Advice- Places to live

Michelle_Z

Hi!

I have been wondering (the last few days) on where would be a good place to live and work. This is not a "I-am-moving-out-in-two-months" type of idea, but a long term, far goal. Basically, when I graduate college (or even a couple years after that- I need to save up money, first!) I may want to move away from my hometown to someplace that is a bit more... *forward* thinking. I've been doing searches on google, but so far have not found what I need.

What am I looking for:

At the moment, I am considering being a biologist, specifically a molecular biologist, though that might change. For this post, I am going to assume I keep this goal. Are there any place in the US that have a market or need for biologists? Is there a science-centric, or place where science-minded people live? I know that is vague, but I'm not sure how else to put it. I just recognize that if I were to have a discussion about science or cogsci or anything similar in my current community, I would get strange looks, and lose status.

If such a place exists, a bonus would be an active LW community.

I'm not sure if I will or won't like moving, so moving multiple times is something I am not really considering at the moment, and since I do eventually (far far down the road) plan on having children, and those children would require a really *really* good education, I would want someplace that has a good education system. It's a bit of a pet peeve of mine, since my educational experience was so awful, so I am dedicated to making sure that does *not* happen to my (far far in the future) family. (Yes, I do know that a lot of educational issues stem from a whole combination of things, and I know a good school system is not a fix-all, but it would help.)

I've never moved before, so I wouldn't even know where to begin. My family doesn't even go on vacations. I've never been on a plane, nor do I know any protocol for moving between states, or moving in general. The most moving I've ever experienced was the move to college, and that is only 20 minutes from home. Thinking about it makes it seem stressful, so the more information I have, the better I can plan, and the less stressful this will eventually be for me.

Thanks for the help!

Hi!

What am I looking for:

If such a place exists, a bonus would be an active LW community.

Thanks for the help!

If you want to be a professional biologist (or any professional scientist) you will probably need to get one or more graduate degrees. (There are exceptions to this, but your career possibilities will be more limited.) This complicates matters in some respects and simplifies it in others. Let me mostly focus on ways it simplifies matters.

Going to grad school will give you the chance to move someplace for a few years before eventually moving on to yet someplace else. This is great for a few reasons. You get a chance to see what it's like to move -- maybe it won't be as bad as you think. You defer making a more permanent decision until you're older and have more experience. You (maybe) get to see another part of the country for some perspective on where you live now. Even if you wind up not liking the place you go very much, it'll still have been a good experience for these reasons.
If your parents are remotely reasonable, they have to be more ok with you moving away for solid career-related reasons than they would be with you moving away for more nebulous lifestyle-related reasons. (Although from this and your other thread, it sounds like your parents might actually not be remotely reasonable at all.)
However, if you get some admission offers from grad programs, they might pay your travel expenses to go there and check out the programs. Furthermore, most good science PhD programs will fully fund your studies and living expenses, so saving up a bunch of money before moving isn't really an issue. Having this kind of financial freedom will enable you to defy your parents' ridiculousness about this. (You won't be living high on the hog by any means, but you'll have enough to get by.)
If you can get good advice from your college professors about which grad programs would be a good match for your interests and aptitudes, this will usefully constrict your options and help you overcome the paralysis of choice. While ultimately you may want to be more discriminating about where you move for the long run, see my first bullet point for why it would probably be good to just get that first move under your belt.

I'm not a scientist, so I may be underestimating the possibilities for interesting, fulfilling employment in the sciences without a graduate degree -- others can correct me if this is the case. But I think I've given some reasons why you might want to consider grad school even if I'm wrong in that respect.

Oops! Somehow I managed to forget to respond to these a year ago!

Thanks for the advice! I've taken steps - like exploring my interests in the sciences in an attempt to figure out what specifically do I want to research- and plan to figure out which professors in which colleges are doing that kind of research.

Good science PhD programs ....fund your studies and living expenses.

-Do you know the general requirements to get that kind of funding? I'm certain I'll need it. I've researched it and have found varying and sometimes contradictory information.

1

Advice- Places to live

1

1

1

Advice- Places to live

1

1