| Full-time graduate program |
Athens is an interesting place to live, and one that I gradually enjoyed the
longer I was there. That said, it has its downsides.
Housing is in short supply. Most graduate students live off-campus in rentals.
Many of the rentals are owned by a handful of
landlords who do as little maintenance as possible on the properties and often
engage in dubious practices while charging
significant rents. My rent doubled moving from Austin, TX to Athens.
Dining is somewhat limited - a lot of fast-food restaurants - but there are
several very good restaurants that are great bargains
for the price. Seven Sauces and Lui Lui's are two favorites, and places I still
miss. They offer high-end food at medium
prices.
One of the best things about Athens is that it is very safe. Probably 75% of the
residents have some connection to the
university and take pride in keeping Athens a nice place to live. In my 6+ years
living there (I finished my dissertation
remotely) I think there were two murders. One was a drive-by shooting that
appears to have been drug-related; the other was
a manslaughter case from a bar fight.
One other benefit of Athens is its proximity to great outdoor activities.
Stroud's Run State Park provides swimming in the
spring and summer as well as great hiking. Hocking Hills State Park is about 30
minutes away and offers extensive hiking
trails through hilly terrain with spectacular views during fall foliage.
A large international student presence makes Ohio University surprisingly
diverse. In my interdisciplinary sub-program, the 9
students who began with me included students from Norway, Italy, Germany, the
Netherlands, Korea, and Singapore. Of the
American students, one was from Georgia, New Mexico, one from Wisconsin, and one
from Ohio. I found the student body in
my program to be far more diverse in this rural Appalachian corner of Ohio than
I did as an undergraduate (at Marquette) or
in graduate programs at the University of Texas and Wake Forest University.
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Ohio University: Graduate Humanities/Social Sciences/Education Degrees Admission & Application Surveys
