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Helen___Keller t1_ixis3mm wrote

Agree with other commenters but make sure to examine what you consider “decent standard of living”

Urban living with roommates on that salary will be fine. If you start adding expectations of say living in an expensive new building, having in-unit laundry, having a car and a dedicated parking spot, etc, then it’s more questionable.

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__radical OP t1_ixl9610 wrote

Yes, this is mainly what I was wondering about. I know that it’s above average for most starting salaries but I figured its not quite enough for all of those things in Cambridge. I would consider having in unit laundry and a parking space to be pretty basic standards of living but closer to a big city its harder to do. Of course I’m fine without those things but definitely something to consider. It’s interesting because when I was applying to jobs to places further out of a city, the compensation went way up because they had to convince a 22 year old to move to tiddlyfuck Indiana. So it’s funny how cost of living goes up and wages for degree holders go down the closer into the city you get, whereas it’s vice versa for the Midwest

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Helen___Keller t1_ixm2hfx wrote

Parking spot is usually rare in cheaper housing because city space is a premium. On street parking is possible.

In unit laundry is unfortunately very rare because our housing stock is mostly 100 year old buildings that weren’t build for it, so adding in unit laundry is a big project for a unit owner.

City compensation is usually much higher. I make probably more than double than I would in the middle of nowhere. YMMV of course, especially based on industry. If you’re in tech, finance, or biotech id imagine you should end up doing much better here than the Midwest (except perhaps Chicago)

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