Originally Posted by Siyu Suen

I love Massachusetts, and after visiting and staying in a few other states I can only imagine leaving it for another true blue New England spot or maybe upstate New York. Mass has such a sort of camaraderie of elitist, puritan, crazy geeky conservative liberals. We have such a huge knot of colleges, you can trip over them in the city! With the Big Dig and the emerald necklace project, Boston is absolutely gorgeous in some places (every city has its icky holes), and the beach, Providence RI and the Cape are just short drives or train rides away. Temperature wise, winter can be harsh (we've had -30F with wind chill before), but summers are wonderfully mild, very rarely breaking 100F and fall and spring are amaaaazing. New England fall...

Personally, I adore it. I love the people I meet in the city (but I'm young and so are the majority of the college goers, 50% of the population of the Boston area is between 18-30), I love the weather and the variety and the sense of community. But it's expensive to live here, and housing space is at a premium because Mass has a very dense population. It's not that bad, but if you're on too tight of a budget, then maybe Vermont would be better...