One of the first questions people ask you when you are moving to a new city or town is inevitably: have you found a place to live? This somewhat innocuous question can be loaded with stress, especially given the current housing crisis hitting most of the United States. This question is implicitly loaded with other questions of the sort: Will you live with roommates? How far are you going to live from where you work? How do you find housing? Is there going to be affordable housing? How are you going to visit the places before deciding on where to live? These are real concerns that can be difficult to answer. Finding housing while in graduate school can present unique challenges, as well as some unique opportunities that you may not have thought to look into. This article will draw on experiences from a few graduate students across the country who recently moved, to shed some light on some Housing How-Tos! We hope you find it helpful!

 

Interviewees:

Ahron Cervania: Georgia Tech PhD Student, Atlanta, Georgia (Previously University of Victoria Master’s Student, Victoria, British Columbia)

Annaliese Meyer: MIT-WHOI Joint Program PhD Student, Falmouth, Massachusetts

Kaitlyn Fouke: Duke University PhD Student, Durham, North Carolina

Shiyel Rittenbach: Old Dominion University, Master’s Student, Norfolk, Virginia

Katelyn Alley: University of Oregon, PhD Student, Eugene, Oregon

What did you use to find housing? Is it unique to your area?

The major consensus on ways to find housing when you are moving to a new place is to search online. Some universities have housing email lists or sites that specifically advertise to graduate students any open apartments/houses or people looking for a roommates. Kaitlyn used a housing list called Duke List that was hosted through Duke University and available only to students. This is a great way of finding housing that will meet most of the needs of a graduate student (i.e. proximity to campus, hitting the grad student price point etc.). Annaliese frequented the WHOI community housing site which is a place where Woods Hole/Falmouth residents can post listings or in search of renters or roommates. This site, unlike the Duke List, is not exclusive to students and so the options available can vary in terms of fit for graduate student budget and lifestyle. Checking these sites regularly is important because often listings will go fast, especially around the time people are moving (end of summer)!

When a university housing site is not available, it’s time to turn to the myriad of commercial housing sites available. Whether you are looking with a group of people for a place to rent or a single room on your own the sites Annaliese, Ahron, and Katelyn used were: Zillow, Apartments.com, and Trulia. These sites are convenient in that they are an easy way to browse what is available in your area. That being said, most people interviewed found their housing through more unconventional sites. Many used Facebook, where they found people in search of roommates, and Kaitlyn said she used a Facebook group called “Housing for Lovely People in Durham”, which sounds like such a pleasant group to scroll through! Another source that was particularly useful was Craigslist. Craigslist offers a wide range of options available in terms of houses or apartments for rent, looking for a spot available in an already established house, or making your own post looking for roommates. Unlike the more monitored housing sites, when looking on craigslist you need to make sure it is a legitimate posting. You want to see the place before you commit, and you always want to go to these meetings with a friend or do a virtual tour and talk to the landlord/potential roommates over the phone. Craigslist is famously riddled with scams and pitfalls; see the later section on this.

Did you live in student housing, and if so, what is it like?

None of the current interviewees lived in student housing; however, student housing is an option at most universities, and specifically there is graduate student housing. The condition of graduate student housing varies from place to place. Some can be very similar to dorms, while others are like any other apartment/house you would live in. The cost and affordability of these places relative to the conditions of living space are different between universities. At some schools graduate student housing can be a great option, while other schools the cost to live in these places are not actually affordable relative to a graduate school income. Make sure to look into what the housing options are like at your university and whether graduate student housing can be an option for you. 

The student housing at University of Oregon, where Katelyn goes to school, is essentially like renting an apartment in Eugene and is a very good option. In order to get into this housing, however, you have to put your name on a waitlist as many graduate students want to live there and they do not have enough spots for all their students. Graduate student housing in other areas, like at MIT, act more like dorms with a shared living space, and kitchen. The advantage of these graduate student housing options is that everything is managed through the university and often the location is very convenient. Again, make sure to look to see how the pricing compares to the cost of housing outside of the university, as university housing may or may not be affordable depending on the school you go to.

Did you have to quarantine when you moved? What accommodations were there for this?

Many of us who started grad school in the last few years started during the COVID-19 pandemic, and so had to deal with different levels of quarantine status. Annaliese moved to Falmouth, MA from Victoria, British Columbia in February 2021. At that time there was a two week quarantine in place for moving from out of the country. There were no accommodations available, but she had a lease lined up. In order to vet the place beforehand she had a friend she knew in the area check it out for her. If you do not know anybody in the place you are moving to, reach out to the administration staff or graduate student coordinator for your program, often they are more than happy to go visit a place for you. Others who moved during the pandemic did not have to quarantine, but many decided to self-quarantine or avoid public spaces as best they could while they moved. Many of us also had orientations, and classes on zoom, which made this much easier to do.

Does your school provide financial assistance for moving?

Moving can be expensive, especially if you have to buy furniture, ship belongings, make a cross-country trip, or pay deposits. Many employers offer allowances for those who need it to relocate. This is something that you should be proactive in asking your graduate student coordinator about! Ahron, Annaliese, Kaitlyn, and Shiyel all said their schools did not offer relocation assistance. At the University of Oregon Katelyn did get relocation assistance. The university provides a certain amount of money per mile that you are moving from. This is something that has to be submitted individually and is not automatic in the moving process, so can be missed if you do not know to ask for it. It’s worth it to reach out to the administration to see if your school offers this, the worst they can say is no!

What have you seen and needed to be on guard for when looking (scams, creepy Craigslist posts, brokers, etc.)?

Scams are common when looking for housing online but can be avoidable if you know what to look out for. Shiyel recommends looking out for stipulations like checking income, depending on your stipend from your university this can put you out of housing from the get-go. Be careful of people that may be posing as landlords to grab a deposit, or leasing agents that have bad or sketchy reviews. Always better to recruit a buddy and see the place/meet the renter or roommates in person (or have someone in administration go in-person if you can’t physically be there). Look at any additional fees that go along with renting, this is not just utilities. You want to be careful of broker fees, or amenity fees that you won’t necessarily be using. Kaitlyn suggests asking people already in the program where the best places to live are, and which leasing companies to watch out for. Most older graduate students are forthcoming about this information and love passing on their shared knowledge. She also found the housing posted on Duke’s internal student site to be fairly trustworthy, so this can be another perk about going off your school’s community housing options. Annaliese says be careful about places with low rent compared to other places in the area, unless there is a clear reason as to why the rent is low. Also she recommends avoiding places that specify gender, and have strict rules such as “no overnight guests”. Most land ownership/real estate sales are public information so you can always look up the landlord name matches with the house owner, if you are wanting to be extra careful! Ahron has some practical advice about analyzing postings to see if they are fake. First, if there are no pictures it is probably a deal-breaker: avoid these places! Second, if there is text that is similar across multiple listings this is a red flag that the postings are fake. Finally, if the address is listed look it up on google maps and see if the images shown on the listing match with the google street view. 

What was the upfront cost, did you just have to pay a deposit, or first+last month rent, or a broker fee, etc.?

Upfront costs can be quite expensive—especially if you have not received a paycheck yet. One way to try and avoid some of these upfront costs is to move into an established household, as Shiyel did. She moved into a house that other people had already been living in for some time, and so only had to pay a deposit—no broker fee or last month's rent. Others all had to pay first, last, and security deposits which averaged to about 3 months rent at once. This is a lot! If you are having trouble affording this before your first paycheck, reach out to your graduate school to see if there is a way in which they could help you out.

How did you find roommates, if you live with people?

All five of the interviewees found their roommates through the sites listed above! These were all strangers to the interviewees before moving in. As you can guess, finding roommates this way can go either way in terms of how you will get along with them. It’s best to talk with them beforehand over the phone or in person to see if these are people you think you could live with.

How did you determine the neighborhood in which you wanted to live?

Determining the neighborhood you want to live in is very important in your search for housing. If you have constraints such as not having a car, you want to bike to work, or want to live in a quiet area you should be proactive about finding out what the different neighborhoods are like. Annaliese says that Falmouth is not a walkable town so the priority for her was to be able to easily drive to campus and groceries. Others, Ahron, Kaitlyn, and Katelyn, all wanted to be within biking distance. In order to find out this information they reached out to current students in their program to get their advice on the location. Also reaching out to the graduate student coordinator is a good idea because they can get you in contact with students who they know will have good advice on where to live. If you are not able to see the place you are going to live in person, have someone in your program tour the area for you. Shiyel suggests also to look at Reddit threads about the area you are moving to, usually there are whole pages about safety, good people to lease form, and tips about where to live. 

How do you get to work? Is public transit an option?

This depends on the place you are living. Annaliese says Falmouth public transportation is essentially nonexistent, so she has to drive into work. Katelyn says that public transportation in Eugene is free for students so she can take the bus system, but she also bikes in because the city is very bike friendly. Ahron lives within walking distance from campus so walks to work everyday. Shiyel lives in an area that doesn’t have great public transit and is not very bikeable so she drives in.

What's to take away from all of this?

Where you hang your hat at the end of the day is an important part of your life, whatever you're doing. As graduate school goes, choosing your home base can take some work, and isn't without risk. In making the right decision for you and your own life, don't be afraid to ask questions. Ask other students; ask your academic office; ask the internet. The more you ask, the more you'll learn about not only the place you're moving, but also the location within it that you might want to call home.