<p>@ArtsandLetters you also have to think about what happens with furniture at the end of the year. If you buy even at low prices you have to have it moved it out to the next place (unless you and roommates are renewing of course) or find someone to take it off your hands. I think that works for families that are more local in southern California. My D did not want to have to deal with it, she has enough stuff already. Cort will rent a set of furniture at $99 per month plus tax, so that’s another way to go but of course has to be figured into the cost. The utilities at West 27th were super low (LEED building) and they are included at Lorenzo. There’s also a nice takout restaurant at Lorenzo as I’m sure you saw, about the same prices as Seeds (ie., not cheap). My D is not a cook. As long as she keeps within the allowance I give her, I leave how she gets her food up to her. I was initially quite skeptical of her living there but have come around, the lack of any security deposit was a huge plus. Where did your student decide to live for the coming year?</p>
<p>Our D and her house mates intend to stay in the same apartment for the three post-freshman years. Sophomore year went well, they renewed for junior year. She does cook, and also picks up things to eat on her way to and from the apartment. Really, each housing situation is unique–you need to figure all the costs that impact your student/family. For us, this works. For someone else, Lorenzo may be a better option. It’s all good!
Look at food–do they want to cook, ease of grocery shopping, where to get their favorite take out
Furniture–rent/buy/included? Do they plan to stay in one place for multiple years? (any plan can change of course)
Parking if needed–how much, how easy?
Commute to and from apartment–are they involved in extra curricular activities that mean late nights on campus? Do they want to stop off during the day?
Private room or shared room? Bathroom?
Those are the things we considered…you may have a different list.</p>
<p>^ Agreed…glad things are going well M2M! My first (maybe only, haha) friend here on the USC forum!</p>
<p>S lives in large 3 bedroom 3 bath apt made for 6, each bathroom has huge vanity with 2 sinks, but never had more than four, just one shared a room. All of them opted for own room this year. This way pricing is about $1200 each per month in single rates plus utilities for those interested in rate. ($3675 per month). Would obviously be a lot less if they put six in there, but own room was important for this group. This is a 1500 sq ft apt with hardwood floors and pretty new, private garage and secure parking. Not that close to campus (off good part of Adams) but not far either, distance has not been an issue. Apartment and building is really nice, but as said, we had a lot of issues with STUHO over the last couple years, but we have new property manager that seems great as of a few months ago. The first year it was he[[ considering what we are paying, ah the stories I could tell. That was all due to poor property manager that was since fired. With room mates in private housing, there is a management issue that has to be done like splitting utilities and who brings what, that kind of thing. I have utilities in my name and divide it between them (didn’t want my student’s credit getting messed up over utilities). The second year there I include an estimate (since I have data) in their portion of rent and deduct it from my students rent to be sure we get reimbursed. If you make the investment in furniture/time you tend to be motivated to stay in same place which was our case, so find the right place to start to avoid moving every year if possible. Craigslist is fabulous when you get good at it. Otherwise, travel light as snowdog mentioned. @snowdog, I find your posts helpful 
perhaps I have not noticed the sinister side that costs you friends here? 
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<p>@Snowdog - I did worry about that initially (moving furniture) - but they were actually able to find a reasonably priced storage unit and as a group moved their things in a truck rented from zip car. If I go to help one year I’ll get an F150 from UHaul and a dolly. But for sure - the next move needs to be long term if she opts for an unfurnished space. She’s also learned to shop at Habitat ReStore for good deals. But yes - traveling light has become a learning experience.</p>
<p>@CADreamin - that’s an interesting plan and one we’re factoring in - we take on future utilities if they move to a private place and split among them. </p>
<p>I find all of you very enlightening. I’m pretty saavy about most things but L.A. is a bit of an enigma as everyone surrounding the campus has discovered students as “cash cow” so she’s starting to figure out how to maximize her budget and is learning the value of thrift shopping. :-)</p>
<p>Our wishlist - large bedroom/bathroom even if she shares but at some point privacy becomes very desirable as a place to get away from it all.</p>
<p>Thanks all here who post! I for one appreciate it!</p>
<p>One more thing, private housing rentals (non Gateway/Lorenzo types) are 12 month leases. Plan on that and make sure your room mates aren’t gonna flake on you after May. I wish they would bundle the last couple months across the first 10 but they don’t in our case and fortunately it hasn’t been an issue. But if you don’t know roomies well or they have no ties here, it could be tempting for them to flee from those last couple months and someone has to cover it. We didn’t sign to pay a certain amount each like you do at Gateway, we all sign to pay the total.</p>
<p>^ That happened to my nephew at BU. Roommate disappeared and left the other two holding the bag.
@CADREAMIN there are a few die-hards around who seem to view any complaint about USC as disloyal (or something). Be glad if you’ve missed the drama.
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<p>^Oh ya, the land of rainbows and unicorns where everyone gets everything they ever need or want and USC does no wrong idealism. I have two there currently and live this stuff everyday, I say keep it real, good or bad, and the forum is its most useful. Fight on!</p>
<p>I’m trying to find a room (preferably two, for me and my brother) walking distance from campus and I’m having a really difficult time, starting to freak out, lol. Any other routes I should look at? I’ve already looked at everything mentioned on this thread. Thanks.</p>
<p>Have you tried Craigslist? And do you have a car? Worst case scenario: rent a room or two on a month to month basis in someone’s house. Try the Silver Lake area north of downtown. It’s gentrified. You can take a bus down Vermont or Figueroa. You have time, keep looking.</p>
<p>Another option: show up on President Nikias’ doorstep with suitcase in hand and ask him how the heck he intends to house all 18,000 plus undergraduates near campus. After all, he’s responsible, along with the other senior admins, for putting all of our undergrads in this colossal mess. USC owns his house, located at 1550 Oak Grove, San Marino, CA. (This is public information.) He’s just a tenant and since you’ll be paying rent, I’m sure there’s plenty of room for you and your brother. I’ve been there too. Ask him if you can crash in the hidden wine cellar until he finds you a place near campus.</p>
<p>@ Hi Snowdog!!! Hope all is going well for you and your D!</p>
<p>@CatalinaIslander Try the USC facebook pages, both the ones by class and the parent groups (there is one large parent group and many “Class of XXXX” parent groups. You might also try the USC Parents of Students Studying Abroad group. Call StuHo and let them know you are looking, they many have a group who needs another roommate (they will keep a list). Good Luck</p>
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<p>Really? USC undergraduates were all comfortably housed on or near campus until USC’s current president was installed? Do tell.</p>
<p>I notice you keep telling other people, invariably newly accepted students, to personally ambush the university president. Why don’t you do that yourself Seattle and cut out the middleman?</p>
<p>USC has grown from about 28,000 students since Nikias was provost to 40,000 today. In 2000 there were about 15,000 undergraduates and 13,000 graduates. Today there are over 18,000 undergrads and just under 22,000 graduate students, an increase of over 42 percent in a decade. His administration has utterly failed to take into account the serious consequences of increasing the class sizes without any coherent plan to house them. His plan is the Village, which might help alleviate the housing for future classes but does nothing to address the housing shortage that his open door policies created in the first place.</p>
<p>It’s frustrating, astonishing and sad reading all of the parental comments about how they’re trying to help their kids find housing when just 20 years ago there was plenty of housing around campus at affordable rents. Nikias and his fellow administrators should have factored in housing before embarking on their course to double the size of the USC student body. No wonder rents are sky high and kids are having problems finding housing. Nikias is squarely to blame and should either allow students to live at the USC president’s mansion or at least take full responsibility for this cluster you know what and apologize.</p>
<p>@SeattleTW - you kind of have a one-track agenda going on. EVERY single thread you’re attacking Nikias. How long has it been since you graduated. And when parents and students are looking for real answers it is at all possible for you to give an earnest answer from current knowledge of the problem rather than sarcasm?</p>
<p>I’ve been talking to friends whose children do NOT go to USC and it appears that housing is an issue around any major private or state university. I live in the midwest and when I was at the airport a few days ago noticed all the “Lorenzo” type advertisements flashing at baggage claim. And friends in Chicago and Boston and . . . are seeing the same thing. Even in some of the smaller midwestern towns. In this economy people are seeing students as a source of income and the rates are pretty astounding.</p>
<p>So USC is not exempt from that. Its in the middle of L.A. I was at UCLA a few weeks ago and didn’t see any “low cost” housing up there either. Nor was there reasonable housing near Chapman which is very much a bedroom community.</p>
<p>So frankly - this is not the problem. And as I calculated my kid’s rent, she’s paying about the same for a 12 month lease as she was for a 9 month rent of a room in an older dorm. It’s all relative and yes - there are much cheaper places to rent, but then it depends on whether one is comfortable with the location. I really feel for kids trying to make this all work on nonexistent budgets.</p>
<p>My point is that our illustrious administrators have blown the lid on USC’s previously manageable size and exacerbated the housing problems around USC. There was no planning, no foresight, no alternative housing options when the administration concocted the idea of ballooning USC’s size by over 12,000 bodies in a decade! I guarantee we would not be having this conversation if USC were the size it was in the 80s or 90s. And for the record, USC off campus housing was always much cheaper than Westwood because of the demographics. The housing crisis around USC is a result of USC’s admissions policies, period.</p>
<p>Now it’s left to the students to fend for themselves. And it confirms my thesis that Nikias is waging a war against the undergrads in particular. You’re pissed off and so am I.</p>
<p>That said, I gave a constructive recommendation: go north toward Silver Lake or Echo Park, which have become safer neighborhoods.</p>
<p>Seattle why don’t you stop hiding behind housing and spring admission?</p>
<p>You’ve made it clear on other threads that your real agenda, your one and only agenda, is that you want your alma mater to climb in the US News rankings. You believe that cutting the number of admitted students in half will have a drastic upward effect on USC’s US News ranking. You believe (erroneously) that spring admits have low credentials. You urge others to bombard Pres. Nikias to serve your own ends.</p>
<p>There. It’s simple.</p>
<p>And to add, I am not “pissed” off. I’m realistic. My kid got into her dream school. She wanted to attend a large university after spending time in a small high school. So USC fits the bill. Everything else is relative and certainly no more expensive than the colleges within a five miles radius of my home are charging for dorm space. </p>
<p>And frankly, no one outside of a few people really cares about the US News ranking system as it is easily manipulated and some colleges don’t participate anymore. Honestly. No one care about it as a measure of the value of a university to its students.</p>
<p>So I went up to USC yesterday and checked out some of the housing, saw a few things that I might be able to do, but not ideal, so I’m wondering if anyone can help me out here.</p>
<p>My brother and I really wanted to live together. He’s moving to LA to find work, me for school. I won’t have a car. I’m willing to take public transport and all, but not if it’s going to be a 30 minute bus ride back and forth to school every day. </p>
<p>Anyone know of any neighborhoods/apartment communities/etc that would enable a male and female to live together [either in a studio, one-bedroom, or where they allow co-eds to rent out rooms in a 3 or 4 bedroom type situation] and that has direct and quick public transport to USC?</p>
<p>Thanks. </p>
<p>You could try uscspots.com Or their subsidiary division, propmanage.com that offers apartments in the area. that might best fit your needs.</p>