Living cost at Los Angeles, CA (USC)

[kanon]

I got PhD admission into USC with a total stipend of $22000 for fall and spring semester. I will get around $19000 after tax deduction. Is it possible to live within this amount? Is it possible to get summer RA/TA? I am from Bangladesh and don't know anyone in Los Angeles. How can I find housing? I thought of living near campus (university housing if possible). But university housing is limited and the move in date is August 17 while I need to attend orientation at August 8. Is there any place to look for housing? 

[NoirFemme]

That is not a lot for the LA area--or Southern California in general. And you need a car down here. 

Zillow and HotPads are trusted sources. However, I'm sure USC has a network for finding roomates. With just 19k, you're looking at spending about $500/month in order to live somewhat comfortably. Maybe $600. Your monthly budget will be squeezed tightly if you go over that.

I would highly recommend you live as close to campus as possible if you don't have transportation. 

 

 

[kanon]

26 minutes ago, NoirFemme said:

That is not a lot for the LA area--or Southern California in general. And you need a car down here. 

Zillow and HotPads are trusted sources. However, I'm sure USC has a network for finding roomates. With just 19k, you're looking at spending about $500/month in order to live somewhat comfortably. Maybe $600. Your monthly budget will be squeezed tightly if you go over that.

I would highly recommend you live as close to campus as possible if you don't have transportation. 

 

 

Could you please give me an idea about other cost like food, books, utilities besides house rent?

[TakeruK]

I think a comfortable standard of living (i.e. live with roommates, eat real food not just ramen but can't just eat out all the time, save a little each year but can't afford a car, etc.) would need a stipend of something like $28,000-$30,000 pre-tax in this area. I don't live in LA but I do live in Southern California and it might be true that my area is a little more expensive than the USC area (or maybe not, I'm not sure!).

To find housing, I would use craigslist (https://losangeles.craigslist.org/). Or there are sites like PadMapper that take listings from Craigslist as well as other websites and plots them on a map for you and you can slide filters to adjust price ranges etc. It's really hard to find good housing in the LA area. I would plan to invest a an hour every day for a few weeks looking for places and making a lot of phone calls. Unfortunately, it will be pretty hard for you to see the places before you arrive if you are out of the country and a lot of online apartment listings are actually scams.

My advice would be to consider starting in University Housing. Ask your school if you can move in early because you have the early orientation date. I am sure you are not the only one in this situation. If this is not possible, consider staying at a motel for the first week until move-in date. I think it's really bad that USC puts move-in date way after international student orientation---my school tries to set everything up so that students can move in, start health insurance etc. all by Sept 1 (international orientation is mid-Sept, all-campus orientation is late Sept).

For things like food, etc. it depends on what you eat. You can probably feed yourself for $25-$40 per week (so...$100-$150 per month ish) if you cook all your meals and use cheap ingredients. Maybe $200 per month is more comfortable. Utilities (for a household) may cost something like $40-$50 per month for electricity (assuming bigger household and using more electricity than a single person), $30/month for gas, $50/month for internet and I don't know how much trash costs because it's always been included in the rent where I live. Some places include gas in the rent too (or other utilities). Remember, you would be splitting these utilities cost with everyone living there. 

Cell phones can be cheap if you get cheap pay-as-you-go plans ($20/month or so). Otherwise, plan for $40-$50 per month for a full service plan. Google just released Project Fi to everyone and they have cheap plans ($20 for basic phone functions then $10/GB of data, charged based on use), but you do need to have a new Nexus 5X ($350+ retail) or Nexus 6 ($500+ retail). 

[kanon]

10 hours ago, TakeruK said:

I think a comfortable standard of living (i.e. live with roommates, eat real food not just ramen but can't just eat out all the time, save a little each year but can't afford a car, etc.) would need a stipend of something like $28,000-$30,000 pre-tax in this area. I don't live in LA but I do live in Southern California and it might be true that my area is a little more expensive than the USC area (or maybe not, I'm not sure!).

To find housing, I would use craigslist (https://losangeles.craigslist.org/). Or there are sites like PadMapper that take listings from Craigslist as well as other websites and plots them on a map for you and you can slide filters to adjust price ranges etc. It's really hard to find good housing in the LA area. I would plan to invest a an hour every day for a few weeks looking for places and making a lot of phone calls. Unfortunately, it will be pretty hard for you to see the places before you arrive if you are out of the country and a lot of online apartment listings are actually scams.

My advice would be to consider starting in University Housing. Ask your school if you can move in early because you have the early orientation date. I am sure you are not the only one in this situation. If this is not possible, consider staying at a motel for the first week until move-in date. I think it's really bad that USC puts move-in date way after international student orientation---my school tries to set everything up so that students can move in, start health insurance etc. all by Sept 1 (international orientation is mid-Sept, all-campus orientation is late Sept).

For things like food, etc. it depends on what you eat. You can probably feed yourself for $25-$40 per week (so...$100-$150 per month ish) if you cook all your meals and use cheap ingredients. Maybe $200 per month is more comfortable. Utilities (for a household) may cost something like $40-$50 per month for electricity (assuming bigger household and using more electricity than a single person), $30/month for gas, $50/month for internet and I don't know how much trash costs because it's always been included in the rent where I live. Some places include gas in the rent too (or other utilities). Remember, you would be splitting these utilities cost with everyone living there. 

Cell phones can be cheap if you get cheap pay-as-you-go plans ($20/month or so). Otherwise, plan for $40-$50 per month for a full service plan. Google just released Project Fi to everyone and they have cheap plans ($20 for basic phone functions then $10/GB of data, charged based on use), but you do need to have a new Nexus 5X ($350+ retail) or Nexus 6 ($500+ retail). 

Thank you so much for your reply. Now, I get a full idea about the living cost.

[toxicdevil]

On 4/1/2016 at 9:03 AM, kanon said:

I got PhD admission into USC with a total stipend of $22000 for fall and spring semester. I will get around $19000 after tax deduction. Is it possible to live within this amount? Is it possible to get summer RA/TA? I am from Bangladesh and don't know anyone in Los Angeles. How can I find housing? I thought of living near campus (university housing if possible). But university housing is limited and the move in date is August 17 while I need to attend orientation at August 8. Is there any place to look for housing? 

@TakeruK's explaination was awesome! I would like to add couple of things.

I would suggest that you contact the unis housing dept and ask for an early move-in date. Maybe they will allow it.

Sometimes universities have special housing areas just for people requiring temporary accommodation. Ask your uni about this.

Many universities have off-campus housing websites where students of that university and leasing agencies post listings (much like craigslist). something like this (http://usc.offcampuslisting.com/ not official i think)

Off Campus housing is "often" cheaper than on campus. (depends on the city and university e.g for me on-campus is around double the cost even after electricity etc and on top of that I have to purchase a compulsory meal plan if I live on campus. Bus is free here and I dont need a car.)

If you have an advisor you should ask him about summer funding (summers are usually RA and not TA). For me...some universities mentioned summer RA in the official offer letter, while my advisor in another university told me informally that he will take me as an RA in the summer, another place offered fellowship for all 12 months. 

Usually first summer you will be asked not to do internships (in case you are planning to) since first summer is a great time to get to know your research group and area.

You say 19000 after taxes but you should also subtract compulsory expenses like insurance and university fees not covered by the waiver in order to get a better estimate. e.g.my stipend is 1850 per month and the cheque my seniors told we get is around 1200-1300 after fees and tax.

 

 

Another good resource is facebook, search for: 

- official USC groups

- USC fall 2016 admits (or something similar)

- join ms in us edulix fall 2016 facebook group and ask for info there.

- google or search on facebook USC + PSA/ISA/BSA (for pakistani/indian/bangladeshi student associations) or USC MSA (muslim assos.) they will be happy to help you out, they may even have a bangladeshi specific listing for apartments (on google sheets or something). If may even have a website with resources. For my uni I found a complete guide starting from visa procedure to what to pack to immigrations to apartment finding, an apartment list with pros and cons etc and much more.