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My girlfriend and I are moving from MD within the next year. She is absolutely in love with Fayetteville and is thinking about attending Fayetteville State University! I am not enthused!! I'm not going to bash Fayetteville because I've never been there. My original intentions were to move to a larger city than my hometown of Baltimore. Philadelphia was my #1 choice. And she was on board until recently, now she wants me to seriously consider Fayetteville!!
I'm honestly not a big fan of the south!! Nothing wrong with the South!! I just prefer a northern city, but I did tell her if I found a southern city I liked I would consider it!! "Despite my personal views FSU has grad programs for the both of us and the tuition is cheap so that's a plus" Also Fayetteville's cost of living compared to Philadelphia seemed unreal!! I could buy a home in Fayetteville for less than what I would pay for a 1 bedroom in downtown Philly"
SOOO a few questions?? (You dont have to tell me about crime, im Baltimore born and raised, and North Carolina is a "SHALL ISSUE STATE") Ill listen to everyone's opinion and I appreciate your post, were going down in August for a week to visit, She's basically trying to sell me on Fayetteville, so feel free to suggest some places to visit while were there!
How is the local economy, is it infrastructure, and are there jobs?
How does FSU rank up compared to other Universities in the state?
Cost of living??Is it really as cheap as it appears to be?
Is it a very diverse place? Were both black and race doesn't matter but we would prefer to live in a diverse city White, Black, Asian, & Hispanic populations!!
Also I work in aviation how big is Fayetteville Regional?
"Seemed to be a pretty size-able regional airport online"
"Despite my personal views FSU has grad programs for the both of us and the tuition is cheap so that's a plus" Also Fayetteville's cost of living compared to Philadelphia seemed unreal!!
I have lived in Baltimore, but not Fayetteville, so I can't answer your specific questions. My impulse is to say "no, it is not a good place for a progressive, young couple." There are many people on the C-D forums bashing Fayetteville, and I recommend reading them.
However, your girlfriend's desire to attend Fayetteville State may be a good idea. After a few years, she'll be ready to see the attractions of a larger city like Philadelphia.
I hope you are aware that Fayetteville is, first and foremost, a MILITARY town and pretty much everything in the economy is related to that. And I'm sure you're aware that military towns are NOT known for being "progressive". You might want to live at least somewhere like Sanford (still not exactly progressive, but close to the Triangle area which is). FSU is, as I'm sure you're aware, a "historically black" university but otherwise I don't know its reputation. You would pay out-of-state tuition for at least the first year.
Frankly, Fayettevlle (like most military towns) has a not-great reputation as a place to live, in general. It's kind of hard for me to imagine someone "falling in love" with it. And it's certainly MUCH smaller than Baltimore and not very "urban" at all.
While FSU is an "historically black college," it is very diverse.
Yes, businesses hurt when a large portion of Ft. Bragg is deployed, but guess what, we're still here...and growing...even when a majority of the soldiers were deployed!!
You may need to move to Fayetteville to keep your GF happy. But I think that you will be very disappointed with FV compared with Philadelphia (or Baltimore). The two have next to nothing in common. Although I am not a true FV basher like so many on this forum, I am astonished to hear that anyone could fall in love with the place.
More specifically -- (1) yes, the cost of living in FV is a lot less than in Philadelphia. (2) If you can survive in Baltimore, you can easily survive in FV (3) I hope I don't offend anyone by saying this, but I believe that FV State is one of the weakest public universities in NC (I am no expert; this is just my opinion) -- one thought is that you might post on the Baltimore forum to see if anyone knows how FV State (FSU) might compare with, say, Morgan.
My guess is that you would both like Durham a lot better than FV, and like NC Central University a lot better than FSU. Durham is a center of Black culture, if that's what you're looking for, as well as a diverse community.
I hope this post doesn't offend anyone; I am just trying to be helpful as best I can.
Last edited by Hamish Forbes; 07-26-2011 at 09:04 AM..
I agree with Hamish. Your girl-friend may be just telling you she wants to settle down in a safer place-- and you need to talk about that.
I also think you should compare the FSU graduate program you are specifically interested in to other schools. FSU has a few programs, but NC Central in Durham has the same programs and several more. I believe Morgan State in B'more has more extensive graduate programs also.
From what I have heard, Durham would be a more interesting place for African-Americans. If a scholar like John Hope Franklin retired there, it has something to offer. I hope you check out Durham also on your August visit.
You may need to move to Fayetteville to keep your GF happy. But I think that you will be very disappointed with FV compared with Philadelphia (or Baltimore). The two have next to nothing in common. Although I am not a true FV basher like so many on this forum, I am astonished to hear that anyone could fall in love with the place.
More specifically -- (1) yes, the cost of living in FV is a lot less than in Philadelphia. (2) If you can survive in Baltimore, you can easily survive in FV (3) I hope I don't offend anyone by saying this, but I believe that FV State is one of the weakest public universities in NC (I am no expert; this is just my opinion) -- one thought is that you might post on the Baltimore forum to see if anyone knows how FV State (FSU) might compare with, say, Morgan.
My guess is that you would both like Durham a lot better than FV, and like NC Central University a lot better than FSU. Durham is a center of Black culture, if that's what you're looking for, as well as a diverse community.
I hope this post doesn't offend anyone; I am just trying to be helpful as best I can.
I agree with Hamish. Your girl-friend may be just telling you she wants to settle down in a safer place-- and you need to talk about that.
I also think you should compare the FSU graduate program you are specifically interested in to other schools. FSU has a few programs, but NC Central in Durham has the same programs and several more. I believe Morgan State in B'more has more extensive graduate programs also.
From what I have heard, Durham would be a more interesting place for African-Americans. If a scholar like John Hope Franklin retired there, it has something to offer. I hope you check out Durham also on your August visit.
VERY TRUE She is from a small town in Virginia I think thats why it may appeal more to her than Philly!! I actually have been looking into NCCentral and it seems to be a pretty nice school. Thank You!!
Fayetteville is what you make it. Being a military town it is very diverse. The area around FSU is low income and would not be my first pick. But there are plenty of nice apartments catering to soldiers that are safe and nice. There are cultural opportunities if you seek them out. The people who complain the most are sent here against their will and choose to only see and complain about the seedier side of town.
FSU is not one of the best schools in the state They only recently got their nursing program re-certified after loosing it due to poor test scores.
Yea..... I would not move to another state to attend FSU...... It is definitely one of the bottom universities in the UNC system, if not the bottom. You'd be better off staying in your own state and either doing an online program or attending a college there for in state tuition.
I also for the life of me can't see why anyone would WANT to move to fayetteville for school. As others have said, its a miltary town and there is not much there.
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