[AKgirl08]

My boyfriend and I are both born and raised in Alaska and cannot wait to get out! We are just tired of the crappy weather and never having anything to do ... except shovel snow. Florida seems like the perfect solution for us, but we need help in finding a good place to live. We are interested in renting an appartment and are looking near Jacksonville, St. Augustine, Palm Coast, and Daytona Beach. We will both be in college there so our rent max is around $1000. Any help in finding a safe area to live in thats close to the beach and not too far away from the city would be awesome!!!!

[compelled to reply]

1,000 a month opens you up to the entire state except for the keys and Miami-Dade County. NE Florida is nice, but are you open to other parts of the state, like the panhandle, central Florida, or even south Florida? Your price range, like I said, will cover you from Pensacola all the way down to Ft. Lauderdale. Also, do you guys have jobs rounded up, or have you researched what wages are like for a typical college job before you came up with that rental figure? I just want to make sure, as Florida is not known for good pay.

[AKgirl08]

Yes, my boyfriend is transfering with a job through FedEx (which is nice) and I plan on getting a job waitressing or somewhere where I can make tips. We would really like to stay near the beach as opposed to more inland and I have to be close to a nursing school.

[RMD3819]

Compelled is right. You can live about anywhere, assuming he can transfer to any FedEx.

I would base my decision on where I was going to school.

In general, the areas surrounding all the major colleges are safe.

[AKgirl08]

Thank you

[compelled to reply]

One MAJOR exception RMD. Some areas around University of South Florida in Tampa are NOT safe. Then the area around FIU is plenty safe but it's not common to run into someone who speaks English. The latter won't apply to the OP because Miami-Dade was pretty much ruled out.

[daniellefort]

There's a lot of smaller colleges too that offer nursing programs. No need to attend a MAJOR college and pay those tuitions. Ocala has CFCC (Central FL Community College with some satellite schools), Inverness has WTI (Withlacoochee Technical College), Leesburg has LSCC (Lake Sumter Community College) all that offer nursing and i know of a Fed Ex office located in Brooksville which is 25 minutes from Inverness. I'm sure Ocala and Leesburg both have a Fed Ex office too since they are fairly large areas.

[riveree]

Originally Posted by AKgirl08

My boyfriend and I are both born and raised in Alaska and cannot wait to get out! We are just tired of the crappy weather and never having anything to do ... except shovel snow. Florida seems like the perfect solution for us, but we need help in finding a good place to live. We are interested in renting an appartment and are looking near Jacksonville, St. Augustine, Palm Coast, and Daytona Beach. We will both be in college there so our rent max is around $1000. Any help in finding a safe area to live in thats close to the beach and not too far away from the city would be awesome!!!!

Jacksonville would definitely have you covered on all counts.

$1000/mo. would rent you something very nice either right at the beach or anywhere else in Jacksonville you'd want to live.

Our 2 main colleges are both located just in from the ocean, on the west side of the Intracoastal Waterway and are less that a 15 minute drive to the ocean. A lot of college-aged people live either at the beaches or in the area known as "Intracoastal West" - both areas are great for commuting to school and for work:

University of North Florida (UNF)
University of North Florida

Florida Community College of Jacksonville (FCCJ)
florida community college at jacksonville

Work is also easy to find if you choose to live in the Intracoastal West area I mentioned above. Literally across the street from UNF is our newest shopping area - the Saint Johns Town Center - it's very upscale and it's huge, a lot of college kids work here in retail or restaurants:

Simon Malls | More Choices — St. Johns Town Center ™ Information, St. Johns Town Center ™ Gift Cards

If you want to find out more about Jacksonville, post your Q's on the Jacksonville subforum .

[AKgirl08]

Wow, thank you guys so much! You've been so much help