Pets in graduate school?

juillet
Mon, 13 May 2013 19:28:30 +0000

Agree that it depends on the graduate housing. My graduate housing technically doesn’t allow animals, but there are a lot of pets (dogs, including large ones, and cats) in this building and most of the university owned buildings. It’s not enforced at all; you don’t even have to sneak or hide them. Some graduate housing is stricter on this ban and some graduate housing doesn’t have a ban at all. Also, depending on where you move you may be able to find comparable housing on the open market that allows pets.

I really, really wanted a dog but I didn’t get one my first two years. I was VERY busy; I was still younger and wanted to be able to spontaneously go out to drinks with folks and also, I was gone every other weekend to visit my boyfriend. Now we’re married; I don’t go out spontaneously much anymore - a lot more planning involved - and I’m not in classwork. I could definitely have a dog now, but my husband and I decided to wait because we live in a small place and I don’t necessarily think a dog would be happy here.

I also want to chime here and say that graduate student housing is not always a poor option. It really depends on the unviersity. Here at Columbia, graduate student housing is a less expensive option if one wants to live in the immediate neighborhood, aka walking distance, surrounding the university (although still more expensive than moving uptown a little). It also looks pretty much exactly like regular apartments, and in many cases is actually nicer than what’s out there on the market. Most graduate students here live in university-owned housing.