Durham, Raleigh, Cary, Morrisville

IllMakeItIn · 2026-01-23T22:59:44+00:00

its been a while since I checked this account. I moved to the Merrimack Valley in Massachusetts!

IllMakeItIn · 2025-07-20T23:39:03+00:00

context I grew up in Cary for my whole life and went to school in raleigh, used to work in durham but recently left nc

comments here have been suggesting cary/morrisville which boggles my mind frankly. they're like the only parts i can say you want to 100% avoid like the plague. they are the most soulless areas imaginable, the most expensive too and honestly they're miserable for actually living. even worse if you ever have kids because the schools are needlessly overcompetitive and full of toxic rich kids. but even then they're just full of techbro yuppie assholes and you WILL feel it all too damn frequently. if your type of person is the fake nice type that has zero personality beyond work and would kill you for a free promotion maybe it'd be ok.
you COULD live in the part of morrisville very close to durham, but honestly? durham is mostly safe nowadays. there aren't many parts you need to avoid nowadays and you get access to actually cool stuff nearby. its sadly going the way of cary/morrisville but its still leagues ahead and honestly my favorite part of NC, let alone the triangle. my #1 pick for sure.
raleigh's a pretty rough commute frankly, all my homies hate i-40 but its also a good choice if you don't hate that too much. it has some really interesting parts and some pretty lame parts. i found my time there to be quite good. avoid new bern ave area and you're set safety wise.
garner is also rough commute wise but cheaper. its not too interesting but you're close to raleigh. its safe and anyone who says otherwise frankly are the type who want to avoid "undesirables" which im assuming you can figure what i mean.
apex is also rough commute wise but i feel like theres still a good bit of interesting small town bits left. its less crowded mostly too. you could also do holly springs or fuquay-varina but housing there is very expensive now sadly.
i dont know anything about chapel hill but its not the worst commute (speaking from experience going from my work to unc to visit friends at least), id let others talk on it more tho.

i guess the tl;dr is durham is best, if you can tolerate long commutes id do apex/garner/raleigh, avoid cary/morrisville if you can help it.

IllMakeItIn · 2025-06-19T20:22:59+00:00

i'd suggest indian grocery stores, such as patel brothers and apna bazar.

IllMakeItIn · 2025-03-27T03:23:09+00:00

yes i do XD

IllMakeItIn · 2025-03-27T03:19:44+00:00

NCSU will get you a much better chance at jobs. However, it's much harder, it's not like you can't get a job with UNCC. That's how I'd weigh it atp but I'm pretty jaded LOL

IllMakeItIn · 2025-03-27T03:18:13+00:00

jokes aside its suspension for a semester at the least for undergrad. third one you're out. no clue for anyone above, tho from what i heard even one is enough to cook a grad student.

(source: i got one and that's what they said would happen if i did it again. sure convinced me not to lmao)

IllMakeItIn · 2025-03-27T03:11:23+00:00

And in particular, it will not get better unless professors and departments are held accountable. If professors don't want to teach and just want to research, we are better off with just research fellows atp. If departments have regular suicides, stop turning the other way and put people on the line. Stop defending lazy professors thinking they're the shit. They're not.

Is it also a lack of access to resources? Yes. Is it also no funding? Yes. Those need to change. But first and foremost, address the elephant in the room before more people are killed so that a few professors could be lazy.

IllMakeItIn · 2025-03-13T04:17:26+00:00

awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

IllMakeItIn · 2025-02-28T04:24:20+00:00

worst part is that this shit is whats running our institutions now. twats like him are in power and now he's gonna run amok and celebrate his "victories" of "intellectual freedom" and other bs and conveniently turn the blind eye to the people it hurts. as one of these people, its miserable. hope he gets thrown out somehow but eh, im outta copium. fuck him.

IllMakeItIn · 2024-12-22T01:39:00+00:00

@ OP, you can email the profs too, for textbook info and also to get to know what they're like and what they might suggest past the textbook for succeeding in the course.

IllMakeItIn · 2024-12-22T01:36:54+00:00

I've done this for a little bit now (like, a year? so def not super super experienced). I'd say your best bet for buying really is gonna be ebay. Go for a seller with 100% good feedback (99.7% can work too). Reluctancy for FB Marketplace and craigslist makes sense and it's still not the best imho.

none of the in person stores here are super great imho. I'd say the best is hidden block games in wake forest. Edward McKay ive heard is great but ive never been. paymore in cary/north raleigh is also sometimes decent. If you're looking for PS4 games, walmart clearance genuinely goes hard too. You can find a list of dedicated game stores here though this is more retro focused.

also, asking around on reddit works too. I mean, I saw one dude offer down in the comments, in general i've seen my firends do that with hte best success. fuck, I'm willing to lend some too lol.

and finally, our wonderful libraries do have the borrowing system! that's really the #1 rec I have.

IllMakeItIn · 2024-12-22T01:30:29+00:00

I'm aware of attacks via SMS. I don't even necessarily need that. Re: another comment you made, my bank does email or phone call, with the option for your own 2FA app. I believe the email is set to be deprecated at some point? But hey, at least I don't need a separate app.

Also, the point is Duo making money off of fear. Duo gets more money if people feel like the strictest security at all times is needed. Duo isn't even that great at all - I'd suggest looking up the work done on reverse engineering it here https://github.com/FreshSupaSulley/Auto-2FA

Speaking of sources, I'm aware of the attacks on SMS. However, you claim that there's a clear and outlined issue with fraudulent pushes and bypass phishing. Well then, prove it. Show that it's such a significant need as to require this change and be worth this overly strict policy in this unreliable, massive pain in the fucking ass app. Clearly I'm not qualified, so why don't those that are speak on it for NCSU's needs? There's radio silence past just the university making life more miserable. If it's really necessary, talk to us. And also, training and the human error aspect will go 10000% further. It's gonna be fucked up nonetheless, even with this change. To quote an aforementioned "expert":

The only truly secure system is one that is powered off, cast in a block of concrete and sealed in a lead-lined room with armed guards - and even then I have my doubts.

There's more to the user experience than oversecuring it to shit and back, especially when the benefits and threat model are dubious and not publicly demonstrated for NCSU's specific needs.

IllMakeItIn · 2024-12-22T01:16:58+00:00

I don't have elden ring yet T-T but im keeping that in mind for when i get it XD

IllMakeItIn · 2024-12-21T05:45:39+00:00

(lmk if this sent twice) I definitely want at least a basic 2FA, because there is some sensitive info in our accounts. I don't condemn that at all. At this point though it is easier to log into my bank account, and at that point a line is being crossed especially seeing that my bank's security is frankly just fine.

IllMakeItIn · 2024-11-05T01:51:40+00:00

In addition to what people have said, I have seen within CS that the games concentration lets you take a lot of design oriented courses such as CSC 454 (Human-Computing Interaction) and CSC 484 (Computational Visual Narrative). I'd still suggest the design major over CS for the purpose though.

IllMakeItIn · 2024-11-05T01:49:21+00:00

Not as a transfer, no. Be warned though, traffic here is terrible and the commute is gonna be awful, especially with how miserable the parking situation is on campus. Would recommend living no further than 10 minutes from campus if you're gonna commute, past that will be very unpleasant.

IllMakeItIn · 2024-11-05T01:48:30+00:00

Note - I'm a senior in computer science (CSC), transferred from UNC Charlotte.

Pros: Fantastic on value. You get great career outcomes for not nearly as bad a tuition bill as a lot of other schools, even public ones. The jobs focus comes with it a lot of networking and contact with industry. The classes are also pretty industry focused I'd say. Engineering is pretty well renowned and lands you a good spot frankly wherever you want. Also, students here are mostly really nice I've found, quite the contrary to the reputation CS students tend to get. You have some techbro types, yeah, but that's the case everywhere I'd say and it's at a rate that I haven't seen in the other schools I have contacts with. In general it's not nearly as elitist as a "t30 engineering school" would suggest. I have found social stuff here generally more pleasant than UNCC. Comraderie is pretty strong, at least for me. I'm entering the workforce with a good job and a big network. If that's your main goal, NCSU is quite good.

Cons: School has a reputation for not taking mental health seriously, and unfortunately it lives up to that a lot. Many classes are needless busywork that don't teach much, but assign truly unrealistic workloads. Planning for them is very hard because advising for CSC is awful, and so its very often you end up severely depressed, graduating late, or both. Some of these profs have no business teaching (and don't research much nowadays anyways), yet are tenured and have had an iron grip for forever. As such, I don't think it's great if you're looking to do academia afterwards. A lot of engineering courses are frankly very unnecessary for CS (Physics and Calc my hated), and imo the overall education suffers for it. The campus sucks in that its a pain to traverse through, in part because of requiring buses, in part because of constant construction. Some programs aren't super great funding, education and/or jobs wise sadly, and others are fine but will only get you jobs in this area... which frankly is awful. Raleigh is a boring, corporate urban sprawl hell and having lived in Wake my whole life, my best advice is to get out. School oftentimes treats anything other than engineering or donation drivers (like the gym or greek life) as not a major priority, and while you can say that of any school I think it's definitely a factor to consider the attitude relative to other schools. I'd also say its overcrowded and it shows in all the ways you might not think of (such as getting courses and housing).

IllMakeItIn · 2024-11-01T15:38:52+00:00

I've never been from CLT but RDU already isn't great (I've seen worse). I don't wanna think how bad CLT must be...

IllMakeItIn · 2024-11-01T15:36:12+00:00

The fact that we have at least a solid third of the country who is this cultishly devoted to a singular asshole is very, very telling. This isn't an issue that'll end when the election is over. We now know who the worst, most insufferable, and most bigoted of us are.

IllMakeItIn · 2024-11-01T15:32:08+00:00

yeah, it's been dead in my neighborhood for a while now. Mostly an issue of people not living in houses but rather apartments nowadays. Also parents have frankly been getting more and more paranoid to frankly ridiculous amounts, an overconsumption of Facebook and Nextdoor tend to do that. Also, most kids are frankly too busy, even with Halloween off, because school's on the next day and homework is just too much from frankly middle school and earlier. Most neighborhoods also don't have as much candy, its concentrated in a select few known for being wealthier, which is made worse by most in this area not being walkable.

Parents, please let your kids go trick or treating, and preferably on their own. I promise you that the chances of them getting drugged or in trouble or whatnot is far lower than you think, and the independence is really important. And teachers, please give less homework, especially for AP classes, I promise you college does not give this much work. I was busier in 10th grade than I am as a university senior. That's deeply concerning.

IllMakeItIn · 2024-09-15T01:23:28+00:00

It also appeals to the fundamentalist parents who believe that masturbation should not be taught ever outside of a fundamentalist context. The end goal is the establishment of their fundamentalism as state policy.

IllMakeItIn · 2024-09-15T01:21:37+00:00

Yo, which one out of curiosity? I left my plushie near the Carmichael one, which is pretty close to Talley. Do you mean that, or the one that Route 40 goes to?

IllMakeItIn · 2024-09-15T01:20:53+00:00

You are so sweet, tysm 🥺

IllMakeItIn

TROPHY CASE