Bovine Spongiform Encephalitis

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Pros for Chicago
Chicago O'Hare typically has really cheap flights compared to some other cities...not really sure about SanFran. I was going to go there this summer and would have had a $99 ticket without using frequent flier miles!

Chicago is good if you like having all four seasons. :laugh: I've heard great things about the Navy Pier in Chicago!

Scholl is relatively close to Milwaukee which has tons of its own perks (Miller Brewing Co., Big Irish festival, cheese just to name a few).

Between Chicago and Milwaukee there are tons of major league sports teams.

Cons
Traffic is horrible! Try driving through the suburbs on Thanksgiving day. 👎

While the weather is nice in the summer, winters can be brutal with the wind chill.

Overall I think Chicago is a great area, and If I was accepted there I would go in a heartbeat!🙂
 
Having lived in california all my life, both northern and southern, I can tell you that it is an EXTREMELY expensive place to live. I just moved out of state to go to school and practically everything is cheaper here. Expect to pay more for rent (in the bay area for a safe, and decent place I would say around $1000 (really pushing it)-1400 for a 1 bedroom), gas is about 20-50 cents more than most other states, and you are looking at living in a very metropolitan area so it will be even more. Car insurance cost me double there than where I am currently living. Food, I have noticed is even more expensive there.

As you have stated, crime rate is not exactly low in that area. I have family in the bay area, and they would concur that oakland, maybe not specifically right where the school is, but as a city and many of the surrounding cities are pretty unsafe.

I love california and plan on returning, but these are some things that you may want to consider if you have never lived there, and are going there as a student with only financial aid to support you.
 
longstech said:
Having lived in california all my life, both northern and southern, I can tell you that it is an EXTREMELY expensive place to live. I just moved out of state to go to school and practically everything is cheaper here. Expect to pay more for rent (in the bay area for a safe, and decent place I would say around $1000 (really pushing it)-1400 for a 1 bedroom), gas is about 20-50 cents more than most other states, and you are looking at living in a very metropolitan area so it will be even more. Car insurance cost me double there than where I am currently living. Food, I have noticed is even more expensive there.

As you have stated, crime rate is not exactly low in that area. I have family in the bay area, and they would concur that oakland, maybe not specifically right where the school is, but as a city and many of the surrounding cities are pretty unsafe.

I love california and plan on returning, but these are some things that you may want to consider if you have never lived there, and are going there as a student with only financial aid to support you.
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1) doesnt financial aid give you enough to pay for tuition, room & board, groceries and stuff?

2) is the crime so bad that Ill be killed my first year or....im starting to have second thoughts about attending there at CSPM
 
Being from the bay area I can only say that traffic is the ultimate worst in the US (except on the 405 in LA during rush hour). Crime in Oakland is pretty high, but I don't think any pod students have died there. And yes, financial aid should help out with living, tuition etc., but your debt will be the highest out of any other pod school except for NYCPM... If you're cool with getting closer to the $200,000 mark for 4 years, than CA is the right place. The most important things that you should ask yourself are:

1) What is the the passing percentage on the boards for CSPM vs Scholl's.
2) Is the extreme debt worth living in CA for school (ie. why not get your degree somewhere cheaper and then move out to CA if that's your dream)?
Bytheway, you aren't going to have much time to "enjoy" living in CA while in school....you'll be too busy, right?

Anyway, good luck with whatgever you decide. Iowa isn't looking to bad right now....😉
 
ThetaChiNAU1856 said:
1) doesnt financial aid give you enough to pay for tuition, room & board, groceries and stuff?

2) is the crime so bad that Ill be killed my first year or....im starting to have second thoughts about attending there at CSPM
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Dude, here's a bit of advice. Interview at CSPM and talk to students there to see their opinion on everything. The interview feedback forum made CSPM seem like a complete hole in the ghetto. I went on my flight not expecting the greatest things but everything seemed completely different on the interview day. I even stayed a few extra days and went to cool spots in oakland (rockridge) as well as SF. It was one of my best interview experiences (along with des moines and scholl).

Take a lot of things on the interview feedback with a grain of salt. CSPM is a pretty nice place and definitely not in such a bad area. It is part of a big hospital complex. The school is right by a big lake (Lake Merritt) which is a nicer area of O-town. The campus is a few blocks away from a BART station (Bay Area train/subway) and you can go to Berkeley, San Fran, etc from there. Their is actually a campus shuttle which takes you there for either free or discounted.

Good luck man. PM for more details.
 
please dont come here.
 
nymets85, are you telling us to not come there because you're floating in the most debt compared to the rest of the students at other schools?? :hardy:
 
yes 🙁 i bring other people down because I have self-esteem issues...
 
ThetaChiNAU1856 said:
1) doesnt financial aid give you enough to pay for tuition, room & board, groceries and stuff?

2) is the crime so bad that Ill be killed my first year or....im starting to have second thoughts about attending there at CSPM
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Financial aid gives you enough as to what they deem sufficient enough to support you for housing and food and money to live off of, but that may not necessarily be enough for CA or you may have enough to scrape by. You should contact the financial aid office at samuel merrit and ask them how much the max aid that a student could get for this year was. For example, in Ohio it is around 55K a year I think. Take out tuition and this is a lot of extra money for someone living out here when your rent is only 600-700 a month but when it is double that in CA it is a different story.

I do not think you will die, but there is a difference between living in a pretty safe area, like north chicago (specifically where the school is at), or des moines etc and living in the bay area. In the bay area I think that there would be a greater chance of something happening to your car (ie: it being broken into etc) or something like that. For example, although this did not occur in the bay area, I lived in so cal, one sunday afternoon my car alarm went off, I went out to take a look only to find that some punk kid had shot a piece of porcelain at my window and shattered it. He had ran away and I was left to replace my passenger side window. Yes, this can happen anywhere, but I believe you have a greater chance of something happening to you in CA.

oh, yea, i did forget about the traffic....it is horrendous.
 
lol... I go to CSPM. I've lived in the east bay for 2 years now. Generally, oakland is pretty ghetto. I was apartment hunting just last summer and quickly realized that once u get out of that area, things start to look better. And it's not as scary as you think...use some common sense.....don't walk alone at night and this applies everywhere... don't trust everybody...that kinda deal. The samuel merritt campus has parking garages so i dont think u need to worry about your car getting broken into and the campus is generally safe..just don't venture outside of campus by yourself lol. Oakland can be pretty fun if you're used to the ghetto but i have a feeling some of you might be culture-shocked as I would call it haha. Samuel Merritt is so close to the freeway and the bay bridge that San Fran is literally right there. Night life never dies down in San Fran so there are a lot of things to do. Tourism activities are during the day. Berkeley is North of oakland ...if you're a hippie or into liberal culture or even persian/indian cuisine...that's a great place to explore. And if you head south of oakland for 40 mins you will reach San Jose ..beautiful city, i go there frequently for the vietnamese food lol (they have a big shopping center where everything is vietnamese)..they also have night life there too and Great America. If you're into nature and hiking, there's Marin county which is in the north bay (north of the golden gate). There are a lot of federally protected national parks & wildlife there and little development.. if you're into that sort of thing. They also have 6 flags marine world in Vallejo which is about 30 mins away...although it's pretty crappy compared to the one in LA haha.

If you do plan on attending next fall, I think your year is gonna deal with heavy constructions (they're adding new buildings/facilities including dorms). But if you plan on living off campus, live in the surrounding areas (walnut creek, Orinda, El Sobrante, El Cerrito, Pinole, Hercules, San Pablo....these are the suburbs of the east bay). I live in San Pablo which is a little north of berkeley...great residential city..the San Pablo casino is there..clean gated neighborhoods. I'm living in a 2 bedroom/2 bath for $1125 per month.... free water, garbage, DSL-internet, cable TV. I also happen to live w/ my fiance and brother so we split the bill 3 ways ($375 per month for rent out of my pocket). So i landed a pretty good deal considering it's the bay area... usually 2 bedrooms/2 bath will be AT LEAST $1200 in a decent neighborhood.. if you take a look at craigslist.com you will find some pretty good deals...but visit the place first before you give out your deposit check. As for commute time, during morning traffic takes me 20 mins to reach campus. Without traffic hours it takes me 10 mins to reach campus. They have some crazy rush hours over here in the bay area but depending on your location and timing, it all works out in the end. Hope i've helped.
 
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Here, i've done the HW for you:

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/apa/

IF you decide to attend CSPM and live off campus... i recommend the following surrounding cities/neighborhoods: Orinda, Lafayette, Albany, El Cerrito, San Pablo, El Sobrante, Pinole, Hercules, and the farthest i would go is Walnut Creek which takes up to 20 mins to reach campus without traffic.

In that website, you can put down your budget (min/max) ...how many bedrooms you require...and you will be able to retrieve the phone numbers or e-mail addresses of the managers/landlords. You can also google-map the addresses. With google maps, there's an option where you can zoom into "street view" ... Use the street view option to see if the neighborhood is ghetto or not. Although, I doubt it's ghetto with the recommended cities I've just mentioned.

Scams don't happen often but here are general rules to think about: if the Advertisements do not provide pictures/snapshots... it's probably not good. Also, if you find landlords that require you to deposit before you even get a chance to meet them or tour the place, it's a scam. Or if they require a deposit via wire or money orders, it's a scam. But to avoid confusion, if you are able to contact them by phone and able to visit the place, it's legit. GOOD LUCK!!!
 
kmyprimeval said:
Here, i've done the HW for you:

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/apa/

IF you decide to attend CSPM and live off campus... i recommend the following surrounding cities/neighborhoods: Orinda, Lafayette, Albany, El Cerrito, San Pablo, El Sobrante, Pinole, Hercules, and the farthest i would go is Walnut Creek which takes up to 20 mins to reach campus without traffic.

In that website, you can put down your budget (min/max) ...how many bedrooms you require...and you will be able to retrieve the phone numbers or e-mail addresses of the managers/landlords. You can also google-map the addresses. With google maps, there's an option where you can zoom into "street view" ... Use the street view option to see if the neighborhood is ghetto or not. Although, I doubt it's ghetto with the recommended cities I've just mentioned.

Scams don't happen often but here are general rules to think about: if the Advertisements do not provide pictures/snapshots... it's probably not good. Also, if you find landlords that require you to deposit before you even get a chance to meet them or tour the place, it's a scam. Or if they require a deposit via wire or money orders, it's a scam. But to avoid confusion, if you are able to contact them by phone and able to visit the place, it's legit. GOOD LUCK!!!
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haha you didnt do my homework for me i went on craigslist i just wanted a second opinion from the sdn users BUT THANK YOU....you are very helpful and this is what i was trying to get out of this thread-im sure im not hte only prepod with this question im just the only one that is asking 😉
 
You should worry more about what the school will be like, how it will prepare you to practice podiatry for the rest of your life, and LESS about what you're going to be doing on your free time. That's because you'll have precious little free time!!!

I agree with Jewmongous though. You should accept interviews at all the schools you think might interest you and go see them yourself. I know my perceptions of some schools changed drastically when I actually went to the interview. The interview is as much you getting a feel if you like the school, people, & program as it is them interviewing you. I can't stress that enough. Go to the schools you think you would be interested in attending, and make your own final opinion!
 
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