Gun violence: Cities to avoid

[cp9290]

University of Chicago mourns loss of PhD student Yiran Fan | University of Chicago News

 

As much as I’d like to go to the best university that I can get into, this incident has made me wonder if the safety of a city should be part of my utility function when deciding where to go. I’m not too sure if these incidents have now become normalized for Americans and so they don’t pay much attention to them, but to me it’s shocking that something like this can happen right outside a university that’s apparently one of the best in the world.

 

Which other dangerous cities like Chicago should us international students be avoiding completely when deciding where to go for our PhDs?

[Wahasky]

If you get a funded offer from the University of Chicago, unless you have another funded offer from another top school you like better, you should take it. I disagree strongly that Chicago is a city to avoid completely.

 

Every US city has areas that are more dangerous than others, and even some areas students should probably avoid. In some cities, those areas might be close to a university (Hopkins in Baltimore is another example that comes to mind). This is something you will be able to, when the moment is appropriate, talk to someone from the school about, to decide where you want to live and where you should avoid walking late at night etc.

 

An incident like this is very tragic, but it is also *incredibly* rare, and I don't think that this should really be a consideration at all in someone's decision about grad school. Others can disagree.