361: How to Secure Affordable Housing in Grad School

361: How to Secure Affordable Housing in Grad School

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[00:00:00] You did it. You applied to grad school, you got in, maybe you received multiple offers, and you chose the one that gave you the best funding package. You feel relieved. You're feeling proud, you're feeling validated. And then you decide, okay, I'm gonna plan for what's next. Let me take a look at the housing options.

And suddenly the numbers are not adding up. You realize that rent in your campus costs more than half of your stipend. You're looking at more affordable housing options, and you realize that the subsidized housing wait list takes more than a year. Maybe you start looking at the market rate apartments and you realize, oh my goodness, they're asking for first month rent, last month rent, and a deposit.

And now you're wondering, can I even really afford to go to grad school? In [00:01:00] today's episode, I'm gonna walk you through exactly how to avoid this scenario by teaching you some strategies on how to secure more affordable housing for grad school.

Welcome to the award-winning Grad School Femtoring podcast. The place for first gen BIPOCs to listen in on inclusive grad school stories and learn about personal development and productivity tips. This is Yvette Martinez Vu, a certified coach, consultant and author, and I will be serving as your Femtoring, providing you with insider knowledge to help you reach your personal and professional goals.

Welcome back [00:02:00] everyone to another episode of the Grad School Femtoring podcast. This is your host, Doctora Yvette. Today I have a short and sweet episode all about affordable housing for grad school in particular, it's come up as a topic in conversation in my one-on-one consulting sessions with clients who have been admitted to programs. So when I support them, we're not just supporting them with the grad school applications and with interview prep, but some folks need additional support.

They want support with reviewing packages, with negotiating their offer, with looking at housing and planning for that transition. And so this is part of that transition, figuring out the housing piece. So shout out to everyone who I'm working with and who I will be working with because y'all are gonna get a copy of this episode.

I'm gonna keep it short and sweet, but before I get into it, I do wanna share a quick disclaimer. This episode is for educational [00:03:00] purposes only. Please take everything I say with a grain of salt. I am not a financial advisor. I am not an attorney. I am not someone you hired for professional guidance. So again, use this for information to help you ask stronger questions and to think more strategically about your housing options.

Okay? The first thing I'm gonna say is what I tell everyone that I work with, which is you wanna start looking for housing before you accept, in some cases before you even get an acceptance letter. Why? Because some places have graduate housing and it's subsidized, so it's actually a lot more affordable than any other housing near the area, and they have really long wait lists.

And so you wanna get on that wait list as soon as possible. And many of them don't require that you be a current student to be on that wait list. So start looking [00:04:00] early. See what's available. Some programs might guarantee the first year for housing that they have available, which is great, but a lot of them don't.

So it's just something for you to look into in advance. Add it to your spreadsheet on the notes that you keep for each program, and that's already gonna put you above a lot of people because a lot of folks are not gonna do this research in advance, and if you get on those wait lists, again, you're gonna be ahead of the game too by the time you're looking to say yes to an offer and you're actually trying to secure that housing, okay?

After you look at some of your options, before you say yes to a program, you want to understand. What types of options are available? Beyond the subsidized graduate housing option I mentioned earlier, which is great and a lot of folks go for that first because it's below market rent.

[00:05:00] It's , you know, the best bang four, your buck. There's also other options and two other options I wanna point out today are resident advisor options or live-in roles, and these are similar to the graduate housing roles, except you have a job to do there, so you're responsible for on-call hours, you might play a leadership role.

You might have to do some programming. But it's highly discounted, and in some cases they fully pay for your housing, which is why so many people want those roles. So that's the second option.

A third option is market rate off campus housing, and this is usually what people look at first because they may not know about graduate housing, they may not know about the RA positions.

They provide more autonomy. It's the first place that you search when you're Googling the different rental sites. You get to choose your amenities, your [00:06:00] location. But it's also more expensive. And one quick tip in terms of how to get more affordable housing that's off campus and that's not affiliated with the university, is talk to graduate students because some of them might need someone to sublet, some of them might have. A, a friend that they know who's moving out of a place and you can take their lease. Some of them might need a new roommate, et cetera. So it's good to ask and also find out if there are any university housing lists, because some locals prefer to rent to graduate students, and they will offer you a better deal than anyone else in the community because they know that you are a trusted grad student. So keep that in mind.

So the three different housing options I just named are look at the subsidized graduate housing. That can include family housing too, if you have a family [00:07:00] look at resident advisor or live in roles and look at the off-campus housing, but see if there's any specialists or if there are any graduate students who can give you some insights as to where to find more affordable off-campus housing.

The other thing you wanna do after you look at your options is compare your options based on the true monthly cost. What do I mean by this? A lot of times you're just judging based on rent alone. You're like, okay, university housing costs this much and off market housing costs this much, and you call it a day.

But in actuality, maybe university housing is covering utilities or maybe they're covering certain things, amenities, et cetera. You wanna count that as part of your true cost. And if you're getting a rental that's off campus, what if they don't [00:08:00] include a lot of the utilities? They probably don't. Then you want to consider that.

What is the cost of that? What is the cost of internet? What is the cost of parking? Do you have to get renter's insurance? What's the cost of commuting? Are you gonna have to take a shuttle or a bus or pay for a car and pay for gas? These are all part of your true monthly cost, so keep that in mind as you run your numbers and as you compare your options.

I also wanna say a little bit more about the commuting option because I don't think that enough people pay attention to this until it's really late. Some universities are known to be commuter schools. Others aren't. The ones that are known to be commuter schools. They may have more resources for commuters.

They may have shuttles, they may have, just like different options to make that commute less terrible for you. But it [00:09:00] is also something that's going to cost you. Is it going to cost you 10 hours per week to go back and forth? Is it gonna cost you transportation fees? Is it going to cost you emotional and physical fatigue?

And so you wanna take a look at that and see if you're willing to commute and to take on that additional expense of the time and energy, et cetera, and that can help you to make a decision about whether or not to attend that school.

If you do decide to commute again, take a look at what the options are. Are there affordable shuttles? Are there buses? Can you afford to commute there with the car?

I also mentioned earlier that you know, there are resident advisor roles, and right now I wanna share a couple of other strategies that come to mind for things to consider as you're looking at your options.

[00:10:00] One is, join any student groups online, because those student groups will have information about housing. People know, and they're more than willing to help you. Ask department staff because they may have housing lists available, or they can refer you to the right, the right housing resources. Check for different university affiliated rental listings.

That's what I mentioned earlier. See if there's a housing office that you can contact and see if they partner with local landlords again to get more affordable housing. Are there graduate only housing options there? Is there family housing? If that's something you're looking at, do they have housing co-ops? Is there a sublet available that you can take on while you're looking for something more long term?

These are all different things to consider, and then before you actually sign on the dotted line, if you're looking [00:11:00] at an agreement, make sure you understand your lease length, is it for a year? Is it month to month? Month to month can be a little bit more risky because you could get kicked out at any at any time. And I've seen that happen and it's not fun. What is their subletting policy like? Do they have annual rental increases, and if so, what can you expect for that? Do they have any early termination terms?

What is maintenance? Like? How do you submit a maintenance request? How responsive are they? How safe is the area? Do they have quiet hours? Do they have any access to study spaces or lounges. I say all of this because housing is where you live and it's gonna impact your ability to do well in school.

It'll impact your sleep, your focus, your safety, your ability to finish your program. So take a look at all [00:12:00] those details because they matter. The last thing I wanna say before I wrap things up is that besides looking at the fine print and contracts, make sure that you're talking to people about the housing landscape on that campus, on that university campus.

Ask them, where do most grad students live? What neighborhoods are most feasible or are more grad student friendly or are more affordable? What do people wish they had known before they signed the lease or before they decided to live where they live? Any other tips, advice, or words of wisdom that they want to offer you?

I say this because grad students are honest. They know which buildings are well managed. They know which communities are the best. They know which neighborhoods feel safe or grad student friendly. And again, like I mentioned at the top of the episode, even [00:13:00] if you have the best funding option available, it can only work for you if the numbers make sense.

So crunch those numbers as you look at your housing options and make sure that housing is part of that math that you're calculating. Okay, that's it for today. I hope you took some notes. I would love to hear what comes up for you as you do your grad student housing search, and as always, I will talk to you all next time.

Thanks so much for listening. If you liked what you heard, here are three ways you can support the show. The first is to make sure you're subscribed and leave a review on Apple Podcasts. The second way is to get your copy of my free resource kit linked in my show notes. This kit includes tools.

Worksheets and podcast playlists on all things grad school productivity and personal development. The third way to support [00:14:00] my show is to follow me on social media. You can find me on Instagram with the handle at grad school Femtoring, and on LinkedIn by searching my name. Thanks again for listening, and until next time.