Ithaca, NY

[psycholinguist]

No problem! My own adjustment to independence has taken place almost entirely in Ithaca - it's a great place for the transition since it's small, fairly easy to get around, and VERY student-oriented. (I know the constant flow of students in and out of the town drives the locals crazy, but it may be mostly thanks to the two colleges that the town still exists.) Let me know if you have any other questions!

[frencrit11]

I'm going to Cornell in the fall to start a Romance studies PhD... I'm looking for housing, which I will have to do remotely Can anyone give any advice about where to live/not live as a grad student? I'd like to live in an area with other grad students but not on-campus. Thanks!

[slothy]

I'm looking for housing, which I will have to do remotely Can anyone give any advice about where to live/not live as a grad student? I'd like to live in an area with other grad students but not on-campus. Thanks!

I"m in the same boat... there's been some helpful posts over the last few weeks in the "Cornell 09" thread in the Meet and Greet section.

[DJLamar]

Seems like this topic went completely unnoticed last year... I wonder if there's another.

Anyway, I was accepted to Cornell and while it seems like one of my best choices academically (out of the schools I applied to that I actually have more than a snowball's chance in hell of getting into -- at this point I've only heard from one other PhD program and haven't had other PhD acceptances), I am a little bit worried about the size of the city like others have said. I'm actually from a very small town (around 3,000 people) in the South, and grew tired of that pretty quickly during my teenage years. Luckily, Ithaca is of course still much bigger than my hometown and it's a college town (so I assume there is more to do than your average 30,000 person town), but I'm still worried. The only places I've lived since age 18 are Atlanta and Munich (I'm 22 now), and I have been very, very happy living in big cities.

One of the things that seems like an upshot to life in Ithaca is the difference between the stipend and the cost of living. I still haven't gotten my official letter in the mail, but www.gradschool.cornell.edu seems to imply that I would get at least $2400 a month (before taxes, after health insurance) for a stipend without a fellowship. At the same time, it seems like I could live in Ithaca, even on campus, for $400 a month or less. I wouldn't have too many other expenses, so it seems like I would be able to live pretty comfortably there...

Anyway, I'm mostly just ranting and I don't think I have any real questions at this point. I guess the best thing I have to ask is what the stipend generally is for an RA or TA in an engineering/technical field after taxes are withheld.

[punkybugsy]

I didn't live in Ithaca, but I lived about an hour and a half away from it for awhile. The town is a nice, funky college town, but definitely not a big city. Ask yourself this... do you LOVE snow.. because if you hate snow, it's probably not the place for you. If you're indifferent to snow, than I think it's a great place to be.

[DJLamar]

Ha, I like snow, but being from Georgia, most of the time that I've seen it it's gone away in a few days tops. I think there have been only two separate occasions in my life when I was around snow that was on the ground for even as long as two weeks -- one was when I was a kid in 1994 or so when there was actually a snowstorm/blizzard (supposedly; I'm not sure of it's magnitude and how much hype went into the word "blizzard" being thrown around ) of sorts here, and the other was while I was in Munich.

[punkybugsy]

You can expect 70-90% snow coverage from anytime between Late October to early April depending on the year... at my undergrad school we hadn't had a snow day in 40 years and the day that we did it snowed 4 feet in a day and half... so just know you'll be expected to be in class and teaching unless you see those levels of accumulation

[so47]

Yay! I'm glad I found this topic, it is very helpful.

I am visiting Cornell the weekend of March 5-7, but have pretty much already made up my mind to go there! I am very excited as already trying to plan housing and such.

I'm kind of thinking that the easiest way for me to do housing is to live in University Housing the first year, since I don't see me having the opportunity to get up there to look at housing in person, and I don't feel comfortable signing and lease on a place that I have never seen. So I'm leaning towards just living in Hasbrouck my first year, then moving off campus after that.

Is there anyone around who actually has lived in the grad student housing? The one question I have is about the furniture provided. They say that the single student housing has twin XL beds... Personally, I haven't had a twin XL bed since freshmen year and don't really want to have a twin bed in grad school. Will they store furniture you don't want? I'm thinking it's a know from the vague statements on the web site. Are the bed frames easy to take apart? I would like to get a queen bed, then stuff the mattress and frame they provide underneath it. I would prefer an unfurnished apt, but they only have them available in studios and 1 bedrooms which are like $900 bucks a month...

[red_crayons]

As a Cornell alum, current Ithaca resident and very likely future Cornell grad student, I just wanted to chime in on this thread.

I really, really love Ithaca. However, housing can be kind of a pain. It's WAY overpriced for the size of the town, and a lot of the apartments are really shabby and depressing. However, you can find nice places if you are persistent and know where to look. I'm starting this process right now, reluctantly. I am hoping to share a two bedroom with another incoming grad if I stay, because I need to be shaken out of my habits and get to know some new people if I'm signing on for another 5 years here.

Fall Creek is the best area to live as a grad/young professional, IMHO. It's near a campus shuttle that runs once every ten minutes during the week, the apartments tend to be nicer and cheaper, it's closer to the few good bars, the houses are charming, and there are nice antique stores and coffee shops in the area. Downtown has a little pedestrian mall, with restaurants and several festivals throughout the year.

AVOID Collegetown (undergrad ghetto south of campus), with the possible exception of State Street or below Stewart Ave. North is ok, but the bus service isn't really as helpful as landlords would have you think, although it's improved quite a bit since I've been here. Cayuga Heights would be a nightmare for getting to/from campus in the snow - mostly downhill from campus, no real bus service. East Hill has lots of new-ish, carpeted apartment complexes, but again, bus service may not be as good as it sounds, depending on your schedule. If you want to have a social life at all, it might be very difficult to do living in East Hill, North and Cayuga Heights.

There's not really parking on campus, and it's super expensive. You may be able to drive to campus late at night or on the weekends, but you will not be able to just drive to your lab on a Monday morning. Buses and hills really start to matter!

I don't know much about Hasbrouck. There seem to be a lot of grad families with babies. Also, they occasionally thrown undergrads in there when they admit too many; it's caused friction recently. I remember dismantling the XL bed frame in my dorm back in the day with little trouble. Bus service directly from Hasbrouck to campus runs from 7ish am to 6ish pm. Otherwise, it's more efficient to walk than to try catching the bus. Bus service to Collegetown and Downtown is improving - every 15 minutes on weekends, every 30-15 minutes during the week, depending on the time of day.

I'm trying to keep my post short - feel free to send me a message if you want more details about places to live.

[so47]

As a Cornell alum, current Ithaca resident and very likely future Cornell grad student, I just wanted to chime in on this thread.

Thank you so much! You gave a bunch of really helpful information! I will def keep all this in mind when I look into housing later.

It's so odd to me, it seems like people sign leases really late there! I go to undergrad to a school in very urban Philadelphia, and if you don't have your housing set up by around this time for next year, you are screwed if you want to live anywhere close to campus/not in the ghetto.

But at Cornell my program offers a TA training program in July, and it seems like a lot of people don't set up housing until then! That just seems so foreign to me! So I really shouldn't be worrying about it yet I guess, I am just thinking ahead since I don't graduate until mid June and need to be there July 6th for TA training...stupid trimester schools.

Again, thanks for the help and I will be sure to contact you with more questions

[red_crayons]

Thank you so much! You gave a bunch of really helpful information! I will def keep all this in mind when I look into housing later.

It's so odd to me, it seems like people sign leases really late there! I go to undergrad to a school in very urban Philadelphia, and if you don't have your housing set up by around this time for next year, you are screwed if you want to live anywhere close to campus/not in the ghetto.

But at Cornell my program offers a TA training program in July, and it seems like a lot of people don't set up housing until then! That just seems so foreign to me! So I really shouldn't be worrying about it yet I guess, I am just thinking ahead since I don't graduate until mid June and need to be there July 6th for TA training...stupid trimester schools.

Again, thanks for the help and I will be sure to contact you with more questions

True story about Philadelphia - my sister, a freshman, had her lease nailed down in December!

People DO actually sign leases now, although for grads it's a little on the early side. The apartments available now are mostly geared toward undergraduate students. There are some really nice but overpriced places, lots of apartment complexes, and lots of close to campus apartments available now. July is WAY LATE to be just starting to search for housing, though, unless you're thinking about moving in with someone who has a lease already.

April-May is when nice but relatively cheap stuff opens up in the grad/young professional areas of town (Downtown, Fall Creek), which still have good bus service and easy access to less-collegey (but still fun) parts of town.

My street is a current grad hot spot, although it wasn't when I first moved there. Historically, a lot of the apartments there open up late March through May. My friends looking for studios/1-bedrooms are starting to look now, since there aren't many and they are very expensive, but since I'm going to look for 2-bedrooms I don't plan to make a decision for another couple months.

[bananagramsfan]

This is some very helpful information! I am going up to Ithaca for a departmental "open house" in a few weeks, but I have already decided to attend Cornell in the fall...so I'm hoping to start scoping out apartments/houses then. I've been to Ithaca before and like the Fall Creek area a lot. My biggest consideration is that I have a large dog, and would love to find somewhere with at least a small fenced in yard which will be very helpful on those cold snowy mornings when a walk is not very appealing. Ithaca strikes me as a dog friendly town, but how difficult is it to find pet friendly housing?

I will have a car, but don't plan to drive it to campus (apparently not a good idea and very expensive: as several people have pointed out in this thread). Other than the Fall Creek area, where is laid back, grad/community oriented (i.e. not many undergrads), and accessible to campus by bus?

[red_crayons]

This is some very helpful information! I am going up to Ithaca for a departmental "open house" in a few weeks, but I have already decided to attend Cornell in the fall...so I'm hoping to start scoping out apartments/houses then. I've been to Ithaca before and like the Fall Creek area a lot. My biggest consideration is that I have a large dog, and would love to find somewhere with at least a small fenced in yard which will be very helpful on those cold snowy mornings when a walk is not very appealing. Ithaca strikes me as a dog friendly town, but how difficult is it to find pet friendly housing?

I will have a car, but don't plan to drive it to campus (apparently not a good idea and very expensive: as several people have pointed out in this thread). Other than the Fall Creek area, where is laid back, grad/community oriented (i.e. not many undergrads), and accessible to campus by bus?

Ithaca residents are dog friendly. Ithaca city regulations are not so dog friendly, but steadily improving. There's now an official dog park, and people will turn a blind eye if you bring your dogs to somewhere labeled "no dogs allowed".

If you're persistent, and don't mind walking a little farther to catch the bus, Fall Creek has pet-friendly housing a little further out from the commons.

I know people with big dogs often find housing in the "Northeast" area - by the airport, Warren and Hanshaw roads, or near Sapsucker Woods. Bus service isn't great - once or twice an hour during weekdays - but it's doable. It'll be harder to go out to bars living up there, but if you're not a big drinker and don't mind driving to all your social events, then it's fine.

I'm facing the opposite problem. My allergies have gotten so severe that (if I stay) I need to find a building that has NEVER had a pet live in it EVER, and a roommate who is willing to put up that kind of pickiness!

[so47]

True story about Philadelphia - my sister, a freshman, had her lease nailed down in December!

People DO actually sign leases now, although for grads it's a little on the early side. The apartments available now are mostly geared toward undergraduate students. There are some really nice but overpriced places, lots of apartment complexes, and lots of close to campus apartments available now. July is WAY LATE to be just starting to search for housing, though, unless you're thinking about moving in with someone who has a lease already.

April-May is when nice but relatively cheap stuff opens up in the grad/young professional areas of town (Downtown, Fall Creek), which still have good bus service and easy access to less-collegey (but still fun) parts of town.

My street is a current grad hot spot, although it wasn't when I first moved there. Historically, a lot of the apartments there open up late March through May. My friends looking for studios/1-bedrooms are starting to look now, since there aren't many and they are very expensive, but since I'm going to look for 2-bedrooms I don't plan to make a decision for another couple months.

We shall see...I was planning on just going with the University Housing to make it easier, but it might be worth a trip to check...My spring break is the last week of March and I'll be up at my parents near Albany. If I am feeling ambitious I'll set up some appointments and make a day trip out of it, looking for apartments. Maybe I'll get lucky and find someone at my Department's accepted student weekend who is also looking for housing...We'll see. I'm not TOO concerned yet...it's just lurking in the back of my mind. I'm mostly just so excited about starting there (MOST likely lol-still resisting sending in my acceptance paperwork until after I visit the Dept, though it would take A LOT for me to change my mind lol)

[meg]

Can anybody comment on the housing market in Ithaca? I'm fairly certain I'll be attending Cornell in the fall, and I'd really like to consider buying property instead of renting. Are there neighborhoods that are more desirable or up-and-coming for buyers? One of my main concerns is that, since I'm going to Ithaca to attend a graduate program, I may have to sell my house in about 4-6 years with little option to stay.

Also, I've been scouring the usual places for listings: Craigslist, Zillow, Trulia. But are their any local resources I should know about? Like popular realtors? Can anyone recommend a specific realtor in Ithaca with whom I might want to get in touch?

I'm really excited by the prospect of owning my own home, and I think, in my case, it might be a better option financially--as long as I can sell when I want to leave! But I am pretty much a total newbie at this. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Theoriologian]

As a Cornell alum, current Ithaca resident and very likely future Cornell grad student, I just wanted to chime in on this thread.

I really, really love Ithaca. However, housing can be kind of a pain. It's WAY overpriced for the size of the town, and a lot of the apartments are really shabby and depressing. However, you can find nice places if you are persistent and know where to look. I'm starting this process right now, reluctantly. I am hoping to share a two bedroom with another incoming grad if I stay, because I need to be shaken out of my habits and get to know some new people if I'm signing on for another 5 years here.

Fall Creek is the best area to live as a grad/young professional, IMHO. It's near a campus shuttle that runs once every ten minutes during the week, the apartments tend to be nicer and cheaper, it's closer to the few good bars, the houses are charming, and there are nice antique stores and coffee shops in the area. Downtown has a little pedestrian mall, with restaurants and several festivals throughout the year.

AVOID Collegetown (undergrad ghetto south of campus), with the possible exception of State Street or below Stewart Ave. North is ok, but the bus service isn't really as helpful as landlords would have you think, although it's improved quite a bit since I've been here. Cayuga Heights would be a nightmare for getting to/from campus in the snow - mostly downhill from campus, no real bus service. East Hill has lots of new-ish, carpeted apartment complexes, but again, bus service may not be as good as it sounds, depending on your schedule. If you want to have a social life at all, it might be very difficult to do living in East Hill, North and Cayuga Heights.

There's not really parking on campus, and it's super expensive. You may be able to drive to campus late at night or on the weekends, but you will not be able to just drive to your lab on a Monday morning. Buses and hills really start to matter!

I don't know much about Hasbrouck. There seem to be a lot of grad families with babies. Also, they occasionally thrown undergrads in there when they admit too many; it's caused friction recently. I remember dismantling the XL bed frame in my dorm back in the day with little trouble. Bus service directly from Hasbrouck to campus runs from 7ish am to 6ish pm. Otherwise, it's more efficient to walk than to try catching the bus. Bus service to Collegetown and Downtown is improving - every 15 minutes on weekends, every 30-15 minutes during the week, depending on the time of day.

I'm trying to keep my post short - feel free to send me a message if you want more details about places to live.

Thanks. That was very helpful.

Do you happen to know anything about the Maple Park Apartments???? Just wondering because its the only student graduate housing on south campus. The north seems like a place of social life suicide.

[SordidPuppy]

"Fall Creek is the best area to live as a grad/young professional, IMHO. It's near a campus shuttle that runs once every ten minutes during the week, the apartments tend to be nicer and cheaper, it's closer to the few good bars, the houses are charming, and there are nice antique stores and coffee shops in the area. Downtown has a little pedestrian mall, with restaurants and several festivals throughout the year.

AVOID Collegetown (undergrad ghetto south of campus), with the possible exception of State Street or below Stewart Ave. North is ok, but the bus service isn't really as helpful as landlords would have you think, although it's improved quite a bit since I've been here. Cayuga Heights would be a nightmare for getting to/from campus in the snow - mostly downhill from campus, no real bus service."

^^

Greetings

Just left Ithaca last May after the better part of 8 happy years there. While Fall Creek is definitely populated by a lot of graduate students, I would give lower and upper Collegetown a fair shot, too. Not saying it's better, just saying you should check it out. It really depends on what stage you're at in your life, and what sort of atmosphere you want to be in. The Commmons, the pedestrian mall the poster above referred to, is a nice place to walk around in theory -- and, often enough, in practice -- but there is a large vagrant contingent that you're likely to see dominating the place a lot of the time. Downtown Ithaca generally is nice enough, but be aware that a sort of seedy, hippies-gone-bad contingent definitely DOES exist and you may feel safer in or right around Collegetown than downtown, if you wind up living in Fall Creek and walking to the Commons a great deal. I don't say this to unfairly represent Ithaca or scare you -- it's definitely a safe place overall, but, like anywhere else, it does have its rough spots. Just be aware of this and scope out not just the block you're looking to live on but also the area around it, especially if you don't have a car or just like to walk a lot. When I say upper collegetown, I'm talking up Dryden Ave., "above" College Ave. and Linden Ave. There are some nice, quiet places up there and you can make an argument, depending on where you're going on campus, that this is actually the most convenient place to live around, because there's an entrance to campus near the baseball field (also up in that direction) that many people seem to forget about.

You're right to presume that north campus could be a very bad move. It's very isolated, and depending on where you live, you might be looking at a 45 minute walk if you want to head to Collegetown for a cup of coffee or to meet friends. I would definitely avoid this (I agree with red_crayons re: Cayuga Heights; don't even think about it unless you have children and want a solidly home-based lifestyle). Red_crayons is also spot-on in saying that housing is a bit pricey, but I would say that decent housing is there for the taking as long as you do your homework. Yes, there are shabby places, and yes, most of the houses and apartments are going to have a bit of the look of a place that's been rented out to college students for years and years, but most places aren't too shocking and, well, you get what you pay for, ultimately. During the 2008-2009 school year, I lived in a spacious two-bedroom apartment, about a fifteen-minute walk from campus (lower Collegetown, below Stewart Ave.; Sage Place, to be exact) for about $625/month ($1250/month between the two of us), all things considered. For a decent two-bedroom place, this is on the cheaper end of things, unless you get a place outside of town or something like that.

Anyway, I could go on and on; I started at Cornell at age 17, took a few years off, some of which I spent in Ithaca, and graduated last May at age 24. I was around the town for a long time and was living a sort of borderline-grad student lifestyle by the time I left. By this I mean that I lived with a Ph.D. student and had tons of grad student friends -- not to mention friends who were native Ithacans -- but, obviously, also had a lot of connections with undergrads. This may seem hokey, but in my opinion, the best thing one can do to make living in Ithaca enjoyable is to, well, meet people. You'll want friends to go to the gorges with, friends to go out with, friends to watch a movie with when there's a blizzard outside.

I could go on and on. Ithaca is a beautiful town, and Cornell is an amazing school. I will always miss it, and I will never lose touch with the faculty and friends I met there. There are plenty of places to eat, plenty of nice bars, plenty of nice coffee shops...it really is a high-functioning college town. If anyone has any questions, please contact me!

All the best

Edited February 27, 2010 by SordidPuppy

[so47]

Does anyone know if there is any resource showing a geographic breakdown of the neighborhoods? There is a lot of good advice on this forum, but when I search for housing it's a bit difficult since I have no frame of reference for what addresses are actually in which neighborhood. A lot of the the realty sites and craigslist seem to add the terms like "Fall Creek" and "Downtown" in so they come up in searches, but aren't actually that close.

I tried doing a Google search and this is the best I found so far: http://wikimapia.org/7140880/Ithaca-NY, but I still feel like I have no idea where some of these neighborhoods are and which streets they include (like Downtown for example).

I'm sure these terms just become more familiar when you live there, but it's a bit confusing from the outside! I go to undergrad in Philadelphia, and I am used to being able to guesstimate locations by the numbered streets in the address lol.

[DJLamar]

I've been admitted to the PhD program at Cornell (I think I posted here already actually) and there is a pretty good chance that I'll go there. I would like to live on campus my first year, and I want to try to live in a building that's close to the building that I'll really be living in (i.e. the building that my department and probable advisors are in, i.e. Upson Hall which I believe is in the southeast corner of campus in/near the engineering quad). I would like to have one roommate (i.e. no rooms alone and preferably no four or more person dwellings), and I would like the downtown and commons areas to be as easily accessible to me as possible.

What kind of housing on campus fits my description the best?

[red_crayons]

I've been admitted to the PhD program at Cornell (I think I posted here already actually) and there is a pretty good chance that I'll go there. I would like to live on campus my first year, and I want to try to live in a building that's close to the building that I'll really be living in (i.e. the building that my department and probable advisors are in, i.e. Upson Hall which I believe is in the southeast corner of campus in/near the engineering quad). I would like to have one roommate (i.e. no rooms alone and preferably no four or more person dwellings), and I would like the downtown and commons areas to be as easily accessible to me as possible.

What kind of housing on campus fits my description the best?

That's a tall order!

As you said, your office will be on the south edge of campus. Looking at the grad housing guide, you would have 3 Cornell (but not really on-campus) living options: Hasbrouck, Thurston Court and Maplewood Park.

Maplewood Park is southeast from campus, kind of in the Belle Sherman neighborhood. It's up a slight hill, a 5+ minute walk from the center of Collegetown, 15 from Upson, and 20-25 from downtown (but downtown is VERY downhill - you could take the bus up/down the worst part of the hill). You'd also be about a 5-10 minute walk from East Hill, where there are banks, grocery stores, a bakery, and a CVS. You'd also be pretty near one of the best kept bakery secrets in town. It's also a great neighborhood for running, if you're into that. There are no convenient bus routes to campus, though. You could walk the 10 minutes to East Hill to catch the 2 or 3 times an hour bus, or just walk to campus. It would be a good location for getting to/from Collegetown restaurants and bars. It's about a block farther than most undergrads live, so it would be quiet, but still quite walkable to campus, collegetown, basic stores, and bus routes to everywhere else.

Thurston Court is on north campus, probably 20 minutes walk from Upson, with Upson being down a mild incline. You could try to crowd on the morning buses (every 5-10 minutes) with the freshmen, but it is unpleasant. You'd be pretty stranded as far as Collegetown/downtown for walking (20+ minutes to Ctown, more for downtown), but you could take the bus every 10ish minutes during weekdays, 30 minutes weekday evenings, and 15-30 minutes on the weekends. You could also take the bus every 15-30 minutes to the mall area, where there's a Target, couple grocery stores, a bunch of banks, chain restaurants, and mall stores. It's about 15 minutes to downtown via bus, and 15 minutes to the mall area via bus (in the other direction). You'd probably have to rely on the bus for a lot of your transportation, rather than being able to walk everywhere (in the winter, at least!), but on the weekends it runs to/from downtown and Ctown every half hour until 2am. You'd be surrounded by undergrads, though, and mostly younger undergrads. You'd probably hear the frat party caravans from Wednesday-Saturday night.

Hasbrouck is north of north campus, north of the freshman dorms, and quite uphill from campus/Collegetown. You wouldn't necessarily hear them, but you'd have to walk through the hordes/take the bus with them on weekend nights. It would be a 20+ minute walk to Upson, 25 to Collegetown, and downtown would be effectively unwalkable. There would be good bus service to campus every 15 minutes right from Hasbrouck during weekdays, but only from 7 am to 6:15 pm. If you walk 3 minutes across the street to a parking lot, you'd have similar service to campus, but every 5-10 minutes. You'd have to transfer to another bus on campus, or walk 5-10 minutes to the twice hourly mall-downtown route to get anywhere else. Nights/weekends you'd be able to take the mall-downtown bus to collegetown/downtown (same route as mall, in opposite direction). Without a car, you'd be very dependent on the buses, and potentially very isolated. It's far, far away from the areas where the majority of grad students live (downtown and Fall Creek). I also see lots of families with babies coming from/going to Hasbrouck - it might be unpleasant to have a crying infant next door. I would say it's the least appealing option, at least by my standards.

I think Maplewood Park could be a very excellent place for you. It's nearest to Upson, and easy to walk lots of places. Living in Hasbrouck could end up being very time-consuming and isolating. None of these locations are actually ON campus, though, although they are Cornell owned. Good luck!

[DJLamar]

Yeah, out of those three Maplewood Park seems the most convenient. I don't know, I guess living in a private apartment off campus would still be fine as long as I had a roommate like I said. I also think I mistyped at one point -- I think Upson Hall is in the southwest part of campus -- but judging from your post you know where it is anyway

[so47]

It's interesting how people can go through the same experience and get such different things out of it. On my Cornell visitation weekend, a lot of prospective students were turned off by the size of Ithaca, and say they would feel isolated and have nothing to do. But I loved it, Ithaca reminds me of my hometown a lot, size-wise and with its downtown areas. And for a smaller city, there seems to be tons of different types of restaurants and such, and there are still convenient grocery stores and other shopping stuff.

I asked the grad students in my program what they thought about housing, and most of them recommended living off campus, and I am still shocked that a majority of the first years show up for TA training in July without housing set up, and often find housing together with other first years in the program. I'm going to have to really think about what I want to do, because I like the idea of living with other first years in my department, since we would all be going through the same thing, but I don't know if I can stand to wait until that last minute! It was hard though, people were still so unsure as to where they were going that I didn't meet anyone this weekend who was set in their choice, and that I thought I would want to live with. Oh well, I have a lot of thinking to do about the housing dilemma!

[SingleShot]

Hi all

I have been admitted to PhD Computer Science and from the discussion i inferred that Maplewood Park would be the best place to stay.

I am an international Student and i will be arriving ithaca not before 2nd week of August or so (Graduate registration is on 23rd as per annual calender)

Is that too late to start searching for the apartment? if so what is the possible solution for candidates like me?

What would be a better option oncampus Or offcampus housing?

Does anybody knows about the offcampus rents ?

[Phedre]

Hi all,

I'm a current Cornell Grad student and I am leaving my beautiful house next year. There will be two bedrooms opening up in this four-bedroom house, and it's an amazing steal for the quality and the location.

We have two living rooms, a huge kitchen, fully equipped with all of the appliances you could want and with a dishwasher, basement with washer/dryer and lots of storage space, a dining room, a small porch and a big, lovely patio out back overlooking a gorge with a grill-- perfect for summer/fall parties. Everything is fully furnished and the rent is a very low $485/month. The house is ery close to the downtown area but you can also walk to campus.

http://ithaca.craigslist.org/apa/1644158022.html

Please PM me if you have any questions.

and no, don't do University housing!! it sucks and it's really too far away from anything social, from campus, and it's overpriced and dingy. dont' do it!!

[matcha]

I was wondering about apartment buildings. Yes, renting a home would be ideal. But just in case, are there any apartment buildings off-campus that anyone would recommend? Any near Fall Creek? Red Bomber seems to post their apartments all over the place. Are they any good? Are there better?

Thanks!

Edit: I should figure out sentence structure someday... :-)

Edited April 4, 2010 by matcha