Harrisburg? (Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, York: appointed, movie theater, school)

[FinkieMcGee]

I just got an offer which would require I move to Harrisburg at some point. I have just about zero knowledge of the area. I'm a 20 something young professional from Boston and I'm looking to live in a big city.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by FinkieMcGee

I just got an offer which would require I move to Harrisburg at some point. I have just about zero knowledge of the area. I'm a 20 something young professional from Boston and I'm looking to live in a big city.

Define "big-city?" Harrisburg only has roughly 50,000 people. Keep that in mind.

[FinkieMcGee]

Good lord. Well, I'm pretty broad in the generalization. I'm also working on "areas", so the Harrisburg area would be an ok definition I guess. Basically, to me "Big City" means a respectable nightlife.

I'm also looking for a decent University within a half hour that has a pretty good MBA or Engineering program.

I honestly don't know enough about the area to judge any of this.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by FinkieMcGee

Good lord. Well, I'm pretty broad in the generalization. I'm also working on "areas", so the Harrisburg area would be an ok definition I guess. Basically, to me "Big City" means a respectable nightlife.

I'm also looking for a decent University within a half hour that has a pretty good MBA or Engineering program.

I honestly don't know enough about the area to judge any of this.

The Harrisburg area has well over a half-million people, so I suppose that qualifies it as being "big-city" status.

As far as educational institutions are concerned, I'm actually quite surprised to learn that Harrisburg has such limited options for being the capital of one of the most-populous states in the nation. Dickinson College in nearby Carlisle has a great reputation, but it doesn't appear to offer either Business Administration or Engineering as majors. Messiah College in Grantham only confers undergraduate degrees. Penn State (PSU) has a satellite branch just south of the city in the suburb of Middletown that offers 20 graduate degrees that include Business Administration, Electrical Engineering, Environmental Engineering, and Engineering Science. Lebanon Valley College in Annville offers an MBA program as well. I suppose then your only two options would be Penn State or Lebanon Valley, both of which are outside of the city.

I'm not familiar with the "nightlife" scene in Harrisburg, but there are several members on here from the city that could hopefully give you some sort of insight into this. Were you looking for a particular "scene?" (Raves, Disco Clubs, Jazz Clubs, GLBT-Friendly, etc.?)

[oldhead]

Well to start you out, i recommend finding the college & program you're interested in first. Here is a PA Higher education Website, it allows you to search by Degree, Area of Study, and charts out locations that offer those degrees.

http://www.passhe.edu/content/degrees.asp (broken link)

As far as comparing, Harrisburg to Boston... Theres a BIG difference there Ive been sightseeing in Downtown Boston... it makes downtown HBG look tiny!! To get a feel for Downtown Harrisburg check out pics here: Downtown Harrisburg (http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=downtown+harrisburg - broken link).

[danwxman]

Harrisburg has some "big-city" nightlife if that's what you're looking for....the city easily passes for third best nightlife in the state behind Philly and Pittsburgh. I would argue in some aspects it has better nightlife then those cities because everything is within a few city blocks and along one major street, it's very walkable. It's a small city with just less then 50,000 people..but ignore that number...the city limits are very small and the immediate metro has over a half million people.

If you're looking for colleges around here, Harrisburg does lack a good liberal arts school which is unfortunate. There is Harrisburg University of Science and Technology, which offers Bachelors and Masters in mostly science/tech fields, but they do have a business management program and might have some engineering stuff. They are building a new 16-story tower in downtown, it'll be pretty nice when it's done. There's also Lebanon Valley College, about a half hour east of the city, and Dickinson College (very good school) in Carlisle about 20 minutes west of the city. Widener, Temple, PSU and some other colleges have satellite campuses in the Harrisburg area.

[oldhead]

Originally Posted by oldhead

Well to start you out, i recommend finding the college & program you're interested in first. Here is a PA Higher education Website, it allows you to search by Degree, Area of Study, and charts out locations that offer those degrees.

http://www.passhe.edu/content/degrees.asp (broken link)

As far as comparing, Harrisburg to Boston... Theres a BIG difference there Ive been sightseeing in Downtown Boston... it makes downtown HBG look tiny!! To get a feel for Downtown Harrisburg check out pics here: Downtown Harrisburg (http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=downtown+harrisburg - broken link).

To continue my post...

There is a Penn State University campus right here in the Harrisburg area, and it has programs geared primarily towards evening classes and working students. You should definitly check it out. They offer 20 Masters Programs.

Harrisburg's night life & entertainment: The 2nd Street area is always jumping on Thurs - Sat nights. There are many many bars, restaurants, and some dance clubs. If you prefer it, you can find live entertainment (bands, musicians) anyday of the week. You can catch a comedy show about once a week. I'm a big sports fan, we have a local Baseball & Hockey teams. Harrisburg Senators that play at City Island Field in Downtown HBG (nothing like seeing a baseball game on your extended lunch break!, and Hershey Bears Hockey in Hershey PA (about 15mins away). Theres an IMAX theater downtown, never been there yet... I'm planning on seeing Spiderman3 in a few weeks. They're building a brand new movie theater at the Harrisburg East Mall.

The downtown area of HBG isnt huge, but its very nice... one of my favorite areas. The entire riverfront is a park / walking trail & theres a large island (City Island) in the center of the river. When the weather is nice, there are always people walking the dogs, jogging, biking, etc. Almost all of the riverfront area has been renovated, its very clean and relatively safe.

[Ourdreamhouse]

If you've lived in Boston for any length of time, i think you may be very disappointed with life in Harrisburg. IMO, Boston is one of the top ~6 cities in the country, right below NYC, LA, San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle, and Miami (if you like that kind of scene). H'burg is a 4th tier city.

I lived in H'burg for two years in the mid-90's, after having grown up in New England and living in New Jersey for 5 years. Since that was more than 10 years ago, you can take my opinion with a grain of salt. But, those were two of the most unhappy years of my life. I found many of the people,and the culture in general, to be provincial, narrow-minded, and unfriendly. Many of the natives had lived there all their lives, and shunned anyone who moved in from someplace else. While there was a small pocket of folks, mostly downtown, whose interests included classical music, creative restaurants, and other cultural events, they were vastly outnumbered by folks who cared only for football and hunting season.

If you look on a map, you will find that H'burg is closer to West Virginia than to Philadelphia. I always thought that described the culture as well as the geography.

Maybe other posters will provide convincing arguments that my perspective is out of date.....

[danwxman]

Originally Posted by Ourdreamhouse

If you've lived in Boston for any length of time, i think you may be very disappointed with life in Harrisburg. IMO, Boston is one of the top ~6 cities in the country, right below NYC, LA, San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle, and Miami (if you like that kind of scene). H'burg is a 4th tier city.

I lived in H'burg for two years in the mid-90's, after having grown up in New England and living in New Jersey for 5 years. Since that was more than 10 years ago, you can take my opinion with a grain of salt. But, those were two of the most unhappy years of my life. I found many of the people,and the culture in general, to be provincial, narrow-minded, and unfriendly. Many of the natives had lived there all their lives, and shunned anyone who moved in from someplace else. While there was a small pocket of folks, mostly downtown, whose interests included classical music, creative restaurants, and other cultural events, they were vastly outnumbered by folks who cared only for football and hunting season.

If you look on a map, you will find that H'burg is closer to West Virginia than to Philadelphia. I always thought that described the culture as well as the geography.

Maybe other posters will provide convincing arguments that my perspective is out of date.....

Correct. As soon as you said "lived there for two years in the mid 90's" I knew what I was going to read. Things have changed dramatically since the mid 90's. It's not even close to the same town. Speaking of your comparison to WV versus Philly, Amtrak has a high-speed rail line (the only one outside of the I-95 corridor mind you) that serves as a direct link from Harrisburg to Philly, only takes 90 minutes now.

Btw, comparing Boston to Harrisburg is silly. We all realize Harrisburg isn't at the same level as Boston, Philly, New York or any other major city, but you have to take it for what it is...a really good city for it's size.

[mechtm84]

Harrisburg has nothing. Why on earth would you want to leave Boston?
Well...whatever, If you do move to Harrisburg, be sure to strap on yo bulletproof vest and start picking what side alley you want to live in.