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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Grad school is a time when you don't really get to experience the vibrancy of a place that much--especially if you're working a GRA or other job while going.  I did my PhD in Boston and I felt like I was always missing out on so many cool city things because I had so much work to do.  But in retrospect, I guess it kind of seeped in nonetheless--I was sad to leave.  So you'll probably only have time for so much city life so any reasonably active place will likely be more than enough.  Your grad school social network will tend to be similarly transient if you go to top schools (rather than the local school) so despite living in a new city, you often don't develop 'roots' in the same way.[/quote]

Great post. I wonder if that’s the PhD perspective versus a less intense, possibly more pre-professional grad program, like an MBA where work experience in that location is more likely. [/quote]

I’m guessing it might be a lab scientist’s perspective.  I did a liberal arts PhD and had more time for city life/leisure than my SO did in law school, for example.[/quote]
I dunno. I did my PhD in chemistry at Purdue and h a t e d West Lafeyette. Wish I would've gone somewhere more fun![/quote]

PP: Yes, my degree was in field that bridges lab and applied sciences (close to the OPs actually).  It's not that I never went out; it's just that we tended to stay around Cambridge not Boston, and all my friends left the city roughly around the same time. I probably sampled 1/100th of what the city had to offer (we went to the bars and shows near us, occasionally to another event) so any somewhat lively place would have been good enough--it didn't need to be as great as Boston.  I really think you should choose grad school on the basis of excellent programs first and then have location be a distant second and realize that 2 hours with your friends at ANY bar that isn't overrun with undergrads is going to feel delightful after clocking long hours.  I do think if you have the option to choose a graduate school that is in a city over just a college town it's good because you can have a slightly more adult feeling.  Grad school can give you this feeling of extended abeyance.[/quote]

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