Erie, PA (Lancaster, York, Penn: high school, college, pharmacy)

[Tom Lennox 70]

Hey ya'll, I'm looking into the pharmacy school at Lake Erie college judging from their statistics and my chances....if ya'll have seen other posts like this elsewhere I'm NOT a troll...I'm applying to 10 schools in different places.

What's the Erie area like? Some of my friends from around ALlentown and York have said the lake area is more Midwestern than East Coast/Northeast. Is this true? This will be a plus for me if it is cause I'm really not an East Coast person. I'm Asian American but very assimilated (my favorite music genre is country), I'm not a Christian but I'm politically conservative (I was a major fan of Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld until the war started going badly and no weapons were found and I still refuse to listen to the Dixie Chicks). I prefer a city/town where people are tolerant of different races and religions but is not too liberal politically. Certain things that really turn me off that is a concern for me with Pennsylvania and all NE states is people who really hate or look down out on anyway from south or west of them, and tolerance or sympathy for illegal immigrants.

I personally don't like cold weather but for school a couple years fine. I'm miserable in the winter in DC and Baltimore. Is the winter in Erie as bad as let's as Chicago or Cleveland? Is Erie a beautiful city given its lakeside location...are there a lot of beaches, watersports activities in the area? Is the cost of living in Erie reasonable?

[Ohiogirl81]

There are two threads on Erie on page 2, not to mention a bunch of others further in.

[astrogal]

Erie is weird. There is an underlying "redneck" attitude, but they will never say it to your face...."the mid-westernism" of Erie. The younger kids are mixing it up abit but in my opinion. Erie can be a pretty racist town. Both ways. Asians generally have it better then other races though. I've been denied places to live and I KNOW it was because my sweetie is hispanic.

It sounds to me like you would do fine here but be dis-illusioned by how small-minded this place can be sometimes.

Yes the winters can be that bad. The only difference between us and Cleveland is which way the wind is blowing. It goes either Cleveland, Erie, or Buffalo. Or sometimes all three in one day.
Lots to do for the college kids though.....

[Tom Lennox 70]

Originally Posted by astrogal

Erie is weird. There is an underlying "redneck" attitude, but they will never say it to your face...."the mid-westernism" of Erie. The younger kids are mixing it up abit but in my opinion. Erie can be a pretty racist town. Both ways. Asians generally have it better then other races though. I've been denied places to live and I KNOW it was because my sweetie is hispanic.

It sounds to me like you would do fine here but be dis-illusioned by how small-minded this place can be sometimes.

Yes the winters can be that bad. The only difference between us and Cleveland is which way the wind is blowing. It goes either Cleveland, Erie, or Buffalo. Or sometimes all three in one day.
Lots to do for the college kids though.....

Thanks for the reply, I'll see what happens with Erie. Some people say I'm "small minded" because I'm conservative but I guess that's just relative. I'm not exactly a very liberal person though. The snow obviously is a real concern though.

[astrogal]

It is one thing to be conservative and stand up for ones values but another thing entirely that you can not see beyond your own existence to even bother trying to listen to another's views.

THAT is the problem with Erie sometimes.

Why is everyone so concerned about the snow?

[Tom Lennox 70]

Snow....well I liked it up until I went to college and no longer had snow days. Around Baltimore and DC and all points south, if you wake up and the street is white there's at least a two hour delay for schools. I just don't like cold weather and I will never settle permanently anywhere north of Baltimore but going for an education for 4 years is a different story. But honestly I'll probably choose schools in Richmond, Baltimore, Cincinnati or even Chicago before Erie.

[Ohiogirl81]

When it snows in Erie, people generally go about their day like they would any other time. It's not a big deal.

[astrogal]

I lived in Lancaster PA for a couple of years and one winter down there, with barely an inch of snow on the ground....the headlines said that there was over 100 accidents. I took the paper with me to Erie and everyone got a good laugh out of that one!

ANother time in Lancaster, I drove to work in 6 inches of snow.....roads were yucky but I figured they don't really have plows and stuff....I got to work and it was closed. I called my boss and she was astounded "I drove in that blizzard".

What people forget is that it is the tiny bit of snow that is the most slippery...as long as you have good tires the more snow the bettter (within reason) cause then your car has something to bite into.

ERie does not shut down unless we are getting severely pounded.....if you get over a foot....things may start cancelling for the evening....like bingo and cub scouts...but not schools or work....2 feet things start to cancel. The thing about Erie snows are they are usually so quick that things can resume very fast.

Then there are times when it just won't stop and life must go on and you find it is not so bad.

Then 3 days after that it will be 60 degrees and everything will melt and the cycle starts all over again.

WHY would you NOT want to be here :-)

[Ohiogirl81]

Astrogal, I went to high school at Iroquois, and we never closed for snow. I remember walking to school in blizzards, legs stinging from the snow and wind. Our vice principal had a four-wheel drive Jeep (not very common in the 70s) with a plow on the front of it, and if he could get to school, by gum, so could we. I'd lie in bed listening to the radio rattle off all the school closings, hoping ... waiting ... but no. The city schools would close before we would. *sigh*

[TuborgP]

Folks, do yourself a favor and do a search for all the posts by Terrapin 2212. He is a well traveled poster.