Find Off-campus Housing?
From Rutgers GSA Wiki
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Off-Campus Housing
The main types of housing available in the Rutgers area are shown below. You may have to pay water, gas/heat, electricity, phone and Internet on top of rent, therefore most graduate students share a house with 1 to 3 students. Expect to pay up to $550 to $650 (total) for a room in a house in a good neighborhood. But if you are willing to compromise a little on the quality of your neighborhood, live in a more run-down house, or share a bedroom (advertised as a double) you may find something much cheaper.
- Apartment in an apartment block or complex;
- Part of a large house - most houses in the area are two story and split into two or three separate homes (e.g.: one per story).
- Room in a house or apartment that already has people living in it;
- Studio/ one bedroom apartment;
- Two bedroom apartment;
- Three bedroom apartment;
- Four bedroom apartment.
It is likely that you will have to pay 1.5 months rent as a security deposit (bond) and 1 month’s rent in advance. The bond may be required when you first sign the agreement. Rent is usually paid monthly and is due a specific date each month (often the first of the month). If you are living in a private house and dealing directly with a landlord/landlady you will usually pay with a check or in cash. Online or automatic bank payment of rent does not seem to be very common here.
You should start looking for a place six weeks before you want to move in, and try to have something settled by at least two weeks beforehand. For that reason, many students prefer to live on-campus during their first year. This official Rutgers Off-Campus Housing website can help you finding a place to live.
Where to Look for an Apartment or Roommate
- Check out the advertisements with the Rutgers Off-Campus Housing website;
- Sign up to the GSA_MARKET list and post an ad yourself;
- Check for ad in the Daily Targum (the Rutgers student newspaper), and on notice boards around the campus.
- Search for apartments in the area at: rentbits.com Apartments.com, House Free listings for real estate, rentals and wanted ads.
ForRent.com, and New Jersey Apartments at MyApartmentMap as well as Rent.com.
Highland Park is a residential area with local families, grad students and faculty living in the area. It has a main road (Raritan Avenue) with a small selection of shops & restaurants, medium sized grocery store, and a large orthodox Jewish population. It is 5 to 20 minute walk to the River Road bus stop on the campus bus route. It takes 10 to 25 minutes to walk across the bridge to downtown New Brunswick and a further 5 minute walk will get you to the edge of the College Avenue Campus. The price range for housing in Highland Park is $650 to $900 for a studio/one bedroom, $900 to $1100 for a two-bedroom apartment and $1300-$1500 for a three-bedroom apartment.
Try the following contacts for apartments in Highland Park
- Adelaide Gardens 100 S. Adelaide Avenue 247-0614
- Benner House Apartments 117 Benner Street 846-3574
- Cedar Lane 100 Cedar Lane 846-0806
- Donaldson Park Apartments 321-A Crowells Road 572-1326
- Highland Manor Apartments 409 S. 10th Avenue 572-0253
- Highland Montgomery Apts. 140 Montgomery Street 828-7993
- Magnolia Gardens 60B Woodbridge Avenue 572-3636
- Orchard Gardens 260 S. 11th Street 985-6886
- Parktown House Apts. 11 Raritan Avenue 846-4260
- Treetops Apartments 250 Treetop Drive 846-0400
- Wood Oak Co. S. 2nd Avenue 828-4665
New Brunswick is a small city with a bit of a more urban-neighborhood feel, greater economical, racial, and ethnical diversity than Highland Park. Johnson & Johnson has its world head-quaters in New Brunswick. New Brunswick now boasts of a variety of restaurants and bars. It offers a wider range of housing prices and options and has the advantage of rent control. The only grocery store in New Bruswick are C-Town, and it has a 7-11 store too. Many undergraduates live in an area near the fraternities and bars on Easton Avenue. If you're looking for a quieter neighborhood, try the area by the Alexander Library and Buccleuch Park by the College Avenue campus, or within a block or so of the Douglas College campus. Street parking in New Brunswick can be relatively tight in some areas and you will need to get a free resident parking sticker from the city. Rutgers campus buses provide transportation between the various different campuses and have multiple stops in New Brunswick.
- Birchwood Terrace Apartments 272 Hamilton Street 828-5607
- Highlands at Plaza Square, 1 Richmond Street,New Brunswick, NJ 08901, 732-296-8011.
- Brunswick Arms Apts. 119 Livingston Ave. 249-4748
- Century Apartments 85 Easton Avenue 249-5545
- G & A Brookside Apartments 55 Brookside Avenue 246-0446
- Park Lane Apartments 10 Landing Lane 249-6662
- Penrose Management Co. 217 Somerset Street 828-4083
Other Towns & Cities
Rutgers is located in Middlesex County is New Jersey. The County is divided into smaller boroughs, towns and cities where students sometimes choose to live. The main choices are:
- Piscataway, Somerset, North Brunswick. These towns are mostly residential, and are a 10-20 minute commute by car to campus. Rents vary, though are mostly on par with New Brunswick or even a bit lower.
- Metuchen, Edison.These towns are accessible by New Jersey Transit trains. They are very similar to Highland Park, with comparable rents.
- Princeton. Half an hour away by car or train, 50 minutes by bus. Princeton is a quiet, residential town with a large town center with mostly upscale shop and restaurants. It is one of the wealthiest regions in New Jersey and prices and correspondingly high. It is home to Princeton University.
- Hoboken and Jersey City. Both have the advantage of being just across the river from Manhattan, and both are accessible to New Brunswick by train (NJ Transit and PATH). Commuting time to campus is about an hour. Hoboken is more expensive and more gentrified than Highland Park or New Brunswick. Jersey City is a little bit less expensive than Hoboken and rents can be comparable to Highland Park.
- New York or Philadelphia. If you must live in a big city, New York is an hour away by train or bus; Philadelphia is an hour and a half to two hours away by train. New York is very expensive to live in; Philadelphia is relatively cheap.
