Current USC students. Question about housing

[lphiewok]

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Hi, I am going to fly to LA in early March in order to look at the housing.
I was wondering if any of current USC students can tell me what areas I should be looking into?

I am getting HPSP scholarship and currently thinking that I will not take any federal/private loans, so my budget would be about 1900 / month for housing, food, etc.
How much should I expect to spend on housing if I want to live alone at least for the first year? I have a car so I do not mind driving but I guess it would be better if the area has some kind of transportation or it is fairly close.

I lived in pretty ghetto / considered dangerous area so that does not bother me but I would still prefer if it's an area where lot of students tend to live.

Any help or advice would be appreciated!

 

[USCDDS123]

if your budget for housing alone is 1900 per month, you can find something decent in downtown los angeles or westwood/santa monica area. I would pay a little more and get a really nice place since youre not pulling out any loans (damn I wish I could do that scholarship)...

nicer place will pay off when you're stressed the hell out (which happens at our school a lot)...

 

[toothfixeralex]

First, congrats on both USC and HPSP. I'm pretty much in the exact same boat as you. I'm Army HPSP and currently a 1st year at USCSD.

LA is one of those places where your personality and priorities dictate where the best place to live is. For me, I like to live away from the school and the places where the majority of grad students live so I decided to live out in Culver City (which is west of USC). Honestly, I think it's a great place to live. In the morning the drive is between 12-30 minutes, depending on traffic and route. The same holds true in the afternoon/evening. Basically, if you are going somewhere around rush hours, plan on taking surface streets, they're faster.

As for price on an apartment, the prices vary a lot, all depending on if you have roommates, if you want A/C, location, parking, size, security, etc. When I was looking I saw 1 bedrooms ranged from 1100/month up (for a dump) to as high as you want 🙂. I actually ended up finding a roommate and splitting a 2 bedroom apt. for 2100/month. I'd also recommend just taking out some of the federal subsidized loans (up to $8000ish/year). The military will pay you for things eventually, however it takes a good deal of time an it's nice to have a bit of emergency money sitting around in case unexpected bills pop up. If you have some specific questions or want some help when you're out here to visit, please feel free to PM me.