Okay, here's the plan for dental school......

Since we only have until Jan 2nd to make a decision, we're "buying" ourselves some extra time by putting the deposit down on both schools. Midwestern & UIC both have programs that I'd love to attend, each with their own pros & cons.


Midwestern University, Glendale AZ:
As of now, this is where we'll go. The housing market is so depressed right now that we can get a huge house for a very reasonable price, very close to Midwestern. Property taxes are really low there since they get their money from higher sales taxes. (Yes, someone actually has sales taxes higher than Chicago). There are lots of good school districts in the area, contrary to AZ's historic reputation, and the entire state has all day kindergarten. The state has also revamped their special ed programs over the last few years and we liked what we saw. All the school districts offer extended care and the park districts have a lot to offer. Not to mention that we would be able to take advantage of all that the city/area has to offer, more often then we do now, because it's smaller than Chicago and easier to get around. Jim would have been able to easily lateral to LAX and hold a flying line (instead of reserve), but the new "fly until age 65" rule has thrown a wrench in things. The bids for June have been suspended by UAL until they can figure out what's up with their manning and who won't be retiring now. This is probably the biggest reason for the difficultly we've had in making a decision. Things will settle down at UAL in a month or two and then we can reassess the situation.


University of Illinois at Chicago:
We're holding on to my seat here in case things at UAL really stagnate due to the old farts not wanting to retire. It would be difficult for Jim to commute to Chicago from Phoenix while holding only a reserve line. Because housing prices and property taxes generally increase as you get closer to the city, we really can't afford anything close enough to UIC to be a reasonable commute for me, with good schools that would have an acceptable amount of space for the whole family. (Note I said acceptable, not comfortable or even decent.) And, we really don't want to exceed our budget such that our kids have to live on Ramen noodles and free happy hour pub grub for the next 4 years, like we did when we were in college. (They have their college years to look forward to for that!). Of course, we have no idea what we'd do for housing if we end up staying in Chicagoland, but still having the option available gives us a warm fuzzy in case we win the lottery.

Bottom line, we don't really want to leave Chicagoland and family, but we have to look out for what's best for our immediate family unit. This is our flight plan at this time, and flight plans are simply something to deviate from!