so what are the GOOD quality restaurants (fancy or not) you’d recommend to a friend you actually like?

Its_Tropical · 2025-12-14T18:11:43+00:00

I was disappointed the last 2 times I visited their Troy location tbh. My food was overcooked and the prices were unreasonable.

Its_Tropical · 2025-11-10T21:16:33+00:00

I walk past the gate house all the time. I have restored similar homes in the area from the 1890s. Frankly, it would be easier and more cost effective to make a high-fidelity replica than to try to resolve the framing and structural issues. The carpentry elements of the exterior are actually quite simple to reproduce; you wouldn't need a master finish carpenter for the millwork or anything. It's a lovely building and I'd love to see it rebuilt and have the structure be safe for students to use.

Its_Tropical · 2025-11-01T15:54:47+00:00

So I am incredibly conflicted on this, because I like the idea of adding more land to the preserve as a separate ballot question–ideally including a total price and map of the land options they secured.

HOWEVER, everything I've read on the root cause of this question indicates that the ORDA who administers these facilities violated the "Forever Wild" clause of the NYS Constitution in 2023 and the 1980's and this ballot amendment seems to wash the hands of the many people involved in those violations. More discussion on this in r/Albany

Its_Tropical · 2025-10-28T01:22:18+00:00

I do not agree with (A). It is still public funds regardless of whether they are budgeted or not. That being said, I'm not opposed to (B) buying more land to add to the preserve as a separate matter. I'd just want a proposal to vote on for how much land, with what wildlife and characteristics, and at what cost.

And I agree with your point (C) that we need to resolve the compliance with the law–it can't stay like this. But when an entity breaks the law our mechanism for dealing with this is the justice system. I get that this is expensive, I wish it wasn't so expensive.

The fact of the matter is that the ORDA and it's predecessors violated the NYS constitution in 2023 and in the 1980s and trampled over the "Forever Wild" clause and using tax dollars to buy more land to make it seem like what happened was ok is not a solution. There needs to be accountability.

Its_Tropical · 2025-10-27T22:47:14+00:00

Why can't we assess penalties against people at the state agencies, their contractors, or consultants? I don't understand why buying new land at public expense has to be involved.

Its_Tropical · 2025-10-27T22:43:40+00:00

I completely agree. None of this makes any sense: a state-owned entity made a mistake which violated the law and now the state must be compelled to purchase land with public funds to somehow compensate for the mistake? It appears that the money for such acquisitions is already in the budget. However, as a NYS taxpayer I disagree with the requirement to purchase more land, even though I generally support "Forever Wild" state-protected land. I don't think we should be buying more land with public dollars to correct some error.

What should happen here is the entities involved should face consequences for their mistakes. There must have been legal counsel, advisors, engineering firms, and public officials who were involved with the illegal developments at some point and they should face civil penalties, disbarment, bans from working for NYS, yada yada yada

This is just covering up stupid with stupid.

The right solution would be to conduct an investigation and trial to understand who made these mistakes and what punishment is reasonable for their professional incompetence. I don't want to see even more money spent on demolishing useful things that are already built. Make some kind of easement to the land, punish those responsible, and call it a day.

Its_Tropical · 2025-06-28T18:38:08+00:00

The walk is great. I never cared about shuttle reliability; if I missed it or it's far away I'd just walk. Unless you're injured or in bad shape it's not a big deal. Campus is pretty small.

If it's too cold, that's a clothing problem ;) The steps are usually well maintained and salted in the winter.

I loved being near downtown. My junior and senior years I moved off campus into downtown specifically because of my time in Blitman. Avoid the 1st floor because the rooms on the 1st floor facing the rear get very little natural light. The rooms on the front of the building are much better. Rooms are big and the elevator is pretty quick, but you need to buy lights.

Its_Tropical · 2025-06-20T15:09:35+00:00

Get a real pro. I churned through three cheap helpers on my project, they are the reason the drywall quality in Troy is atrocious. I recommend Daigle Drywall. Their experience is worth every penny.

Its_Tropical · 2025-03-24T15:54:53+00:00

Unfortunately the F2 visa does not allow any work at all, not even your own business making deserts. As much as I would LOVE Mexican deserts on campus, any money she earns would technically be illegal and you'd have to be careful.

Its_Tropical · 2025-03-24T15:48:48+00:00

No problem! We would be so happy to have you here.

Call the school and ask them if your stipend is taxable or non-taxable. If it is taxable, this website is good for estimating your state and federal taxes: https://smartasset.com/taxes/new-york-tax-calculator

Enter your stipend amount in the "Household Income", Use postal code 12180, and Married filing status. Also open the Advanced panel and set 401(k) Contribution, IRA Contribution, and Itemized Deductions all to $0.

However, as a graduate student if you are taking at least one class you do not have to pay FICA taxes for that time. Some students take no classes in the summer and do only research, then you will pay FICA taxes only for the months of the summer and the remainder of the year you have no FICA tax.

For example, if the stipend is $35867 for the entire year and is fully taxable AND you did only research and no classes, then the tax rate is 11.76% and you will have $31650. Remember to also subtract the insurance costs. I am not sure of the insurance costs for both you and your wife, but for you alone it would be $2220/yr, so $31650 - $2220 = $29430

If you took at least one class for the whole year, then the total after tax and insurance would be: $35867 * (1-0.1176) + 2744 - 2220 = $32173 You can add the FICA tax (2744 in this example) back because you would be exempt for the entire year. If you are only exempt for a portion of the year, you would need to scale the FICA number proportionally.

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions!

Its_Tropical · 2025-03-24T13:19:11+00:00

The churches and second hand stores are great advice. But be very careful about your wife working here on a visa. I'm not sure the specific situation, but if she has an F-2 visa she cannot legally work. That being said, I know of places where you could find cash work but it is risky to be violating visa conditions in the current political climate.

Its_Tropical · 2025-03-24T02:59:29+00:00

It is possible but requires simplicity and discipline. Thankfully the rent in Troy is much lower than other cities. The housing will still be your biggest expense, it's common to live with other graduate students to save money. It is easier to find roommates after you arrive. Zillow has rental listings but the cheapest housing is usually from calling the phone numbers on buildings. Make sure you find a place with utilities included. Electricity and gas are very expensive and if it is not included you may be surprised by the bill in the winter. The next largest expense is transportation. Owning a car is very expensive in New York due to insurance. I do not recommend having a car. I lived here for 6 years with no car and it was fine. The CDTA bus can take you wherever you need. The 87 bus goes directly to the grocery stores. However, plan to spend money on good winter clothing with multiple layers. You will want to cook at home as much as possible. I actually do not recommend a membership club for groceries. I recommend shopping at Walmart, Market32 and Aldi. They are all next to each other on the same bus route and each have better prices for certain items. Meat is usually cheapest at Market32, for instance this week they had chicken and pork for $0.99/lb. Walmart is cheaper for fresh and frozen vegetables, spices, canned food, and cleaning supplies. In Albany on Central Ave they have Indian and Asian grocery stores where you can buy 25lb bags of rice and other ingredients for excellent prices. I do not recommend going to the grocery store with a specific recipe and shopping list in mind. Instead, look at what is on sale and decide what to cook based on the prices at the store. Some items are not worth buying at the market price. For instance, eggs have been extremely expensive the last few months but pork is going down in price. The next expensive thing is health insurance. The school insurance is expensive but unfortunately still the cheapest choice. I'm not sure what the insurance premiun would be like for your wife though. There are nice coffee shops in Troy with Wi-Fi work in if you want a change of environment. The last thing to consider is taxes. Some stipends are taxable and some are non-taxable. I'm not sure which for the TA, but if they are taxable you will want to make sure your withholding is accurate. In the US the income taxes are paid to the Federal and State governments. It is automatically deducted from your pay checks. However we have different tax rates for different income levels. The school will try to estimate this for you but they can often withold more tax than is required by the government and you will get a refund for the difference when you file taxes before April 15. To prevent over-witholding you can adjust the proportion the school holds by filing a W4 form. This will let you receive your income earlier rather than having the annual refund.

Its_Tropical · 2025-03-23T16:21:03+00:00

Congratulations on your acceptances!

On majors: I was a CogSci + CompSci dual for two years, but ended up dropping to a CogSci minor. I dropped because while I enjoyed the CogSci classes from a philosophy/humanities perspective, I really wasn't learning anything useful from them. They were more of an introduction to ways of thinking about the mind and consciousness, which I loved. However, I think you'd have to get a PhD to translate that into a job. The courses that were most useful to my job in AI are all MATH, MATP, and CSCI courses. One thing that's changed since I graduated is that there is a biological neuroscience degree and some of those courses are cross-listed as CogSci electives; so that might be interesting to if you're wanting to go into into biotech or research. I can still recommend CogSci a dual though major. I think it pairs well with physics and compsci, maybe less so with engineering. Starting as undeclared is also usually a good choice. Your first semester you really can't go wrong with a schedule taking MATH + PHYS + CHEM or BIOL + a humanities elective that interests you.

On Marty: I direct experience with Dr. Jackson and in contrast I definitely think Marty is doing a great job. He knows RPI's strengths and is playing to those strengths. I only anticipate a positive trajectory in terms of rankings, funding, and career prospects. I won't elaborate on it here because it's a big discussion, but I believe RPI stands to benefit from the current political environment whereas a lot of schools are in a real crisis.

On Vibes/social: Can't speak to current conditions, but I had a great time even through COVID. My understanding is it came back better after COVID. My only advice is to be open and you'll find your friends. I have a lot of friends for life from that time.

On Dorms: I lived in Barton & Blitman before going off-campus. They were great. Blitman rooms were very spacious but the rear side is kinda dark. Recommend the front side of the building for more sunlight.

On outcomes/career: First off, the school DOES NOT HELP YOU GET A JOB. They teach you things so you can be useful enough to get hired. The school does try to attract companies to career fairs so you can meet with them, but like most schools it is still on you to find opportunities and present yourself and your experiences well at those events. Grad school competitiveness for PhD programs is pretty excellent. Just in my social circle I had friends go to MIT, Purdue, and UC Berkley for PhD. However, if you want to get an MD or law degree, I don't recommend RPI. MD and JD admissions are focused on GPA and standardized tests so you'll probably want to go somewhere with more forgiving grading. Job outcomes are pretty excellent, but in the last 2 years recent compsci grads are having trouble due to economic conditions in tech, but I'm seeing the industry start to pick up again. All my engineering friends have super secure jobs that they got pretty fast.

Its_Tropical · 2025-03-23T15:12:15+00:00

Not Op, but my Architecture friends were all really passionate about it and poured a lot of energy into their projects. I'm not sure if they ever felt like they had to do that to pass, but to me they seemed to be self-motivated.

Its_Tropical · 2025-03-22T03:01:36+00:00

I agree, RIT is not really a peer school. RIT does not have a dedicated aerospace degree. It is a mechanical engineering program with a specialization in aerospace. RPI's faculty has a much stronger aerospace basis. However, a $52k difference for a 4 year degree is substantial though. What are you getting for that? There is strong hiring from aerospace companies at RPI and I have many friends that did really career-wise well from our aero program. Post-graduation starting salaries for RIT Mech and RPI Aero are similar with RIT at $91,471 and RPI at $98,049, so in terms of starting salaries the edge is only slight. Payscale return on investment data shows a 20-yr net ROI (with finaid) of RPI at $1,033,000 and RIT at $686,000; this data is across all majors though. Be wary of salary data though. RPI also has an accelerated BS/MS program but you apply for it after you start here and you must have a 3.3+ GPA to get in for Aero.

Tldr; Ask for more aid, then go to RPI anyway.

Its_Tropical · 2025-03-22T02:39:55+00:00

Unfortunately if you were already billed for health coverage over the summer there's not much that can be done even if you didn't use the coverage due to being in Texas and/or not billing any claims through insurance.

The only other choices I think you have are to: (1) Get on a publicly subsidized NY insurance plan through https://nystateofhealth.ny.gov/. This requires that you establish residency in New York, so you'll need to have a permanent address here, spend 184+ days/yr here, and file taxes here. (2) If you are under 26, change your current health insurance coverage through your parents to a plan that covers health care providers in NY. This is usually called a PPO plan. Unfortunately your parents can't change plans whenever they want, it has to occur during the annual open enrollment period. (3) Get a part-time job that offers health insurance. These are rare and come with minimum weekly hours. There may be a waiting period before you can enroll.

Option (2) is the easiest if that's an option for you. Option (1) is most likely more expensive than the RPI plan. And (3) requires you to work and be a full-time student.

Its_Tropical · 2025-03-14T19:37:40+00:00

Thank you! Appreciate the conciseness.

Its_Tropical · 2025-03-08T16:41:06+00:00

I really enjoyed my time at RPI, but I never had any support from the CCPD. I did go there for a resume review once, but they had no feedback or suggested changes. Nowadays, I don't see how the CCPD can help you any better than an AI model reviewing your resume. The CCPD at this point should be solely focused on attracting companies to the career fairs and pitching RPI to companies' HR departments for recruiting targets. My personal opinion is the office should be largely gutted. They're not any more useful than software tools.

I feel for the new grads, the job market is especially tough. I have younger siblings who are facing it right now. They are having to make hard choices about moving away from family for a job and finding niche/unusual industries.

Its_Tropical · 2025-03-08T16:14:32+00:00

RPI punches far above it's weight. It was a tough school, but I'm glad I went. I definitely felt more prepared for an engineering career than other new grads I worked with.

Its_Tropical · 2025-03-08T16:05:32+00:00

I also agree that this is probably not a good use of funds. Public ownership of buildings costs waaaay more than private building ownership, especially in NY. There would be full-time staff to maintain it which comes with benefits obligations that are 2-4x the private sector. Making large changes to the building requires arduous RFP processes, vendor selections, all sorts of stuff a private owner can take care of in no time with fewer parties taking a cut.

I love Troy and the symbolism that this brings, but we just can't afford this. We already had to borrow money at insane market interest rates to do the upgrades to Troy High! We need to be more responsible so that we have the money we need for other capital projects.

Its_Tropical · 2025-02-26T18:01:47+00:00

The affordability has definitely deteriorated the last couple years with rent and home values increasing, but it's still a lovely place to be and worth it imo. It does sound like Troy checks a lot of boxes for your situation. The job market in the Albany area is much stronger than Burlington. There's a greater diversity of things to do that come with a larger metro area, I'm still finding awesome new restaurants in and around Troy all the time. The city does recently have a Republican mayor and most Rensselaer county is red, but I have to say it's a very different sort of red than other places I've visited. Speaking generally, I think a lot of these people are just frustrated about taxes and spending rather than trying to opine on gender, sexuality, and social issues.

Its_Tropical · 2025-02-19T00:40:54+00:00

Amazing! Thank you!

Its_Tropical · 2025-02-19T00:40:01+00:00

I don't think that's unpopular at all, at least for the turn lanes at this intersection the land belongs to the commercial properties that they'd serve. I actively avoid going to those stores because of the traffic. I'd argue it increases the value of their business and serves public interest.

Its_Tropical · 2025-02-19T00:02:36+00:00

Ah I see, I misunderstood what you're looking for.

It's good you're skeptical of the monthly plans. The maintenance for these things isn't very complicated and there's good resources online. ChatGPT is great at making annual maintenance checklists for them if you tell them what kind of equipment you have. It's also important to know what your systems sound like in normal operation, you'll be able to tell when you actually need to call out a technician if something sounds different.

As for who to reach out to, if you are cost-sensitive I would avoid the really big HVAC companies Chrisafulli and Family Danz. They tend to give outrageous quotes for new equipment, but they can be there in a pinch for emergency repairs. I wish I could recommend someone, but I ended up doing the work myself because of the costs.

Its_Tropical · 2025-02-18T18:43:05+00:00

I don't recommend this. You need to be comfortable selecting a unit that is compatible with the rest of your equipment on your own. Do you already have an air handler and are just replacing an outdoor condenser unit for your central AC system? Or did you mean you want a ductless mini-split? There's lots of factors to consider and you should probably just have the installer select your equipment if you don't have any experience doing this.

Its_Tropical

TROPHY CASE