Omaha vs. Lincoln (23 y/o going to save money for college) (Bellevue: sublet, 2014)

[ARPARP]

I live in MI and there is not much opportunity around here. This state is slowly turning into the Mississippi of the North. We have three industries in Michigan, manufacturing (enjoy an exciting lifestyle of working 70 hour weeks some years and being laid off for long periods of time during recessions), road construction, and convenience stores (for collecting bridge cards aka food stamps). Sure unemployment is "down" but people are dropping out of the workforce and giving up. Michigan is still a depressed state in spite of what the Department of Commerce says, and always will be. Our glory days are behind us and I am looking for a new state.

I'm a college student studying for my associate's in business, 4.0 GPA currently. I'd like to relocate after that and work to pay off my debts (which are small, a couple thousand at most, it's an associate's degree) an attend 4 year college later. I want a place with a better economy. I considered ND but it is too brutally cold there. I can take cold, just not THAT cold. Nebraska has the second lowest unemployment, and it has a high labor participation rate (another indicator of economic health, almost all the unemployment drop in MI is due to dropouts). Plus Nebraska has a higher population than ND anyway.

I'm deciding between Omaha and Lincoln and debating between Bellevue, UNL, and UNO. Here is my general impression.

Lincoln has a lot more students, so I'm guessing there are a lot more people who will rent to me since this is expected. I will have a lot of money saved up so I could live for half a year with no job easy (I will come in 2014) but on roomster an other sublet boards I find a lot of Omaha people want proof of full time job, but Lincoln people tend to be other students looking for room mates.

Lincoln also has a lower unemployment rate on paper than Omaha. I'm not looking for a career, just something to do for a year or so. OTOH I'm guessing there are less of a variety of jobs in Lincoln, and party of Omaha's problems may be the North Side and the presence of a more ghetto type area.

I'm leaning toward Lincoln due to the student presence, lower unemployment. I'm guessing it also has lower crime than Omaha.

On the other hand Omaha is a larger city with possibly more job opportunities overall (even if higher unemployment, but still less than half of MI), but I'm just looking for a job not a career. Not sure I would even stay. I just need a stable place to finish my education and launch my career at. Life in MI is a struggle to survive.

Should I come to Nebraska?

[Vejadu]

It sounds like you have a pretty accurate idea of what Lincoln and Omaha each have to offer. Omaha will definitely have more job opportunities due to its size, and you're correct that most of Omaha's problems are concentrated in the poor north area. Lincoln is more geared towards college students. I live in Lincoln and I really like living here, but I'll admit that I'm biased; I love this state.

[ARPARP]

So the 1% higher unemployment in Omaha relates to the north side skewing statistics?

Anyway I'm looking at doing the accelerated degree program at Bellevue that combines online and in class instruction.

[Garthur]

Lincoln has a larger number of adults with 4 years degrees. I saw the number a year or so ago and I think they were over 50%. Remember that Lincoln is a college town. Omaha only has about 35% of the adults with 4 year degrees.

[ARPARP]

Basically I have a love hate relationship with Michigan, and west MI in particular.

There are a lot of things I will miss like the glorious summers, Lake MI and the wooded scenery.

Culturally it seems about the same as NE. Personally I would only consider the Midwest and Southeast, the Northeast and West Coast rub me the wrong way. People in the Midwest are friendly, not as friendly as the south, but as I say people in the Midwest are harder to make friends with and harder to make enemies with, whereas southern people are easier to make friends with but never rub them the wrong way. The culture of honor is still strong. I have southern heritage on one side of my family so I know.

For me the main tradeoffs in coming to Nebraska will be giving up Lake Michigan and our mild summers (for hot, humid summers) but in exchange I will get less snowy, sunnier (but equally cold) winters and a MUCH better job market. There is absolutely nothing but part time work or factory work around here. Browsing jobs boards for Omaha and Lincoln reveals a lot more of a variety, plus I was amazed the pay is a lot higher there, but COL is the same. Probably because it is harder to attract talent so the jobs must compete for workers as opposed to the other.

[chessgeek]

Originally Posted by ARPARP

I live in MI and there is not much opportunity around here. This state is slowly turning into the Mississippi of the North. We have three industries in Michigan, manufacturing (enjoy an exciting lifestyle of working 70 hour weeks some years and being laid off for long periods of time during recessions), road construction, and convenience stores (for collecting bridge cards aka food stamps). Sure unemployment is "down" but people are dropping out of the workforce and giving up. Michigan is still a depressed state in spite of what the Department of Commerce says, and always will be. Our glory days are behind us and I am looking for a new state.

I'm a college student studying for my associate's in business, 4.0 GPA currently. I'd like to relocate after that and work to pay off my debts (which are small, a couple thousand at most, it's an associate's degree) an attend 4 year college later. I want a place with a better economy. I considered ND but it is too brutally cold there. I can take cold, just not THAT cold. Nebraska has the second lowest unemployment, and it has a high labor participation rate (another indicator of economic health, almost all the unemployment drop in MI is due to dropouts). Plus Nebraska has a higher population than ND anyway.

I'm deciding between Omaha and Lincoln and debating between Bellevue, UNL, and UNO. Here is my general impression.

Lincoln has a lot more students, so I'm guessing there are a lot more people who will rent to me since this is expected. I will have a lot of money saved up so I could live for half a year with no job easy (I will come in 2014) but on roomster an other sublet boards I find a lot of Omaha people want proof of full time job, but Lincoln people tend to be other students looking for room mates.

Lincoln also has a lower unemployment rate on paper than Omaha. I'm not looking for a career, just something to do for a year or so. OTOH I'm guessing there are less of a variety of jobs in Lincoln, and party of Omaha's problems may be the North Side and the presence of a more ghetto type area.

I'm leaning toward Lincoln due to the student presence, lower unemployment. I'm guessing it also has lower crime than Omaha.

On the other hand Omaha is a larger city with possibly more job opportunities overall (even if higher unemployment, but still less than half of MI), but I'm just looking for a job not a career. Not sure I would even stay. I just need a stable place to finish my education and launch my career at. Life in MI is a struggle to survive.

Should I come to Nebraska?

I thought maybe Ann Arbor was doing OK even if the state as a whole is struggling (and as you know it is home to University of Michigan), but I could be wrong. Good luck in Nebraska and you will probably like Lincoln.

[todd00]

I would suggest you come and visit first. Though it will cost you a bit, its always best to look around yourself, facts and figures are only worth so much. Lincoln has always seemed like a smaller city than it is, at least that's the feeling I get. That maybe a plus or minus in your book. There maybe more jobs in Omaha, but also more people. It is bigger, so figure more crime. Take a look at crime mapping and you can see what kinds of crime are happening where.

When do you intend to get back into school and what were you planning to study? If you do come back for a visit it might be wise to make an appointment with the head of the business school (or whatever you plan to study) at UNL and UNO. They might be able to shed some light on the availability of jobs, housing and the like. It might also help sway your decision regarding which school you'd prefer to attend. I would try and make a decision on school and plan to settle in that city.

Have you looked into places a bit closer? You may get pretty home sick for family, friends and Lake Michigan. Good luck, if I can be of help, let me know.

[ARPARP]

Ann Arbor is actually doing good compared to rest of Michigan. I guess I overlooked it. I've since expanded my "search" beyond Nebraska. My town is a manufacturing town. Manufacturing is booming now so we are doing well but the lows tend to be low, while the highs tend to be high.

In the end I'm looking for a city that bases itself around what to me are the "big four" recession proof industries, education, health care, government, and agriculture. To me the big pockmarks that make a city recession prone are tourism, home building, and manufacturing. I intend to work in the white collar world so I don't necessarily want any factories. I'm not saying cities should drive out manufacturing, it is good to have some as a piece of the local pie but around here something like 20-25% are employed in manufacturing. We are at 6% unemployment now, but in 2009 we were at 15%. 2003 wasn't good to us, and really when our struggles began, the 90s meanwhile were a bonanza. New construction was everywhere when I was a kid, I think we had an unemployment rate in West MI of around 2%. So the highs are high and the lows are lows. People tell me to stay because we're doing better than Detroit, but I'm looking out for the next recession. Times are good now but I just don't see us diversifying enough.

Some cities fitting the bill are Ann Arbor (although A2 is somewhat expensive), Lincoln, Topeka, Springfield IL, places like that. Right now I'm studying Springfield. Illinois has high unemployment but Springfield is low, it is Chicago dragging up the state like Detroit drags us up. But it is proximate to Chicago and St. Louis, two areas I like visiting (but wouldn't live there).

[Omahahonors]

Both are great options.

Omaha will have more opportunities and things to do than Lincoln. But most college students will have more than enough things to do and opportunities in Lincoln which actually is seeing an entertainment boom as we speak.

[yman97]

Originally Posted by ARPARP

So the 1% higher unemployment in Omaha relates to the north side skewing statistics?

Anyway I'm looking at doing the accelerated degree program at Bellevue that combines online and in class instruction.

I've been to all three schools at one point my academic career. I started at UNL, transferred to UNO and ultimately graduated from Bellevue with a degree in Business. I did the online accelerated program which is really centered around the non-traditional student. I think it mostly depends on what you want. If it's the traditional college experience, you'll want to go to UNL. If you want to be more of an urban setting with better job opportunities, UNO is a better choice. If you decide on Bellevue, keep in mind that you will get out of it what you put into it. It's easy to coast and not really learn as much as you would in a class room setting. But it was great for somebody like me that didn't go back to school until I was 30. You'll miss that college experience at Bellevue but you'll finish sooner. Also, keep in mind that the accelerated program at Bellevue is expensive. Since Bellevue is a suburb of Omaha, you also have the benefit of more jobs.

Let me know if you have more specific questions on any of the schools.