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Originally Posted by Terra Firma
I hope to take some more Bayesian courses such as AMS 206 and 207 down the road but would you recommend taking them early as in the first year beside the fact that 2nd year course load will be heavier. I am not trying to look past the first year courses in econ or anything but just thought that those AMS courses might help my research later on as well as the field courses and would be nice to streamline them with the econ classes.
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Terra Firma, I would take 205 and see how it goes. One step at a time. If you can manage the coursework, then enroll in 206. In fact, you can't enroll in 206 until the end of the Fall quarter...
I completed 206 in the 1st year. I had the benefit, however, of being pretty comfortable with game theory - - which was our most intensive course in the Winter quarter. In the spring quarter, i didn't take any extra courses (just Econ 205C, 204C, 211B -- now it'll be C for you. oh god... time series in the Spring is hell...).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Terra Firma
Also, I am also looking at housing and it seems that it probably comes down to GSH and off campus. I think you had experiences in both as alluded to at some points in the thread. Since there are chance that the environment at GSH might change quickly depending on roommates what about nearby off campus apartment in the Santa Cruz area. I am willing to be off campus abit but not too far as San Jose to have better and quiet study environment. However, the 8 AM econometrics is gonna hurt two days a week but it would not be that bad if commuting by bus within the vicinity of Santa Cruz??? On craigslist, the price variation for apartments in Santa Cruz is pretty large and the hard part is that rent for Aug or Sept will not likely be up and advertised until july or so since the landlord will not know until then??? Any suggestions.
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I lived in GSH first year and am now living in FSH. I have some classmates who live off campus.
Commuting to campus for 8 am classes? It's not bad if you're able to get to a bus stop by 7:15-7:20 (if downtown). Once the bus gets onto campus, it goes SOO slow and is crammed with students going from one campus bus stop to the next. A handful of grad students had the tendancy not to show up on time for 8 am classes. It seems to turn off the faculty.
The grad students have mailing lists among themselves... they advertise apartments, or sell furniture, etc. I don't know if Sandra has added you to the grad-econ mailing list. This might give you more "grad-friendly" sources of housing than Craigslist. Or if it's not possible to add you to the mailing list yet.. perhaps we can start a mailing list among ourselves and I can forward such emails to you.
If you don't want to risk renting a dodgy place without seeing it for a year, sublet for a month, and go apt/house hunting when you arrive. That seems like a relatively good alternative. GSH is becoming outrageously expensive. $900/mo!!
I haven't looked, but i bet you could find a nice 2 bedroom apartment in Santa Cruz for $1800 or less. In that case, you'd have to furnish and find a roommate (but given the abundant supply of fellow grad students, it might not be that challenging).
[Sorry, i think back to the last of my undergrad days ... say 2005-2006.. and it makes me angry!! I had a room in a 4 person house where rent ranged from $320 - $375 + utilities in a university town in Canada. My room
there was double the size of the GSH bedrooms].
But, with GSH, you are definitely paying for convenience. You (a) have a furnished apartment (though, you won't have dishes or cookware or housewares), (b) are directly across the street from the department and next to bus stops going in either direction (it really is convenient when the two bus stops are NOT a 3 minute walk apart!)