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Hi all, I think I've made a tentative decision to come to Lincoln for Law school. I live in Orange County, CA, right now, and you know, I've been hearing non-stop that I am making a huge mistake in choosing Nebraska. I could go to Seattle, Miami, No. Cali, Boston, or stay where I am at, but none of these other schools are offering me a full ride. So in truth, I am scared to death of leaving here, since Nebraska has certain connotations of being unfriendly and full of corns and cows. I know I shouldn't buy into the stereotypes of Nebraska, but it's hard when I know no one from that area. Thus, I wanted to come on this board and ask people's opinions. I sure hate the cold, but I don't think I should let lethal winters sway me from a free law education. I've been reading the thread on Lincoln, and I'm hearing the shopping sucks (ahhhh!!), the food is bland, and the weather is unpredictable. Can I get any reassurance whatsoever that it won't be so bad?? LOL. I'm sure there are positives of Lincoln, but I am not hearing them, even from people who live there. Perhaps someone can truly enlighten me on how it's like to live there? Thanks!
I dont think Lincoln is so bad it should deter you from getting a free education.
Most of the college students tend to stay inside and study because Lincoln is fairly run-down though. Alot of vacant storefronts, vacant apartment buildings and houses in Lincoln.
University of Nebraska Lincoln is a very spread-out campus, very pedestrian unfriendly but they do have shuttles. They could do alot of renovations though for their facilities, should be easy considering how high the education funding is. University of Nebraska's library especially could use a big remodeling it feels ancient. The campus is just north of the state capitol and their are some restaurants downtown and several coffee places.
An apartment in the downtown area goes for 250-300 for small apartment and 400-500 so for a 2 bedroom apartment.
The food here isnt the best from most of the locally owned businesses, but Lincoln has alot of chains and the quality is the same all over with the chains.
From Orange County to Lincoln Nebraska. One thing to keep in mind is that you are coming from an area that has more people in Orange County to a State of conservative values who voted for President Bush that has only 1.7 million people living in an area about the size of the country Germany. That there are only about 250,000 people living in the Lincoln area. Most of these individuals will be friendly and just might talk with you as you stand in line at one of the stores. You will see individuals waving at you that you have never seen before and start wondering if you know them or if they know you as you are driving on one of our two lane highways, just wave back.
If you come to Nebraska one thing to keep in mind is that we do things differently in Nebraska that you do in Orange County it would be best that you adjust to the Nebraska way and not tell people that you do it a different way in California. You just might be told that if you don't like the way we do things in Nebraska then you should go back from where you come from. I lived in California in the Bay area and San Diego for a period of time and I just adjusted to how you did things there, instead of trying to change things and telling everyone how we do things in Nebraska.
Just like in Orange County there are the bad places to eat and there are the good places to eat. The difference is that you have more of each kind in Orange County. We have all kinds of foods from Mexican to Asian in Lincoln while in Lincoln just start trying out the places and you will find the good ones and you will find the bad ones. You can trust someone else, but they might have different views on taste than you will so just go out give it a try for yourself. We do not have any Jack In The Box in Nebraska. We do have Runza Huts, Burger King, McDonalds, Pizza Huts and KFC. If you do not know what a Runza is you will have to try one, the very first Runza Hut is in Lincoln.
Shopping in Lincoln is not like in Orange County either there are really only two shopping centers in Lincoln Westerfield on East "O" Street and South Point. There is two large Wal-Mart stores and several Target, Shop-Ko, stores through out the city. There are many smaller strip malls as well. Now Omaha has much more and better shopping areas. Omaha is only one hour up I-80 from Lincoln. Omaha also has more places to eat as well.
You will survive the winters just fine and you will learn how to watch the clouds of Nebraska for our other weather storm call tornadoes just like most of us in Nebraska already know how to do.
One last thing yes we have cornfields guess that is why they call us the Cornhuskers. Also we do have a few cows as well as we are the largest cattle producing state, bigger than Texas. So the beef you are eating in Orange County could be Nebraska beef.
Thanks, Matt for responding. Yeah, I guess I shouldn't let it deter me. Ha. It's really a stupid question to begin with. But thanks for your sincere answer nonetheless.
Thanks K. Bear for the welcome.
You know, staying in to study is probably best for me. So the thought of a distraction-less environment should excite me, but alas, all it does is make me feel more desolate. LOL. Okay, not that funny. LOQuietly.
Yeah, no doubt no one wants to hear about how they do things elsewhere, since you're not there. That's actually really good advice. I'll be bound to slip though. But I think I'll like it if Nebraskans aren't as pretentious as all the gals out here with the fake boobies and hair extensions. Could be quite refreshing to be the only one like that in Nebraska. LOL.
Will it be a complete and total culture shock? No clubbing? And most musical acts probably won't stop in Lincoln, or for that matter anywhere in Nebraska, either, huh.
And another thing, how do Nebraskans react to different races? I'm Asian, and you know, I'll probably be the only Cambodian/Chinese girl in the whole friggin state. People will wonder where the hell I got my tan from. LOL.
Plus, I'll probably be the only one driving a honda and not a chevrolet. Geez, I can see it all already. Well, what the hell, I love steak, and corn's a good side dish. But where the hell's my soy milk? Not in Nebraska.
And god, you guys were the ones that voted for Bush? Sigh. I've got a lot to come to terms with.
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I would actually think the law school portion would be superb, and void of too much 'fluff' from profs wasting your time espousing their personal agenda's.
Get in and learn the basics really well, plenty of time to divert to the fluff in the future, with the winds of change. With the main thing, being the main thing (education) I would consider it a 'heavenly reprieve' before being tossed to the wolves. The food (excluding seafood) is great (if you have time to eat) + learning the other side of 'diversity' has value to 'left coasters' who will be tasked with making relevant decisions in the future.
I suppose it would come down to what your 'lost opportunities' ($$$,$$$.$$) would be in attending law school in any particular location. (I'm most familiar with 'Lewis and Clark' (PDX) grads, of whom I had a class taught by one this last weekend. They usually have a particular bias...
NE (and other 'prairie states) have authored some interesting legislation and had significant national attention. This is not bad in what we would hope to call a free... nation (not necessarily a democracy...) i.e., your vote might not be in the majority of a 'national' election, but you will gain an awareness of the significant issues that the majority of the "economic providers" (employers / farmers) have to digest, at the whims of an ill informed electorate (passive media watchers, not the 'study' type)
Thanks, Matt for responding. Yeah, I guess I shouldn't let it deter me. Ha. It's really a stupid question to begin with. But thanks for your sincere answer nonetheless.
Thanks K. Bear for the welcome.
You know, staying in to study is probably best for me. So the thought of a distraction-less environment should excite me, but alas, all it does is make me feel more desolate. LOL. Okay, not that funny. LOQuietly.
Yeah, no doubt no one wants to hear about how they do things elsewhere, since you're not there. That's actually really good advice. I'll be bound to slip though. But I think I'll like it if Nebraskans aren't as pretentious as all the gals out here with the fake boobies and hair extensions. Could be quite refreshing to be the only one like that in Nebraska. LOL.
Will it be a complete and total culture shock? No clubbing? And most musical acts probably won't stop in Lincoln, or for that matter anywhere in Nebraska, either, huh.
And another thing, how do Nebraskans react to different races? I'm Asian, and you know, I'll probably be the only Cambodian/Chinese girl in the whole friggin state. People will wonder where the hell I got my tan from. LOL.
Plus, I'll probably be the only one driving a honda and not a chevrolet. Geez, I can see it all already. Well, what the hell, I love steak, and corn's a good side dish. But where the hell's my soy milk? Not in Nebraska.
And god, you guys were the ones that voted for Bush? Sigh. I've got a lot to come to terms with.
I don't think you'll be as shocked as your thinking. Even if you're in Lincoln you'll still be close to Omaha so you won't feel as much of a change.
You won't be the only one in a Honda. It'll be you and everyone else. We've got more than Chevy. There's a Hummer, Jaguar, Lexus, Mercedes, Volkswagon (which sells MINI as well), and Land Rover dealerships in Omaha. (I forget if its Land or Range Rover). I even know people who drive Ferraris, Lambourghinis, Mazeratis, and Lotus'. Honda won't be anything special here.
Also there are decent clubs here. But again they will be in Omaha. I know Lincoln has alot of bars but I don't know so much about clubs. Also we do get shows here, but they will be in Omaha. I guess it depends on what you like to listen to but check out qwestcenteromaha.com and they will have a list of the big shows coming through. Justin Timberlake, Pink, Christina Aguilera, *****cat Dolls, John Mayer might appeal to you. They are stopping here in the next few months.
If you're a minority you won't feel like it. They're are plenty of non-whites here. Especially in Omaha or Lincoln. You're not going to find people who are intolerent of you because you're Asian. Also being in Omaha or Lincoln you'll find people are more tolerant/accepting because they're exposed to other types of people from other countries, or gays, or whatever. I know lots of gay people and none of them have had any problems here. So like I said I don't think you'll be in for as much of a shock as you're thinking. I also don't think you'll have a bunch of people telling you "this is how we do things around here." I have lots of friends who've moved here from other places and I've never heard them say anything about that.
having reread MattDen's first post I'll have to kind of defend UNL. (I can't even believe I'm doing this because I HATE that school.) The campus isn't too spread out. It's a big university (25,000+) so it's not going to be small. The campus is right Downtown so it's within walking distance to the Haymarket (bars, restaurants) and other stores around Downtown. There isn't any "run down" part of Lincoln either. If you're coming from Southern California you'll probably have seen much worse.
Sounds to me like you have made a picture of what Nebraska is. You will be surprised to see that we do have them new indoor tiolets now. They just got to Nebraska last year so you might still have to go outside in the cold. The good thing about that is you won't spend to much time on the tiolet outside in the winter. Hope you see a joke when you read it. We do have everything you have there in Orange County. We have soy milk, besides where do you think they get them soy beans to make it from anyway. Heck we even got some soy diesel fuel as well. The culture shock will be what you make it so prepare your self to make the change and if you can't do that then yes you will be miserable in Nebraska until you learn to wear cowboy boots and a cowboy hat and go to rodeos where you can ride a live bull if you want.
Lincoln has shows as well, but not as much as Omaha does. You will also find that Lincoln has a very large Asian community living there so sorry you will not be standing out as much as you think.
You also need to give it some time we might change you mind from being a liberal to a conservative before you know it, but if not that is okay as we do have a few who voted for Clinton/Gore/Kerry in the last election but that is what is great about America we have choices that we can make.
You will find that our air is cleaner than that in Orange County, but one of my relatives told me that is was not smog you got there it is just haze. Well I never had the haze of Nebraska burning my eyes like the haze of Orange County.
Buy a cowboy hat now and start getting ready for Nebraska.
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