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So I am currently an accounting student and we have to submit our city preferences within 2 weeks. Although I have a sense for what I like and dislike, I'm really not sure which city I would choose to start off my career and I really need help from the experts here!
Here is some of my criteria:
-Prefer warm to cold weather but don't mind a change of seasons. Not a big fan of snow, but I can live with it in a car-less city
-Definitely need to be in a city near lots of large, public companies (since I'll be auditing them) so small towns are a no go.
-Not as important as the one above, but my favorite industries (in order) are pharmaceuticals, energy, media, and tech, so being in a city strong in those industries is ideal but not a requirement
-Strong entrepreneurial community (if possible) as I'm hoping to eventually work in finance at a startup
-Hate owning a car and want to live somewhere with good public transportation or not so much traffic that it's a challenge to find parking like it is in NYC
-I like diversity but I also prefer a strong Asian community (includes both south east Asians and east Asians). I'm not the type of person who exclusively hangs out with my own ethnic group, but I do tend to assimilate better in these communities than others for obvious reasons. This is actually pretty important but not a deal breaker compared to the industry stuff mentioned above.
-Nightlife is good but outdoor recreation is better
-Sports culture is preferable
-Intellectual/Educated crowd is highly preferable
Another thing to consider is that my school places lots of people in NYC, DC, and Atlanta (NC + VA cities are also where we are strong in placing people) and even though it has a strong enough cachet to put me in most places in the country, the further west we head, the harder it will be for me to match. Currently, I'm strongly looking at the following:
-Washington DC
-Boston
-NYC
-Raleigh
I am, however, open to other suggestions and, not to sound demanding or anything, would really like if someone could tell me straight up that, "I think X would be a great fit for you" for example.
I'm in a very desperate/stressful situation, so if anyone can offer me any guidance, I'd greatly appreciate it.
Look into Central NJ(Edison, New Brunswick, Piscataway,etc), as it fits pretty much all or most of your criteria. It would put you near Rutgers, which is one of the biggest universities in the US and Princeton University, a large and diverse Asian population, good public transportation, NYC and Philadelphia are both about an hour away or so, Johnson and Johnson and other pharmaceutical companies are headquartered there and you can get to outdoor amenities within a short trip.
I think Rockville, Maryland would be an awesome choice for you. It's a close-in commuter suburb of Washington DC (part of the I-270 Tech Corridor) and has easy access to the subway system with walkable neighborhoods where a car would not be required. The city has a population that's 25% Asian, the third highest of any city in the US. It's a beautiful city with nice housing stock and lots of restaurants/shops etc in close proximity. The Rockville Town Center and Old Rockville areas would be my recommendation. Metro Subway accessibility allows you access to all of DC, Northern Virginia (including Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax plus Tysons Corner and Reston in the Dulles Tech Corridor by the end of the year with Metro's new Silver Line), Maryland (including Bethesda, Gaithersburg) as well as a seamless/easy connection at Union Station (from the same subway line as the one from Rockville) to MARC Trains to Greater Baltimore and Amtrak's very frequent (every 30 minutes) Northeast Corridor trains to as far south as Richmond VA and northward to Baltimore, Wilmington DE, Philadelphia, Princeton/MetroPark NJ, New Brunswick NJ, Newark, NYC, and Boston.
I think Rockville, Maryland would be an awesome choice for you. It's a close-in commuter suburb of Washington DC (part of the I-270 Tech Corridor) and has easy access to the subway system with walkable neighborhoods where a car would not be required. The city has a population that's 25% Asian, the third highest of any city in the US. It's a beautiful city with nice housing stock and lots of restaurants/shops etc in close proximity. The Rockville Town Center and Old Rockville areas would be my recommendation. Metro Subway accessibility allows you access to all of DC, Northern Virginia (including Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax plus Tysons Corner and Reston in the Dulles Tech Corridor by the end of the year with Metro's new Silver Line), Maryland (including Bethesda, Gaithersburg) as well as a seamless/easy connection at Union Station (from the same subway line as the one from Rockville) to MARC Trains to Greater Baltimore and Amtrak's very frequent (every 30 minutes) Northeast Corridor trains to as far south as Richmond VA and northward to Baltimore, Wilmington DE, Philadelphia, Princeton/MetroPark NJ, New Brunswick NJ, Newark, NYC, and Boston.
That place is too far a commute if I were to apply to DC and if I lived in DC, I'd live in a Virginia suburb so I can get in-state tuition at UVA in case I go to grad school. Is DC any good for the industries I mentioned? I liked it a lot, but I'm worried everything is Government/Non-profit stuff and there's no tech/healthcare, etc. or entrepreneurial activity there.
That place is too far a commute if I were to apply to DC and if I lived in DC, I'd live in a Virginia suburb so I can get in-state tuition at UVA in case I go to grad school. Is DC any good for the industries I mentioned? I liked it a lot, but I'm worried everything is Government/Non-profit stuff and there's no tech/healthcare, etc. or entrepreneurial activity there.
Rockville is less than a 30 minute commute to downtown DC via Metro. It doesn't get much shorter than that in a major metro area generally.
In terms of all the jobs being governmental only, another misconception. 6 in 10 in DC work in the private sector.
Maybe I'm being dumb, but when I checked google maps, rockville to the area I'd be working in via metro was 43-49 minutes as a commute.
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