Fact finding mission. LA vs ATL

[mmbt0ne]

As you may remember from my thread in Student Life (lol, jk) my gf is pretty smart. She has since been accepted to Emory med school.

Well, she also turned out to be smart enough that she just got in off the wait list at UCLA. For everyone who hasn't studied med schools, UCLA is one of the top schools and also one of the hardest for an out-of-state applicant to get in to. Unfortunately, coming with that acceptance is a very short deadline for deciding. It was this Friday, but she was able to get it pushed back to next Friday b/c she just got her letter.

On the surface, this is a very easy decision. UCLA is a better school and offers better opportunities. However, with the late news, there are also some downsides. For one, we are already under contract on a condo here in Atlanta and would be out a couple grand in earnest money if we pulled out at this point. Of course, there is also the whole, we both grew up around Atlanta and all our friends and family our here angle. And of course the cheaper cost of living. I'm not too worried about finding another job as a city of 12M or so probably has something I can do.

Anyway, this thread isn't so much about that (however feel free to comment) as it is about trying to find out some stuff about LA. For one, we'd have to have housing close to UCLA secured in the next month to allow time to move and neither of us have much clue about where the good/affordable areas are.

Also, please include any interesting personal anecdotes about moving away from all of your family and friends, or regretting not doing something like that.

[MEbenhoe]

How confident are you in this relationship? Moving across the country to be with this girl is a gigantic step. A lot bigger than just moving in with her in your hometown.

p.s. From other thread, what is her third varsity sport besides the assumed Cross Country and Track?

[mmbt0ne]

[ QUOTE ]
How confident are you in this relationship? Moving across the country to be with this girl is a gigantic step. A lot bigger than just moving in with her in your hometown.

p.s. From other thread, what is her third varsity sport besides the assumed Cross Country and Track?

[/ QUOTE ]

The relationship is the least of my concerns honestly. We're both very confident in it.

Indoor track. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[hanster]

Housing at UCLA is gonna set you back about $1200~$1800 a month if you get a 1B/1BA. Studio goes for about $1000~$1500. A lot of students right now are still scrambling for housing so it shouldn't be that bad to find something in Westwood. If you want you can also commute to campus. How much are you willing to commute? There is really no "affordable" housing unless you're willing to drive 15 miles each way (For example Van Nuys is much cheaper and you can take the bus which also saves a lot of gas $ for your gf).

Hm I don't know what you want to know about UCLA and the surrounding area. I'll be writing my paper for the next 3 hours (aka be on my computer) so feel free to ask anything and i'll try my best to answer them. But I'd say from the situation she should definitely go with UCLA (we just built a new medical building too designed by IM Pei. It's pretty fresh)

[mmbt0ne]

[ QUOTE ]
Hm I don't know what you want to know about UCLA and the surrounding area.

[/ QUOTE ]

For instance, who lives where? It seems that most med school students live on campus but that's not really feasible as that would require either living separately (too expensive) or being married (not quite in the cards before August 6th).

I heard that UCLA own apartment complexes outside of Westwood. True?

Also, C-walking. Required? How difficult to learn?

[ QUOTE ]
(we just built a new medical building too designed by IM Pei. It's pretty fresh)

[/ QUOTE ]

Both Emory and UCLA have new buildings this year and Emory is also introducing a new curriculum (which has its pluses and minuses). UCLA actually does almost everything inside their hospital, while Emory has a class/research building and then uses Grady and the other surrounding hospitals during rotations.

[MrMon]

I don't know about Atlanta, but when I worked real estate in St. louis, almost no one ever lost their earnest money. Common practice was to make a token payment to get out of the contract, as the inspection clause was always an escape clause. It was very rare for anyone to be held to a contract, especially if the reason for the change was legit. I'll guess that Atlanta has the same working relationship between realtors, but even if it doesn't, a few thousand should hardly make a difference in choosing a future like this. Make the earnest money a non-issue, in the long run it's nothing.

[hanster]

All freshmen and most sophomores live on-campus dorms. Most of the upper classmen live in Westwood or Santa Monica (which has shuttles that take them to campus). The graduate student housing is outside of Westwood (about 5 minutes drive on a good day. 15~25 traffic).

lol. I'm Chinese and not gangsta enough to C-walk. It'll b fairly easy to learn, I think. I don't dancce I just pull up my pants and do the rockaway. Westwood isn't really hood (UCLA is about 35~40% Asian). Hey at least if you move out you won't have to be associated with the likes of luda and dipset! hahahahahahahahahahaha

Also,
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showfl...=1#Post10074800
I don't know if it's relevant but maybe you can find some info there that'd help you make the decision.

[mmbt0ne]

[ QUOTE ]
The relationship is the least of my concerns honestly.

[/ QUOTE ]

Oops.

However, now I get to think about possibly living somewhere else again. Suggestions?

[ThaHero]

Woah, sorry to hear about the relationship.

So are you just moving for the sake of moving? Or you don't want to go back to ATL?

[mmbt0ne]

At least we got it all out of the way before I got tied down to LA and then was kinda stranded with a lease and a job and nothing else. Nothing really went wrong, it just didn't work out, it happens. We both gave it an honest chance.

Moving back to Atlanta is an option but, goddamn driving back across the country (alone) would suck. Since my car is neither paid off nor in my name, even though I've been making the payments, I'd have to get my mom to fly out here and sell the car if I wanted to go that route and fly back. Similarly, I've decided to leave the furniture that was mine here because it's all old, and I refuse to carry some of this stuff back down stairs and drive a truck again.

I'm very mobile right now.

I thought about going back to Atlanta the long way. Driving up the coast, the back across the country. But that costs money too. One of the issues is that I don't have enough cash to pay for a deposit and first month's rent at most places around here. I have the available credit to live, but not get started without a job. And, if I get a job, I'm pretty much tying myself to an area. It looks bad enough that my first job only lasted 7 months, I don't want to make that a pattern.