Gainesville

Welcome to Hoggetowne! (I have no idea why they call it that) I have lived in Gainesville for 9 years now through grad school and med school. It is a fun place for undergraduates but many older folks find it lacking in cultural flavor. It is a very typical college town. The plusses are:
1) the climate rocks (as long as you don't mind heat and humidity). I think we had maybe two cumulative weeks where you needed a jacket this year.
2) lots of outdoor stuff to do, heck I was playing golf all through Dec, Jan, Feb, and tomorrow morning! Springs, lakes, etc.
3) Great college sports.
4) Thousands and thousands of beautiful young people of either sex (boy does this place make you feel unattractive!).
5) Adequate night life.
6) Dirt cheap to live here, education better than FL average due to high % of university faculty children. Crime is actually not a problem if you don't live in certain well contained areas, don't worry about it.
Minuses:
1) Small
2) 1 and a half to 2 hours from any city or a beach
3) Hard to meet people over the age of 22 unless they are other residents (I hope you're married or like picking up med students, the local sport here).
4) Minimal cultural attraction. Most restaurants are chains, one small but good museum, one small but good theatre.

Well, I hope I haven't turned you off. G'ville is a nice place to live, not great, but nice. It is very easy to just stay here forever, but I'm glad I'm finally breaking away for a while. I wouldn't mind raising a kid here though. The hospital rocks, great faculty, great residents and students, a fabulous place to learn medicine. What field are you going into? Good luck!

 

I went to UF for my undergrad and can say that gainesville was a great place to attend school, but not to live. It is too country like for myself. Whenever you see cows on the side of the road, you know you are in the country. The city grows tiring very quickly because there are limited things to do and the whole city revolves around the university. There are some parts in Gainesville that can be high crime. I would suggest to live in either southwest or north west gainesville. North east and south east are pretty crappy. There are some clubs to attend in downtown if you are interested, but for real entertainment you are going to have to go to either Tampa or Orlando which is about an hour and a half away. Since you are from Mich, I would doubt you are a gator fan, but the best thing about gainesville is football weekends. The cities population triples for that weekend and there are parties everywhere. I am sure you will see lots of ethanol poisoning during those times. This is of course just my opinion and I hope you love it there. Good luck.

 

Gainesville is a great place to live. I lived there for six years then moved to Miami for med school. I hope to be back in Gainesville soon. There are lots of outdoor activities. The night life isn't that bad unless you are looking for a big club seen. More live music there than in Miami. As far as culture goes- be honest, when was the last time you went to the opera?
The crime rate is supposed to be high but it consists of mainly car stereo thefts and public drunkeness. The cost of living is so low that there is no reason that you can't live a very good part of town.