Help With Decision

Due to finals approaching and my inability to keep up with current affairs I�m going to answer a comment/ question someone posted. I should thank him for giving me something to write about eh.

AHS MilBlogger( Blogging Live From Iraq) commented/questioned. Writes: �On a totally unrelated topic, I am debating going to school in DC, NYC, or Boston. I did undergrad in Boston, so I have a good feel for life there. I've spent some time in DC, so I have a general idea of that place. I never done anything more than drive through NYC and thank my lucky stars that I still had money in my wallet after hitting all of those 5 and 10 dollar toll booths. If you had it to do over again, would you have gone to college in NYC? And why? Sounds like a good blog topic to me."

Not sure it�s worth a whole entry and looking at that question �would you do it again� I�m not sure the commenter actually knew I was a college student and that I have only been here a couple of years, so looking back and thinking about whether I would do it again is not really an option as I haven�t exactly done it yet; so far so good though.

I would take NY over DC in a hairy minute.

NY is so�..Ghetto.

I have been to Boston a few times but not enough to really voice an opinion; my only experience there was getting spit on by someone in Chinatown, and a Redsox game but that is another story. Boston is nice; I wouldn�t want to live there, I could but I wouldn�t want to.

So take into consideration that I am simply an almost twenty year old college student and I know nothing.I just think I do, here goes.

DC: I spent most of my middle and high school years in the sub- sub burbs of DC.( yes I meant sub- sub) DC is a smallish four quadrant city, it really is, and the main point about DC is no one lives in the city, everyone lives in the suburbs and people that live in the contiguous suburbs say they are from DC. The only habitable part is the North West Quad although they have been doing a lot of work to the rest of the city and even building some new housing in places that in the past no one would dare tread, ( Anacostia), and there are some big plans and some nice waterfront development along the Potomac. The city itself, I feel, was run by a coke addict for so many years that it is still struggling with what I can only compare to some type of debilitating post traumatic stress disorder. You would think the Federal Government would take their capitol and really do it proud, would you not? They have a new baseball team though and some people are overjoyed with that. They do like their sports there,(Redskins, Redskins, Redskins), it�s a fairly clean place. There are a few small clubs, a couple of large venues , the theater district is (almost)nil; the national museum of art is radically awesome though as are the rest of the things on the mall. Georgetown and Adams Morgan are probably the places you will find most of the under thirty crowd and then some. The metro will take you to most of the places you need to go but then again there are a limited number of places to go.There is a lot going on in the immediate suburbs though and Baltimore which is virtually on it's backyard has it's own charm. ( but also a very high violent crime rate) Also of note: An eighth of an inch of snow will paralyze DC and the town closes up early for the most part.

I have never been as frightened in NYC as I was in DC at night. I hear it is improving yearly though and the murder rate is down.

If you�re into international business, global politics, economics, law then DC is probably the place to be as the opportunities in those areas would be high in DC.

NYC: mass of humanity living in what is actually a lot of different neighborhoods; people do live in the city. There is life on the street, or street life depending on how you look at it. This to me is one of the biggest benefits; I study people, photograph people and need to be somewhere where there are a large number of people. The streets are what attract me. The city has clean parts and dirty parts and some parts are pretty dirty, most of it is dirtier in most places then even the dirtiest parts of DC.

The subway covers most of the places you need to go or you can take a bus; the difference is there are thousands of places to go. The streets are full and the city truly never sleeps. Snow ,,,eh a blizzard might shut us down but otherwise plan on getting up and going to work or school because it won�t be a sleep day. You will never be able to say you can�t find anything that interests you, things to do are limitless. Both are expensive, NYC more so but living inside the beltway is going to cost you a pretty penny. If you tend toward fits of melancholy then NY might be a hard place, as it might be for an introvert, as you may have to go out of your way to meet people. There is an abundance of art, theatre, shopping, fashion, food, homeless shelters and rats. That is not necessarily a bad thing as if DC had more rats it might keep those undesirables in at night and maybe real people would be on the streets. DC is diverse of course but NY has large chunks of ethnicity here and there and it makes DC look shockingly bland in comparison.If you�re seriously considering coming to NY for grad school you might want to spend some time here first. Some people just don�t like it and they feel overwhelmed by it, lost, and in some cases repelled. I think with this city it is either love it or �nice place to visit but�. I fell in love with it in tenth grade. Additionally you will walk enough to maintain a fine butt.

It is so dependent on the individual. Hope this helps.