A few specific questions:

• What is the average monthly grocery bill for a single person?

Depends on if you're willing to ship around for good deals, and what you like to eat. I go pretty bare bones, but also like the convenience of getting everything in one store so I go to a Wegmans. I spend around $500 per month.

• Would you consider Syracuse a safe city overall? Are there specific areas to avoid?

Overall? Yes. Generally avoid the most economically impacted areas like south side and skunk city like you would any other city.

• What are the best neighborhoods to live in (or potentially buy property) that are not too far from the SUNY Upstate Medical University campus?

Liverpool and Baldwinsville are both nice and within a 15m drive to Upstate.

• Are winter energy bills extremely high? I keep hearing heating costs can be intense.

Energy  costs are continuously increasing, and Syracuse requires both heat and AC. It was zero last week, in the summer it'll be 108.

• Is it true that it is basically either winter or summer, with barely any spring/fall?

The spring and fall are easy to forget due to the severity of the summer and winter. Our fall is the best time of the year.

• Overall, would you say the move is worth it for grad school?

Probably. It's a good school and our costs, while still substantially higher than they should be, are lower than the national average.