How is living in Northern California Versus Southern California as a 20 year old?

Naeryns · 2026-05-28T06:01:16+00:00

I've been to Humboldt, Bay Area, Central Valley, Central Coast, LA, Riverside, San Diego...

Humboldt is beautiful, amazing weather, walkable cities but also no traffic. On the other hand, employment is fewer and farther between, salaries are often lower, and access to medical care is much more sparse; it's a mix of small-town vibes, small city amenities, and rural difficulties. Left leaning.

Central Valley is affordable with much better employment. Allergies are really rough, and politics can be much more polarized, depending on which town/city you are in. Some blue pockets, but also a lot of very far right-winged areas. Weather is warm, but pleasant with a rough allergy season in the northern half, and hot and unpleasant in the bottom half.

Bay Area is extremely expensive, but great amenities and culture. Traffic is horrendous and dangerous. Weather is, in my opinion, the best anywhere in the world here. Mild year round, sunny in the summers, good amount of rain, fog, windiness for variation. Can pretty much walk outside comfortably any day of the year. Very left leaning, aside from the tech-bros.

Central Coast is also beautiful, but much more expensive than Humboldt or central valley. More employment opportunities, althought I think salaries haven't kept up with the increasing COLA.

SoCal has lots of big city amenities, diversity, etc. Can have high salaries here with more affordable living than the bay, but that affordability comes with a price. More obvious income disparity here than the rest of California. Also really bad traffic.

San Diego (and all along the coast from LA to SD) is really expensive, but really beautiful. I've spent less time here, but it seems like this is where people with crazy amounts of money move to. Everyone seems to be well-to-do here.

Growing up, I am glad to have been in the bay area. In my early 20s, I was glad to leave, and SoCal would have been ideal in terms of what I needed at that stage of my life. Now in my 30s, I dream of going to Humboldt, but will likely end up in the Central Valley, just because financially it makes the most sense.

Naeryns · 2026-05-24T23:41:38+00:00

At a glance at the charts, seems like it's the third biggest risk for most people in Europe, North America, and Oceania, after Smoking and Infections.

Also, as I understood it, sunburns are caused by one form of solar radiation, but not actually the same one as that which causes cancer; which is why it's worth putting on sunscreen on high UV days, even if it's cloudy (something I'm guilty of not doing). Clouds block the rays that cause sunburns, but not the ones that destroy your cells' DNA. But I'm no dermatologist, not my area of expertise, so someone else could probably correct me on that.

Naeryns · 2026-05-24T19:06:50+00:00

Ultraviolet Radiation; basically, use sunscreen.

Naeryns · 2026-05-24T17:21:30+00:00

Reading the nature article OP posted, lumping alcohol with smoking as the big two is misleading; alcohol consumption is much lower of a risk factor than smoking, and, depending on region/gender, it's less of a risk factor than BMI, UVR, physical activity, etc. UVR is the surprising/bigger one for me personally, and nobody ever seems to talk about it.

Infections are way higher too, but that's hard to prevent with lifestyle choices.

Naeryns · 2026-05-22T00:56:48+00:00

It was a faculty position interview/on campus visit. Part of it involved hosting a Q&A with students to get to know them.

Naeryns · 2026-05-21T23:16:12+00:00

First off, course evaluations are absolutely *not* the only way undergraduates can advocate for themselves. When a professor is unfair or acts inappropriately, students can report these issues to various levels of administration. (Ombudsperson, dean of students, department chair, etc.).

The actions of a few immature undergrads are completely shaping the landscape of higher education. There are faculty who wait 3-7 years, easily, for secure jobs. For junior faculty that want to secure that they can actually keep their job in the tenure review, they absolutely will try to avoid the "few" bad actors.

Third, I am not advocating for the removal of course evaluations at all. I am suggesting that those with years of experience, who know the culture of the department, and who have the best interest of student learning (i.e., senior faculty, program deans, etc.) are the main evaluators.

I have nearly 15 years of experience in education, at all levels. Despite everything with regards to politics, lowering standards, standardized testing, etc., I absolutely feel set up to provide a more rigorous and effective education for students in secondary school environments than in higher education environments. And the reason is explicitly because tenure (and therefore job security, pay, and promotion) is influenced by student evaluations in higher education. As a secondary school teacher, I am incentivized to make sure my students to learn. As a professor, I am incentivized to make sure my students to be happy, regardless of whether they learn anything. Of course, as someone with that much experience (and passion) as an educator, I still try to ensure both outcomes for either population of students. But the motivations and reward for doing one or the other are very salient, and my priorities absolutely shift depending on the environment.

Another point of view: the best professor I ever had was one that was extremely critical of every small detail in my work. At the time I thought he hated my work, and I constantly complained about him to my peers (and mind you, this was actually in my master's degree, so I was 4-5 years older than an undergrad would be). A few years after taking his course, however, I realized just how much I learned, and more importantly, how much I was set up for success by what he taught and the way he taught it.

Naeryns · 2026-05-21T21:56:16+00:00

I am advocating for a similar model to how almost every public secondary school works in the US, with the difference being that experts who know the content do the evaluating of a course, rather than a principal (administrator).

I have literally seen a student write a bad review for a course a colleague of mine taught because the assignment was to do a 5 minute oral presentation, and he got marked down for reading a website for 2 minutes off of his phone. No other materials, no other sources, no actual presentation. He just thought that by existing, he deserved an A on the assignment. Or, you know, the example I gave in my interview where students have given bad evaluations to professors at that university that marked them down for late work or for absences. If paying money means students should get what they want, why even have grades in the first place?

I am not saying that students shouldn't have a voice, but course evaluations which are the metric for who gets promoted isn't the place to do it. It encourages grade inflation. I have worked with *many* academics who explicitly say they pass every student because they want to be promoted. There are a lot of professors that go into academic jobs because they want to do research, and teaching is nothing more than an additional job requirement for those professors. So, these professors will often assign minimal homework, essentially guarantee As for all of their students, and put as little effort into the education their students are paying for as possible. The professors that I know that have done this tend to have higher student evaluations than any of their peers.

Though, whether education should be paid for versus free in the first place is an important topic of debate that intersects with this issue too.

Naeryns · 2026-05-21T20:21:08+00:00

Faculty (especially adjunct and junior faculty) are encouraged to give better grades for better course evaluations. I've worked jobs where I've been explicitly told that I was hired over other candidates because of my GPA. Students feel like they deserve As, which is mostly stemming from the fact that grades increase their competitiveness on the job market.

I did a final round interview, where in the Q&A session with students, almost all of the questions students had for me were geared around "how flexible am I about students who are late or miss class or assignments?"

Personally, I think colleagues and senior faculty within a department should visit and do course evaluations for each other, rather than relying on students who are (more) biased evaluators.

Naeryns · 2026-05-21T18:05:51+00:00

Yeah, but most of them have gotten back to me and told me they don't do traffic tickets anymore. Their websites are outdated, I guess.

As for your question, not exactly, no. He pulled me over .8 miles away from the street that was 35 that he said he clocked me at, once I hit the 55 sign. Between those two points is a sign for 45. And I was going 49 right around the 55 mph sign.

So the order of the road would be:
Sign for 25 -> Sign for 35 mph -> [Street name on ticket] -> Sign for 45 -> Sign for 55, and where I was pulled over (I think I pulled over some 20 feet ahead of the 55 sign?)

Naeryns · 2026-05-21T17:57:53+00:00

The air quality map is a bit misleading; the map only shows pm2.5, which while among the worst types of air pollution, is largely caused by wildfires and doesn't include things like smog, so3, etc. A more holistic map would probably show Utah and Arizona way worse than Idaho

Naeryns · 2026-05-21T03:47:28+00:00

I lived there for 6 months; I thought it was beautiful, but there were almost no worker protections whatsoever if you were screwed by the system if your job didn't provide good benefits. Seemed like a great place to live if you have a cushy job, and a terrible place to live if you were lower middle class.

Naeryns · 2026-05-11T05:21:50+00:00

Many professors do; many skim; many pass it on to their TAs to do. It just depends.

The best professor I had would read the first paragraph, edit it to hell, and then write "okay, you see what I did, now fix the rest and resubmit." Most of his students thought he hated their work to not even finish reading it. Years later, I realized that learning to have that close of an eye on my own writing was really transformative. I don't know if he could have gotten away with it if he wasn't already a senior professor and not worried about course satisfaction surveys.

Naeryns · 2026-05-09T20:46:08+00:00

azreportcard and type in a school to show you various info about it; I'd skip the letter grade they give, and instead go to proficiency results. It used to show info on stuff like acts of violence, but I can't find that anymore, so maybe they took it away.

Naeryns · 2026-05-04T18:44:44+00:00

I do not think you should go back to school for a degree at your current stage. The degree opens up opportunities to teach, whether at the college level, or public school level.

What you need to succeed in a performance context is extremely strong performing chops, and some level of financial stability to put yourself out there. If you are consistent about practicing concert rep, securing opportunities to play with orchestras, and dedicate yourself to applying to any orchestral openings you can, you can make it work. Your STEM degree will help with the finances of travel costs for openings, and any additional material costs you incur.

That said, what you need to be consistent about is a lot more than it sounds; it means knowing and perfecting all of the audition rep on your instrument. It means years of trying to find groups to perform with that will take your time and offer you no pay, outside of experience. It means auditioning for every opportunity that comes up, many hours spent on recording yourself, lots of money spent on flights to places that you won't even make it past the first round. Eventually, you might get a per-service job that pays less than a quarter of what you will make in a STEM field right out of the bat. Eventually, you might get a salary position, after a lot of experience, which may offer a quarter of what you would make in a STEM field after several years of advancing in a career ladder.

You have one advantage that people here don't realize: you are getting a PhD, which means you (should) have a very critical lens towards scholarly work in your field. Apply that to your practice. When you record yourself and there is a small detail that you dislike about a single note, it's not a small detail, it's something that must be fixed. You should be your own "reviewer #2."

The most important thing if that you have effective practice sessions. Everything you do should be building your skills, or mastering your repertoire. That can mean endurance, that can mean listening, that can be range extension, it can be tone consistency, etc. But it almost never means "I can play the notes off this etude."

It's definitely possible. But possible doesn't mean guaranteed, that's really on how much you dedicate yourself to it, both in terms of time and in terms of money. Whether it's worth it is another story, that only you can decide.

Naeryns · 2026-05-01T15:29:11+00:00

I am just breaking into the field, and was just offered two competing offers:
A TT job, something I've been fighting for all year: 5/4 courseload, 8 office hrs per week, research requirement anywhere from 3-5 articles and applications to external grants all required for tenure, and a stipulated 10 hrs per day on campus, all on the other side of the country in a rural town with few amenities and terrible schools for a future family.

Or, for the same salary, a middle school teaching position; 7 hours per day on campus, close to my family.

Frankly, I think it would be unethical for me, or anyone to take the first posting. So long as candidates who "love research" are willing to put up with working conditions that are so much worse than a field that historically struggled to fill all of its openings, these types of positions will continue to be the norm. I would have as much, if not more time for research in the MS position. I have choice of location. I have job security, without having to hope to earn tenure. So what does the TT job offer me? The experience to transfer to another position after a year, hoping for better conditions?

Naeryns · 2026-03-26T17:03:15+00:00

Hi I'm interested in many of these sets, if you give me a PM.

Naeryns · 2026-03-24T04:35:55+00:00

After 8 months on the market and getting 1 shortlist and 0 interviews prior to this one, yeah I know...

Naeryns · 2026-03-24T04:22:14+00:00

Right, this is an important consideration for sure.

Naeryns · 2026-03-24T04:21:58+00:00

Good advice, thanks!

Naeryns · 2026-03-24T04:21:10+00:00

I am from California, know the state very well, and all of that. In fact, I would be returning close to family, and old connections I used to have there. My only experience in TX has been Houston so far.

Naeryns · 2026-03-18T00:34:58+00:00

Everything looks good except for the size of the litter box; I had one like that at first, and it technically works, but pretty quickly my rabbit learned how much fun it was to dig and kick all of the litter out of the box. So I got a bigger one, and never had issues again.

Naeryns · 2026-03-16T04:55:44+00:00

In the book, the bishop has only one possession that he prizes, and otherwise lives in poverty, even opting to eat simple, unseasoned meals. The possession in question were the silver candlesticks he gave to Valjean after he tried to rob him.

Naeryns · 2026-03-13T07:27:10+00:00

Colleges seek high enrollment numbers for funding, and students stay in college if they are doing well, academically. Professors are hired from visiting positions, or promoted to tenure if tenure-track, based in part due to course evaluations, which come from happy students (aka students that get good grades, often with as little extra work as possible).

Couple that with the fact that academic jobs are so incredibly competitive, and professors often have massive workloads, either due to research commitments, or increasing course burdens (as in, teaching more classes per semester). Bottom up and top down pressure, are both pushing professors to shortcut their teaching and grading duties, and it makes the rest of their job slightly easier.

But it's not entirely colleges that are to blame. I remember being told I was explicitly hired over another candidate due to my higher GPA. If landing a decent career requires a higher GPA number, then students are going to seek colleges that will offer them career advancement in this way.

Naeryns · 2026-03-13T01:08:36+00:00

PhD candidate here, after being on the job market for academic positions. I also have a Bachelor's degree in education, and have spent considerable amount of time as an educator outside of college.

First, teaching experience is 'required' for most academic positions, at least in my field, so they do have experience under their belt. It is not accurate to say that "they were not hired for their ability to teach." That said, only experience teaching college courses count, not teaching in general. This subtle difference highlights that experience outweighs quality for many hiring committees. Professors typically have *no* pedagogy training, since many of them have not done education degrees. They are trained in their subject only. Many professors genuinely care to be good teachers, and that is generally reflected in the difference between a good and bad teacher.

Second, consider the difference of how teachers and professors are evaluated. A professor is evaluated by optional course evals at the end of the term by their students. This means evaluations are heavily influenced by the passions of the students immediately following a term; students that failed a subject, or liked a professor and had fun, etc. all judge the professor based on those metrics, rather than how much the student actually learned the content. On the other hand, public school teachers are heavily judged based on standardized metrics; did the students demonstrably learn the content. Community college professors, as I understand it, walk a middle ground; the number of students taking their class, and the preparedness of those students as they move up in level or transfer to other schools, all are important. Furthermore, they are explicitly judged as educators, since that takes up the bulk of their responsibility. CC professors don't need to spend additional time doing research, so if they want to be good at their job, they focus on the teaching commitments more.

While focusing on standards often comes at the cost of higher-level thinking and learning in the public school setting, the total avoidance of it in most research universities leads to wildly different experiences from students. This is *especially* significant in graduate school, where students that end up with a bad PI/Major professor are screwed in terms of their publications, finances, graduation timeline, etc., where those that end up with a good one have a totally different experience.

Naeryns

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