The University of Alaska - Fairbanks (Tanana: transferring to, law, campus)
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Something else about UAF: it has a great engineering department. Physics is another department that is internationally known. The International Research Center (IARC) also is a well known place. And don't forget the Nanooks Rifle Team.
Also a good Astronomy program. Plus, as I am acutely aware, the only place in Alaska where one can one can obtain a graduate degree in Marine Biology. Yes, it is ironic.
Does anybody know how far away the Tanana Valley campus is from the main UAF campus? If one wanted to attend classes at both of them, would they need a car? Is there a bus system? Is it in walking distance?
Ive talked to some others online and read comments and a lot of the complaints deal with the "dreary, dungeon-like quality of the buildings", "lack of foliage" on campus, not enough views of the nearby scenery, and less than adequate campus maintenance. Could anybody comment on those?[/quote]
A friend pointed me here, so I figured I'd share my thoughts. I'm probably missing something... but here's my thoughts
someone else mentioned parking. True, it's difficult to park right next to the building with your classes, but there is absolutely no shortage of parking around the edges of campus, they have two huge lots that are never full. Yeah, there are shuttles, but in the 6 years I atteneded I rode the shuttle ONCE. Only lazy people ride the shuttle imo. It's less than a 10 min walk from the lot to the buildings (engineering building less than 5 mins). Riding the shuttle is retarded in my opinion, so it takes you a couple minutes to walk from your car to the busstop (which has a heated glass walled room to wait in), then youw ait for the bus 1-10 minutes, then you get dropped off somewhere you gotta walk anyway.... well its quicker/warmer just to wlak where you're going in the first place. People are lazy enough in the winter, excercise is a good thing, I really think they need to quit charging every student a fee for the damn bus that I never ever ever ever ride anyway. Le the lazy people pay for it imo...
But anyways. The rest of the questions. I grew up in Anchorage (and now live in San Jose, California, 10th biggest city in America). Fairbanks is a MUCH nicer community to live in. Laid back, no traffic, people are friendly, etc, but still big enough to have everything you want. Yes, there's a walmart, and pretty much everything else. The city limits are really small, the univeristy is technically outside the city, but its still basically in the main fairbanks area (not the outskirts)... from south cushman (other side of town, low income area) its a 10 minute drive, and I was renting (with a roommate) a 3-bedroom house with 1 car garage, full basement, yard, etc, for $975/month with city water, trash, etc.
But okay lets get back to the beginning. Dorms are like $1200/semester + mealplan, which is where I started. Then me and 4 friends rented a 3 bedroom house on farmers loop, about 10 mins drive to the university, but on the outskirts of town, for $750/month. It had well water and a leech field for sewer, but we had to haul our own trash to the free borought (county) provided transfer stations, basically a bunch of dumpsters you can throw your trash into, so as long as one of your roommates has a truck, yer good. And in AK, lotta people have trucks so no worries.
Fairbanks doesnt have piped natural gas! I thought that was crazy, after growing up in Anchorage. So everyone has a heating oil (diesel) tank, usually burried in the yard, for heat. Trucks come and deliver it, you can set up regular or just call them whenver you want (and risk running out).
Someone already said there's plenty of dry cabins on the outskirts. These range from like $200-$500/month, and the usually have above ground fuel tanks, so you gotta buy slightly more expensive d8iesl (#2 or #1 something like that) cuz it wont freeze (underground tanks are insulated).... and they usually have one heater instead of central heating, so not uniform temp in the whole cabin... but they're a great bargain, and theres plenty of showers ion campuis (including the rec center, the student center, engineering building, science building, and probably other departments but I was an engineering student so I dunno).
Oh yeah, their engineering program is probably their biggest pro. Its great. They also are the only univeristy in america that launches its own rockets, and there some joint thing with japan universities on that.... join the student rocket project if yer into that. For research, the office of electronic minituratization does some cool nanotech stuff.... and then theres the supercomputer, doing crazy aurora stuff.....
more to come...
Last edited by enigma9o7; 11-17-2007 at 04:08 AM..
-I see they have a fairly new recreation center that looks pretty cool. Thoughts?... if you've seen it/been it... as I would likely be running cross country at UAF.
-Getting back to the previous point, are there many nice trails around campus... since for me, nothing beats a nice jog into nature. Like going through forests and nice lush, scenic areas?
-Are you aware of which programs the university is particularly strong in and has a good reputation for?
-I know it's weird, but I'm really looking for isolation and remoteness. I figured Montana would fit the bill, but still feel it is much too urban for me. How would you say Fairbanks and the area the campus is in ranks on the urban/rural scale?
-What is the average winter day like? This isn't really a huge concern for me, but is there usually a real bitter wind causing the temperatures, or is it fairly still? And how much precipitation (rain in spring/fall, snow in winter) is the norm?
-Do you know which airlines fly into Fairbanks? I could look it up, just thought you might know off the top of your head.
-I've always wondered this, so how often can you see the Northern Lights in and around Fairbanks? I would love to experience seeing this, and as much as possible... I really can't imagine it getting old.
-What are the main stores in the area for necessary purchases, there has to be a Wal-Mart around? Is there something in walking distance from the campus?
-What are gas prices like?
One year I livedin the student apartments, and both my roommates were full ride scholarship cross country runners/skiiers. Cross country skiing is one of the few sports (besides rifle, which UAF wins national championships and sends people to the olympics for) we're pretty good at. Anyway the rec center has a 1/4 mile indoor oval track for running and all the other equipment you'd expect, I doubt you'd have problems with it. Im not an athlete but I've used the rowing machines, weight machines, freeweights, gone swimming, etc a few times and had no issues, cant think of anything lacking.
Oh yeah, about the vegetation, I dunno what that was about. UAF goes CRAZY NUTS with flowers and landscaping in the summer, I actually often thought to myself its a waste of money, since it all dies a month after classes start... but I guess it looks pretty for all the people chking out the campus over the summer. Anyways theres plenty of flowers and stuff in the summer, and in the winter theres tons of trees... freshman year I lived in the upper campus dorms which is a 5-10 min walk from lower campus where most classes and the cafeteria, student center, rec center, etc is, but between them is woods... we even had a teepee out there we used to use to smoke pot when we were trying to avoid getting caught in the dorms... lotsa trees... so yeha so to me it seems like you really cant get any better vegetation...
Okay trails... omg you'll be very happy with trails. There are crazy running/ski trails that connect ot campus, miles and miles and miles of trails thru the woods, down by ballaine lake, etc. If thats what you want, you'll love it.
You can see northern lights almost every night in the winter.
Nothing is really within quick walking distance. If you dont mind a 20 minute walk, there's college corner... I think someone else already mentioned it, but theres a strip mall with a 7/11 liquor store/gas station, a couple restaurants, coffee house, copy center, etc right there, then across the road is oaken keg, a decent liquor store with good selection of microbrew & kegs, then next to it is a sporting goods store then The Marlin, a popular hippy/student bar with live music almost every night. And dont forget there's a pub on campus too, which ONLY sells beer/wine (no cocktails/liquor) and has limited hours and non smoking.
Nothing else is within walking distance. If you live on campus, you really can get by without ever leaving campus. If you have a mealplan, you got most food covered, and there's a couple convenince stores that have toiletries,drugs, etc (one in the upper dorms, one as part of the bookstore). Theres also a haircutter, bookstore, student health center, police station, fire department, etc, all on campus. They play movies on friday nights in one of the auditoriums in the business building. Already mentioned the pub. And theres 'dances' and bands sometimes in the upper dorms rec center o in the main student center ballrooms for the allages crowd.
UAF has its own police department. they are not campus security, and they are not fairbanks police (cuz uaf is outside fairabnks city limits). They are real cops with the same authority as state police. Except the mainly focus on people driving 22mph in the 20mph zones on campus and underage drinkers.... so yeah be good
Gas is normal priced. I live in California now so gas is crazy redicuoulsy high.... depending on where you live now, its probably the same or less.
i just read the stuff i typed, its 3am friday night, Im half drunk, so Im not fixing my typos, sorry
one thing to add tho... I really liked Fairbanks. Best place I ever lived. Not everyone agrees, but I dunno why. The *only* thing I didn't like were the long cold winters. Long is annoying enough (it usually first snows the end of october, maybe november, and doesnt melt till march/april).... and then cold... a normal day in the winter is around 0F, but it does get below -40 at least once or twice a winter.
One GREAT thing about Fairabnks winters, compared to Anchroage where I grew up, is that the roads stay good all winter, your car never gets dirty. Let me explain. Okay Anchroag ea normal winter day is 20F, and it often gets near or above freezing... this makes the snow slushy, and melt, and refreeze, etc.... Anchorage in the winte ris FILTHY and dirty...s ure the roads may be dry... but its just nasty.
Fairbanks, oln the other hand, once it freezes, it stays frozen. Your car doesnt get dirty. The roads stay frozen, even when the roads are completely plowed clean, they've still got ice in them.... so if you use blizzaks they'll NEVER wear out... ever! So the city is white and clean. Unlike Anchorage which is brown and dirty in the winter (besides the traffic, crowds, oless friendly people).
If you do go there, try to stay at least one summer. Thats the best thing about Fairabnks. Unless there's nearby wildfires, you really couldn't ask for a better place in June/July. It's never crazy hot (the hottest summer day is 90s, it never goes triple digits) and normally in the 70s/low 80s, and its LIGHT all the time. Its really really great. May its not always warm, and August is starting to cool off and rain more often... That's what I'm saying about SHORT SUMMERS. The really good part of summer is only June/July.
I just read the thing about TVC. TVC is downtown Fairbanks, which is a 10-12 min drive, nearby south cushman, the low-income area I lived in right before I left. There is a shuttle from campus to tvc, so you can get by without a car. Also the city bus service has a busttop on campus so you can use that if you had to, adn its FREE in the winter. Thats rihgt, the BUS IS FREE. How many cities in America do that? You can also park in the downtown parking garage (fairbanks downtown is pretty small, thers only one parking garage and its only like 4-5 stories) if you have a UAF parking sticker. I think they moved TVC to the old courthouse when they made a new one a couple years back tho, which isn't quite so close to the parking garage.... but either way, you *can* get by going to uaf and tvc w/o a car, if you want to, but having a car would be easier. tvc is basically the community college... lot more "non-traditional" students... i had a friend who took some accounting classes there, said it was full of old ladies. Although the stats say UAF has a lot of non-trad students, it didnt seem that way to me.. most studnets ikn their 20s... but a few old people here and there...
lol i just read it http://fairbanksforum.com/phpBB2/images/smiles/icon_razz.gif (broken link) thanks man i figured you be the right person for that thread.
you should have postes a pic of your car near the uaf temp sign
Yes, homemade mongolian beef. It's what's for dinner!
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