Any experience in Atlanta living or any Emory Univ. grads?

[mom2ncr]

My son has been accepted into the Chemistry grad program at Emory University for this coming year. It looks as if Emory is in an area called Druid Hills and near Decatur also. His schooling will be paid for and he'll receive a $22,000 stipend. He won't have a car so will need access to good public transportation. Can he live reasonably on that amount of money with or without a roommate? He has no debt or any bills to pay, other than current living expenses. During his undergrad years he was pretty frugal except for the weekly Subway when he was tired of dining hall food. What is MARTA like and is it practical for someone without a car? Are there reasonable places to live that have access to groceries and shopping? Any graduates of Emory Univ. that can offer their thoughts on the school? Lastly, he hates heat and humidity but also doesn't go outside much. He spends most of his time in a chemistry lab or on his computer. How many months of the year have sweltering heat and humidity? He's been in New England for 4 years and hasn't minded the cold and snow. He's also applied to Harvard & MIT and if either of those choose him, I think he'd take the snow over the heat! Appreciate any input....

[TheTwinsMom1]

I used to live in Decatur, it's a nice town. Close to downtime but still out enough to avoid a bit of the traffic. My yearly salary at the time was about 25K and I lived just fine with a room mate(This was in 07-08) There are buses and the Marta but I am not sure if they go by the college. You would need to look up the bus routes and marta on their website to make sure. I lived right off N. Druid Hills Rd and it was a nice place to live. Close to several shopping centers, and other food place, close to two malls, and Wal-mart was about 3 miles away.

 

As far as the heat, it is the hottest in Summer of course, but overall the temps are pretty mild and I don't remember it being sweltering that often.

 

Overall I loved the area and would live there again if we ever moved back to ATL.

[smrtmama]

My son has been accepted into the Chemistry grad program at Emory University for this coming year. It looks as if Emory is in an area called Druid Hills and near Decatur also. His schooling will be paid for and he'll receive a $22,000 stipend. He won't have a car so will need access to good public transportation. Can he live reasonably on that amount of money with or without a roommate? He has no debt or any bills to pay, other than current living expenses. During his undergrad years he was pretty frugal except for the weekly Subway when he was tired of dining hall food. What is MARTA like and is it practical for someone without a car? Are there reasonable places to live that have access to groceries and shopping? Any graduates of Emory Univ. that can offer their thoughts on the school? Lastly, he hates heat and humidity but also doesn't go outside much. He spends most of his time in a chemistry lab or on his computer. How many months of the year have sweltering heat and humidity? He's been in New England for 4 years and hasn't minded the cold and snow. He's also applied to Harvard & MIT and if either of those choose him, I think he'd take the snow over the heat! Appreciate any input....

 

I'm just north of Atlanta. Honestly, it's difficult to live here without a car. He'll have to rely on MARTA, which is a roundabout way of getting places. The trains run reliably, but the busses aren't that efficient of a way of getting to many places. We're just not really a walking town. If he's living on campus, he should be able to get to things fairly easily, but getting anyway further than campus will be a time commitment.

 

If he's not got a room mate or not living on campus, I don't think $22K is going to be enough to live. Emory used to have some decent graduate student housing, though, so he should look into that.

 

It's usally pretty bad in July and August. Sometimes June is hot, but seldom very humid, and sometimes September is humid, but usually not boiling hot. You'd be best off looking for the averages highs/lows and humidity levels for the area, to get an idea of what it COULD be like.

 

That said, Atlanta is a wonderful town to live in, especially for a scientist, and Emory's chemistry program is fantastic.

[kokotg]

I lived in Boston for a few years (and most of my life in GA), and one thing I'll say is that a heat wave in Atlanta is much easier to deal with than a heat wave in New England, because everyone here has air conditioning. In Boston, half the restaurants didn't even have it (at least our part of Boston). It gets just as hot in NE as it does here, it just doesn't STAY as hot for as long. And you can generally count on it to cool down significantly at night in NE, which cannot always be said for Atlanta.

Edited January 23, 2010 by kokotg

[michelle l]

I'm going to have to disagree with everyone about the heat.:p

 

See, everyone who answered actually lives there, so they are used to it! My dh and I lived in Peachtree City (just south of Atlanta) abot five years ago. We are originally from Michigan. It. Is. Hot.:laugh:

 

We really enjoyed Georgia, and the winter was AMAZING! We never even got out our "real" winter coats. I have a wool jacket I'd toss on, but I never got out my big down coat. Kids didn't need boots or snowpants, but lightweight knit gloves were good on a chilly morning.

 

As far as how long it stays hot...don't believe them. ;) I remember going outside at 5:30 am for a run...in OCTOBER...and having the heat and humdity hit me like bricks. I actually asked out loud if it would ever cool down! It did. Got to all of about 40 degrees, maybe occasionally 30. LOL (no complaints here) Oh, and it's SUNNY in the winter too -- unheard of, being from Michigan.

 

I would go back to Georgia in a heartbeat. However, he should be aware that the heat/humidity DOES feel stifling to those not used to it. That said, I don't think it takes terribly long to become aclimated. We finally got used to having our AC set near 80. Seriously.

Edited January 23, 2010 by michelle l

[RoughCollie]

I lived in Decatur-Atlanta for 15 years before I moved to Boston. The first summer I was there, everyone complained heartily about the extremely high humidity, and I couldn't tell it was humid at all. I lived in Boston for 20 years, and I felt the "high" humidity less than 5 days every summer. I used to keep track.

 

Boston generally has hot weather about 3 weeks out of every summer, and sometimes for as long as 6 weeks. This is from a Southerner's point of view.

 

Our biggest problem with the summer weather was that it often was not summerlike to me at all. At first, I had a rule that it had to be 80* outside before the kids could go swimming. That rule lasted one summer, because that year it hardly ever got above 80*.

 

We went camping every year for 13 years, and except from July 15-August 31, I had to pack sweatshirts, sweatpants and extra blankets because I never knew when the weather would suddenly turn too cold for shorts.

 

Now, if I had a choice, I'd pick a university in Boston over a university in Atlanta every time. It's not because of the weather (I like Atlanta's weather better). It's because I never realized how boring living in Atlanta was, compared to living in Boston. I lived in Brookline, 4 miles from the ocean, about a mile from the Boston line, before we had kids. It was great -- fantastic transportation system, lots of things to do, lively, full of bookstores & other shops, and interesting people. It's the same living in Boston (certain areas) or Cambridge. The ocean and the mountains are both nearby (it takes about 3 hours to drive to most places in New England).

 

Mind you, I wasn't bored when I lived in Atlanta -- I had a large group of friends and my immediate family lived there, and when I was an adult, I lived in Buckhead, where there was plenty to do. But when people came for a visit, there just wasn't that much to do.

 

The drawback, of course, is the cost of living in Boston. Rent and utilities are sky high.

 

My first visit to Atlanta took place about 6 months after I'd moved to Boston, in August. I walked out of the airport and it felt like I walked into a solid wall of humidity. I once had a car that did not have air conditioning. All summer, I had to take extra clothes with me wherever I went, because I would arrive dripping wet. Also, even though I parked my car in a parking garage that had a roof, I had to hold the door handle with a cloth when I opened the car, I lucky the seats were cloth because they would be hot, and the steering wheel would often be too hot to touch with bare hands.

 

I compare the intensity of the weather in Boston in winter to Atlanta in summer. I prefer heat and humidity to cold and snow.

Edited January 23, 2010 by RoughCollie

[mom2ncr]

Thanks for all of the different perspectives! He has until April 15 to give his decision so I know he will wait and see what options he has. Emory is flying him down in February so he will at least get to escape the snow on his campus and experience a milder climate (hopefully)

[Jenny in Atl]

I have a friend who works at Emory, and lives in Decatur. I think for 22k he can find a place, but most likely it will be small or a shared house. Emory has a bus system for students who live near by, as well as Marta.

 

If you want, I can pass along my friend's info to him. It does get hot down here, but I'm not sure it's any worse than Boston in the summer. Just PM me or email me at abjb22@mac.com, and I will see what info I can round-up.

[lllll]

I grew up in SC just across the border from Augusta, GA. Lived in Decatur, GA for a year in my teens. It's hot. And humid. And that's coming from someone who used to spend a month of every year in Baton Rouge, LA with all our relatives, and also lived a year there.

 

The heat is a still, heavy, humid heat in that part of the country (inland GA & SC). In Baton Rouge, there always seemed to be some kind of a breeze, and you could count on a quick thunderstorm every day about 3:30 to bring in some clouds and rain to cool things off. I know that because that was about the time I got off work and I had to walk through the rain to get to my car.

 

But in Atlanta & Augusta, you don't usually get that. It's a more oppressive heat, IMO. No breeze, hazy, humid. Surprisingly fewer t-storms as compared to Baton Rouge. And I remember plenty of Halloweens where we wore shorts under our costumes. If I remember correctly, you don't get a consistent break from the heat until around Thanksgiving. As my cousin from Baton Rouge used to say about Baton Rouge after they moved to NC, 'I just got tired of those 6-month summers in Baton Rouge'.

 

Dh just came in. He says, " Atlanta was just rated one of the gayest cities in the US. San Francisco has been displaced". Says he heard it on the radio news. :001_huh:Not sure what that has to do with the weather. He just blurted that out when I asked him about Atlanta. They used to say that about Chapel Hill when we lived there, too. Wonder how they determine those things ...

 

Anyway, dh also says the heat starts in April/May, but the heavy humidity rolls in about June and lasts until September. (He went to GA Tech.) I remember lying in the sun working on my tan and sweating in April in SC, to give you an idea of the heat.

 

We also lived in NH for 4 years. It gets hot and humid there, too. We had window AC units. But we could usually count on the nights to be cool. And it only lasted a couple of months. They did, however, have a mosquito season like I've never seen before. Yuk.

 

The good news is that you do adjust to the weather after a month or so. (Less for him since he's young and healthy, I assume.) You learn how to work around it. A lot of Southerners stay indoors in the hottest part of the day. We do our shopping early in the morning or in the evening when it's not as oppressively hot. I, personally, avoid driving in the heat if I can help it. It takes a broiling hot car a LONG time to cool off. And your car can get so hot that you can't touch the steering wheel with bare hands in that part of the South. Not so much here in VA though.

[Georgia On My Mind]

:iagree:I have lived in the South all my life and Atlanta for the last 35 years. It is very hot here in the summer and humid at times but we air condition everything - cars, houses, buses, commuter rails - you get the idea. He may have to get creative about transportation since we are a car town but bikes are catching on and depending on where he lives he may be close to public transportation and shopping and groceries, etc. He can probably make it on his stipend if he is frugal. He will probably make friends who have cars so he can bum rides when he needs. Because we air condition living space, tell him to look for a place to rent where utilites are included. Electric and natural gas can get expensive in both winter and summer.

 

I spent a summer in Boston with my hubby and two younger boys. We didn't get to swim even once because the pool water never warmed up enough to swim even if it was fairly warm. The cool nights kept the pool water cold all the time. He won't have that problem here. We swim in May most years. We have hot nights in July, August and September as well as days. No wool sweaters or coats needed. He will like Atlanta, especially the academic Atlanta. Tell him to pack light on clothes and bring plenty of sun screen.

 

In the early 70's when my husband was at GA Tech, we lived in the Little Five Points area in an apartment and had to use public transportation (no commuter rail at that time) some but even then it was not difficult. We were about 1 1/2 miles from Emory and loved it then. He'll have a ball.

[abbeyej]

I actually don't think he'll have any problem at all with public transportation. Emory has the Cliff Shuttle that is very useful and could get him to and from school (with a little walking) from many of the nearby areas where he might consider living. If he can find a spot that's accessible to both a Cliff line and the MARTA subway system (there are also MARTA buses, though personally I'd rather stick to Cliff and the subway, if I were in his position), then he's really set. We live about a mile north of the Decatur MARTA station and about two blocks from a Cliff stop. There are plenty of other spots where one could be equally conveniently situated for transit. (My husband used MARTA to get to and from GaTech from where we are -- much closer to Emory -- for about 5 years. A number of other professors we know use walking/biking/buses and the subway to get to Tech. There's no subway to Emory, but plenty of buses.)

 

Anyway, the public transit system may not be as complete or intuitive in Atlanta as it is in some other cities, but it's actually pretty good compared to most American cities (with some notable exceptions). It's very useable.

 

Sometimes in the summer, the heat and humidity hit you like a wall. Glasses fog up. It's stupid. ;) But as others have noted, we also have AC *everywhere*. :) It's really not too bad, I don't think. :) (The giant bugs, on the other hand... We do have some horrific beasties living here!) And this winter has been colder than cold. Thoroughly wretched for those of us not used to the winter (and whose children have no boots and whose other winter gear is fairly limited!)... :)

 

I certainly don't think he'll have any problems finding housing and managing without a car. He'll be busy with school...

 

Congrats on his admission to Emory and the fellowship!