practical stuff first -
garbage: three of my neighbors and i split pick up, so it ended up being about $4 per month. internet ran about the same if you split it, which almost everyone did. our trash bins were fine and never got stolen. if you don't want to pay for trash p/u, the county dumpster is about 2 miles down 63.
ATT service isn't all that great here, so we went with communicom. they have a special for new customers that should put it at 20$/month for the year. i didn't get cable, but i've *heard* it's pretty standard prices based on what package you get - and obviously, it's tough to split cable.
only other utility is electric. runs ~20-25$ summertime to ~80$ winter.
about renting a ball apartment:
rent was prorated for me when i moved in last year. "horror stories" are relative - i know of a couple people who have found mold in their apartment, or have had other specific issues with the apartments, which is a shame since they are so new, but i haven't had anything quite so dramatic go wrong with my unit (yet...). the apartments are definitely more cheaply built than i thought at first - for ex my heat bill went through the roof in jan/feb since the insulation wasn't done all that well.
for those of you who like lists:
cons: overpriced; depending on what unit you're moving into, you could have some really annoying issues; tons of stray animals get dropped off near the train tracks; the train runs pretty often at 5am, for you light sleepers.
pros: great location, literally 8 minutes door to door, which is great on exam mornings; convenience, since the deposit is less than some places ($200 as opposed to an entire month); other landlords in the area have been equally shady, if not more - we had several people move out of homes they were renting and even a couple out of the university inn, and into our apartment "complex"; almost all the renters are students at DCOM (OMS or PA), so it's less isolated than other places and there are plenty of your classmates (and second years) who will be around.
it really comes down to asking yourself how much you can ignore your principles and just buckle down and find a place to camp out the two years you are here for basic sciences. you already know this, but you'll barely have time to fret about paying too much for an apartment that's not perfect. if i can do it, you can do it.
good luck.
Paula told me that my rent would be prorated. I wish I would have heard the horror stories before I dropped the deposit on the apartment : ( Question though - what did most of the people do there for garbage? Did you guys pay for the monthly garbage can rental and hope the cans didn't get stolen? Or did you take your trash to the county dumpster? And what about cable/internet up there? What company is most popular - the communicomm or at&t? Besides Roger being a cheapskate, anything else I need to watch out for (break-ins, etc.) ?