<p>I just wanted to start a discussion on working in a big city vs a small town. Which one would you prefer?</p>
<p>I could never see myself living on either coast because I don't like the culture of California and most of the East Coast states, not to mention the cost of living which is absolutely ridiculous in my opinion.</p>
<p>I have been here in the Midwest for many years and most of the IE jobs I have seen here are in very small towns. Small town Iowa is not all that exciting but your money goes a long way and the quality of life is pretty good.</p>
<p>Making 70K living in small town Iowa, you can live like a king, you could buy a very nice home for less than 100K. Usually, you get to know your neighbors personally, it is very safe, good place to raise kids and most people don't even lock their doors or cars. </p>
<p>Small town hands down for me… I was born and raised in one and I’d like to someday live in one permanently just not as small. My graduating high school class was 38. I lived in San Antonio for a year and Denver for 3. Unlike many of my kind that leave such a small upbringing, I hope I can find an engineering job in a small town but I also accept this isn’t entirely realistic :)</p>
<p>An engineer in a small town is sort of a big deal lol. I have looked at a lot of IE jobs related to manufacturing are most of them are located in very small towns. </p>
<p>There is a lot of uneducated people in small towns though, the lifestyle can be a bit depressing but there are some advantages also. Not having to commute or be stuck in traffic is a huge advantage to me and the cheap cost of living.</p>
<p>I like the “country” lifestyle- hunting, shooting, driving a pick up truck, etc. I also think I will end up in a small town since manufacturing is my favorite area of IE.</p>
<p>If you are a ME/IE major, you can definitely find a job in a small town.</p>
<p>If these small towns are located near larger cities you can do either one. I work in a smaller city like this but can’t absolutely fathom the idea of living there, so I commute 25 miles one way to ‘civilization’. If you have a working wife in a field that is not in super high demand (i.e. not a pharmacist or nurse or teacher etc) then finding work for her could be an issue in a small town. </p>
<p>For manufacturing jobs, my favorite area is around Cinci/Dayton, also around Louisville. Detroit is not bad (used to live there), many of my former coworkers now work in the shores of Western Michigan, nice places there… The Honda plants around Anna (Ana?), Ohio are supposedly as high tech as it gets. For auto manufacturing, the Toyota plant in Kentucky has a lot of plants around it and the area (Georgetown/Lexington) is pretty good also.</p>
<p>Small cities are great if you have smart kids and an ‘easy’ high school. My former officemate’s kid pulled a 4.0 and full ride to a Big 10 CS school while spending all his time coding and playing CoD. In my school, a 4.0 is nothing to write home about since they offer every AP/IB course known to mankind and with 10% of the student body being Asian, there’s a lot more pressure to be on top, get the good EC’s, and so on. </p>
<p>@Turbo93 You made some great points! I think it is imporrant to be at least 1 hour away from a major city. I saw an IE job in a small town in West Virginia, the nearest “major” city was Huntington which is pretty small. The town had something like 800 people, so I imagine almost everybody worked at the plant, kind of a weird deal lol</p>
<p>Thanks for this thread. Comes at a good time. My son is looking at two grad schools, one in a small town, and one in a city. Since most grad students settle where they matriculate, I am worried about employment after graduation. I didn’t really think that small towns would have lots of opportunities. Good to know that if he picks the small town school, it won’t result in a life of unemployment.</p>
<p>On the contrary, I know few graduate students who have settled down where they matriculated after graduation. Grad students more so than undergraduates tend to fan out geographically.</p>
<p>I generally prefer large town/small city (~50-100k). Big enough to have a Costco and some good restaurants, but small enough to avoid high-density/vertical buildings. I don’t like vertical cities. I know they are more efficient, yada yada, but I like my space, and unobstructed views of the surrounding scenery. </p>
<p>@boneh3ad makes a valid point. I know very few people here in Ames, undergrad or grad who want to stay in Iowa. People who grew up here want to see something different and people who came here from states like IL, MN, WI want to go back.</p>
<p>There is nothing necessarily wrong with this area but it is just boring, especially if you are older than 21, single and don’t work for the university.</p>
<p>I thought we were just having a general discussion on where people preferred to live, lol.</p>
<p>I do agree, however, that grad students tend to go where the opportunities are since the relevance and quality of research tend to vary quite a bit among grad schools. With undergrad, the curriculum/services/ammenities are pretty consistent across the board, which is why overall fit is more important.</p>
<p>Few cities under 150k people have Costco’s ^:)^ </p>
<p>There are some nice larger cities that have rural / small city areas within 1/2 hour drive, say, Columbus, Louisville, Indianapolis, Ann Arbor, Cinci, etc. But start hitting the smaller cities and it gets pretty ugly for this city guy here.</p>
<p>My idea of a large city is 1M+ so… Also a city that includes a major state university - Chicago for example would not make the cut (I turned down a job in Chicago for that reason alone in the 1980’s), nor would Houston. But places like Louisville or Columbus or Cinci would. </p>
<p>There’s lots of manufacturing in the Cincy/Northern KY area and you can’t beat an IKEA and Jungle Jim’s. Low cost of living too. So forget the Ft. Wayne’s and Peorias and Toledos and head there in my view… The Dayton area especially has lots of jobs. </p>
<p>I would choose to live in a small or large town that’s near a city that way I can have the best of both worlds. I can commute to the city for work, fun and adventure, and return to a more peaceful place home in a quieter town to sleep and relax. </p>
<p>That’s what I do and believe me, I hate it. Done it for 30 years in the Midwest, snow and all. Only real reason is if your spouse works somewhere on the other side in the big city (as my wife does). If weather is not an issue and traffic is manageable… 25 years ago it was a 35 minute drive tops, now it’s more like 45. </p>
<p>@Turbo93 I hate commuting too. I remember when I used to live in Minneapolis and used to commute to a job 40 minutes away. When it snowed, it took hour and a half. Since I moved here to Iowa, I have not had to deal with traffic at all and I don’t think I could ever get used to that again.</p>
<p>As much I don’t want to stay here in Central Iowa after graduation, it is nice to live in a small town like Ames and be 35 miles away from Des Moines. I just want a change of scenery though, this place gets old fast.</p>
<p>@bschoolwiz
You said IE’s can find jobs in small towns; how is the agricultural engineering job field in these small towns in Iowa? Are there a lot of AgEng jobs there or would someone have better luck somewhere else? </p>
<p>Maine is a great place to live! We live in a small town north of Portland. We can be in Boston in about two hours. Our office is in our home, which is tucked back in the woods next to a river. We do most of our communication with clients electronically. We have the same software that major engineering firms do. It has worked out really well for us. You need a good bit of experience before going out on your own, at least as a structural engineer.</p>
<p>Generally the cost of living is indirectly proportional to how quickly a place feels old. Small towns with great locations, particularly near outdoor attractions like mountains or the ocean or with great weather are typically expensive. Isolated boondock towns, generally aren’t. Being close to Portland Maine or close to Portland Oregon is preferable to being close to the Quad Cities for most, hence the increased cost of living.</p>
<p>Your thing is reconciling why you hate the coasts, but find the Midwest getting “old fast.” </p>
<p>I don’t like the culture of California and most of the NE States, these places are havens for Liberals and I don’t want to live in a nanny state like California or New York.</p>
<p>I also can’t stand the rudeness of people in these places, especially in a city like Boston- never been to a place where people are so rude and full of attitude.</p>
<p>Iowans are some of the nicest people you will ever find, people here still value family, God and people here are very patriotic and pro-Military. </p>
<p>I love country music, driving a pick-up truck and living simply. I am not materialistic and I can’t even relate to this superficial, materialistic culture you find mostly in California and the NE.</p>
<p>I want to raise my children with all American values, take em to a rodeo, teach them how to shoot, teach them the value of hard work, teach em not to be sissies, good old cowboy values,</p>
<p>I am sure the California lifestyle is appealing to some but I am more like the Okie from Muskogee if you even know who Merle Haggard is, To each its own.</p>
<p>@questionablehope Iowa is probably the best state in the nation for Ag Eng jobs. I worked for John Deere for a few years and there are plenty of Ag jobs here. Pioneer is a big employer, so is John Deere and Cargill. We also have a lot of seed companies in this area. </p>
<p>There a bit more to the US than California and New York, two states that I’ve never lived in and likely never will.</p>
<p>I’m just trying to make sense of hating Iowa on one hand and loving it on the other. YOU were the one who said it was getting old, not me.</p>
<p>There are lots of places with conservative values that aren’t flat as a pancake, freezing cold in the winter and humid and hot hell in the summer. Colorado, Utah, Oregon, and Washington all come to mind. They are politically like Iowa with rural conservative areas and more a more liberal mindset near the universities and urban centers.</p>
We live in a small town north of Portland. We can be in Boston in about two hours. Our office is in our home, which is tucked back in the woods next to a river. We do most of our communication with clients electronically. We have the same software that major engineering firms do. It has worked out really well for us. You need a good bit of experience before going out on your own, at least as a structural engineer.</p>