HMCgrad

When I was visiting the school I found that rule out as well. I asked my friend who is a current senior at ND, he said he is almost certain that most of the rules that pertain to the undergrads (such as rules about hard alcohol, abstinence, and parietals) don't apply to grad student housing complexes. However I did not double check with any university officials. I decided to live off-campus so other than reading some of the university rulebook (which wasn't clear) and asking my friend I haven't pursued the issue. Sorry to not have a definite answer. BTW I know that the way students end up getting caught for this rule is that there are university staff (I believe someone of religious authority) living on each floor of the dorms for the undergrads, this is not so with the grad student housing and so my instinct is that it is not a problem.

Silverlake is very close to downtown and isn't much of a halfway point. Because it is north of downtown you would be able to avoid the downtown traffic by taking the 2 north to the 134/210 east, but it is still quite far from claremont in distance. Silverlake is also fairly expensive. I would say the best place might be pasadena or somewhere near it, only about 15 min from downtown and 25 from claremont (both times with no traffic) If you want to be closer to downtown try Glendale, or eagle rock (a little bit north of silverlake making it cheaper and easier to get to claremont by jumping on the 210 east)

Yeah, I agree with the above poster. So when you say live in LA it really depends on what you mean, LA is a huge metro area. If you don't want to spend hours and hours on the road DON'T live in downtown or anywhere west of it. I currently live in Pasadena and it takes me 25 minutes to get to the claremont colleges if there is no traffic, but during rush hour it can take much longer (longest i had was about 2 hours on a friday afternoon. I know some people who commute every day from Pasadena to claremont, but its not pleasent. The traffic situation gets progressively worse as you move west, so if you live in an area closer to claremont (such as Covina) you will be fine. Living anywhere near the coast is not advised as it will take forever to get to claremont anytime during the day. As to the facilities and the program I cannot say, as an undergrad I never really learned anything about CGU. Sorry.

Computer Science and Engineering, though I do hardware so I will certainly be taking lots of EE classes as well.

Probably going to ND, not sure yet though. Waiting on one more school...though since it is getting pretty late will probably be a rejection. I have to say im not sold on south bend (coming from sunny Los angeles) but ND has a fantastic campus, and I am excited to join the community. What department will you be in?

I also lived on campus for my whole undergrad, what I remember about friends living off campus is that studio/1 bedroom places are pretty expensive (basically as a student its difficult to live alone) but that 2 bedroom apts are reasonable (maybe 600/month per room) You might be able to pay less by living in a house with a group of people, I know some people who did that for the summer and paid something like $450-500 a month. I found this link to listings for housing near the claremont colleges, I don't know how old it is or anything but it certainly is nice that someone else did all the work to put it together, it should help http://iplace.claremont.edu/main/CurrentApartments.pdf

I also went to a claremont school (Harvey Mudd). I really enjoyed living in claremont. There certainly are some areas in claremont that have expensive housing, but you can find fairly reasonable apartments as well. While there are about 5000 undergrads in all the 5c's you won't really need to compete with them for housing as something like 98% choose to live on campus. There are some decent apartments just north of Harvey Mudd at xing of Foothill and Mills. I know some people who lived there and they really liked it. It is true that there are some areas around claremont that aren't very nice, but if you have a car there are definitely nice places to live that aren't right next to campus. Because it is not right in the middle of LA you can live in other areas and not have too much trouble with traffic. You probably don't want to live any farther west than Covina otherwise traffic on the 210 will be a pain but if you search around you can find something both nice and cheap. As far as living in claremont goes, the on campus live at the claremont colleges tends to cater towards the undergrads that make up the majority of the population and other than visiting the village area there is very little to do in actual claremont. However, you are only 20-30 minutes away from Pasadena, which is a very nice town, and maybe 45 from downtown LA/Orange county. I know a few CGU students who suffer the traffic and actually live out in Pasadena, but it is expensive so that might not be the best choice financially. I will try my best to answer any specific questions you have, I graduated recenly so I should be able to give you up-to-date info.

Thanks for the info! I was accepted at ND for their CSE PhD program and I am pretty sure I will end up going there. I am both vegetarian and health conscious and was a little put off by the number of greasy restaurants near campus during my visits, it is great to hear that their are at least a few health food stores in the area. After living in LA for the past 5 years South Bend obviously has a bit of a different feel to it, but the ND campus is really nice and it seems like there is a pretty active on campus life for most students (especially if you like college football in the fall!) Is there much off campus life? I love to stay active by playing volleyball, do you know if many people play in South Bend? (or the surrounding areas?) Thanks!