Once you have been accepted and decided to enroll, one of the first, most exciting, and most important decisions you will have make is where to live. MIT Housing has 5 graduate residences for single students and 2 for families. Living in such a beautiful campus is fun, convenient and highly recommended.
For starters, your best option is to come visit campus before and take a look at all the residences. But, if you are an international student like me with a demanding job and cannot take the time off to visit campus before starting the program, then you will have to make a decision based only on online information. My post concerns only the search for single graduate housing, family housing might be slightly different.
First of all, you need to decide between living on or off campus. Off-campus living is harder to arrange, could be more expensive, and has many requirement that international students sometimes do not meet. If you find yourself in my situation, then on-campus living is your safest bet. Having said that, deciding which residence you want to live in is a decision you should not take lightly.
MIT has a Graduate Housing Lottery where you rank your top 10 desired combinations of residence and appartment type. Generally there are three types of appartments: single, double and triple. Doubles and triples are appartments that have two or three private bedrooms but share the living areas such as kitchen and bathroom. The type of appartment you choose is probably a decision that will depend on your budget and your willingness to put up with messy appartment mates and unclean bathrooms.
But do not be fooled. Even though MIT's housing website describes each residence as beautiful and unique, there is one you should definitely stay away from. Never, NEVER, list Tang Residence Hall as one of your options. Tang appears to be the oldest residence on campus. The furniture is old and heavily used, rooms are tiny, and there are virtually no facilities to enjoy. The "gym" is in a dark, dusty basement and the lounges have uncomfortable furniture that does not invite you to hang around. Trust me, there are only 3 MLOG students currently living in Tang and none of us are satisfied with our current accomodations.
Using a scale based solely on my personal preferences and experience, I would rank the single graduate houses in the following order:
- The Warehouse (Has only efficiencies (singles), but has the best facilities.)
- Ashdown House (The newest residence, has all types of rooms, and is arguably the most popular.)
- Sidney-Pacifc (Is older than 1 and 2, but still has much better facilities than Tang.)
- Edgerton House (It's the only unfurnished residence, but used furniture is cheap and easy to get.)
- Tang Residence Hall (The only good thing about it is a great view of the Charles River.)
I hope this descriptions help you make an informed decision concerning single graduate housing. On-campus living is fun, safe and convenient. And if you get enough information about the residences, you will be better off at selecting the best one for you to live in during your one-year journey. If you have any questions concerning your future living arrangements at MIT, feel free to drop me a line.
Tang Residence Hall is the top building on the right of this photo (08/14/2009)







