Accommodation in College dorms?? Boston

wexhurdler

Hey,

Has anybody any experience of staying in college dorms in Boston while on J1?

Any ideas on how to get a place?

How much would you expect to pay?

Thanks in advance

southsiderosie

If you are enrolled, then you should be able to arrange housing through the university. Some will give preference to international students, since finding housing in Boston can be brutal, but there may be a lottery.

To be honest, most student housing is pretty crappy (although it has gotten better in recent years). It's worth exploring off-campus options. You can try looking on craigslist.org to find a room in a shared house or apartment - there are always loads of people looking to sublet furnished rooms, especially in Cambridge and Somerville. Sometimes you can even find large shared houses where the rooms are rented individually, so you don't have to worry about other people not paying their rent. It's particularly easy to do this in the summertime when all of the students leave and need to sublet.

Within Cambridge/Somerville, expect to pay $500-$600 for Porter or Davis Squares, $600-$700 for Inman, and $800+ for Central or Harvard Square. Generally, the longer the walk to a subway stop, the cheaper the rent will be. Rooms in Jamaica Plain can be found for $500-$700.

Whatever you do, be sure to ask about utilities; heating bills in the wintertime can run over $300/month, so keep that in mind. Also, be sure to give yourself about a week to find a place, as people in shared apartments and houses can be rather picky about who they rent to, and will often want to meet and interview you.

Finally, the leasing cycle is generally June 1/September 1, so if you need to sign a one-year lease (and don't want to keep having to do short-term sublets), it would probably be easier to time your arrival around these dates. Just be forewarned that September 1 is "moving day" for pretty much every student in the Boston metro area, and it is a total ****show. :eek:

Good luck! Feel free to PM me if you have any other questions.

abelard

southsiderosie wrote: »

Just be forewarned that September 1 is "moving day" for pretty much every student in the Boston metro area, and it is a total ****show.

Also the best day of the year for the scavenger!