Quote: (01-06-2017 08:52 AM)MANic Wrote:
So I have the opportunity to spend a year of my Phd in either Maryland or Melbourne.
Very different places. Can anyone help with weighing up the pros and cons of each place. Which would you choose (assume he academic resources offered at each are roughly equal)
In terms of academics, the University of Melbourne is tied for the best university in Australia (with ANU). The campus is also beautiful with sandstone Victorian era architecture, not to mention very conveniently located.
Melbourne is a city you will either love or hate, depending on what kind of person you are. It has a population of 4.6 million people and is the cultural, arts and sporting capital of Australia. It is also one of the most hipster cities in the world, up there with Berlin or Portland. It is actually the dominant culture here. By that I mean that it pervades the entire inner city even in the supposedly non-hipster areas and even has a noticeable impact on the fashion and cultural tastes of what you would call the frat/sorority or jock/cheerleader type in America. It also means that so long as you don't venture into the outer suburbs suburbs the jacked brutish bogan stereotype you might encounter in Bali is not much of an issue here. You are essentially trading off the obesity and masculine behaviour of the bogan females for the alternative fashions and left-wing politics of the hipsters.
I don't know what your race is but Melbourne is also an inter-racial dating mecca because of it's hipsterness. It is easily the most "progressive" city in the country, much more so even than Sydney. If you're African American and even just average looking you will have a big advantage in Australia in general but even more so in Melbourne. On the flipside being white and American is a disadvantage in Australia because of negative stereotypes stemming from politics, it started because of George W. Bush and you can expect it to get even worse now because of Trump. A lot of Aussies seem to believe that white Americans are obese, racist Evangelical Christian gun lovers, especially in Melbourne.
What that is all means is if hipster is your thing in terms of urban amenity and girls, you will love it here. If you don't, you're shit out of luck unless you have an Asian fetish and want to focus on girls fresh off the boat from China. The only other option is daygaming the European backpackers during the Summer but that will dry up as it gets colder. If none of those appeal to you, the chances of you having a good sex life here are very very slim unless you're in top few % of men looks wise.
Keep in mind the cost of living is high here. If you want to live close enough to the city centre to be able to go out and game without having to leave your own neighbourhood, your typical rent will be AUD$1,000 a month each for a place with housemates. It's still a lot better than Sydney but on a PhD budget you will probably be struggling. I would say at the minimum you'd need to be able to afford AUD$800 rent a month here plus utilities to have a proper Melbourne experience. On the other hand if you can get work here, the minimum wage is around AUD$16.50 an hour. If you can afford it and you like hipsters and/or have an Asian fetish then yeah come, they don't call us the most livable city in the world for nothing. Otherwise, Melbourne is not the place for you and you most likely won't have a good time here.
