It costs about the same to live in Boston or San Diego. Three grand per year is only significant because I’m a teacher and it is actually a decent percentage of my pay (which is too bad, of course). I’m doing my best not to make the decision based on money.
Thank you, by the way, for all the comments. I am making the decision in an hour or so, and I’m leaning towards Boston. I’m waiting for an e-mail from the department head in San Diego about how much money they have to improve the lab equipment. That may tip the scales if it is enough to make a decent stockroom (and what a weird thing to tip the scales…).
Thanks for everyone’s input into my decision. After more discussion with friends and family, I decided to go with…Boston! I’m not looking forward to telling the San Diego job that I’m not going to take it after all, but I’ll try to do it as best I can.
Cheers!
-Tofer
…
p.s. Interestingly, right after I made the decision, I got an e-mail saying that the apartment I had lined up in San Diego fell through. So maybe that’s a sign…
You already accepted the job and I’m glad you chose Boston.
I have to say though, it may cost about the same to live in Boston or SD. But, you can always live a bit farther away from Boston and actually end up with more money. If you don’t mind a commute, you can live anywhere east of Marlboroug and pay much less. I have a friend in Boston who pays over $1000 per month for a small 2 bedroom apartment which she shares with 2 other people. The other two also pay $1000 per month. I was just looking at an apartment in Woonsocket with had 3 bedrooms and was only $800 per month. The gas and wear on the car still wouldn’t cost as much as living in or near Boston. Besides, with the time of day you’d be driving, you’d miss most of the horrible commuter traffic.
On block scheduling: The high school I attended in Worcester started toying with block scheduling in my sophomore year. While I hated having an hour and a half of most subjects, I loved having that much science. It worked out very well for Physics and Anatomy. I didn’t get the block schedule for Biology. Chemistry was the best though. That year, I had 2 blocked days of Chemistry and one of those was the same day I had lab. So, I actually got over 3 hours. We had so much time to do the labs and to discuss them. I actually learned more in Chem than I ever did in other classes. It was especially helpful because Chem was my worst science class. My teacher hated it at first but she really appreciated the time more by the end of the year.
I was pullin’ fer Boston, but waited to see what happened…