Lookin' for a New Idea on Your Next Sunday Funday? Well Bostonians, Davis Square Is IT!

Graduate students’ budgets often get in the way of entertainment. As grad students, money IS sometimes everything. But there are ways to curb the pricey clubs and premium local movie theatres by checking out a great little spot off the Red-line. Yes, readers, this article is super Boston-specific and I think it’s time we gave a little bit more praise to a place we like to call—Davis Square.

Why Davis Square? Let’s look at three reasons why Davis Square should in fact be your destination for your next Sunday Funday.

• Grab a quick beer at Mike’s Pub and Grill located at the corner of College and Highland Ave. During warmer weather, it’s great to grab a seat outside or near one of the open windows and people watch on the streets surrounding you. Hard day? Tired? Need to vent? Sip some ice cold cheap beer and munch on a calzone and you’re set for an evening fit for a king/queen and most importantly, a grad student.

• Look at the time—seems like the perfect time for a movie! After leaving the bar at aperfect time before the dinner rush starts, you leisurely walk up Highland Ave just a block or so and find the Sommerville Theatre. Don’t let those Gothic owls intimidate you—Sommerville Theatre has the cheapest movie prices in the Boston area. With its awesome décor and kitchy art exhibit located on the lower level—it’d make a great second half to your evening.

• Still not tired? Feeling like your night wouldn’t be finished without some killer barbecue? Well, Redbones Barbecue is your place for after dinner discourse—and maybe further venting about those grad classes you’ve been taking. Redbones has a great drink selection, a comfortable and eclectic color scheme and great waitstaff. But most importantly, Redbones has the best barbecue you’re sure to find anywhere else (and that includes the debonair McRib)!

Hmmm, outdoor drinks? Movie night and barbecue night? And all just a few blocks from one another? I sure can’t think of anything else a Sunday Funday would need—except of course, great company and a few laughs.

Need a roommate? Useful tips to help you find one!

Moving to a new city for your graduate studies? If yes, chances are you aren’t moving along with roommates. So you’re going to need to find a couple because living on your own as a graduate student – while a lovely idea­ – is too expensive for many of us. Hence the need for roommates, whomever they may be.

How to find these people whom you hope to share your home with (minus your food and toothbrush)? A couple methods:

· ­Your school. Yep, one of the best ways could be through your graduate institution. The summer before I entered grad school, my program provided get-togethers for incoming students. We were able to mingle and meet with other students who were also looking for roommates.

I realize it may seem strange to meet someone and try to decide rather quickly on their roommate-potential, but at least you are in the same school. If they’re a grad student, it’s less likely that a.) they will flake on you and b.) they are a random creeper.

· Web listings. If you miss out on your school’s housing event, or if one isn’t provided, then web listings are probably the next place to turn. Yes, these people are strangers. But at least you can narrow down your search to your age range and maybe even to people in grad schools. If you go this route, make sure you spend time with them to figure out their creep rating. The lower, the better!

When looking for a roommate, be picky. Even if that means asking about someone’s nose-picking habits. You don’t want to choose the first person you come across just to have the decision made. You have to live with this choice – and this person – for a year. Make sure it is someone you think you can get along with. If you prefer quiet after 8:00 p.m., make sure the person doesn’t want to hold band practice every night at 9:00. If you don’t like parties at your place, discuss this before any lease agreement is signed. Find common ground with your future roommate – do you both cook or prefer take-out, shower at night or in the morning. Best case scenario: you become friends. Even if you never reach that level, at least you’ll have a roommate with whom you feel comfortable.

To Intern or Not to Intern: Judging an Internship’s Worth

While professors may sell you the importance of internships like they are getting a cut of the profits, you must decide whether an internship is worth your time and energy. The one trait that internships typically share is that many of them involve no monetary compensation. Even if gaining experience overrides your financial needs, you owe it to yourself to consider how this voluntary commitment will affect your life.

This is not to devalue the importance of getting your hands on some professional experience; rather, I wish to offer ideas to keep in mind when searching for internships. While these are great opportunities to extend your resume and network with influential people, internships should not be accepted without seriously considering whether they will fit your life. These search tips will help you decide if an internship is feasible for you.

Room for growth: Read job descriptions closely (beyond salary mentions!) to see if there is any indication of the internship turning into a full-time position. Employers are often eager to fill holes with competent interns. This should not be critically important to your decision, but it is worthwhile to keep an eye out for anything that might suggest upward mobility.

While at the company’s website, check for entry-level openings either in your department of interest or another. Colleagues like to talk about impressive interns, and your supervisor could put in a good word for you with other departments who are hiring. Your professional interests may change over time anyway—or maybe after working pro bono long enough any paying job will sound appealing.

Commute: While you may not want to limit yourself to businesses within your immediate area, you have to consider how traveling to the internship will effect your daily life. Ask yourself:

• How will I get there?
• Will public transportation get expensive without a monthly pass?
• Assuming there is bad weather or another delay effecting one mode of transportation, are there other means of getting there?
• Can I handle the stress (physical and/or mental) or commuting?

The first three questions are straightforward, but the last may need explaining. Grad school courses presumably take place in the evening so that students can work during the day. Classes often last for hours, and then you have to commute back home—only to wake up bright and early the next morning. Even if your internship is two or three days a week, long morning commutes after long nights of class add up to extra long days at work. For the sake of your health, you have to consider the toll that a long commute may take on your body. Not everyone can gulp down several cups of coffee to counteract the sleepy effects of grad school.

Small vs. Large: Think about the benefits of either office environment related to your needs:

• Small offices might demand a heavy workload from interns, which can be stressful in addition to schoolwork, but great in terms of gaining extensive professional experience.

• Large office internships probably involve more clerical work, which may inspire frustration; however, a big company might be able to afford taking you on full-time. If it’s a prominent company in your industry, just having their name on your resume is worth the experience.

For other tips on the internship search, see Miranda's “Unpaid Internships: the Tough Questions” post. Happy hunting!

Grocery Shopping in Beantown--How's it compare to YOURtown?

As a grad student, grocery shopping may seem like no big deal, but once all of the pennies are added up, the ounces and the pounds—groceries can add quite a dent in your monthly finances. Says one grad student at Emerson College, “I try to spend around $40 a week…and that includes going out.” So where are the best places to do one’s grocery shopping in a city known for being as pricey as its LA counterpart?

Stop & Shop, Star Market, Shaw's and Trader Joe’s are the main grocery stores you’ll find on the streets in Beantown and its neighboring towns. “I shop at Stop and Shop—It’s basically just like any grocery story—big selection, big isles, big lines,” says Ashley, a third year MFA student at Emerson College. Stop & Shop offers a rewards program card which gives you special discounts on certain items (which change weekly). There is also a red box in every location which makes this grocery store very useful for food and entertainment.

Star Market and Shaw’s are another option for the grocery shopping grad student. These stores also offer the rewards card which help to cut the cost on some items which to change weekly. According to Yelp, one reviewer mentions the lack of fresh produce and limited stock in the freezer section. If price is your main concern, you may find better options at Stop & Shop. Like Stop and Shop, red box is also available.

Finally, Trader Joe’s offers grad students the chance to sample food from around the world—both from the personable employee at the sample station or from sampling the products right off the shelf (though, do remember to ask for an employee’s assistance before sampling). Trader Joe’s is known for its affordability and shoppers agree—according to one Yelper, “In a nutshell, I go to TJ's for a few reasons; VERY affordable (sometimes way cheaper than other supermarkets for things), FRIENDLY staff, [and] environmentally conscious”. Trader Joe’s may not have a rewards card or a red box, but it has quality and affordability which suffice it to say, may be the only true mark of a worthy grocery store to any graduate student.

Don't Sweat the Job Stuff

It’s great when graduate students find a position in the field they are pursuing, but if you don’t land that dream job right away, don’t sweat it. I don’t anymore.

When I was accepted to Emerson College’s graduate program, I, like many other students, began to feel anxiety about finding a job…quickly. After a month of adjusting to living in a new state, while at the same time applying to numerous jobs at hospitals, other universities, and various offices around Boston, I finally consulted Emerson’s career services website. As soon as I was signed in as an official user, I spotted an office assistant position at a consulting firm just down the street from Emerson. I was hired within a week of my interview, and while now it is sometimes difficult hearing that many of my classmates have jobs in our desired field of study, I know that I am making the right decision by sticking with my job.

If you are offered an opportunity to take a job in your desired career field, you should definitely take it. But if you are someone who needs the security of a paycheck coming in every week, no matter what the field, here are my suggestions for your job search:

· Keep an open mind. Even if a job may not sound attractive, try to get an interview anyway. My job description consisted of moving office furniture, stocking the kitchen, and sorting mail—not terribly exciting stuff. What I found out after being hired was that I had full medical coverage and a free monthly pass for the train; two things WELL worth having in addition to a salary.

· Don’t be stingy about the hours you work. Everyone is bound to miss a social engagement or two because of work—there will be others! Having a steady job, even if it is only part-time, will help give you a schedule that will keep your academic, professional, and social lives organized.

· Utilize your college’s career services site—I mean it! My future boss was very impressed when he learned that I had found the job listing on Emerson’s site, and that I was a full-time student. Being a graduate student helps tremendously when applying for a job. Your potential employer sees that you are focused in pursuing a higher level of education, by your choice.

If you are having trouble finding a position, try not to panic. Consult your school’s career services center as well as the career sections of company websites. Exhaust all possibilities—jobs are out there. If you search thoroughly, you will succeed in finding a job that fits into your busy academic schedule.

Relocating. Warning: Hazards Ahead

One of the most stressful aspects of relocating for graduate school is finding an apartment you are willing to call home for at least a year. The easiest way to find an apartment that meets both your criteria and budget is to use a realtor.

Unfortunately, realtors make money when you rent an apartment through them, so they may stretch some truths about the apartment, the neighborhood, or even your landlord, in order to get you to go through with the transaction.

For example, I asked my realtor the ages of the people who lived in the building I was looking at. Her response: graduate students and young professionals. That statement was false. I ended up sharing a building with loud, rowdy undergraduates. And loud, squeaky mice. You’re a graduate student, you’ve dealt with undergrad housing for at least four years – you now deserve to live in a decent place. This also means a place with relative quiet since you’ll be doing epic amounts of school work.

One way to avoid the particular predicament of mice is to ask the current residents about the insect/rodent situation when you visit the apartment. They aren’t getting paid to rent out the apartment, so they’ll tell you the truth. Unless they’re undergraduates – then I make no promises.

Another issue to keep in mind when looking for an apartment: floor level. As in, you do not want a ground-level apartment. Ground level means more bugs, more rodents, and more noise. It also increases your chance for a break-in. I don’t mean to scare you with all the negative aspects of relocating, I just want you to be prepared for what you are about to encounter. If only I had read a blog like this a year ago. Sigh.

At some point you’ll have to trust your realtor, but go with your gut. If the realtor is rushing you through the various apartments you are visiting, ask to slow down. You want to get a feel for each place and taking some time in each one is the only way to do it. This should be about finding your perfect apartment, not about your realtor making a commission.

Landing that "Grown Up" Job in the "Real World"

I took a year off in between undergraduate and graduate school because I didn’t decide to apply to grad school until I was almost finished being an undergrad. Once I made the decision to apply, I formulated what seemed like a simple plan at the time: move to location of desired grad school, find a job in a field of interest and continue working while taking classes. Armed with a bachelor’s degree and a strong desire to work, I thought it would be relatively easy to find a permanent, full-time, entry level office job. The past two years have taught me that a degree is not a free pass into the working world: dues must be paid to the gods of drudgery, boredom and coffee runs before the job with nameplate, paid vacation/sick time and health benefits is landed.

Although it’s not directly related to anything I hope to be doing in the future, I believe my job has given me valuable experience dealing with clients, co-workers, stress and the frustration that comes with being a cog in a corporate machine. All kidding aside, working in the “real” world has made me realize how important it is to have goals beyond getting a job that will pay the bills. I am happy with my job for now, but this is largely due to the fact that I know that I have other options and my “permanent” job is only temporary in reality.

If you are like I was and working in coffee shops, restaurants and clothing stores during your time in grad school doesn’t appeal to you, you may be wondering how to find that “grown up” office job with benefits. There are no hard and fast rules, but here are a few tips that helped me obtain my current job:

· Consider temp work. It may seem degrading, but working through a temporary employment agency is one of the best ways to gain experience and make connections at companies that may prove useful in the future. I was a temp at various companies before landing a position without the aid of a staffing agency. Some of the national temporary staffing agencies are: OfficeTeam, Kelly Services, Adecco, Randstad, Aerotek and Staffing Now.

· Listen more than talk during the interview process. Once I gained enough experience temping that my resume stopped falling into a black hole every time I applied for a job on Monster and CareerBuilder, I started going on interviews. After several failed meetings, I learned that successful interviews are not so much about answering questions as they are about carefully listening to the interviewer and clearly articulating responses that include their descriptions of the position, the skills required and the company.

· Write professional, personalized, thank you letters. My mother, along with every job hunting book I read, kept harping on the importance of writing a thank you letter after each and every interview. They weren’t kidding. The personalized thank you letters that I crafted to each one of the three people that interviewed me for my current position are largely why I was hired. My employers were impressed with my writing abilities and the initiative I took to reach out to them. It’s as simple as thanking them for their time, expressing an interest in the job and giving reasons why you are the best candidate.

ROUTINE! ROUTINE! ROUTINE!

I thought I’d be free to do as I pleased coming to grad school in Boston—I’d get a job as a waitress in the North End and speak Italian with the regulars. I was going to live in a great apartment with just one roommate (who was a fellow Midwesterner) and I was going to write, write, write. I came to study Creative Writing and write The Memoir that I had planned to write for years but never even knew where to begin. Well, it turned out—I didn’t even know where or how to begin living here—much less writing here.

Yes, I ended up working as a waitress, but quit after the low season hit and I was making on average $8 a day. Yes, I lived with that roommate of mine from the Midwest, but quickly found our ideas of cleaniliness and order to be sourly mismatched. And the writing? Well, I was writing—whenever I managed to clear off my cluttered desk and find a moment when I wasn’t exhausted from work or a hangover to get the crazed jumble of words out and onto a page.

Well, let’s just say—things changed once I got a job with regularly scheduled hours. Yeah, you come to grad school with one goal in mind (for the most part): do well. Because if you do well, you somehow might manage to not waste the money and time you spent getting a master’s degree in the first place. If you do well, you might leave here proud of yourself and not knee deep in regret and failure.

I was headed down the latter route once I started working retail and never knowing what my week was going to be. After getting my new “regular job” (though a café worker at an all women’s gym is hardly “regular”) I started being able to actually plan my day. Plan my writing schedule. Plan my life. And now I find myself strolling into my apartment around the same time everyday and finding that my mind starts churning out coherent thoughts that actually make me think that maybe, just maybe—I’ll finally get this memoir finished.

Budgeting Your Money, Supermarket Style

One of the top priorities for every grad student (besides doing well in class, of course) is to save money. We’ve all figured out just how much we’re paying for every course, every credit, every hour of class. And yeah, it’s a lot. So you’re going to want to cut back on your expenditures. You have to get creative when saving money, especially in a city like Boston. One of my favorite ways to stay on track with my money is with my groceries.

For example. Yes, we all love cereal. It’s great in the morning, for an afternoon snack, or during a late-night paper-writing cram session. But do you know how much cheaper the store brand cereals are? Fine, I’ll grant you that they don’t exactly taste the same. But when you’re exhausted from pulling an all-nighter are you really going to know the difference? I vote no.

Sometimes it’s all about where you shop. Everyone loves a good Whole Foods, and not just for the tasty samples they provide. But for the duration of your graduate studies, say goodbye to Whole Foods (except maybe for the samples) and hello to Market Basket. Even if you have to take the T to get to one, it’s worth the difference you’ll be saving.

Once you’re at Market Basket, there’s really only one thing you need to remember: store brand, store brand, store brand! Seriously, you can practically feel the savings in your wallet.

Make sure you buy enough to make your lunch for work because you’re done with going out on your lunch breaks. It’s a great way to save. Just pack it all in a nice little lunch box, though you might want to call it a meal bag. Sounds much more professional.

Maybe you shouldn't say goodbye to Whole Foods completely. I mean, those samples can come in handy for a nice afternoon snack. You can consider it a weekend activity, and a free one to boot. Now you're thinking like a grad student

The one thing I would go name brand on: water filter. This way you don’t have to buy water bottles, which are mucho expensive. One water filter lasts a few months and is definitely more price-conscious than bottles. Now you know how to save money on food and water. What else is there?!

Beginner's Guide to Saving Money

So you’ve decided to go to grad school. Good for you! But your carefree college days when you lived off of your parents' dollar are over, and you're probably up to your ears in student loans. What’s a cash-strapped, -debtsaddled grad student to do?

The way to go here is to save, save, save. Every penny you set aside now will help you later when you have that master’s degree in hand. You want to be able to pay off those loans and get on with your life once you’ve graduated.

And for many of us, grad school is our first foray into living independently, off-campus and with minimal parental support. It’s best to learn how to budget now so you don’t live beyond your means once you have an income to speak of.

Lucky you, the internet and the world around you offer a wealth of tips and resources for learning how to budget wisely. Here are some I’ve picked up and use to my advantage:

1. Don’t buy new unless you have to.

If you’re persistent, you may be able to find whatever you need second-hand for cheap or even for free. Browse your local Craigslist or Freecycle chapter, and be patient.

I swear by this one. Just last month my laser printer died on me, in the middle of a screenwriting workshop. But I wasn’t screwed, and I wasn’t suddenly out a lot of money. I picked up a used one in perfect condition-- nicer than my old one, in fact-- for $30 on Craigslist.

If you check often, you’ll be amazed at the bargains you can find. iPod touches and iPhones have been offered for less than a hundred dollars. Barely-used mattresses and bedframes for free or almost-free.

This works for clothes, too. I’ve never gotten clothes off of Craigslist or Freecycle, but I’m crazy about thrift stores. I got a pair of perfectly good, comfortable winter boots for $15. I picked up a gorgeous party dress for less than a dollar. I recommend Boston-area thrift stores like the Garment District, Frida Bee, Raspberry Beret, and Boomerangs. Or try your local Goodwill.

2. Don’t buy your textbooks from the school bookstore.

Textbooks are needlessly overpriced, and it’s really not hard to find cheap like-new copies online. Even factoring in the cost of shipping, this will save you a bundle.

Half.com, the Amazon marketplace, Abebooks.com, or Thriftbooks.com are some of my favorite places to purchase textbooks.

3. Track your spending.

This may seem like a huge pain. It is. Do it anyway.

I recommend using the free service at Mint.com. First, you set your budget: how much you think you spend, or should spend, per month on groceries, rent, utilities, fast food, entertainment, clothing, and so on.

Mint will track and sort every purchase you make, and send you a weekly email documenting how much you spend in each designated category. You can see exactly where your money goes, and you can plan and budget accordingly. Do you find yourself overspending on groceries week after week? How much is that daily Starbucks run costing you per month? Just a few months of using Mint can make you rethink your finances completely.

4. Shop around.

Like the song, right? Yes, you had better shop around. It does pay off. Many financial planning sites recommend waiting thirty days to make a purchase. This gives you time to decide if you really need it. But this also gives you time to compare prices. You don’t even have to go out of your way. You may notice the item you want for sale at different stores during those thirty days. Remember the price. Find out where it’s cheapest. Don't pay more than you have to.

Other Links and Resources:

The Cheapskate Guide - 50 Tips For Frugal Living

Wise Bread - A whole siteful of tips, tricks, strategies, and how-tos for saving money, from how to save money even at Whole Foods, ways to reuse aluminum foil, and how to eliminate waste in your cooking.

Saving Money Plan - has freebies, coupons and deals. Updated at least once a day.