Where is the best place to live right out of college....

beer

Lifer
Jun 27, 2000
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This just came up in a discussion and some close friends and I were talking about where, ideally, we would want to work after college.

The persons in question are all assumed to be liberal, young 20somethings with engineering degrees. Not extraordinarly wealthy but not exactly poor, either. Not overly socially active, but active enough to benefit from a good club/bar scene. The best places we could come up with were

1) seattle
2) denver

I think most of California was excluded because of the high costs of living and general state problems. California, a lot like Texas, is seeing a rise in the cost of living and a decline in average income as a result of border problems. Such problems aren't really beneficial for the state. So staying here in Texas and moving to California are not really options.

Where else should we consider?

BTW, the reason this came up is because a lot of interships will move you to cool cities for the summer, so we are trying to figure out where we could have a decent amount of fun.
 

SynthesisI

Banned
May 21, 2003
634
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Did you say liberal? Then get out of Texas. :) Denver would be my choice for what's described above, but I'm moving to Dallas next year.
 

beer

Lifer
Jun 27, 2000
11,169
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Originally posted by: SynthesisI
Did you say liberal? Then get out of Texas. :) Denver would be my choice for what's described above, but I'm moving to Dallas next year.

Once again, have you been to Austin before?

I owned one motherfvcker that tried to convince me austin was conservative without living here.
 

UNCjigga

Lifer
Dec 12, 2000
25,470
10,072
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Whether tent, or shack, or geodesic dome,
I'd could live ANYWHERE else,
Than with the folks at home!
 

fs5

Lifer
Jun 10, 2000
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the best place to live after college is at HOME. Make money, save up for a real house etc....
 

MrAwesome

Senior member
Aug 31, 2003
914
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Originally posted by: Excelsior
Originally posted by: fivespeed5
the best place to live after college is at HOME. Make money, save up for a real house etc....

My sisters did that...*sigh*.

That is actually the best way to go..........too bad that is not an option for me since my parents live in Futtbuck, USA.
 

beer

Lifer
Jun 27, 2000
11,169
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Originally posted by: fivespeed5
the best place to live after college is at HOME. Make money, save up for a real house etc....

Sorry.
If I can make what is average for an EE graduate at my school - $53K - I am not going to live at home. Period, end of discussion. Financially sound as it may be, it is a loser thing to do. No parties. No girls. Mass suburbia designed for the nuclear family, not for 20 somethings.

I don't regularily spend my weekends at without going out now, I don't intend to once I get out of college either. Living 30 miles from a huge city in suburbia would be the end result of that.

And being that my GPA is much higher than average and I have far more experience than most other students, I'm set to break that average too.

I may not be able to have it all if I live on my own, but I'll manage. If I can find an equally-educated girl to live with, all the better. But if I have a job offer, any reasonable EE job offer, I'm not living at home. I'll drive a Sentra or Mazda 3 and have my own place, instead of driving an RX8 and living at home.
 

Ameesh

Lifer
Apr 3, 2001
23,686
1
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Originally posted by: Elemental007
Originally posted by: fivespeed5
the best place to live after college is at HOME. Make money, save up for a real house etc....

Sorry.
If I can make what is average for an EE graduate at my school - $53K - I am not going to live at home. Period, end of discussion. Financially sound as it may be, it is a loser thing to do. No parties. No girls. Mass suburbia designed for the nuclear family, not for 20 somethings.

I don't regularily spend my weekends at without going out now, I don't intend to once I get out of college either. Living 30 miles from a huge city in suburbia would be the end result of that.

And being that my GPA is much higher than average and I have far more experience than most other students, I'm set to break that average too.

I may not be able to have it all if I live on my own, but I'll manage. If I can find an equally-educated girl to live with, all the better. But if I have a job offer, any reasonable EE job offer, I'm not living at home. I'll drive a Sentra or Mazda 3 and have my own place, instead of driving an RX8 and living at home.

id agree with that, its a pretty loser thing to do, for christ sake you just got a college degree its time to grow up and not rely on mommy and daddy so much. make your own life
 

beer

Lifer
Jun 27, 2000
11,169
1
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I find myself agreeing with you more and more lately. I'd expect people who work near-minimum wage jobs to live at home, as it is difficult to afford a decent place, a car, and other necessities on $10/hr.

But on 3x that? You'd have to have some financial mismangement to not be able to live on $50K a year, for one person, with an apartment.
 

chocobaR

Golden Member
Sep 17, 2001
1,956
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Doesn't it rain like 9 months out of 12 in Seattle? If yes, that city sucks.
 

beer

Lifer
Jun 27, 2000
11,169
1
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Originally posted by: chocobaR
Doesn't it rain like 9 months out of 12 in Seattle? If yes, that city sucks.

Well you have 3 options for basically anywhere in the halfway-livable country:

100 degrees + with no rain for 4 months out of the year and then 50s throughout the winter (southwest)

80 degrees in the summer, 30s in winter, snow for a bit (midwest)

80s in summer, 40s in winter, lots of rain (northwest)
 

fs5

Lifer
Jun 10, 2000
11,774
1
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Originally posted by: Elemental007
Originally posted by: fivespeed5
the best place to live after college is at HOME. Make money, save up for a real house etc....

Sorry.
If I can make what is average for an EE graduate at my school - $53K - I am not going to live at home. Period, end of discussion. Financially sound as it may be, it is a loser thing to do. No parties. No girls. Mass suburbia designed for the nuclear family, not for 20 somethings.

I don't regularily spend my weekends at without going out now, I don't intend to once I get out of college either. Living 30 miles from a huge city in suburbia would be the end result of that.

And being that my GPA is much higher than average and I have far more experience than most other students, I'm set to break that average too.

I may not be able to have it all if I live on my own, but I'll manage. If I can find an equally-educated girl to live with, all the better. But if I have a job offer, any reasonable EE job offer, I'm not living at home. I'll drive a Sentra or Mazda 3 and have my own place, instead of driving an RX8 and living at home.

Put it this way, the job market is crap right now. If you start making $60k off the bat go live by yourself. I have ~$12k left in loans left to pay off and I don't make $60k, I barely make $30k (I have a CS degree but agreed to be a software engineer at a company for very low pay in exchange for good experience.) And I live in California.

If you can make ~$53k a year and don't mind moving away from your famliy, than go for it. As for me I'd like to stay near my famliy, which means staying in california.
 

beer

Lifer
Jun 27, 2000
11,169
1
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I'll graduate with zero student loans.
Almost anyone who has tried comign from this school has been able to break $50K. It's just a matter of if it's $50K-$57K, which are the ranges for the 25-75%. yes, they've broken all this down for us.

I doubt I will be in the bottom quarter.


and Edit: It sounds like you got suckered into a situation you don't want to be in. I'm sure you can find a better job if you looked elswhere, people make more than $30K as 2nd-year interns here. Where did you graduate from, and why did you take that job?
 

Coquito

Diamond Member
Nov 30, 2003
8,559
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Go to nyc & find some rent controlled housing. Scout the building(s) for old, senile lonely people. Find one that is really off the edge & of somewhat similar ethnic background to yourself. Knock on his/her door & claim to be their grandson & that you need a place to stay. Repeat as necessary for every member of your party. In probably less than 10 years, the place is yours & yours alone. Decent living space in a prime area at probably at less than $600 a month.
 

Chaotic42

Lifer
Jun 15, 2001
34,650
1,819
126
Originally posted by: Elemental007
Well you have 3 options for basically anywhere in the halfway-livable country:
80 degrees in the summer, 30s in winter, snow for a bit (midwest)
The Midwest is more like 100° in the summer, 5° in the winter, snow sometimes, tornadoes other times.


 

Ameesh

Lifer
Apr 3, 2001
23,686
1
0
Originally posted by: Elemental007
I find myself agreeing with you more and more lately. I'd expect people who work near-minimum wage jobs to live at home, as it is difficult to afford a decent place, a car, and other necessities on $10/hr.

But on 3x that? You'd have to have some financial mismangement to not be able to live on $50K a year, for one person, with an apartment.

everyone eventually ends up agreeing with me. the reason being my opinion is always correct.
 

beer

Lifer
Jun 27, 2000
11,169
1
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Oh yea? Well Jessica Alba isn't that attracitve, much less a goddess. There.
 

Ns1

No Lifer
Jun 17, 2001
55,420
1,600
126
Originally posted by: Elemental007
Originally posted by: chocobaR
Doesn't it rain like 9 months out of 12 in Seattle? If yes, that city sucks.

Well you have 3 options for basically anywhere in the halfway-livable country:

100 degrees + with no rain for 4 months out of the year and then 50s throughout the winter (southwest)

80 degrees in the summer, 30s in winter, snow for a bit (midwest)

80s in summer, 40s in winter, lots of rain (northwest)

80's/90's in the summer. 70's in the winter. no snow, 30 days of rain, and little natural disaster. california OWNS YOU.

and jessica alba is a goddess.
 

beer

Lifer
Jun 27, 2000
11,169
1
0
Except your state is heading to the sh!thole at about the same speed Texas is.
 

Ns1

No Lifer
Jun 17, 2001
55,420
1,600
126
Originally posted by: Elemental007
Except your state is heading to the sh!thole at about the same speed Texas is.

meh. i'll believe it when i see it. we'll be fine.


//jessica alba is still hot as hell//
 

LS20

Banned
Jan 22, 2002
5,858
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knew a ut ee grad last year got a job at mcdonnel or some aerospace/gov job in denver doing programming work for 46k