Just how far away is Allston?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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I vote for a bike!

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<p>That will work for parts of the year, but I think that is not reasonable when winter hits hard. You really really don't want to tooling around outside in the winter for very long. </p>

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I have chosen to live with some friends off-campus because MIT's graduate school housing is so exorbitantly priced that I would have next to nothing in my pocket if I chose to live in The Warehouse or Sid-Pac, for example. It turned out that my friend in the area could not find a better home (considering price, location, etc.) than the one in Allston. As such, I will definitely be living in Allston---at least for this first year (after which I'll try to find a place in Cambridge or nearby on the Red Line, as I will be able to scout out a home for myself).

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<p>Personally, I would still vote for the grad-school dorm (with the car being option #2). I don't think the grad-school dorms are THAT expensive, particularly when you factor in that all utilities, Internet, cable TV, water, garbage, etc. are all included - and the major plum there is the included heat in the winter, which is a VERY big deal. Again, when you factor in all the time you would save, I still think that the dorm wins. </p>

<p>I'll put it to you this way. Plenty of MIT grad students who get no stipends, notably the Sloan MBA students, still crowd into the dorms. Certain wings of Sidney-Pacific, for example, are almost like a 'mini-Sloan'.</p>

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<p>Well, I'm pretty sure the lottery deadline for this year has passed, anyway, so living in grad housing is a bit of a moot point.</p>

<p>texas137 is quite right that living in one of the undergraduate FSILGs is a great way to save money and create a much better commute. I'm not sure where to look to find information on that, though.</p>

<p>In the end, grad students at MIT live all over Boston, and some of them have worse commutes than others. It's just a fact of life.</p>

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In the end, grad students at MIT live all over Boston, and some of them have worse commutes than others. It's just a fact of life.

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<p>Yeah, but I've never heard of one being as bad as coming from the Allston T, unless the person has a car (in which case, it doesn't really matter). </p>

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Well, I'm pretty sure the lottery deadline for this year has passed, anyway, so living in grad housing is a bit of a moot point

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<p>Hardly so. Grad dorm rooms open up all the time. That's what the wait-list is for. I know a number of doctoral students who didn't get placed into Sidney-Pacific until around August. It's basically understood that as long as you are flexible about which room you get, and when you can move in, you will eventually get a grad dorm room somewhere. You may get stuck with a double in Ashdown, you may get stuck in a top-floor room in Tang, but you'll get something.</p>