Jacksonville, FL

[mandypo333]

Does anyone have any information about graduate student living in Jacksonville, FL? Any information would be appreciated!

[katsharki3]

Hey there! I'm currently a master's in Biology student at University of North Florida in Jacksonville.

I'm not sure if you're looking specifically for "graduate student housing," or just housing in general. As far as I know there's no official graduate student housing unless you live on campus, which is ridiculously expensive. But in general it's pretty easy to find relatively affordable housing in Jacksonville, as long as you don 't insist on living near the beach or in a "nicer" expensive area. I live with one roommate in the Mandarin/Baymeadows area, and my rent is $420 a month, plus then about another ~$100-$150 in utilities depending on the season (i.e. how much air conditioning we use). You can find similar prices in a lot of areas, though, again, not so much near the beach.

Let me know if you have any other questions about Jacksonville! What school are you applying to?

[mandypo333]

Thanks katsharki3! I'm looking at Jacksonville University for grad school. Do you know what public transportation is like? Would I need a car?

[katsharki3]

I'd say you are definitely going to need a car, yes. There is a bus system, but I think it's only very reliable around the downtown area, and there are many areas of town where the buses don't reach. Plus it takes so much longer to commute on the bus. I mean, you could maybe survive with just the bus if you were planning on trying to live in the downtown area near school, though I have no idea what sorts of apartments are around there. And having a car is definitely helpful as far as getting around to different grocery stores and other stores, as well as if you'd ever want to go to the beach--the buses don't go there! 

[MonstersU-Terp]

In general, anyone applying to any city in Florida should plan to have a car because our public transportation system is completely worthless and unreliable. Our cities are laid out such that walking is not really feasible. There's no such thing as "walking to the grocery store" in Florida, haha, you basically have to drive!