

Retaining Recent College Graduates in Boston: Is There a Brain Drain? - wallflower
http://www.bostonredevelopmentauthority.org/getattachment/170db5fb-ad3b-4fbb-a143-82f7d7f4539e/

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Animats
_The city itself is home to 35 colleges and universities enrolling about
152,000 students._

The Redevelopment Authority is complaining that, after graduating, 4 out of 5
students leave. After 20 pages, they conclude that's what's supposed to
happen.

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VLM
The thought experiment about 2/3 of the way thru is very amusing, in a city of
basically constant size over previous decades, if a significant fraction of
the grads actually stayed, the population doubling rate would be just a couple
decades.

Another humorous way to look at it is a "large" fraction of the 150K grads are
imports from across the country and around the world, so if the imports don't
leave the city will obviously eventually fill up. Its a conservation of mass
argument.

The report carefully avoided discussing why there are no new jobs on a net
basis in Boston. The government there is just a tad oppressive, the rebels of
1776 have turned into the redcoats of 2014 and all that.

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eli_gottlieb
>The report carefully avoided discussing why there are no new jobs on a net
basis in Boston. The government there is just a tad oppressive, the rebels of
1776 have turned into the redcoats of 2014 and all that.

Blaming the MA state government requires rather a lot of justification,
considering the taxation levels are on par with California and MA doesn't
(yet) even make noncompete agreements unenforceable.

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jofer
On a side note, while the visualization at the start of the paper is quite
nifty, does the rotation make it annoying to read for anyone else, or is that
just me?

Also, from a visualization standpoint, it's an interesting and original
figure, it's rather hard to interpret. I'd argue that two or three separate
conventional figures showing the same thing would make the point more clearly
in about the same amount of space.

That having been said, it's a unique and compact way to display the data. I'm
just not sure it's an effective communication tool. (Of course, I'd be rather
proud of it if I'd made it...)

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chrisbennet
This is a PDF! Please note that in the title. Some of us don't want to
download PDFs to our mobile devices.

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eli_gottlieb
Of course there's a bloody brain drain. There's no affordable housing, and
median salaries for most graduates are nowhere near commensurate with the cost
of living in the Boston metro area. What do they _expect_ , that already-
indebted graduates should _further_ impoverish ourselves _for the privilege_
of living in a cold, dark, snobby city with a severe inferiority complex?

~~~
TTPrograms
Starting Median pay in Boston: $50,500 -
[http://www.forbes.com/pictures/efkk45mhij/no-10-best-
paying-...](http://www.forbes.com/pictures/efkk45mhij/no-10-best-paying-city-
boston-cambridge-quincy-mass-n-h/)

Starting Median pay in San Fran: $57,200 -
[http://www.forbes.com/pictures/efkk45mhij/no-2-best-
paying-c...](http://www.forbes.com/pictures/efkk45mhij/no-2-best-paying-city-
san-francisco-oakland-fremont-calif/)

Average Rent in Boston (1 BR): ~$2000 - [http://boston.jumpshell.com/how-
to/where-to-live-in-boston/a...](http://boston.jumpshell.com/how-to/where-to-
live-in-boston/average-rent-in-boston)

Average Rent in San Fran (1 BR): $2873 - [http://www.rentjungle.com/average-
rent-in-san-francisco-rent...](http://www.rentjungle.com/average-rent-in-san-
francisco-rent-trends)

Rent / Salary in Boston: 0.0396

Rent / Salary in San Fran: 0.0502

"There's no affordable housing, and median salaries for most graduates are
nowhere near commensurate with the cost of living in the Boston metro area."
Certainly no worse than San Fran, at least. As to the rest of the comment, how
has Boston hurt you?

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eli_gottlieb
>"There's no affordable housing, and median salaries for most graduates are
nowhere near commensurate with the cost of living in the Boston metro area."
Certainly no worse than San Fran, at least.

So, certainly no worse than _the single least affordable city in the entire
country._

>As to the rest of the comment, how has Boston hurt you?

Honestly, I just kinda hate cold climate zones, especially when they're snobby
while also offering low quality of life. But mostly I just _really_ hate cold
climates.

~~~
jeffreyrogers
While I don't mind the cold too much, for me the darkness in the winter is
really frustrating. It seems like such a small thing, but when it gets dark at
4:15 it really takes away my motivation to go outside.

~~~
chillingeffect
lol, reading this at 5:28p on East Coast. It just got dark, and my body and I
can't tell if it's 11pm or 8:30pm or 6:30pm. I'm not sure how to pace my
evening. The natural timing that evening's slow light fade provides is truly a
gift.

oh well, only 36 days until the shortest day of the year!

