> So, I'm currently about to start applying to grad schools. I have a list of about 8 schools; I may end up applying to all of them, or I may bump a school or two off the list to prevent myself from going broke paying application fees. Anyway, I'm probably going to base my eventual decision more on the location then the school, since I'll be spending the next >= 3 years of my life there. I find that I can get some good information on cities from the 'net, but for the *really* important questions ("How late do the pizza places deliver," "What time is last call," and "Does the city, in fact, suck?") you have to ask someone who's lived there for at least a few months. To that end, I'm posting the list of possible cities to see what kinds of comments I'll get. (I'm leaving out DC since I've lived here for the past 4 years; I almost want to stay out of curiosity as to what life-threatening crisis we're due for *next* fall)
>
> Boston, MA
> Ithaca, NY
> Urbana-Champaign, IL
> Austin, TX
> Seattle, WA
> Los Angeles, CA
> San Diego, CA
>
> Thanks in advance for your insightful comments.
>
> Bal"I've got feet in my head, I've got brains in my shoes . . . um, er. Yuck."anthalus

Well, I can at least try and help out. I'm a stones throw from Ithaca, NY so I can give you an idea of what it's like. When it comes to pizza, it appears that most of them deliver up to 11 pm. But it's very easy to walk somewhere and get pizza or something else. There are a lot of shops that are open late that are on campus. Compared to all the other cities you have listened, Ithaca is very small. The population is about 40,000 people. You have several downtown shopping centers plus a uptown mall. I would suggest not having a car if you plan to go to college here. You really won't need one. Anything that you might need is either a 5-10 minute walk away or you can always ride the bus. We have a T-Cat bus system which can take you pretty much anywhere in Tompkins county (which is the county that Ithaca is in). The last time I knew, if you want to pay $150 as a college student, you can have a year of unlimited bus rides which seems like a really good deal to me. There is the Ithaca Regional Airport so you don't have to go to Syracuse just to get a plane home. The city seems really quiet when it comes to violence and crime. There are a lot of different people (especially Asian) in the city. Actually, some of them even own shops in the city (Chinese Buffet is one of the best if you ever get tired of pizza or McDonalds). I'd say that Ithaca is a really great city (if you even want to call it a city to all the other places you are interested in). I'm trying to think if there is anything else that I am missing. But I know that I'm not the only person who visits the website often who lives near or in Ithaca, so they can always fill in what I missed. Especially since I don't actually live there. But if you have any questions, just post them and someone should answer them.

~x~Band-Aids~x~