Lauren

Cost of Living In Pittsburgh

Question from a prospective student:
Can you  provide me with a rough estimate about yearly expenses (couple) in Pittsburgh?

My Answer:
I guess it's all relative to where you're coming from.  We moved from Chicago, and most people who   moved from big cities are amazed at how cheap it is to live nicely in Pittsburgh. For example, we rent a free standing house, 3 bedrooms, one bathroom, 3 stories, probably about 1500 sq. ft., and we pay $900/month plus utilities.  We think it's an awesome deal, even for Pittsburgh, but generally for about
$1000/month, you can have a lot of space!  There are certainly many places to live for less, and many people do, but you'd probably be looking at an apartment or a floor of a house for less.

We have one car here because we live within walking distance to CMU. Between the buses and the 15 minute walk, one car does the trick, and I use it to get to work everyday.  Many couples have one car and as long as you choose your housing carefully (on bus lines or within walking distance), one car is fine.

In terms of other expenses, like food, it's comparable with other places.  We're foodies, so we spend a lot of money on food because we do like certain things at Whole Foods, but there are regular grocery
stores, Trader Joes, Costco/Sams, Whole Foods, and everything else.

Honestly, I'm not sure where we could live with this much stuff around us, for this cheap.  We can walk to restaurants, coffee shops, movies, groceries, post office, hair salons, everything, and the cost of
living is very reasonable.  The two of us live on my meager salary alone.  I work in a private school
doing admissions.

The cost of living has been one of the major bonuses in choosing to be here for school.  When Oren wanted to go to China last year on a school trip, or any of those extra things, we could do them because we live for a relatively low cost here.  Coming from Chicago, or had we chosen to stay there for school, it would have been a different story.

Thanksgiving

It's the night before Thanksgiving, and it's been way too long since I last posted.  Between work and school and regular life, the time is just flying.  Good news, Oren got his first set of offers today!  I'm so excited about having another paycheck in the mix! (and about how excited he is about these jobs and the future)

It's really incredible to watch the recruiting/interviewing process from this end.  It can be tough at times, but it's really nice to have an opportunity to explore so many different possibilities from a relatively safe position. 

So at this time when we take a moment to pause from the hectic lives we lead, to enjoy food and family and friends, and all that we are thankful for, this year we'll add the job gods for bringing good news today.

Also, I've received two emails this week from prospective students, which must mean that the admissions season has kicked into high gear and those folks in the admissions office, as well as all those prospective students out there, are working hard to determine what next year will look like.  I will post the response that I carefully crafted today in response to some specific questions one prospective student asked today. I hope this is helpful.

How did this happen?

I apologize...I can't believe how long it's been since I last blogged and I feel terrible about it.  It was a wonderful summer and it flew by.  Oren had a great experience at Progressive and we enjoyed our weekends together (without any homework of his!) to worry about. 

I started a master's program through the Heinz School of Public Policy and Management, also at Carnegie Mellon.  I am excited and happy to be back in school even if it does mean homework again for me.

The partners club is back up in full swing with lots of new 1st year partners and lots of little adorable Tepper kids - it's great.  So welcome back to everyone, I think it's going to be a great year!

A great success!

This past weekend was Welcome Weekend and we were able to welcome 120 new/prospective students bringing approximately 50 partners with them.  The weekend was busy, exhausting, and a ton of fun.  We are all excited about the new people we met and are looking forward to the summer and fall to really get to know this new group of Tepper students and partners.  It was especially exciting to see so many little ones who will join the Tepper kids community.

And on another note, our lacrosse team is now 2 and 2 with a big game today.  Each game we are a little bit better than the one before and that's what this is all about, right?

Coach

In addition to working on Welcome Weekend and working with my own prospective families at school, I have been spending much of my time as head coach for the Sewickley Academy Middle School girls lacrosse team.  I never could have imagined how much time I would spend thinking about the team, planning every practice, making line-ups for the games, learning about my players, and all the other facets that come into coaching a team.

Most of my kids look about like this, maybe a bit older.  Of the 26 girls on the team, 19 are in 7th grade and are really just learning the sport.  They are a lot of fun and most are very hard-working.  It's a joy to work with this group, but it certainly has its challenges too.

Take for example our first game which was this past Friday.  After weeks and weeks of hard work, we were eager to show our home fans and each other how our team was beginning to come together.  We took to the field to face the team from Valley, a private school outside of Pittsburgh.

Valley's team is made of 7th, 8th, and 9th grade girls, and it was pretty clear who was going to dominate this game from the first 5 seconds.  My team made a nice effort and it was a good first game, but we have a ways to go this season in terms of building our skills and playing as a strong team in our games. 

I will continue to post about the season because I'm finding coaching (as I have all year) to be an interesting challenge and because I care so much about this team.  I can't promise I'll report any wins, but I can promise some good stories from our season.  Stay tuned...

April Partners Newsletter

If you're interested in seeing what the partners are up to this month, please check out this month's newsletter.

Download tepper_partners_nl_april_2007_public.doc

Our big event for this month is Welcome Weekend, the weekend for prospective students and partners to come see what Carnegie Mellon, Tepper, and Pittsburgh are all about.  We are looking forward to meeting all of you prospective partners and if you are unable to attend, please feel free to email with any questions you may have.  Hope to see you soon here in Pittsburgh!

The internship search is over / a mini-vacation

Picturesque, right?  This picture captures the somewhat romantic spot of our mini-vacation we took this past weekend to celebrate the end of the internship search, my spring break, and to steal a moment together, just the two of us, before the mini gets crazy.

It is only fitting that to celebrate Oren's success during his search and equally as exciting, him having made a choice, that we go to the place where he will be spending the summer, Cleveland.  To be more specific, Chagrin Falls, OH is where we stayed and this picture is of the falls.  Oren is going to be working in a technology group at Progressive Insurance this summer and it was quite a coincidence (or maybe Cleveland is just that small) that when we checked into the Inn we ran into the senior management IT team from Progressive.  Though the internship search was a consuming project that spanned from December until about 1 week ago, it was thrilling to have so many great options to choose from.  All of Oren's classmates seem to have found or are continuing to find options that are very attractive for the summer too which feels good because that's part of what you hope will happen when you enter the program and I'm happy to report, it seems to be the case.

I think I've lucked out too, because of all the places he could have been this summer, this one is only 2 hours away!  Hooray!  For all of you who are reading this who are prospective partners, here's how this works.  All of the students get internships for the summer (yes, paid - phew!) and most of them are not in Pittsburgh.  In some cases partners go with them wherever they're headed, but in most cases, they have jobs they can't leave for 9-12 weeks so they stay while their "student" does the internship.

It was a fun little getaway, seeing the place where he will spend the summer, while also being able to buy cheap wine at Trader Joe's, see the Monet exhibit at the Cleveland Art Museum, and also enjoy a great corned beef sandwhich at Corky & Lenny's.  It's fun to see how excited he is about the summer and to think about this next step.

The Job Hunt

It's about this time of year when "next year" all of the sudden feels like it's just around the corner.  Maybe it's because I've always worked in academic settings, where once you hit Spring Break you know that summer is just around the corner, but I know that at this time last year I was deep into my job search for this year, and this year, I've spent the past couple of weeks, and will spend the next few nailing down details for what next year will look like job-wise.

I wanted to take this opportunity to share briefly some of the things I learned while doing my job search last year.
1. Keep an open mind - Leaving the admissions office at my alma matter, the only place I'd ever worked where my colleagues were like family, was not easy.  I had to stay open though to all of my options and explored everything related to education administration at both the secondary and post-secondary level.
2. Talk to everyone you know and keep talking - Pittsburgh is a small town and if you know anyone from here (and you all do because I'm from here) chances are you'll meet someone who knows that person.
3. Work through placement firms specific to your industry - in independent schools, Carney Sandoe is your best bet.
4. Pittsburghers love Pittsburgh - do everything you can to talk about how much you love Pittsburgh too

Now is the time.  At my school, Sewickley Academy, where I am the Associate Director of Admission, we have just posted a number of jobs for this coming school year.  We are on spring break now but hiring will swing into full gear the first week of April.  This is the same for other independent schools in the area (Shady Side Academy, The Ellis School, Winchester Thurston, St. Edmund's Academy, and others). 

Feel free to contact me if you think I might be able to be of any help to you.  Be patient...good luck!

And the best matzo ball soup goes to...

It has been a tough 4 days.  Since Thursday night (now Monday morning) I have been in bed sick.  This morning is the first time I have been able to drag myself out of bed and put on real clothes.   Thank heavens it has been spring break for the Tepper students because Oren was able to take good care of me.  Over these days, I have had matzo ball soup from The Smallman St. Deli, from The Pittsburgh Deli Co, and from Whole Foods.  While all three are very good, each having their own strengths and weaknesses, I have to say that the best matzo ball soup I've eaten over the course of this cold was the one from the Smallman St. Deli.  This Deli, originally from Smallman St. in the Strip District, also has a shop in Murray Ave in Squirrel Hill.  So if you find yourself looking for a good matzo ball, this is my pick.

In like a lion...

March has come in like a lion...snow flakes, finals, life is busy.  I'm using this opportunity to post our first Partner Newsletter.  We will try to keep everyone who's interested up to date with what's going on each month.  Because spring break is approaching, things will quickly settle down.  Most people seem to be staying pretty close to home this spring break but it will be nice, much needed time to slow down a bit. 

Download tepper_partners_nl_march_2007_public.pdf
Download tepper_partners_nl_march_2007_public.doc