Grad School Visits

So it is confirmed that I will be pursuing a Master's degree in graduate school this fall. But the question as to where I will be, and what exactly I will studying is a big question mark. So far I have visited two schools, and have 4 others to check out. A few weekends ago I flew out to UNC Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill, North Carolina) and the following weekend I was up at University of Washington (Seattle, Washington).


Here are a few snap shots from my travels.
North Carolina
Chapel Hill Campus is beautiful. Even though it was still February, the weather was nice. It was a rainy 70 degrees for part of the stay and sunny (but colder) for the rest. This is the famous well of Chapel Hill. UNC Chapel Hill is the oldest Public University in the USA founded at the end of the 1700's!!! I really loved the program here. I felt like they really wanted me, and the research opportunities were fascinating. Chapel Hill is a cute little college town, but I was a little weirded out by fact there was no city (even the nearby cities of Raleigh and Durham didn't really have a visual presence). There are trees EVERYWHERE!!! The roads are like driving through a forest, with resident and commercial areas hiding behind the forests.





Seattle



My experience at UW was pretty much the opposite. I felt completely comfortable in Seattle. The city has the perfect balance of metropolitan feel with nature at its finger tips. The program, on the other hand, excited me less. The visit was less organized, and the professors seemed less interested in me as they did at UNC. It was the typical grey, cold, cloudy Seattle weather. But on Saturday morning before I flew home the sun peaked out for a few moments on my wonderful walk along the water.








They told me that it is super easy (in fact ideal) to live without a car. Between biking, the bus system, the accessible city layout, and the pleasant walking paths, you can get around without a car! Some students who did have cars confirmed that they haven't driven in at least a month. Definitely not the case in NC!






I also came up with this little rhyme on my walk

The sun was bleak
My nose did run
My fingers
Perpetually numb.
But despite a
Threatening forecast
The rain was short
It did not last.
I felt that in Seattle
I could fit right in
It was the bay area
with a Washington spin