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Mik

Where should I move to?

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Well, I've decided to cut my PhD short by three years, get a masters and get the hell out of Ithaca. It's for my own sanity. Where should I move to?

 

A few qualifications:

 

1) Warmth preferred but not required

2) Strong BioTech industry required

 

That's about it. I was looking at jobs in San Diego earlier today and found entry level jobs starting around $70k. Is that even enough to live in San Diego? Sounds silly to say considering I'm barely making $26k now but I just remember how expensive everything was the last time I was there.

 

This isn't until December and I'm not about to take the word of the Smartmarks.com as my final choice but maybe this will give me some other options that I hadn't previously considered.

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Houston! Good weather, and I'm pretty sure I've heard good things about the biotech. industry in Houston, but I'm not quite sure what exactly biotechnology is, but, yeah...Houston!

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Guest Eagle Man

Okay, ignore the Down's baby. Have you considered the People's Republic of Madison? I read somewhere that their biotech industry has been growing, so maybe that's one to consider. Can't make any promises about the weather, but it's a great place to be when it's warm out.

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San Diego would be the city in which I would most want to live, if I could move to the United States tomorrow. So, yeah, San Diego sounds good.

 

Seattle would be another place I'd consider.

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Guest Queen Leelee

$70k in San Diego would still be significantly better than $26k in New York. The plus would be that you're living in the best area in the US.

 

I don't know much about biotechnology, but doesn't the Midwest have more of that?

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I've been playing around with the salary thinga-ma-jigger (techincal term) on MonsterTrak and I compared San Diego to Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area. It's 20.4% cheaper to live in the triangle but the average pay is only 6.4% less.

 

As much as I love San Diego, and it's my fave city in the US, it might not be economically feasible to live there.

 

Leena, the $26k I get now is just my student stipend and pretty much amounts to dicking around money. When I make this consideration I am factoring in acquiring responsibilities, buying a house, starting a family, etc. I am closer to 30 than 20 now. While I would have a lot more money in San Diego I'm not sure it's enough to start my life, you know?

 

For what it's worth the cities/areas on my radar now are San Diego, Washington DC (NIH is there), Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, South Florida, Seattle, and maybe Texas. Madison is no good - too cold there. I want to avoid that. I've been in the Northeast for 23 and 1/2 years out of my 25 year life. I need to get out of the cold.

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Guest Eagle Man
Madison is no good - too cold there. I want to avoid that. I've been in the Northeast for 23 and 1/2 years out of my 25 year life.

Wimp.

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Guest Tzar Lysergic

Ft. Wayne, IN. Cost of living is cheap as fuck. The apartment I'm in is 400 bucks a month, is 2 minutes from the interstate and anything in town worth a damn. The Lutheran Hospital complex is friggin' huge. Big heart center and cancer research facility. Decent houses can be had for under 100,000.

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Guest Vitamin X
I've been playing around with the salary thinga-ma-jigger (techincal term) on MonsterTrak and I compared San Diego to Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area. It's 20.4% cheaper to live in the triangle but the average pay is only 6.4% less.

 

As much as I love San Diego, and it's my fave city in the US, it might not be economically feasible to live there.

 

Leena, the $26k I get now is just my student stipend and pretty much amounts to dicking around money. When I make this consideration I am factoring in acquiring responsibilities, buying a house, starting a family, etc. I am closer to 30 than 20 now. While I would have a lot more money in San Diego I'm not sure it's enough to start my life, you know?

 

For what it's worth the cities/areas on my radar now are San Diego, Washington DC (NIH is there), Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, South Florida, Seattle, and maybe Texas. Madison is no good - too cold there. I want to avoid that. I've been in the Northeast for 23 and 1/2 years out of my 25 year life. I need to get out of the cold.

 

Get South Florida out of that idea. The worst possible fucking place you can imagine, ESPECIALLY if you're not from a latin american country originally.

 

I pimped Portland, Oregon in the other thread (where Hoff had been pondering where to go). It's a really great alternative to Seattle, and awesome if you like the outdoors, a well-organized and progressive city, and home to several large high-tech industries. I mean, it feels really random that I chose it out of all the places I could go to, but it's where I've ended up and I absolutely adore it. I haven't been able to stay in one place for too long my entire life, and this is one place I feel really comfortable. No sales tax anywhere either! It's really great here.

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Guest

70,000 dollars per year is more than what you would need to live in San Diego. Unless you have massive credit card debt we don't know about.

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No. Just student loans. I was looking up apartments and they were in the $1200-$2000 range. Maybe I could find something more economical if I looked harder.

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Guest

Yeah, pretty much every apartment in Southern California that's not in a shitty neighborhood costs at least 1000 bucks a month.

 

San Diego's probably the best place to live in the state, there's not as much earthquake worry as there is everywhere else.

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I went to Cornell and grew up in Ithaca. It is kind of a drag for college-aged people, especially grad students. Other than getting wasted in Collegetown there isn't much to do.

 

Boston/Cambridge is pretty big in biotech. Single apartment will run you $1100+ for something decent, but you can get a lot cheaper with roomates or if you live more out of the way.

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Nail on the head right there. I had a great social life as an undergrad. Now I just sit around and do nothing in particular as a grad student. Luckily my morals are a little lax and I've gone out with a ton of undergrads but all of the graduate students are married or hideous. Not to mention that most of the guys I know are also married and/or social deficient so I'm left to just my work.

 

My work isn't thrilling me very much anymore so I NEED to get out of here.

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Guest Vitamin X

Dude, trust me, you'd like it here. You can get a good apartment in a nice area for 800-900 here. Portland is also seemingly crawling with out-of-staters, so there must be something driving this huge influx of people. At my old job, I don't think a single one of my managers or supervisors was actually from Portland, and only a few had been living here longer than a couple years.

 

We've got the most breweries, bars and strip clubs as well some of the best local music in the country. There's practically no crime, if anything the police commit more crime than the general populace, outside of the occasional tweeker or hobo. I think also proportionately, Portland has the biggest 20-something percentage of the population than most any other major U.S. city. So it's really good if you're in your 20s for socializing. I've never run out of things to do here, either. And keep in mind I'm from Miami and L.A., two party towns if there ever were some.

 

Then again, I'm not into clubbing as much (I'm more a bar and billiards guy) so we could run on different perspectives here.

 

My impression of Atlanta was that it was crime ridden and has a disgustingly hot and muggy climate, and I can't imagine anything worse than South Florida. And Houston, I've been through there a couple times, it's not too bad for a place in Texas. Good steak and a decent crowd, though if I were forced to live in Texas, I'd choose Austin over anywhere else.

 

EDIT: Also, there's this article I just ran across on The World's Most Livable Cities- http://bwnt.businessweek.com/interactive_r...p;resultNum=100

 

Portland is ranked 6th of all the U.S. cities (ahead of places like L.A., New York, and our big brother Seattle), while Atlanta and Houston rank on the bottom of the major cities in this country. Take that!

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We've got the most breweries, bars and strip clubs as well some of the best local music in the country. There's practically no crime, if anything the police commit more crime than the general populace, outside of the occasional tweeker or hobo. I think also proportionately, Portland has the biggest 20-something percentage of the population than most any other major U.S. city. So it's really good if you're in your 20s for socializing. I've never run out of things to do here, either. And keep in mind I'm from Miami and L.A., two party towns if there ever were some.

 

Then again, I'm not into clubbing as much (I'm more a bar and billiards guy) so we could run on different perspectives here.

 

My impression of Atlanta was that it was crime ridden and has a disgustingly hot and muggy climate, and I can't imagine anything worse than South Florida. And Houston, I've been through there a couple times, it's not too bad for a place in Texas. Good steak and a decent crowd, though if I were forced to live in Texas, I'd choose Austin over anywhere else.

 

A, Portland wishes it could fuck with Atlantas strip clubs. Second, you called Atlanta crime ridden when you are from gang capital of the world and drug capital of the US. What the fuck man? I am pretty sure he wouldn't be living in the heart of Decatur if he were to move to Atlanta.

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Guest Vitamin X

Portland can, indeed, fuck with strip clubs since the town's main industry in the early 20th century was prostitution for sailors on the west coast since this was a major shipping port, and the tradition carries on today in the form of having the most strip clubs in the entire country. Look it up, it's no joke.

 

Also, in crime: L.A. has a lot of gangs yes, but that's only in certain parts and the entire city is such an enormous urban sprawl I rarely if ever had to go where the gang areas were. And all I remember hearing is that of all the major U.S. cities, Miami ranked second in crime rate right behind Atlanta. Not saying you're gonna get shot living there or anything, and I'm sure there's plenty of nice areas like in other parts of the country, but it's sure as hell isn't anywhere near as safe many other cities in the country. I'm guessing that's why it hit such a low ranking on that world's most livable cities thing also.

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You can definitely live in San Diego on 70 grand a year. It's not that expensive like people seem to think. Just find an affordable area in the county and you're set. But you have to cheer for Khalil Greene and Jake Peavy instead of Hanley Ramirez and Dontrelle Willis.

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That wouldn't be too bad. I wouldn't abandon the Marlins, but I've been to PetCo Park and I loved it. I didn't get to see a game because the Pads were on a roadtrip the week I was there but I took the stadium tour so I walked the whole thing, sat in the Pads dugout, saw the player parking lot (Escalades galore) and even got to walk on the field. Good fun and well worth the $5 or whatever I paid.

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Austin is like, the city everyone wants to "live" in. Personally, I think its a bit over-rated due to the live music scene. The only thing the city has is that and the University of Texas. Granted, you're about 30mins away from San Antonio and with being in the central of the state.. you're not too far from everything else. (Drawback is that, it's fucking Texas.. everything is at one end of the border or the other, as far as "major" cities go)

 

I'm looking at a place in Houston.. about 700SqF (1 Bed/Bath Townhome) that's only something like, 20mins or less from Reliant Stadium and its only maybe 500.00 a month.

 

Also, if you're into the whole party thing... South Padre is only 6hrs away and the Spring Break season here is something like 1-3 weeks due to National colleges taking their breaks before the official "Texas Week" (when all of the Texas colleges go on break) and then the rest of the nation taking a later break.

 

It all comes down to what you're wanting to focus on I think bro. With the Med Center, you've got a place where there's always going to be jobs and you'll be surrounded by some of your profession's top talent. A good nightlife and sports culture ties everything together..

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Just about one year later bump...

 

I ended up deciding to move back to Chapel Hill. That's what I decided anyway. I spent months applying for jobs in the Research Triangle in preparation of being done with school finally (after 8 fucking years - ugh) in May.

 

Then I got a recruitment offer from Bristol Myers Squibb, one of the top pharmaceutical companies in the country... it's a hard offer to say no to.

 

So I could end up signing a two-year contract as soon as next week to live in the booming metropolis of... drumroll....

 

Syracuse, NY! DOH!

 

Man, I don't want to live in Syracuse, but it's hard to turn down BMS at the salary they are offering me. $65k for the first year and whatever raises I can get when I move up the ranks. Considering I will be doing the same job (or maybe even easier!) that I do now for $27k... yeah.

 

Upstate NY for life? Ick.

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