jennyw89

I currently go to LSU, and am deciding between here and University of Louisville for grad school. As for friendliness, everybody's easy to get along with. Safety: there have actually been quite a few robberies at gun point this year. I hadn't ever heard of them before with any commonality... but this year, they seem to happen every other week. A couple of my friend's boyfriends were robbed at gunpoint. That was only between midnight-3am by tigerland and on brightside. Don't live too far down brightside, that seems to be a popular robbery area. One of my friend's apartments was broken into while we were at a football game this past fall. And don't live in the northgate area, its sketchy over there. Just to clarify, Baton Rouge isn't a scary place- just like any city, there are areas to avoid. Cost: it's not as cheap as you'd think. Overall, baton rouge has cheap cost of living, but when it comes to living near campus, the cost gets jacked up big time. The demand is just too high, and the apartment complex management can get away with it. Places TO live: -If I decide to go to LSU, I'm going to live at Place du Plantier. They are near campus, but far away enough from Tigerland. They have a no party policy, so there aren't crazy drunken parties til 4am every night of the week like at most other apartments. I have a few friends that live there now that are very school-focused, and they really like it. And since it's grad school, my goal is to be more school-focused. It's not on the LSU bus route, but it's less than a 5 minute drive to campus. It's not the nicest place in the world, but it's definitely the nicest for the money. It's one of the best-priced apartment complexes that is near campus. Not gated, but far enough away from the craziness to not need to be. (And they have two pools, which is really nice when it gets to be so dang hot over here.) -Another one of my friends lives in Brook Hollow. These are really nice, spacious apartments, and really close to campus. I really like the layout of her apartment. They are closer to Tigerland, but not actually in Tigerland. She says the only downside is that it is not gated, and she gets a little nervous about that when it's late at night. -Highland Plantation is another apartment that I've considered. It's on the Highland road, which runs right through campus, so very short distance. On the LSU bus route, so that's a plus if you're planning on getting to campus that way. I don't have any friends that live there, even though it's a huge place. It seems really convenient, and I know a lot of the units have been re-done recently. -There's also a lot of smaller complexes close to campus that are in walking distance. I had a couple friends living together in Ivy Condominiums off of West Parker, and they really liked it there. It's a tiny complex. They had a great landlord. They moved over to Brightside to save money on rent, but regret it (they're the ones that had there apartment broken into... definitely ended up not being a good decision to move over there). Let me know if you have any other questions! Geaux Tigers!!!!!!!!! You'll love it here

These posts have been really helpful! I'm finishing up my senior year at LSU right now, and just got accepted to Louisville's grad program. I was wondering the best way to go about finding an apartment... should I just search more online, or do yall have more specific names? I'm planning on getting a 1 bedroom, and I REALLY want washer and dryer in unit if at all possible. I'm going to be commuting to the medical campus, but from what I understand, that's not far at all from the regular campus. It sounds like the two best areas are old louisville and east parkway. Since I'm going to try and be focusing on schoolwork more that in undergrad years, I'm wanting to find a place that undergrad neighbors won't be having parties every night. Also, how soon do I need to sign a lease? Here in Baton Rouge, people are signing leases now, and if they wait much longer, they are bound to have a tough time finding a reasonable apartment (cost and distance). How is it in Louisville? Any and all info is greatly appreciated!