Living in Madison

[Vaga70]

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Hey Everyone!

I'm going to be a first year at UW-Madsion this fall and am having a hard time telling where is a good place to live. I'm not an early riser 😴 so I need to stay within 15 minute drive of the campus, and I'd like a two-bedroom.

Are there any places that most of the students tend to live?

Are there places that anyone has had really great, or really awful experiences with?

If I could get some advice as to where to focus that would help because there seem to be a million ads on craigslist. Also I've been looking on apartmentratings.com to get a feel for the apartments. I'm not sure how broad of a perspective you get from those sites, but I've been using it to rule out bad places.

Also, I have two kitties, so I need a pet friendly place.

THANKS!!

 

[Caninerepro]

Me too! I also need a place where I can have two dogs, so that probably narrows the selection a bit. Any current students know of places?

 

[StealthDog]

Caninerepro, did you change your mind about schools?

 

[Caninerepro]

Caninerepro, did you change your mind about schools?

🙁 Money! $$$$$ 😕

I am still holding onto Madison as well, because $16,000.00/year is A LOT of money to spend to live in St Paul, just because Peggy Root is there. She seems awesome, and I appreciate your input as well, but man $64,000.00 total can make a big difference. Unless you have a spare closet I and my 3 dogs can crash in for 4 years! UMN has my heart, but Madison has my pocketbook. Plus, it looks like Madison is also about $75.00/month cheaper on rent. That is the difference between a 1 or 2 bedroom apartment.

In a nutshell, my ego and passion wants MN, but I just cannot get past the LARGE cost difference, plus Madison sounds like more of my kind of town; you were in Ft Collins for two weeks, you saw the difference between St. Paul and Ft. Fun. I have been told that Madison is about as close to the environment of Fort Collins as I can find outside of Colorado. WI has also recruited me pretty hard, unlike MN who knows I need them more than they need me. I have already turned down Ithica if that helps. 😳 My mind is not totally made up, and for that I appologize to those on the wait lists, really.

 

[sumstorm]

🙁 Money! $$$$$ 😕

😕 I thought money couldn't surpass dreams/desires for you?

Odd how time affects thoughts on $. 😱

If you end up at UW, I hope it works well for you! 👍

 

[mbj]

What I have used to find all my housing:

http://housing.civc.wisc.edu/search_criteria.asp

Vet students live all over (and madison bus pass included in tuition so as long as you are cool with riding bus or biking) you can live in some decent places. I personally live within walking distance (about 10-15 min walk).

Places I would recommend avoiding: Park/Spring street area (tends to be heavily undergrad populated) and Langdon Street area (heavy sorority/frat).

Many of us live in the "near west side" which equates to zones 5, 8 & 9 on the site's map . . . Old university and Midvale areas tend to be popular . . .

Hope that helps! Good luck!

 

[DVMorBust]

Unless I'm mistaken, it's near impossible to actually park on campus...super expensive for a permit/limited space available. So you'd need to factor in parking and walking a bit as well into your time.

I wound up buying about 5 blocks from campus. I'm 99% sure I've got a housemate lined up, she just needs to check it out - but I'll keep people posted if that falls through.

 

[Vaga70]

I ended up finding a condo for rent just a few streets east of Midvale, on Eugenia Ave. I'm renting from a private owner, so I'm not sure if there are any more available there, but it might be worth a shot.

mbj--Thanks for the advice about location. It's kinda hard to know if the neighborhoods are safe or condusive to studying when you're looking at the street on google maps...haha.

For anyone else looking for housing, I also looked at cdliving.com, madcityhomes.com (if you want to buy a home), and craigslist has become my best friend.

I'm so excited to come to Madison....I absolutely love the city and can't wait to meet all the incoming students. Caninerepro--it's funny that we were choosing from the same schools. I also turned down Cornell and MN to come to Madison, yes because of money concerns, but also because I felt that they were the most responsive to me as a person and most dedicated to helping me succeed. Good luck with your decision!

 

[Caninerepro]

😕 I thought money couldn't surpass dreams/desires for you?

Odd how time affects thoughts on $. 😱

If you end up at UW, I hope it works well for you! 👍

You just had to get a dig in didn't you. 🙄

I am 80% going to MN still, I was just looking into my options and saw the posting. I am actually waiting to see my financial aid packages from both schools before I jump off the bridge one way or the other. As long as MN can give me enough loans I will probably go there. As you mentioned, for me $ is not the only factor.

Back on topic, thanks for the housing info people. 🙂

 

[BeagleOne]

Parking on or near the UW campus is just about impossible, and getting a Lot 60 parking permit is very expensive, and I think that you can only have it one year of the four. Not 100% sure about that, because I lived (and stlll live) about 1.5 miles away from the SVM, and biked almost every day. The main faculty parking lot used to be right behind the school, but now the state diagnostic lab is there instead, and I have no idea where faculty and staff park now--probably Lot 60, making permits there even harder to get.

Parking in neighborhoods near campus is generally limited to two hours, and the parking police do check regularly, so don't count on that either.

I would definitely recommend either living close enough to bike or walk every day, or being on a bus line, or getting a moped, or parking far enough off-campus to be able to park on the street all day and walk or bike the mile or so to the school.

 

[VAgirl]

I am still holding onto Madison as well

Sorry, maybe this isn't my business, but are you saying that you've accepted spots at 2 different vet schools? The date to make your decision was two months ago. And I know for a fact that Madison takes only the # of OOS students that they have seats for, meaning if you change your mind on it, they haven't over accepted. They'll have to call someone who thinks as of this moment that they're not going to vet school. Really?? Really??? I'm kind of horrified to see someone admitting this (and no one else calling them on it).

I hope you fully realize what you're doing, even if you for some reason don't feel bad about it.

 

[themightyfuzz]

I just wanted to add (although late like always, LOL) that I just moved to Madison into the on campus graduate housing and it's been nice. I have no real complaints so far 🙂

I figured I'll be right on the bus line and can get a taste of the city for where to look for future housing.

Also there is a student housing list...been receiving e-mails from the veterinary school about that. 🙂

 

[Caninerepro]

Sorry, maybe this isn't my business, but are you saying that you've accepted spots at 2 different vet schools? The date to make your decision was two months ago. And I know for a fact that Madison takes only the # of OOS students that they have seats for, meaning if you change your mind on it, they haven't over accepted. They'll have to call someone who thinks as of this moment that they're not going to vet school. Really?? Really??? I'm kind of horrified to see someone admitting this (and no one else calling them on it).

I hope you fully realize what you're doing, even if you for some reason don't feel bad about it.

Just to let everyone know, I gave up my Madison slot a week ago. You are right, I felt very very guilty about doing what I was doing. Honestly. I loved the town of Madison, almost too much. It really is the next best thing to Fort Collins. But I needed to make a decision as it was not fair to the person whose slot I was holding from them. Unfortunately, even at $16,000.00/year less money, the school was just too LA based in my field for me. Good luck to all of you! 🙂

 

[chris03333]

Madison tends to hold a list of alternates in the 200-300 range, so I doubt they will have to go into their rejected applicants, even though they do not over accept.