegaspilgrim

Most people who move here from the midwest either love it or hate it. There isn't much in between.

Bit by a snake, shot by a Mexican, dumped by the significant other ... move back to Detroit burbs and disappointing the parents, who thought they'd gotten rid of the kid THIS time. I've seen it happen enough to write a book.

Why so many people from Michigan get excited about a U-Haul move to Phoenix is beyond me. Maybe they were never in the back of a minivan for days on end when they were 10 or 11 and on school breaks? "Are we near Fargo yet? What about Colorado Springs?"

The OP would be greatly served by taking a weekend trip to Cleveland or Milwaukee and reconsidering the Southwest. I wouldn't move to Chicago sight unseen, so why Arizona? Because some friend said it was "hot" ?? They got that right. Coffee shops? Seattle has way more many of those than Ann Arbor or Madison, but I don't know how many of them are independent (this matters to some people).

I don't know too many serious pre-med students who are considering ASU.
Will you be hiking/biking "year round" in 120 degree heat? I guess that leaves enough trails open in Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin for everyone else.

[sablebaby]

No kidding! What are you talking about? Sounds like you've taken quite a few philosophy classes. Why do you need to find a city that will suit you? Shouldn't you be already accepted into a university? Like vegaspilgrim said, it's either ASU, UofA, or NAU, so which one is it? That will choose the city that you'll be living in. And, why AZ? I'd much rather stay in Ann Arbor, or Chicago.

[Nice Nice Baby!]

ezraille, please slow down and narrow down the question. Keep it real!

[vegaspilgrim]

Originally Posted by M TYPE X

Why so many people from Michigan get excited about a U-Haul move to Phoenix is beyond me. Maybe they were never in the back of a minivan for days on end when they were 10 or 11 and on school breaks? "Are we near Fargo yet? What about Colorado Springs?"

I've always wondered the same thing! There are dozens of people on this forum from states like Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, that get so enamored by Phoenix they move here without even knowing what it's about, and practically throw a dart on the map and live in that neighborhood. After the first year or two, about half will leave, and the other half will turn into life long zonies (other than their favorite baseball team). The level of naivete is stunning? Is life really that boring in the midwest? I've never been to that region of the country personally, but I don't think it could be THAT bad... I think people from nearby western states are a lot more realistic as to what AZ is all about. Ex-- there's always a trickle of people from CO who move here, but just as many Arizonans that go the other way to CO. It pretty much balances out.

I don't know too many serious pre-med students who are considering ASU.

On this one, I'll have to disagree, at least partially. There are many serious pre-med students at ASU, especially students from AZ that are going there because it's the only major university in Phoenix, as well as out-of-state students going there on merit scholarships (that's the boat I'm in). But I agree that out-of-staters who come to ASU just because of it's reputation as a party school, warm weather, or having a lot of hot chicks, whose rich daddy pays their ridiculously high out-of-state tuition, are not exactly geared to be the future successful professionals demographic. I also agree that there are much better choices than ASU when it comes to getting a college education. And obviously, ASU has no medical school (yet), so someone who wanted to go to Arizona to study medicine would have to go to UA in Tucson.

[Ponderosa]

Americans having been packing up and moving (mostly west) sight unseen for hundreds of years. Call it the pioneering spirit or a hope/belief that moving on will mean a better life; it's maybe in our genes having come from immigrant stock.

BTW: U of A opened a medical school in Phoenix in October 2006. It's downtown in the old Phoenix High campus.

[Ponderosa]

The biggest sources of migration to Arizona - not including Mexico - are #1 California, #2 Texas, #3 Illinois based on driver's license conversions to AZ licenses. There were 36,000 California licenses traded for AZ licenses in the first four months of 2007. That is, to me, an astonishing figure.

[bstree]

Hi OP.
Tucson is your place. Very indy vibe. more so than Tempe. Best medschool in the state, public at least. Hot? oh yea its hot. 110 today. But its got a great vibe and I would choose it over anything near phx in a heartbeat. The other Univ. choice is up here in flagstaff. nice place to be poor! contact me if u like as i am in the profession of helping pre-meds.