Boston & Cambridge, MA

[nm16]

On 3/19/2016 at 4:12 AM, pterosaur said:

It's $75 application fee for GSAS housing. It's also guaranteed your first year if you get the application in by the deadline. 

Quick note: GSAS housing is only guaranteed for your first year if you're admitted by GSAS. So that excludes a lot of students (HGSE, HKS, etc)

https://www.gsas.harvard.edu/current_students/eligibility_for_housing_in_the_gsas_residence_halls.php

[mmmarimba]

Incoming PhD student at Brandeis here...trying to decide if I should live in Waltham. 

It seems super boring, but it would be convenient to be on campus in the mornings, especially in the winter. 

Any thoughts?

[RGfellows]

Hi all! I just got into the Tufts MA program and I'm looking to move! I won't have a car so the Somerville or Medford area is preferable in terms of location. Any advice on better areas? 

Also, does anyone have any good advice on finding roommates before finding a place? I'm all the way in San Diego (opposite corner of the US, haha!) and in order to save as much money/work as long as possible I'll have to wait until about mid July to head to Boston. Plus I'd like to try and move into a new place with someone than move into an empty room in a pre-existing place if possible (I'm not ruling it out, I've just had a rough time in the past with that for various reasons) so I figured that I'd try to find at least one potential roommate so that we could find a place together, as opposed to finding a place and then trying to pay double or however much rent the first month while trying to find a roomie. 

[theophany]

On March 31, 2016 at 5:19 PM, mmmarimba said:

Incoming PhD student at Brandeis here...trying to decide if I should live in Waltham. 

It seems super boring, but it would be convenient to be on campus in the mornings, especially in the winter. 

Any thoughts?

Waltham is cheaper than other options, but you're right that it is boring. Lots of Brandeis grad students live in Cambridge or Somerville and take the commuter rail from Porter Sq to Waltham.

[Vulpix]

This is a ridiculous question, but coming from NYC, I'd really like to know.... how bad is the cockroach scene in Cambridge?

[jdg]

I have an offer for a program in Boston that I am thinking of taking.  The issue is, most of the classes are evening/night classes, and I know very little about the actual public transportation schedule in Boston.  I know that the T runs during peak hours and throughout the day, what I'm wondering is, how reliable are the trains at night?  For example, if I get out of class at school at 10:00 PM at the campus (located smack dab in the center of Boston), will the T still be running to take me to whatever apartment in Allston/Brighton/other far-off neighborhood that I can actually afford?

Public transportation seems like a logistical nightmare - I'm used to having my car and desperately want to keep it, but even I can see that this is probably a bad idea for a variety of reasons.

Edited April 11, 2016 by jdg

[mmmarimba]

I'm from San Francisco, and have visited Boston many many times, and having a car in a city like Boston is a hassle. Most people rely on public transportation. I'm moving there in the fall and I'm getting rid of my car as soon as I get there. Check the MBTA schedule to see exactly when it runs. One thing to keep in mind though, is the Red and Orange lines are faster than the Green line, but even the green line is fine. I'm going to Brandeis, and will be commuting from Somerville on the commuter rail. Depending on what program you are attending, JP is cheap and on the orange line. 

Edited April 11, 2016 by mmmarimba

[Concordia]

If you're leaving the center of Boston for Allston/Brighton, you're probably talking about the Green Line from Park Street or Government Center.  (Is this Suffolk?)  

Pretty much every branch of that will start its last trip after midnight.

http://www.mbta.com/schedules_and_maps/subway/lines/default.asp?route=GREEN

There was a small scandal when the hours got peeled back for financial reasons a few weeks ago, but even with that,  I think all of the MBTA lines go until at least 12.   Other non-Green-Line hubs that are useful are Back Bay and South Station.

Buses are harder to figure out, and the drivers' sick time scheme is such that they're often not there in bad weather.  But stay within walking distance of the T and you'll be OK.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 11, 2016 by Concordia

[jdg]

On 4/11/2016 at 5:49 PM, Concordia said:

If you're leaving the center of Boston for Allston/Brighton, you're probably talking about the Green Line from Park Street or Government Center.  (Is this Suffolk?)  

Pretty much every branch of that will start its last trip after midnight.

http://www.mbta.com/schedules_and_maps/subway/lines/default.asp?route=GREEN

There was a small scandal when the hours got peeled back for financial reasons a few weeks ago, but even with that,  I think all of the MBTA lines go until at least 12.   Other non-Green-Line hubs that are useful are Back Bay and South Station.

Buses are harder to figure out, and the drivers' sick time scheme is such that they're often not there in bad weather.  But stay within walking distance of the T and you'll be OK.

 

 

 

 

It is Suffolk.

[ErmahgerdAdulting]

Hi everyone! Does anyone have any advice on biking in Boston? Specifically in Somerville? I'm about 80% sure I'll be studying at Tufts this Fall, and biking is something I'm interested in doing to curb costs.  

[haltheincandescent]

11 minutes ago, ErmahgerdAdulting said:

Hi everyone! Does anyone have any advice on biking in Boston? Specifically in Somerville? I'm about 80% sure I'll be studying at Tufts this Fall, and biking is something I'm interested in doing to curb costs.  

I don't know too much in terms of specifics, (I'm not there yet) but when I visited and asked generally (also hoping to bike), everyone said Boston/Cambridge is very bikeable, and a lot of people do it, even if there aren't too many bike lanes. I think if you're generally confident biking with cars on the road, you'll be good. Biggest problem I heard of was: make sure to get a good lock; bikes get stolen fairly often.

[pterosaur]

I also did my undergrad in Boston and biked a lot (including. 12 mile round trip bike commute to a co-op job). I came from a small town and the biggest thing to be safe is to be a lot more assertive than your instincts might be. With that in mind, I found it to be quite nice for biking. Especially up north of the city, it should be nice.

[ErmahgerdAdulting]

2 hours ago, pterosaur said:

I also did my undergrad in Boston and biked a lot (including. 12 mile round trip bike commute to a co-op job). I came from a small town and the biggest thing to be safe is to be a lot more assertive than your instincts might be. With that in mind, I found it to be quite nice for biking. Especially up north of the city, it should be nice.

Good to know! Thanks for the tips everyone! I'm just getting used to biking in DC, so it's something I hope to continue doing. Also, the Hubway bikeshare has stations by Tufts now, so that's a nice perk!

[Vulpix]

Can anyone who has lived in Cambridge tell me an approximate monthly heating bill in the winter?  Just trying to predict, budget-wise.

[BlackBear50]

What is the best way to find apartments in Boston? I am trying zillow, padmapper and craigslist (and the BC students webpage). Anything else???

[AbrasaxEos]

@Heather1011Heating bill is a little tough to average - do you keep your apartment hot or cold, or somewhere in the middle?  Also, it will depend some on what kind of heat you have, how decent your windows are, and how efficient the heater is, and how large a space you are heating.  However, not wanting to be totally annoying, let's assume you like to keep your place at a somewhat reasonable 68 degrees, have gas heat, good (not great windows), a furnace that was cleaned and updated in the last five years, and that you split your heat with 2 others in a moderately-sized apartment (~1400 ft2).  Were these things being the case, I would predict your share of the heat might be in the vicinity of $200-250 total, so maybe $75 each?  Perhaps you can though that this isn't terribly exact.  My apartment is ridiculously well insulated, has brand new windows, a brand new furnace, gas heat, and low ceilings and despite it being quite large, the heat for last February (when it was extremely cold), was about $175.  So, the moral of the story is that you ought to either find an apartment with heat included, or look carefully at all the accouterments.  I have friends who had to ride huge credit card balances all winter because their apartment had a horrible, wheezing oil furnace, windows that might have been just as effective were they simply screens, such that they had to crank the heat at all times to just keep it habitable.  Unfortunately, since most people move in at the end of the summer you don't figure these wonderful features out until you go to get that place warmed up on the first cold day of November. 

@BlackBear50  Craigslist is generally fine - that is where I've had the most luck finding apartments.  Do note however that very few real estate brokers need your business in Boston, especially if you are seeking 1BR in a mutli-unit house for the cheapest rent possible.  It takes a decent bit of emailing and heckling, but you'll eventually find someone who is willing to show you a few places.  Also, be ready to grab a place the day you see it if you like it.  There is no 'let me take a day to think it over' - if you liked it, someone else probably did too, and will have already slapped down the requisite first, last, security, and realtor's fee on it.

[AbrasaxEos]

@ErmahgerdAdulting The greater Boston area is very bikeable, if a little nerve-racking at times.  As already mentioned, you need to be comfortable taking the lane with cars at times, being wary of being doored, and generally have to deal with occasionally obnoxious drivers who are being dangerous.  I'd say though that in general cars are pretty courteous, that bike lanes are growing more prevalent, and that I generally don't feel as though I'm taking my life in my hands while doing so.  One nice plus is that in a place like Somerville, biking can really save you time and aggravation, as it is more often than not the quickest and most convenient method for getting from place to place.  Yes, do get a good lock though, and remember that it gets down to single digits here in the winter sometimes.

@jdg The T will work fine for you as long as you are using the trains.  Even the buses aren't terrible, but later at night you have to time them correctly or you can really be sitting there waiting for a long time between them.  The trains typically come on pretty regular schedules though, even later at night.  if, as you say you are going into the heart of Boston, you absolutely should not try to drive there.  You might find a parking spot, but trying to figure out the times when you can, can't, kind of can, and sometimes can park somewhere, even with a meter can be very difficult to figure out, and god knows nothing would wreck my day like coming out of class at 10PM to find that my car had been towed.  Plus, you'll pay way more in parking fees, fines, etc. than you would if you just get a monthly pass for the T.  If you are used to driving everywhere, it takes a little adjustment I won't lie,  you have to work on someone else's schedule, you don't usually get front door service, there are occasionally strange, annoying humans sharing your space, etc.  However, I'm confident that this would pale in comparison to trying to drive downtown and park a few times a week.  As a minor note for @mmmarimba, I don't know when you last went to JP, and maybe this is just comparatively in relation to SF, but while it is on the Orange Line, it definitely is not cheap.  It used to be, but it has kind of become young professional central and is actually just as pricey as anywhere (unless you are just about on the Roxbury line).  

[jdg]

18 hours ago, AbrasaxEos said:

@ErmahgerdAdulting The greater Boston area is very bikeable, if a little nerve-racking at times.  As already mentioned, you need to be comfortable taking the lane with cars at times, being wary of being doored, and generally have to deal with occasionally obnoxious drivers who are being dangerous.  I'd say though that in general cars are pretty courteous, that bike lanes are growing more prevalent, and that I generally don't feel as though I'm taking my life in my hands while doing so.  One nice plus is that in a place like Somerville, biking can really save you time and aggravation, as it is more often than not the quickest and most convenient method for getting from place to place.  Yes, do get a good lock though, and remember that it gets down to single digits here in the winter sometimes.

@jdg The T will work fine for you as long as you are using the trains.  Even the buses aren't terrible, but later at night you have to time them correctly or you can really be sitting there waiting for a long time between them.  The trains typically come on pretty regular schedules though, even later at night.  if, as you say you are going into the heart of Boston, you absolutely should not try to drive there.  You might find a parking spot, but trying to figure out the times when you can, can't, kind of can, and sometimes can park somewhere, even with a meter can be very difficult to figure out, and god knows nothing would wreck my day like coming out of class at 10PM to find that my car had been towed.  Plus, you'll pay way more in parking fees, fines, etc. than you would if you just get a monthly pass for the T.  If you are used to driving everywhere, it takes a little adjustment I won't lie,  you have to work on someone else's schedule, you don't usually get front door service, there are occasionally strange, annoying humans sharing your space, etc.  However, I'm confident that this would pale in comparison to trying to drive downtown and park a few times a week.  As a minor note for @mmmarimba, I don't know when you last went to JP, and maybe this is just comparatively in relation to SF, but while it is on the Orange Line, it definitely is not cheap.  It used to be, but it has kind of become young professional central and is actually just as pricey as anywhere (unless you are just about on the Roxbury line).  

What is cheap and still has T access?  I've been looking on Craigslist and the bare minimum seems to be $1000 after utilities.  I'm on a tight budget ($24k/year, taking out student loans to live so I can focus on school, might try to get a part time job after I am settled in), and I honestly can't figure out how people do it when the rents are sky-high.

[ts1493]

On 4/28/2016 at 10:03 PM, AbrasaxEos said:

  As a minor note for @mmmarimba, I don't know when you last went to JP, and maybe this is just comparatively in relation to SF, but while it is on the Orange Line, it definitely is not cheap.  It used to be, but it has kind of become young professional central and is actually just as pricey as anywhere (unless you are just about on the Roxbury line).  

I couldn't agree more.  I lived in JP a few years ago when I was working and was hoping to live there now, because it'll be so close to my program but have been totally dismayed by the costs.  I put in a $2000 limit and all that comes up are studios and 1 bedrooms, hard to even get a two bedroom for my husband and I.  Also, there's no longer an affordable grocery store - just Whole Foods and a pricey co-op.  We'll be looking elsewhere I think ... 

[dr. t]

23 hours ago, jdg said:

What is cheap and still has T access?  

Dorchester, Mattapan, Chelsea, East Boston, Everett. But "cheap" remains relative.

[AbrasaxEos]

@jdg The unfortunate thing is that you and everyone else would love to live in a cheap area with easy T access in Boston, so $1000 is about right for a place that is in some proximity to the T.  Out of the areas that @telkanuru lists, East Boston might be your best bet, as even most of the areas near the Dorchester stops on the red line are getting up close to $1000, maybe you could find something in the $800-$900 range, but not much less.  Plus, with the exception of East Boston, the areas listed would actually be the few places I'd rather not be walking home through late at night in the greater Boston area.  I guess the answer to your final question is probably more or less what you note, a mix of just scraping by, some parental help if possible, and if not, student loans.  I had the good fortune of a partner with an extremely well paying job, so that is the unfortunately unhelpful answer from me (and I didn't even finish my degree, having recently quit to take an equally well-paying job...)

[dr. t]

3 hours ago, AbrasaxEos said:

 Plus, with the exception of East Boston, the areas listed would actually be the few places I'd rather not be walking home through late at night in the greater Boston area. 

Yes, these are all higher-crime areas, though Allston isn't exactly safe. But Eastie is substantially worse than Dorchester, generally speaking. The Dot is fine near Savin Hill and down Dot ave to Codman Sq. 

You might also try Malden near the orange line, but that's been getting pricey. 

I really like http://www.universalhub.com/ for my local news.

Edited April 30, 2016 by telkanuru

[monastic]

Well hello there!

I created this account specifically to post this post, as a show of gratitude for the advice from this thread. The name "monastic" illustrates the lifestyle I had to switch to after moving to Boston to study at Hahvahd. Thanks for playing.

Here are my 50 cents:

Behold this map and despair:  http://realestate.boston.com/buying/2016/05/03/map-how-much-costs-mbta-stops/

No, seriously, Boston is crazy expensive. Harvard housing "follows the market" but, really, drives it. With everyone else cheering along, of course. The best thing you can do for yourself is find an apartment NOW and move in on a date which is not Aug 1 or Sep 1. But if Allston Christmas sounds like fun*, take heed of this information:

(*the crazy Sep 1 date when Bostonians hide in their lairs and hoards of students come out to fill the streets with u-hauls.)

Brief disclaimer: these pieces of advice stem from my utter inability to hold a part-time job while studying toward my PhD. My budget for a studio apartment was and remains in the area of 1500, because I want to eat right and drink some of that alcohol thing everyone raves about. But hey, if you can go just a few hundreds over, good for you, fancy pants.

 

Let's start by area:

- Cambridge. Unless you're ready to live in a room in a shared apartment or have some extra income coming in, I found it impossible to find anything there for less than the Harvard housing prices, which are, in my very humble opinion, through the roof.

- Legends say that Somerville used to be cheap, but not anymore. The part of Somerville on the Orange line is still a shithole. So I don't see the point of going in that direction, really.

- Not all subway lines are created equal. The green line B may look like such a sweet spot, but really, it's a choo-choo train. Buses are terrible, unless you only need one, then it's a breeze with the little help of a transit app to avoid you waiting for 30 min in the cold. The area is nice though, with Brighton clearner and safer than Allston, where all the undergrads are. Then again, if you do find something decent in Allston, by all means, save yourself the commute.

- Green line C and D are much faster moving and the area are nicer therefore... you guessed. Too expensive.

- Some of my classmates are musing of moving to Wonderland. Not that Harvard is not a wonderland of its own. Bottom line is: blue line is nice, red line is nice, but they don't intersect. No sir. And the Airport area is just depressing - no beer store for late-nite gloom and doom.

- Malden is just sad.

- Further South down the red line would actually be a smart option, I just wasn't able to find anything decent there, anyone?

- Commuter rail is a big mystery to me. Now that GSAS will subsidize the T-pass 50%, perhaps finding something there might not be a bad option and commuting to Porter Sq. for example.

 

Now, to the search:

- Searching for flats online yielded nothing for me. Every phone call I made stopped at the landlord asking that I come see the place. The amount of rudeness I experienced baffled me to say the least. It's like they didn't want me to rent their place, wtf?! One of my friends who insisted on being able to get a place this way was still without a contract starting August. The Angst.

- So I came to Boston, stayed at an AirBnB and went on a siege of all the realtors out there. After multiple failed attempts my expectations went down but my luck went up, with a moderately decent realtor from Prestige Rental Solutions stipulating that what you see on Craigslist is a way to lure in the student: they list fake adds with low rents, you call them, they say "oh, this one is gone, but for slightly higher price, come see what we got". And so I went and saw and got myself an apartment on the green line B in the Brighton area. Studio at 1500 with heat and water included, but not the gas and hydro. It's OK, really, they are cheap. And the place is decent, I won an epic battle with an illiterate plumber to fix the flow of hot water. Management company: Fineberg are OK although they did do a few staggering things that put my stress level into overdrive such as asking me to renew my contract 8 months before it expired, and setting a new end of contract on Aug 27 instead of Aug 31. We agreed to change but boy was I anxious.

- The difficulty was in complying with their requirements that your rent be 30% of your income. There simply ain't got that kind of rent in Boston for our stipends. But some realtors have experience dealing with students, so a copy of my funding letter was enough.

- Realtor also recommended taking a flat on the top floor because "vermin does not bother going that high". That advice worked so far.

- The realtor was decent only moderately because he did not give me a readable contract, blaming the printer and promising to send me a good copy later. He never did. I should have taken photos with my phone. Also, he said gas would be included, but it was not. But otherwise he was friendly, a rare quality out there in the land of capitalism.

 

If I could change anything, I would have taken that overpriced studio with Harvard housing and live my days between the yard and the broadway market's wine tasting. But then I'd never see downtown and still be scared of the T, as most of my classmate somehow are. It sucks to be one of the few people to commute but what choice do I have, without a rich parent willing to subsidize me or a lawyer spouse with a steady job? Food for thought: http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2016/4/27/minority-students-PhD-pipeline/

Cheers and may the search be swift and painless for you!

Edited May 8, 2016 by monastic

[Vulpix]

Looking for moving advice...

I'm probably going to get a Harvard apartment with a lease start date of July 9.  My current lease in NYC is up July 1, so I have 8 days of "homelessness."  I'm going to move to Boston with no furniture and as little "stuff" as possible (just my clothes etc), so can basically make this move with my mom's car and my friend's car.  I have a friend who I can probably sublet/crash a room with for a week, so I'm not worried about where I'll SLEEP, so much as when/how to move all my crap.

Are there zip cars available to rent for a day to just lug my stuff from my friend's Cambridge apartment to my new place?  Should I try to *not* move to Cambridge until my start date, and just find a place in New York for a week so that I can just move my stuff once to Boston (but still have to move it once in NY?)  I'm so confused and bad at the logistical aspects of moving.  Grrrr.  I'm thinking my best bet is to have my friends/family help me drive my stuff up to a sublet on July, and then rent a car for the day of my move-in and make a few trips back and forth to bring my stuff there....

Any insight on similar experiences with weird dates would be helpful!

[nm16]

@Heather1011 All the options you mentioned sounds viable! There are like a bajillion zipcars in Cambridge.  Just book one a few days before you need it, so that you know it'll be there.

As for where to stay, I think that's a personal matter! If you want a last few days of hurrah/hanging out in NYC, you should hang out there and just move everything on July 9.  Or, if it's possible, I would ask the current tenant if it's ok to leave your stuff there from July 1 through 9 so that you don't have to worry about your stuff.  If you're going to be there as a permanent tenant in like 8 days, they'll for the most part be OK with you leaving a few suitcases to hang out in your future room or something.  I've done that before a couple of times.