penguingrrl...

Halo79RN

oh penguingrrl....  an academic. I'm sorry. lol. dh went to grad school at Cornell (Ithaca, not nyc)... then a post doc in the midwest (U of Illinois)....  then to here as an asst prof..... talk about shell shock.  what's your dh's field?   A friend lives in howell.. her hubby works for monmouth ??? (he's in kineseotherapy sp?)   they love it. (and are originally from the region) I keep asking dh why didn't you go for something like princeton ... the pay would be better.   but no... he didn't want research 1.  and who could blame him.  I barely see him now much less if he had gone to a place like Columbia or Princeton or Cornell as a prof.  

does your dh want to stay in the city?  dh and I are currently debating staying here... b/c of his pay & the COL here  (he loves his job, he's a microbiologist and teaches at Wagner College). We'll see?  liberal arts colleges do not pay well... thankfully hospitals pay RNs well here.  I'm currently debating going back to full time again.  (right now I do 2 twelves a week and get extra when I can).  daycare is insane here.

penguingrrl

It's insane how low academics salaries are her compared with COL!  Our friends in Michigan, Wisconsin and GA get the same stipend DH gets in Manhattan!  While it's not bad (especially compared with what I got as a graduate student in history), it's really not enough for a single person to live on around here! 

DH is working on his PhD in chemical engineering, so Monmouth isn't an option unfortunately.  The nearest engineering schools to that area are NJIT and Rutgers and we would rather he avoid a 45 min+ commute!  He isn't sure which type of position he wants right now.  He's leaning towards a position that's 60% teaching/40% research because then he'll get to do his own research whereas in his field at R1 Universities it seems like he would spend more money looking for money and managing graduate students than actually researching.  It would also be a less stressful lifestyle.

We are hoping to settle in NJ, although we've agreed that when he finishes his postdoc (we'll go wherever he needs to go for that) and is looking for a tenure track position we'll look anywhere in the Boston-DC corridor since we know we may need that big an area to get the right position.  His father actually did his Masters at Cornell and my mom almost went there!  I've heard Ithaca is great!  We do know that if he gets a position in NYC we'll live outside the city, either in NJ or Westchester.  We're really not city people and have given it a fair try (we moved here when I was 37 weeks pregnant with D1, so 2 1/2 years) and it's just not for us.  I will not settle anywhere that we have to count alternate side in our plans lol!

The difference in daycare costs between here and where we're from is crazy!!!  For a toddler in my neighborhood it is 2000+ a month!  By my mom's it hovers around 800!!!!!  I have been a SAHM since we got here since my earning potential is quite a bit less.  I have a degree in history and worked in history museums before doing some graduate school and realizing that academia is not for me!  So, I could maybe earn 30K before taxes while paying 25K in childcare for one.... soooo not happening lol!  I'm now looking for a job either overnight or evenings and weekends because we need more money, but can't afford childcare around here.

I remember you mentioning a potential job at NYU last spring/summer (I remember because I was about to deliver there!).  Did anything happen with that or was it too far?

It's nice to chat with another NYC academic couple!

 

Halo79RN

the pay is better at an R1... but my word the work is insane. dh said he didn't want to be a grant writer and he loves teaching.  at wagner he has master's level grad students.. he does some of his own research and is very hands on in teaching in the lab.  but he has to teach a lot more than our friends in other colleges.  a friend just started as an asst prof at Brown... omg!  they never see each other.  he works 7days a week... Sundays from home... but still working.  they hate it.   Wagner's pay is really crappy though (I don't think they have engineering at all...  the micro dept is small and dh is working on expanding it). 

it's tough here.  I don't blame you for looking elsewhere. I'd love to be in NJ and be able to take a train in for a visit here and there ... but I've heard the taxes in NJ are insane.  IDK what's best for us.

 I'm working on SI.  old St Vincent's SI.  I couldn't do the commute to the city. I would feel bad if something happened to the kids and it took me over an hour to get home.  the pay difference wasn't great enough to entice me to go for it.

take care!  GL with everything!  we should really have a nyc nestie gtg.  ; ) I would love to meet some of you ladies.