Living arrangements

[Soon2beSLP]

For anyone whose already been through the process or in the starts of this process how do you go about finding a place to live?

I live 2 hours away from the school I will be attending so I need to find a place to live. I have orientation soon and is this a topic discussed there? Do I start looking now? 

Any insight would be approximated

[plume]

Some schools have off-campus housing support. I would check in with your program and see if they do. It also depends on the area. I am planning to move to Boston, which is a big college city, so I am connecting with a rental realtor who offers video tours of apartments (I also live on the other side of the country). Also, lots of people are looking for roommates on my program's Facebook page—does your program have one yet? You could make one, if not! I also do believe this will be addressed in orientation. You should meet current grad students there so I would be prepared to ask them about housing!

That's nice that you only live 2 hours away, though! That makes it a lot easier.

[CCCaffeinated-SLP]

Hello,

I also live 2 hours from the university I will be attending.  I started my search by just browsing rent.com and apartments.com, and I was able to find a few places that way.  However, I second what the poster above me said- check your school's website!  In my case, there were tons of better options, more catered towards students (including many apartments that were exclusively grad students, or upperclassmen and grad students), at cheaper rates.  Just search "off campus housing" or "grad student housing" on your school website. Then, track down the link to the actual website of the apartment from a google search.  A lot of sites have "contact us" links, and I've used a few of them to get in contact with management at the properties I'm looking at.  I'm also going to be a first year student, so I'm not sure when the "right" time is, but I'm looking now so that I have more options. Since it's only 2 hours away, I don't see why it wouldn't be feasible to plan a day or two to go out and visit at some point!

If your cohort has a group, you can look for roommates that way, if you want to have a roommate (as the poster above me also said).  I personally am choosing to live alone my first year in a studio most likely, but this is obviously where you have to take into account your own personal preferences. However, I'm sure having a roommate would be helpful since they can help with the search!

Edited April 18, 2017 by CCCaffeinated-SLP