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Old 10-18-2011, 09:12 PM
 
10 posts, read 13,603 times
Reputation: 11

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Okay guys (and girls) here's the deal. I'm getting ready to finally start my collegiate education, but I've always heard a college degree carries more weight in areas near where the college is located (Top schools excluded). I've been seriously considering either Seattle or San Francisco for some time, but you can only learn so much from Google, so I was hoping to get a little inside info. What are your opinions about San Francisco on:

1.) Education? And could you name decent colleges around/near Seattle?
2.) Cost Of Living
3.) Downtown Vibrancy/Energy/Feel
4.) Average apartment cost.
5.) Shopping
6.) Weather
7.) Career Job Market (I'm planning on majoring in finance)
8.) Entry Level Job Market (during college)
9.) Taxes
10.) How's The Food?
11.) Cultural Attractions (museums, symphonies, theatre, etc)
12.) Public Transportation vs Having Your Own Car
13.) Cultural/Racial Diversity.
14.) How're the people? Friendly, distant, rude, stereotypes, etc. I know you have all kinds, but what's the general feel of it?
15.) How's the music scene?
16.) If you could use one word to describe the city, what would it be?

Do you think it's worth paying the steep out of state college tuition to have the advantage of more relevant job placement/connections I'll get from going to a school near where I want to live after college? Not to mention that I'm just sick of Oklahoma. There's no culture around here. We get extremes of every type of weather. Summers are high 90's-100's with frequent droughts. Winters are usually below freezing with severe ice storms. Although I'll admit I'll miss the cheap cost of living. I have a 3 bedroom 1500 sq ft apartment for $707 a month. Haha.

Oh and i'm a 21 year old guy who doesn't drink or party or anything like that. I'm really into music (i was a concert promoter for about 3 years in OK/MO). Could you name some places of interest you think might be good for me to check out if I move there?

Sorry for all the questions! Haha
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Old 10-18-2011, 10:17 PM
 
12,823 posts, read 24,300,521 times
Reputation: 11039
This is actually a fairly horrendous place for new grads to try and make it right now. If you look at overall stats where you are at is actually substantially more robust in terms of new job creation and overall economic health!

Check out Joel Kotkin's blog for additional perspective. Google to find the URL.
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Old 10-18-2011, 10:22 PM
 
3,201 posts, read 3,844,834 times
Reputation: 1047
Wichita or Marin County?

Quote:
Originally Posted by jdjack View Post
Okay guys (and girls) here's the deal. I'm getting ready to finally start my collegiate education, but I've always heard a college degree carries more weight in areas near where the college is located (Top schools excluded). I've been seriously considering either Seattle or San Francisco for some time, but you can only learn so much from Google, so I was hoping to get a little inside info. What are your opinions about San Francisco on:

1.) Education? And could you name decent colleges around/near Seattle?
2.) Cost Of Living
3.) Downtown Vibrancy/Energy/Feel
4.) Average apartment cost.
5.) Shopping
6.) Weather
7.) Career Job Market (I'm planning on majoring in finance)
8.) Entry Level Job Market (during college)
9.) Taxes
10.) How's The Food?
11.) Cultural Attractions (museums, symphonies, theatre, etc)
12.) Public Transportation vs Having Your Own Car
13.) Cultural/Racial Diversity.
14.) How're the people? Friendly, distant, rude, stereotypes, etc. I know you have all kinds, but what's the general feel of it?
15.) How's the music scene?
16.) If you could use one word to describe the city, what would it be?

Do you think it's worth paying the steep out of state college tuition to have the advantage of more relevant job placement/connections I'll get from going to a school near where I want to live after college? Not to mention that I'm just sick of Oklahoma. There's no culture around here. We get extremes of every type of weather. Summers are high 90's-100's with frequent droughts. Winters are usually below freezing with severe ice storms. Although I'll admit I'll miss the cheap cost of living. I have a 3 bedroom 1500 sq ft apartment for $707 a month. Haha.

Oh and i'm a 21 year old guy who doesn't drink or party or anything like that. I'm really into music (i was a concert promoter for about 3 years in OK/MO). Could you name some places of interest you think might be good for me to check out if I move there?

Sorry for all the questions! Haha
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Old 10-18-2011, 11:21 PM
 
Location: surrounded by reality
538 posts, read 1,186,776 times
Reputation: 670
In my experience the geographic location of the college is not that important if you end up in a place like SF (or Bay Area in general), since there are a lots of grads from just about anywhere in the country and the world. I would go for the best school you can get into.
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Old 10-18-2011, 11:36 PM
 
Location: Sacramento
14,044 posts, read 27,126,435 times
Reputation: 7373
Quote:
Originally Posted by jdjack View Post
Do you think it's worth paying the steep out of state college tuition to have the advantage of more relevant job placement/connections I'll get from going to a school near where I want to live after college?
I see this as your key question, and if you are borrowing the money to pay for school to me the answer clearly is "no".

If you have someone else paying for the cost, and they don't mind, it probably gives you a bit of an advantage to go to school near where you want to work.

But it isn't worth the debt if borrowing for school.
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Old 10-19-2011, 04:06 AM
 
Location: South Korea
5,242 posts, read 13,034,643 times
Reputation: 2957
That's a buttload of questions, and some of them could be answered with a quick google search. If you came out here for 5 to 7 days you'd find out more about SF than you'd learn from people on the internet.
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Old 10-19-2011, 06:19 AM
 
Location: Springfield, Ohio
14,640 posts, read 14,519,777 times
Reputation: 15357
You get yourself established in your area after graduating, and save money for a move, if it's what you truly want to do. Unless you've been accepted ahead of time at Stanford or Berkeley, and live in student housing, it's really not worth it.
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Old 10-19-2011, 11:02 AM
 
9,327 posts, read 21,949,398 times
Reputation: 4571
Quote:
Originally Posted by Natural510 View Post
You get yourself established in your area after graduating, and save money for a move, if it's what you truly want to do. Unless you've been accepted ahead of time at Stanford or Berkeley, and live in student housing, it's really not worth it.
Agree 100%. where you go to school only seems to matter if you want to study business or law and want to live in LA or Dallas.. Then I'd go to USC or SMU.

BUT.. my advise.. getting into the best nationally recognized school is more important. So I'd check out Berkeley or Stanford for the Bay Area. I'd also check out the other UC schools which have good reps (e.g. UCLA).

In your neck of the woods, I'd look in TX (Rice or Austin).
I think SF will be too expensive as a place to live in as a new graduate unless your are a brilliant software engineer working on the latest mobile apps.
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Old 10-20-2011, 04:29 PM
 
815 posts, read 1,850,660 times
Reputation: 521
The only time that really matters is for Law/MBA (Especially law)...everything else not so much... Just go to the best school you can get in at the best rate you can afford... You'll have to devise your own calculus for this. It might not be worth it for instance going to Stanford if you want to be a writer and do a BA in English...(unless of course you have major tuition subsidies) but a BS in Computer Science at Stanford? OK no problem and worth the money as you will make it all back.
Depends on what your goals are.
I know a lot of people who could have gone to MUCH better schools but didn't b/c of their long term career goals. Most honors programs, i.e. (top 5%) of students at state universities are just as rigorous for undergrad as your elite schools. Where school matters more is graduate school if you want to do academia, or as I stated before, if you want to do professional school like Law/MBA.
Most decent universities anywhere now offer like 3 month internships in DC or something like that these days over the summer. So my advice would be, focus on your school and internship...but you can already have your future city you want in your sights also. Just don't skip the step then wind up struggling...or, you could do that and just know you are going to struggle. You'll still make it, but you might be living check to check.
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Old 11-27-2011, 11:38 PM
 
6,438 posts, read 6,874,302 times
Reputation: 8739
I am in the finance field (investment management) and I would strongly encourage you to go to the best school you can get into and afford. There aren't any top finance schools in Oklahoma - the closest are in Texas - so you'll be looking at paying out-of-state or private school tuition. Don't worry, in 15 or 20 years you'll make in a month what you're paying for school every year.

That said, you might as well go to school where you like the scenery, weather, etc. In other words, if you're accepted to Stanford and Wharton, you might want to consider the fact that Wharton is in Philadelphia (a big negative for surfers). If you're accepted to the Indiana University and the University of Washington, which are roughly of comparable quality, I'd give the edge to Seattle.

Before you graduate, you'll embark on a nationwide job search, which will determine where you'll live afterwards.

Good luck.
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