UNC Chapel Hill 2017

[lizie.johnson]

Anyone heading to UNC in the fall?  Especially BBSP, since that's the program I'll be in, but I'd love to talk to anyone heading to the area!

[HiFiWiFi]

 

[bolide]

Hello from Sydney, Australia! Very excited to head over in autumn (I know you Americans refer to it as "fall"...). Won't disclose publicly which program to which I've been admitted since it's a small department and there's a good chance I will be identified immediately, but I'll be sticking around for the next 4-5 years to get a PhD.

[Ggsk]

Hi, I am heading to chapel hill this fall 17 too! looking forward. 

what housing will you be staying in?

when do you plan to arrive in CH?

 

I will be staying in Baity hill and hope to arrive first week of Aug

[JuniusBattius]

Also heading to Chapel Hill in the Fall. Need to configure some living arrangements soon -- going to search the forum for advice.

[lizie.johnson]

Nice to electronically meet you all!  I'll be moving to Chapel Hill mid-May right after graduation.  I'm originally from Chapel Hill, and my parents still live there, so I'll be moving home until I can find an apartment.  If anyone will be in the area over the summer, let me know, because I'd love to meet some people before classes start.

[bolide]

I'm planning to get to Chapel Hill by the first/second week of August - there are some mandatory events to attend for international students (mostly to do with visa paperwork) around the 16th. Got my I-20 a few days ago, all I need to do now is wait until early/mid May to file in the application with the Consulate in Sydney and get the visa issued. I'm a big NBA fan, so I'm pretty excited to go to some games at the Dean Dome (I managed to watch the NCAA title game against Gonzaga last week - ugly game, but a victory nonetheless)! 

[moon_cat]

Hi all, I'm moving to CH this fall for phD as well. Looking for housing. Anyone find any place to stay yet? Housing at CH seems a little bit pricey...

[lizie.johnson]

1 hour ago, moon_cat said:

Hi all, I'm moving to CH this fall for phD as well. Looking for housing. Anyone find any place to stay yet? Housing at CH seems a little bit pricey...

Look in Carrboro!  A ton of UNC grad students live there because it's still pretty close and it's much cheaper.

[StrangeLo]

Hi! I will be starting my PhD in UNC Chapel Hill this Fall. I'm planning to move in the first days of August also. Happy to know about you all

[Bw/otheE]

I'll be moving to Carrboro in June for the Art History PhD program. I'd love to meet with anyone from other areas, though. PM me if you're also going to be around!

[bolide]

For those of you not in the area/overseas: where/how have you been searching for housing? I've searched for a few apartments but with conflicting reviews and whatnot on various websites, it's been tricky finding somewhere that seems decent enough (functioning management, not too far from campus). If I can deal directly with the management I'm willing to transfer any deposits/fees from Australia, but I'm not so keen to send money to a stranger on a listing who could simply run away with the money.

[haselnuss]

On 4/26/2017 at 7:18 PM, bolide said:

For those of you not in the area/overseas: where/how have you been searching for housing?

I'm moving in from out of state, and I will not be able to visit to tour any apartments or anything. The area is really nice overall compared to where I live, so I'm not too concerned about safety or cleanliness, and I've already lived in some apartments with crappy landlords, dealing with maintenance, etc. You can also have bad neighbors no matter where you go. My plan is to find a nice-seeming place that is conveniently located and sign a year lease. If I don't like the apartment I can spend a lot of time on campus and move to a new apartment next summer.

To find a place, I've looked at google maps and typed the name of the building where I'll have my classes, then "apartments." Carrboro area is where a lot of grad students live. Durham is good for grad students too because it's inexpensive due to a bad reputation in the past, but over the last decade or two things have gotten really nice over there. This is information I got from students and professors. 

You can also search on apartments.com or rent.com, but once you find a place you would want to go to the apartment's website rather than dealing with apartments.com or rent.com. I'd always rather deal with the apartment management than a third party website. 

One thing I've noticed that I have never seen before is that rent goes up and up and up every day/week/month closer we get to August. They know students will need to find a place ad take advantage of the desperation we have for housing and jack up the prices. It's a good idea to try to secure a place ASAP rather than wait. 

Edited May 2, 2017 by haselnuss
added info

[mop]

I'm a grad student living in carrboro and I'll just chime in on the rent prices going up is a very real thing. Many of the people in apartments in carrboro/chapel hill are students and move in/out in the summer. There is just a very high demand in one short period of time. Might be slightly too early though for August, around here people only required to give- 2 months notice for moving out so more places might be opening up soon.

The best advice is to find a place on/near a bus route, look them up near any apartment you are interested in, its how pretty much everyone gets to campus. Chapel Hill transit busses are free in Carrboro/Chapel Hill. (link below) Triangle transit from Durham charges a fee.

http://www.townofchapelhill.org/town-hall/departments-services/transit/routes-schedules

 

[bolide]

On 03/05/2017 at 7:38 AM, haselnuss said:

I'm moving in from out of state, and I will not be able to visit to tour any apartments or anything. The area is really nice overall compared to where I live, so I'm not too concerned about safety or cleanliness, and I've already lived in some apartments with crappy landlords, dealing with maintenance, etc. You can also have bad neighbors no matter where you go. My plan is to find a nice-seeming place that is conveniently located and sign a year lease. If I don't like the apartment I can spend a lot of time on campus and move to a new apartment next summer.

To find a place, I've looked at google maps and typed the name of the building where I'll have my classes, then "apartments." Carrboro area is where a lot of grad students live. Durham is good for grad students too because it's inexpensive due to a bad reputation in the past, but over the last decade or two things have gotten really nice over there. This is information I got from students and professors. 

You can also search on apartments.com or rent.com, but once you find a place you would want to go to the apartment's website rather than dealing with apartments.com or rent.com. I'd always rather deal with the apartment management than a third party website. 

One thing I've noticed that I have never seen before is that rent goes up and up and up every day/week/month closer we get to August. They know students will need to find a place ad take advantage of the desperation we have for housing and jack up the prices. It's a good idea to try to secure a place ASAP rather than wait. 

Thanks for the tips! For me, living in a country where individual firearms possession is commonplace is daunting in itself (Australia essentially "banned" personal firearm possession after a massacre in 1996, although exceptions exist), but it seems most non-Americans get over it somewhat quickly. I'll have to get onto the housing search quickly, it seems