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--- doctor_physics:housing [2010/02/08 22:29] – **production** yk
+++ doctor_physics:housing [2010/09/14 15:46] (current) – Removed out of date item (and probably difficult to keep up to date). kapusta
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-====== Housing Information Resources ======
-===== Temporary Housing in summer (August) for international students =====
-For international students, the university provides housing for August in IRC (International Reception Center) which is physically located in Centennial Hall.  It's open 24 hours/day, 7 days/week, and no reservation is needed.  Bring your admission letter.  You can start as early as Saturday, August 1, and stay until the morning of August 30, 2009, so you need to find permanent housing which will start before that.
-Check ISSS web site by clicking on [[http://www.isss.umn.edu/new/temphousing.html|ISSS temporary housing options]] for details.
-===== survey of current students' housing cost and locations =====
-https://zzz.physics.umn.edu/doctor_physics/students/housing_cost_survey
-===== Housing listings =====
-The following listings have been found to be useful by our students.
-  * http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/
-  * http://www.facssumn.org/forum/default.asp
-  * The classifieds in campus paper (MN Daily: http://www.mndaily.com/classifieds/HOUSING) and Minneapolis paper (Star Tribune: http://www.startribune.com or http://pd.startribune.com/sp?p=shoppingportal/classifieds_rentals)
-  * http://www.housing.umn.edu/ or
-=== or if you are on campus, you can visit their office at ===
- Housing and Residential Life\\
- Comstock Hall East\\
-Delaware St SE\\
- Minneapolis, MN 55455\\
- housing@umn.edu\\
- (612)-624-2994\\
-===== comments and tips from students =====
-These are comments from individual students, and while I hope they are useful and helpful in general, specific views may or may not apply to your case.
-=== Student 1 ===
-Besides the [[http://www.tc.umn.edu/~facss/|Friendship Association of Chinese students and Scholars]], the Hospitality Center for Chinese also provides temporary housing and hosting to new Chinese students. The following is their webpage, http://www.chinesehc.org/
-I would let the new students contact senior students directly for long term housing. Some current students will move in the summer, they might need roommates. If they don't, their vacant unit could be rented by the new students. That's how I got my first apartment on University Ave.
-=== Student 2 ===
-Every married grad student should know about married student housing ([[http://www.umn.edu/cscc|CSCC]] and [[http://www.umnctc.org/|CTC]]) - both in St. Paul and Minneapolis. It's subsidized housing, and cooperatives, so you participate in the maintenance of the community. Very inexpensive, day care provided, not far from campus. Waiting list for entry is long (we waited 18 months!!!), unless you have at least two kids, in which case you qualify for larger rooms that have less demand on them - Yuichi got an Email from CSCC on Feb 4, 2010 which said the wait is now more like a month.
-=== Student 3 ===
-I've found that craigslist is a good resource for finding everything from motorcycles to apartments: http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/
-There are also several free agencies in the cities that landlords hire to find tenants. You go in and tell them what you're looking for, they set up appointments for you to view various places, and then when you sign a lease, the landlord pays the agency for their services. For example, there's a place on the 2700 block of Hennepin called Relocation Central that I believe offers this service (although I'm not sure!). A friend recently recommended a different one to me, but unfortunately I can't remember the name. However, my best luck in the past has been with the brute force driving and biking around and writing down telephone numbers on signs.
-One more thing I would recommend is looking at the express bus routes and schedules. Places farther from the U are often cheaper, and the express buses and UPass make it very quick, easy, and cheap to get back and forth every day. Uptown, for example, always seems to have lots of apartments up for rent for reasonable prices, and it takes less than 10 minutes by bus or 15 minutes by bike to get to the U.  (Someone raised a question about this sentence about the Uptown area.  It's not easy to find an appartment, and it's not as close to the campus as it claims.  You may want a second opinion on these points.  yk)
-=== Student 4 ===
-I used the information from the housing office.  It is good to get a feel for what is available at a given price range, but the listing is far from complete.  Most landlords do not list their apartments with the housing office.  The method that was recommended to me and which I found most effective is the following:
-  - Choose what areas you consider living in.  For example how far you are willing to walk/bike/bus to school every day.  It is very helpful to familiarize yourself with the names of the neighborhoods surrounding the university:  Dinkytown, Stadium Village, Marcy-Holmes, Como, St Paul Campus, etc, ...
-  - Scan those areas by bike/car looking for "Efficiency/Studio/One Bedroom Available" signs and write down the phone numbers and location.
-Every landlord with an apartment available will have a sign posted.  This way it is easy to obtain a large number of options, which is especially helpful if you do not have a phone number under which you can be reached.
-=== Student 5 ===
-The typical price range of the studio around the campus is ~$450-$600, and the one bedroom is >$600.  Sharing with someone in two bedroom apartments is about $300 - $500 or so (as of summer 2006? - yk note).
-I see the most of the non-married grad students live around the campus, including Dinkey town and Marcy Holmes area, Stadium Village, Prospective Park, and Como Ave. area. Some people that I know live in suburbs, such as Uptown area, St. Paul, or even Burnsville. But it takes 30 min - 1 hour bus ride.  Once involved into a research, it is advantageous to live closer to the school or to live close to a bus line that goes 24 hours. Also, Dinky town area is known to be an undergraduate student area, so it's "noisy".
-The typical contract may be one year term and two-month notice in advance before moving out, but of course it depends on owners. Also, the typical amenity that is included in the apartment type contract is water and heat, but not for electricity, telephone, fast internet, and cable TV. If it is the first time to live in MN, it is better to live in the place where the heat is included. I don't think it is a good idea to assume to be able to pay heat by a single typical TA/RA stipend unless you share with someone. Usually the cost of heat ends up >$100/month during winter time.
-The last note is that living apartments might be easier, because a number of concerns may be solved by the apartment owner (often some company) or caretakers of the building. On the other hand, if you live in duplex type or house type, it's often that one has to deal with problems by oneself or with owners in person. So if a tenant is a first year international student, it could be fun, but it could be a load too.
-=== Student 6 ===
-Apartments on Brewster St. in Saint Paul are a good deal (if you get used to train noises easily) as they are close to campus - a 15 minute bike ride or 5 minute walk to catch a bus onto campus.
-=== Student 7 ===
-For international students, the university provides housing for August in Comstock Hall (At least they did last year) and I looked for housing around the university by just noting down phone numbers from the buildings.
-We had a problem at the end of August by the way, which I think one should be warned. Comstock wanted us to leave in August 31st, however the we were only able to move to our apartment on September 1st by 12:00 noon. So we had to spend the night in room 216!
-=== Student 8 ===
-First of all, with your stipend, you’ll be able to rent a reasonable place regarding condition, price, and distance. There’re plenty of places you can live, so don’t worry. I’ll start from where to find them in the order of relevance:
-)University housing office and their off campus housing info website.
-(http://www.housing.umn.edu/offcampus/)
-They have an excellent website for exchanging housing information short (1 month or more) and long (1 year or more) terms.
-)Minnesota daily (the University student-run paper). Look in the classified section for some housing opportunities.
-)There’s co-ops for students and some for married students. 425 13th ave se is a high rise, noisy neighborhood but you get central air conditioning, internet and basic cable included. [[http://www.umn.edu/cscc|CSCC]] is between Minneapolis and St. Paul campus on major bus line, mainly for married students. Rent is attractive. [[http://www.umnctc.org/|CTC]] is mainly for married students with some exceptions, next to the St. Paul campus so one can access free campus connector which runs at a 5 minutes interval for most of the day. Rent is also not bad. It’s great for raising kids (huge playground within the complex).
-)drive/walk/cycle around the interesting areas and find for yourself (I’ll tell you what areas later)
-)Startribune and Pioneer Press newspapers. Classified section gives you plenty of information but they’re not all useful and many could be far away so be aware.
-Here’s where I would look for housing:
-For busy first years you may want to consider something close to campus. I would consider these areas:
-In Dinkytown (the university town) you’ll find some rooming houses and limited (small?) apartments. This town is populated by undergrads and seems noisy. Price is high due to the fact that it’s very close to the campus.
-West of Dinkytown, it’s Holmes. There are tons of apartments and quite a few rooming houses. You can go all way to Second Ave S.E. Major bus routes are within a walking distance. Walking and cycling are also good options. Rent is cheaper than in Dinkytown. The neighborhood is usually quiet.
-In Stadium village (east of campus all way to Huron Blvd.) you’ll find some rooming houses and some apartments (mainly 1 bedroom). Somewhat quiet.
-Further east in Prospective Park, you can find some more houses and a few apartments.
-If you prefer, you can live in Uptown. It’s very lively and convenient. Some buses serve the area. Rent is high over there but worth it if you like the great local stores and views. You can take bus #2 to Uptown and explore yourself.
-There are many spots along bus lines where you can find decent apartments with good price. I have circled them on map 1. You can also explore yourself.
-{{ doctor_physics:map_1.jpg |Map 1}}
-Take a system map from metro transit (metropolitan area bus services) website
-(http://www.metrotransit.org/serviceInfo/mapSystem.asp)
-See what buses come to the campus, for example 2,3,6,16,50 etc. Then look at where they go and decide if a spot is too far or not.
-The map 2 circles are somewhat far from the bus lines but you can ride the free campus connector.
-{{ doctor_physics:map_2.jpg |Map 2}}
-Now the rent. From my last year’s experience (2005?), 1 bedroom is from $500 to $750, from a tiny to a large size. 2 bedroom is from $650-800. Rooming house could range from $210 to $400. If you prefer quietness undisturbed living, you can have 1 bedroom or a studio. If you don’t  care too much about cooking or sharing lots of space with lots (4-12) of others (usually strangers), you can live in a rooming house for much less. I mostly lived with a friend in a 2 bedroom before I got married. It’s spacious (study groups or occasional gathering) and not too lonely (first years usually benefit sharing their feelings with friends). There’s also whole houses or condos for rent. Be aware you need to fill the house by yourself. It takes a lot of time to find good house mates. Heating is a hidden cost for houses and can be very high. If you do have a bunch of good friends to house hunt with, go for it.
-A few tips on taking the unit on the day you move in. You want to take photos of every corner of the unit (carpet, kitchen counter, stove range, cabinet, bathroom, ceiling and nails on the wall and any damage) before you move in and carefully go through  a check-in list with the landlord. The local landlords are not very famous for decent behaviors. I have gone to court once and contacted our university legal services 3 times (free service? - yk note). I got what I deserve but it took me tons of time.

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