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Hi all. I'm looking into grad school possibilities and UB is towards the top of my list.
I'm an American Studies major about a year and a half away from graduation so I have some time to decide. I know American Studies is often the butt of many jokes, but I like the major and I'm on track to graduate with honors from the University of South Florida in Tampa with my undergrad.
How good of a school is Buffalo for the liberal arts, especially at the graduate level? Realize that USF and UB probably have quite similar campus profiles: largely commuter school built up in the 50s-70s, big chunk of foreign students, decent chunk of non-traditional (older) students, in an urban setting (but not big city like NYC, Boston, LA, SF, etc), etc. I'm not really looking for a small, private, liberal arts school experience, I just want to be able to study my field without being limited by my choice of institution.
How safe is Buffalo? Once again, I've lived in the Tampa Bay area for a few years so I'm not some kid coming from the suburbs who has no "street smarts." Drug use, loud music, cars with rims, baby mama drama, people with different skin colors/cultural beliefs don't bother or scare me. War zones, however, do.
How is the nightlife and entertainment? I'm pretty easy to please, I just need a good dive bar with a selection of punk rock and craft beer (or Yuengling) and I'll be a happy camper. Independent music is a plus. I'm not looking for ultra lounges or gourmet cafes. I'm more of a street food, dive bar, local mom & pop shop kind of a person.
How different is the weather from the Catskill/Hudson Valley region of NY? I grew up there so I'm used to the cold winters and muggy summers, is that anything like Buffalo? Honestly I love FL and the warmth, but I could enjoy some snow for 2-3 years while completing my masters. Plus with this hurricane headed my way, I may have my fill of Florida weather well before the week's end.
How is working for/shopping at Wegmens? I work part time as a meat cutter right now at Publix, which seems to be very similar in corporate culture to Wegmens. I'm definitely going to need to work part time while attending school, luckily most places are running low on good meat cutters so hopefully I can get in on that alone.
Lastly, how is the cost of living? I am in a relationship but not married, so my girlfriend and I will need something a bit bigger than a studio. Right now we're renting in a sort of crummy neighborhood in Clearwater, FL for $825 for a 2/2. We pay about $175 a month for power and another $115 for cable/internet here. Is that comparable to living in Buffalo/WNY?
Hi all. I'm looking into grad school possibilities and UB is towards the top of my list.
I'm an American Studies major about a year and a half away from graduation so I have some time to decide. I know American Studies is often the butt of many jokes, but I like the major and I'm on track to graduate with honors from the University of South Florida in Tampa with my undergrad.
How good of a school is Buffalo for the liberal arts, especially at the graduate level? Realize that USF and UB probably have quite similar campus profiles: largely commuter school built up in the 50s-70s, big chunk of foreign students, decent chunk of non-traditional (older) students, in an urban setting (but not big city like NYC, Boston, LA, SF, etc), etc. I'm not really looking for a small, private, liberal arts school experience, I just want to be able to study my field without being limited by my choice of institution.
How safe is Buffalo? Once again, I've lived in the Tampa Bay area for a few years so I'm not some kid coming from the suburbs who has no "street smarts." Drug use, loud music, cars with rims, baby mama drama, people with different skin colors/cultural beliefs don't bother or scare me. War zones, however, do.
How is the nightlife and entertainment? I'm pretty easy to please, I just need a good dive bar with a selection of punk rock and craft beer (or Yuengling) and I'll be a happy camper. Independent music is a plus. I'm not looking for ultra lounges or gourmet cafes. I'm more of a street food, dive bar, local mom & pop shop kind of a person.
How different is the weather from the Catskill/Hudson Valley region of NY? I grew up there so I'm used to the cold winters and muggy summers, is that anything like Buffalo? Honestly I love FL and the warmth, but I could enjoy some snow for 2-3 years while completing my masters. Plus with this hurricane headed my way, I may have my fill of Florida weather well before the week's end.
How is working for/shopping at Wegmens? I work part time as a meat cutter right now at Publix, which seems to be very similar in corporate culture to Wegmens. I'm definitely going to need to work part time while attending school, luckily most places are running low on good meat cutters so hopefully I can get in on that alone.
Lastly, how is the cost of living? I am in a relationship but not married, so my girlfriend and I will need something a bit bigger than a studio. Right now we're renting in a sort of crummy neighborhood in Clearwater, FL for $825 for a 2/2. We pay about $175 a month for power and another $115 for cable/internet here. Is that comparable to living in Buffalo/WNY?
I am a UB alum and I will set aside my personal dislikes towards WNY in general and focus on UB. It's been 20 years since I attended and I know they've upgraded and expanded North Campus quite a bit. The Commons area has far more amenities for students for eating. Far more dormitories than there were when I was there. Just stay away from living near South Campus. A lot of crime from Buffalo Eastside has even moved north of University Hts/UB South into southern parts of Amherst and Tonawanda.
Now to the part you probably do not want to hear. Never once have heard of ANYONE going to grad school to major in Liberal Arts. I am sorry. The kids who majored in Liberal Arts at the Undergrad level were mainly brats whose parents financed their education just to get them out of the house for 4 years. Instead of following up an American Studies Bachelors with a Liberal Arts Masters, why not major in education at the BS level to give you opportunities to be a professor or HS History teacher someday ?
If you stay out of the city areas of problematic violence, you won't have it happening.
Grad students, being older, I would think you are tending to be away from undergrads. Finding an apt in a decent neighborhood should not be hard. If you find one with heat, you will be better off. Many apts. are in double homes -- many owner occupied and the second rented. a 2/2 double or 3/3/ is easy to find in the decent parts of the city -- but these are meaning 2 bedrooms up/ 2 bedrooms down, not 2 BR/ 2 Bath. Newer builds give you 2 baths.
Google craft beers for Buffalo and you will find hundreds of locations. Here is a link for Beer Week. Buffalo Beer Week Locations
Food? Pub grub, Italian, Greek restaurants -- and more recently, on the west side of Buffalo, restaurants by immigrants of various cultures are common.
There is more snow in the Catskills. The summers are nice here. This year was an oddity - little snow and a really hot summer. For the record, we have never broken 100 degrees here, even this year ( came darn close, but haven't broken it).
Personally, even thought my UB degree was my 3rd and done in the 80s, ( way after the first 2 in the 60s and 70s), I liked the place. It was grad school and on North Campus .
You should come and visit the place and see what you like and don't like. I think you will like it.
If you still claim an address in NY on taxes from growing up in NYS, you might be able to swing in-state tuition.
[Spoken from the heart of someone who came for college in the 60s and never ever thought about going back to the NYC/LI area.]
Last edited by BuffaloTransplant; 08-25-2012 at 10:47 PM..
I am a UB alum and I will set aside my personal dislikes towards WNY in general and focus on UB. It's been 20 years since I attended and I know they've upgraded and expanded North Campus quite a bit. The Commons area has far more amenities for students for eating. Far more dormitories than there were when I was there. Just stay away from living near South Campus. A lot of crime from Buffalo Eastside has even moved north of University Hts/UB South into southern parts of Amherst and Tonawanda.
Now to the part you probably do not want to hear. Never once have heard of ANYONE going to grad school to major in Liberal Arts. I am sorry. The kids who majored in Liberal Arts at the Undergrad level were mainly brats whose parents financed their education just to get them out of the house for 4 years. Instead of following up an American Studies Bachelors with a Liberal Arts Masters, why not major in education at the BS level to give you opportunities to be a professor or HS History teacher someday ?
Sorry, I think there might have been a miscommunication in terminology - in most Florida schools, anything not business, engineering, teaching, math, or science falls within the "liberal arts" or "humanities." I'm not majoring IN Liberal Arts, I meant the Liberal Arts as a catch all for studies such as American Studies, English, History, Anthropology, Literature, Economics, Humanities, Communications, etc. I guess some areas call them the Social Sciences, which is probably a more appropriate term.
If I were to become a teacher, I'd be more qualified to teach Economics, Civics, Humanities, Literature, etc, than I would history. And in many southern states teachers only need a BA in their subject area.
If I were to decide on UB, I'd be doing a Masters in American Studies (not Liberal Arts). My minor is in Economics and Career Studies/Education, so I'll be studying workforce education and class divisions/culture.
My main career goals would be to work in human resources, as a union rep, or for employee training at a company like Wegmans or Publix. I think (and this is just my opinion) many in the business sector lack a sense of attachment to their employees, and I'd like to be somebody who bridges that gap and makes the workplace better for both the employee and the employer (and ultimately the customer).
There are quite a few posters up at my department's bulletin board advertising UB and their American Studies department, which lead me to delve further into their department and WNY as a whole. Upon further research, it seems fitting to study classes (specifically the working class) in an environment like Buffalo, which is (and probably stereotypically) a predominantly working class, blue collar town.
Sorry, I think there might have been a miscommunication in terminology - in most Florida schools, anything not business, engineering, teaching, math, or science falls within the "liberal arts" or "humanities." I'm not majoring IN Liberal Arts, I meant the Liberal Arts as a catch all for studies such as American Studies, English, History, Anthropology, Literature, Economics, Humanities, Communications, etc. I guess some areas call them the Social Sciences, which is probably a more appropriate term.
If I were to become a teacher, I'd be more qualified to teach Economics, Civics, Humanities, Literature, etc, than I would history. And in many southern states teachers only need a BA in their subject area.
If I were to decide on UB, I'd be doing a Masters in American Studies (not Liberal Arts). My minor is in Economics and Career Studies/Education, so I'll be studying workforce education and class divisions/culture.
My main career goals would be to work in human resources, as a union rep, or for employee training at a company like Wegmans or Publix. I think (and this is just my opinion) many in the business sector lack a sense of attachment to their employees, and I'd like to be somebody who bridges that gap and makes the workplace better for both the employee and the employer (and ultimately the customer).
There are quite a few posters up at my department's bulletin board advertising UB and their American Studies department, which lead me to delve further into their department and WNY as a whole. Upon further research, it seems fitting to study classes (specifically the working class) in an environment like Buffalo, which is (and probably stereotypically) a predominantly working class, blue collar town.
Yep. Liberal Arts is a specific major up north. It's absolutely useless. There were kids that I knew who said verbatim, " I'm just majoring in Liberal Arts and will select a major for grad school." I found it offensive as no one in their right mind would do that if the money was coming out of their own pocket.
You sounded articulate so I am glad you have a pretty clear vision. I was in the UB School of Management in Jacobs Hall on North Campus and it has a good reputation. Not the best but respectable even with the value of a college degree getting devalued as the years go by. Human Resources is a specific major in the UB School of Mgmt and should be something for you to consider.
I hate the cold and snow and why I live in AZ. However, the North Campus is all interconnected indoors. It was referred to as "The Spine." Buffalo most definitely gets more snow than the Catskills. I grew up not far from the Catskills in Orange County. Catskills don't get the annoying Lake Effect and windy weather that is a Buffalo trademark. Buffalo averages 90 inches a year at the airport. Slightly less north in areas like Amherst but still way more than Catskill towns like Liberty and Monticello. The locals feel connected to the Midwest. They talk with nasal accents and say "pop" instead of soda amongst other things. More like Ohio than the Northeast IMO. Basically a smaller version of Cleveland which is not an endorsement. However, I do endorse UB as a decent school for your dollar.
If you stay out of the city areas of problematic violence, you won't have it happening.
Grad students, being older, I would think you are tending to be away from undergrads. Finding an apt in a decent neighborhood should not be hard. If you find one with heat, you will be better off. Many apts. are in double homes -- many owner occupied and the second rented. a 2/2 double or 3/3/ is easy to find in the decent parts of the city -- but these are meaning 2 bedrooms up/ 2 bedrooms down, not 2 BR/ 2 Bath. Newer builds give you 2 baths.
Google craft beers for Buffalo and you will find hundreds of locations. Here is a link for Beer Week. Buffalo Beer Week Locations
Food? Pub grub, Italian, Greek restaurants -- and more recently, on the west side of Buffalo, restaurants by immigrants of various cultures are common.
There is more snow in the Catskills. The summers are nice here. This year was an oddity - little snow and a really hot summer. For the record, we have never broken 100 degrees here, even this year ( came darn close, but haven't broken it).
Personally, even thought my UB degree was my 3rd and done in the 80s, ( way after the first 2 in the 60s and 70s), I liked the place. It was grad school and on North Campus .
You should come and visit the place and see what you like and don't like. I think you will like it.
If you still claim an address in NY on taxes from growing up in NYS, you might be able to swing in-state tuition.
[Spoken from the heart of someone who came for college in the 60s and never ever thought about going back to the NYC/LI area.]
Quote:
Originally Posted by BuffaloTransplant
If you stay out of the city areas of problematic violence, you won't have it happening.
Grad students, being older, I would think you are tending to be away from undergrads. Finding an apt in a decent neighborhood should not be hard. If you find one with heat, you will be better off. Many apts. are in double homes -- many owner occupied and the second rented. a 2/2 double or 3/3/ is easy to find in the decent parts of the city -- but these are meaning 2 bedrooms up/ 2 bedrooms down, not 2 BR/ 2 Bath. Newer builds give you 2 baths.
Google craft beers for Buffalo and you will find hundreds of locations. Here is a link for Beer Week. Buffalo Beer Week Locations
Food? Pub grub, Italian, Greek restaurants -- and more recently, on the west side of Buffalo, restaurants by immigrants of various cultures are common.
There is more snow in the Catskills. The summers are nice here. This year was an oddity - little snow and a really hot summer. For the record, we have never broken 100 degrees here, even this year ( came darn close, but haven't broken it).
Personally, even thought my UB degree was my 3rd and done in the 80s, ( way after the first 2 in the 60s and 70s), I liked the place. It was grad school and on North Campus .
You should come and visit the place and see what you like and don't like. I think you will like it.
If you still claim an address in NY on taxes from growing up in NYS, you might be able to swing in-state tuition.
[Spoken from the heart of someone who came for college in the 60s and never ever thought about going back to the NYC/LI area.]
I'm not really picky about my neighbors being undergrads, it's just quite a few college-crowd leaning apartments around USF really aren't a good deal for a couple, and I'm sure it's like that around every campus in the US. So for instance, in Tampa a really good student apartment complex may only cost $550 a month per person, but if you're a couple, you're now sharing a room with 3 other roommates in a quad and still paying $550 a person (so $1100 total) for a room and a "common space." I'm sure it's like that around many college campuses, I don't really hate undergrads I just know it's not economically sound to live like one when trying to live as a "new couple" (and by new couple, I mean 3 years of steady relationship). My girlfriend and I actually live 45min across Tampa Bay (in St. Pete) from our school, since Tampa by USF is really overrun with war zone housing and student-predatory complexes.
As long as there is some sort of local cuisine, I'll be happy. In Tampa we have Cuban, Caribbean, Italian, Greek, and Southern, most notably we have Cuban Sandwiches and Grouper sandwiches, along with a mix of various ethnic foods. So if you could point me to some local Buffalo staple foods, that'd be great (aside from wings, that's a given). One thing I miss about up north are the bakeries - the Cuban bakeries are close, but nothing beats real Italian multi-colored sugar cookies or real Italian bread. And like I said, as long as I have a little variation from the typical Bud-Miller brands at a dive bar, I'm happy as a clam.
Just to make sure there isn't a misunderstanding; at the company I work for butchers are the ones who actually process the meat. They kill it, break it down into primal cuts, and ship it out to retail outlets. I'm just a retail-end meat cutter apprentice (but I'll be full-blown meat cutter in under six months). I'll definitely research further into both Wegmans and Federal.
I'm planning a visit to NY in February. I plan on visiting NYC for a few days, and making the hike to WNY to check out what it's like there. I've been lurking on the Buffalo forum and from what I've been reading it seems to be my kind of town. Honestly, I'd prefer snow over freezing rain and sleet, I lived in the Florida Panhandle (about 1.5hrs from New Orleans) and believe it or not our winters were nothing but sleet and freezing rain and it was horrible. I can deal with blizzards and lake effect snow, but freezing rain is just miserable.
Unfortunately I don't think I'll be able to claim residency. I lived in NY for the first 14 years of my life, but went to high school in Florida so my residency/voter ID/taxes are all FL. But I don't want to cheat you fine tax-paying citizens out of your dollars for a public university, so I have no problem paying out-of-state if I do decide to go to UB.
Yep. Liberal Arts is a specific major up north. It's absolutely useless. There were kids that I knew who said verbatim, " I'm just majoring in Liberal Arts and will select a major for grad school." I found it offensive as no one in their right mind would do that if the money was coming out of their own pocket.
You sounded articulate so I am glad you have a pretty clear vision. I was in the UB School of Management in Jacobs Hall on North Campus and it has a good reputation. Not the best but respectable even with the value of a college degree getting devalued as the years go by. Human Resources is a specific major in the UB School of Mgmt and should be something for you to consider.
I hate the cold and snow and why I live in AZ. However, the North Campus is all interconnected indoors. It was referred to as "The Spine." Buffalo most definitely gets more snow than the Catskills. I grew up not far from the Catskills in Orange County. Catskills don't get the annoying Lake Effect and windy weather that is a Buffalo trademark. Buffalo averages 90 inches a year at the airport. Slightly less north in areas like Amherst but still way more than Catskill towns like Liberty and Monticello. The locals feel connected to the Midwest. They talk with nasal accents and say "pop" instead of soda amongst other things. More like Ohio than the Northeast IMO. Basically a smaller version of Cleveland which is not an endorsement. However, I do endorse UB as a decent school for your dollar.
Yea you really don't get those types of majors at Florida schools (although I don't know for certain, I could be wrong, I've just never met any). That tends to be what Psychology majors function as, a placeholder for grad school.
Yea I actually grew up in Orange County in Port Jervis, which is down in the valley of the Catskills. I prefer the cold from when I lived in NY to the cold in areas of Florida. In New York, the snow sort of acted like insulation from getting too brutal, when I was living in the Florida Panhandle it would get down into the teens one day, rain, get up to 55 degrees at night, only to be cloudy and 17 degrees again by morning time. It was from the Gulf Stream slamming into that part of the country, it was horrible (it's like what one imagines when they think of the weather in England or Seattle) and I'll take a nice healthy blizzard over a hurricane any day.
I live in Buffalo proper and there are exceptional areas and dangerous ones. Your eyes are probably not terrible informants. Your rents will be more competitive than the areas surrounding UB and you will not necessarily need a car (that's a 3K yearly savings right there). So this choice partially depends on your budgetary concerns as well. You will not find much in the way of night-life outside of Buffalo, unless you consider Friday's or Applebee's to be some type of highlight. The food commons at UB is pretty weak for quality of dining. Real dining can be had, but in the area surrounding the school it is mostly strip plazas and the like. Just my opinion, there is very little character out there. So if it is character you seek, I wouldn't personally recommend the North Campus area.
So why do people make this choice? There is proximity I guess. In Buffalo proper, you can probably find a nice three bedroom flat (one story of a double) for about $750 / mo. Factor in another $150-200 for gas and electric. Water costs are about $800 / yr in Buffalo so factor that in if the landlord does not include water.
Most of all, good luck! I knew a few of the American Studies people in the department (now mostly retired) and they were great people. I don't know what it looks like now and I don't know how much traction one gets from an American Studies degree in the current marketplace.
I live in Buffalo proper and there are exceptional areas and dangerous ones. Your eyes are probably not terrible informants. Your rents will be more competitive than the areas surrounding UB and you will not necessarily need a car (that's a 3K yearly savings right there). So this choice partially depends on your budgetary concerns as well. You will not find much in the way of night-life outside of Buffalo, unless you consider Friday's or Applebee's to be some type of highlight. The food commons at UB is pretty weak for quality of dining. Real dining can be had, but in the area surrounding the school it is mostly strip plazas and the like. Just my opinion, there is very little character out there. So if it is character you seek, I wouldn't personally recommend the North Campus area.
So why do people make this choice? There is proximity I guess. In Buffalo proper, you can probably find a nice three bedroom flat (one story of a double) for about $750 / mo. Factor in another $150-200 for gas and electric. Water costs are about $800 / yr in Buffalo so factor that in if the landlord does not include water.
Most of all, good luck! I knew a few of the American Studies people in the department (now mostly retired) and they were great people. I don't know what it looks like now and I don't know how much traction one gets from an American Studies degree in the current marketplace.
I appreciate your insight, and living without a car would be wonderful. Tampa, like most sunbelt cities, is quite unfriendly to pedestrians and has no public transit other than buses. So parking the car at my place and leaving it there much of the time sounds rather liberating.
I do enjoy character, but I wouldn't confuse my affinity for character with an affinity for affluence: for instance my girlfriend and I discovered an amazing Thai restaurant close to our current apartment that would have been overlooked by many for simply being in a strip mall. But I lived in a really nice neighborhood in St. Pete last year that was just outside of downtown, full of character, and really had great neighbors, but within a year's time rent has skyrocketed in St. Pete so I couldn't afford the neighborhood anymore. So if I could find a place with more "charm," that'd be great.
It's good to hear that the American Studies program has at least had a respectable name in the community. I know it's not the most desirable field right now, but I would much rather study and perform well within a discipline I enjoyed than force myself to do something I didn't for financial gain. I figure if I work hard to earn a name for myself using a study I enjoy, a good job will come of it some day. For now I do have a trade (meat cutting) which can at least pay the bills until something more optimal becomes available.
If you come up here to look, I suggest you rent a car for the weekend. Living in the city can be great if you want to live withing the confines of the area that is bus accessible or where you can walk. UB South Campus has the light rail ( 6 miles long, it goes from UB South Campus to downtown Buffalo and is nothing spectacular). From UB South Campus, you can catch a student bus to North Campus. You basically have no service on anything between 11pm and 5am .
You need to look up the NFTA and see the routes and timetables. They are not fabulous and get worse as time goes on. When I came here for college 43 years ago, you had almost 24 hour service. On most routes? All stops by 10pm and starts again at 5am. There are also big gaps in the service times, depending on routes.
The SUNY bus between campuses has its own schedule ( look up SUNYAB and search for "the Stampede") It is not part of the NFTA; it is the university.
You need to make your decision on living based on your needs. If you can live with erratic bus service to the campus and then take their bus to North Campus, you can make it carless, but it isn't easy, esp. in winter.
Decide where the classes are and where you like the area and then decide if you want to go carless. For the record, my husband and I carpooled to the city for 30 years and then whoever needed the car more kept it; we met up after work. I often took buses & in winter, it wasn't fun.
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