UCSD housing

[matthew0126]

Hey guys, I was just wondering if ne1 could share their experiences looking for housing in san diego?

I will be making a trip down there for a coupla days this weekend (well, not really a trip, it's only a 70minute drive) and I thought I'd start looking now... I managed to get a spot at the Warren dorms but I'm gonna go for off-campus and stay on the waitlist for Coast or Mesa 2 years or so down the road.

So I'm looking for a studio around $700/mo. Pipe-dream? What areas are good for commuting to school and aren't too pricey. So far, Clairemont looks like a good bet for proximity v. priciness.

Thanks,
Matt

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[X]

SD is very expensive, unfortunately and housing is hard to find. Although its starting to ease up a bit.

Clairemont is good because it's relatively cheap and its a straight freeway drive. Mira Mesa for this reason is bad, gotta drive the roads.

Also look in Pacific Beach and UTC. SD has a housing office, in case you don't know (i assume you do). Hope this helps, probably doesn't though.

X

 

[Bmblee888]

I went to UCSD and I still live and work in San Diego. My bf just made it to UCSD SOM so I guess we'll be sticking around here awhile longer. Anyway, I disagree with X about living in Mira Mesa. I've lived in Mira Mesa for 5 years now, and I've found it very convenient (and relatively cheap) to live there. There are short cuts you can take to school. It takes about 20 minutes to drive to school during morning traffic. Not so bad, if you ask me. I live in a very nice apartment complex called Summerset Village. (Their phone number is 858-530-2100 in case you want to check them out) I pay $965 for a LARGE one bedroom upstairs apartment. You can't find a comparable apartment in the UTC area for that price, for SURE. Trust me, I've looked at almost every apartment complex in the UTC, La Jolla and Mira Mesa area.

Oh, and you might also want to look into La Jolla Del Sol. That apartment is right near school, and you MUST be a grad/med student at UCSD to get an apartment there. The cost is really reasonable too...the only drawback is that there is a long waitlist.

The Clairmont area to me is a little "ghetto" but that's just my opinion...

Anyway, I hope this info helps. good luck on your search.

 

[hellojed]

Hey Matt! I just got back from looking for housing down there myself. I only looked in La Jolla/UTC area though, and the cheapest places I could find were $900-1000. Studios weren't that common, so most of these were 1 bdrms. I ended up taking a place that was posted on the med student message board (you know which one I'm talking about right?) Good luck with the housing search! How did you get campus housing so quickly? I thought the wait was at least 10 months?

Oh yeah, and I considered looking at places in Mira Mesa but all my friends really advised against it, saying that the traffic would be too bad. But of course I really have no idea!

 

[Darwin]

I looked for weeks and finally ended up finding a studio in UTC for $900/mo. Pretty damn pricey but it's pretty convienent as well. I also looked at quite a few places throughout La Jolla and found comparable prices. Mira Mesa is quite a drive...like someone noted, about 20 minutes with traffic. Finding a place to live was just about as hard as getting into the darn school You've really just gotta hit the pavement and go from place to place. The place I found just "fell" in my lap. The only drawback was I had to start paying rent in July...there went saving up for the summer. Supposedly the housing market opens up within the next few weeks according to OSA, but I didn't want to chance it. Feel free to write with any questions and see you in September!

 

[Darwin]

Oh yeah...I thought I would tell you how to get to UTC in case you didn't know...It took me a while to realize I had found it when I was there. There's tons of apartment complexes around the area so it's a great place to search. From the 52 exit Genessee going north. You'll run into Nobel Dr. and La Jolla Village Dr (I think). Anyway, there's a mall on the right hand side off of Genessee just past Nobel Dr. The mall is in UTC. There are tons of complexes on Nobel Dr. and around the area. If you're coming from the 5 I think you can exit on La Jolla Village Dr. and end up at the same place. Literally thousands of apartments but I think availability might be slim and you might have to get on some "waitlists". BTW, La Jolla Village is awesome!! I can't wait till my name comes up on one of those places. Best of luck and write if you have any questions.

 

[Cambrian]

Yes, finding housing near La Jolla or any place around there for that matter is as hard as getting into the school. ARGGGGGHHH!!!
In the beginning, I was thinking about an apartment in Clairemont, which is indeed ghetto. Guess what, two months later, no more apartments. The housing market there is so in high demand that even the ghetto ones are taken up easily. Anyway, I was lucky enough to find a family who is renting 2 bedrooms in Sorrento Valley. My fellow UCSD SOM student and I will get to have our own bedroom. This place is only temporary until I can get off the on-campus housing waitlist.

By the way, does anybody know which housing complex is nearest to the medical school? Is it Coast Apartments, Mesa residential apartments, Single Graduate Apartments, or La Jolla Del Sol?

See you guys on September 3rd for the orientation.

Oh yes, one last note, a friend of mine is taking that summer program shadowing him for the courses in fall. He says that it is excruciatingly hard and they say that the regular school year is even faster paced and more detailed? I have been out of school for 6 months and I'm afraid I won't be mentally prepared for medical school. I am so scared !!!

 

[matthew0126]

Hey everybody, thanks for the wealth of info.

Man, guess I better start looking hard-core... you all make it sound so tough heh-heh. After braving the bay area market tho, hopefully this shouldn't be *that* bad.

I was looking at the financial aid guide and it looks like they budgeted 600-some bucks a month for housing ($957 for housing+food+utilities). that doesn't seem like much for off-campus housing... guess I'll take out more loans *sigh*. I hope turning down that dorm wasn't a big mistake

hellojed -- hey what'sup. turns out the scholarship I got included housing at the 4-people dorms, so that's how I got a place, to answer your question. I kinda need a break from that kinda thing tho I think after sitting 5 feet from a roommate for 4 years in undergrad.


bbl with more questions...

 

[Darwin]

Hey Matthew - if you're looking at the financial aid guide for 2000-2001 you're getting the wrong numbers...they've actually updated them and here they are (according to Carol in fin. aid)


Rent/Utilities $820
Food $291
Personal $280
Transportation $268

Total monthly budget for living $1659

Hope this relieves some efforts.

 

[matthew0126]

wow! much better, darwin. Thanks for the heads-up (and the directions!)

may I ask, what made you settle on the $900 studio in UTC? Was there nothing cheaper or did you just want to be conveniently close to the campus? I was looking at the classifieds last night and looks like the lowest I'll find anywhere is about upper700's-800's studio

Oh yeah, what do you guys think of Pacific Beach? The prices seem comparable to other places and it _seems_ close -- dunno about how traffic works tho

 

[Darwin]

Hey Matthew - I haven't driven into pacific beach but it seems pretty darn close on the map. I did find some places around the Clairmont Mesa area within the price ranges you listed. I'm certainly not one to rag on an area in which people live, but Clairmont Mesa just wasn't for me. Torrey Pines is ridiculously expensive (more so than La Jolla from my experience) as well as Del Mar, and Mira Mesa seemed a bit of drive - I thought the drive might get annoying. Also, I like to frequent the gym about 4-5 times a week and at wierd hours so I didn't like the idea of driving 20 minutes just to go to the gym (more afraid that I'll say to myself...ahhhh...too far, I'll go tomorrow ).
A couple of reasons why I settled for UTC - the first is that I found an opening and jumped on it - although I must say that I spent most of my time in that area because I really liked the atmosphere. It's beautiful, not too far from the beach, and VERY convienent for shopping, eating, grocery, Rite-Aid, the school, etc. I was actually looking at a place in La Jolla and the lady who was renting it told me that traffic out of UTC to the school is a nightmare during rush hour. I believe it. There are literally thousands of apartments in the area and a lot are likely to be students. Ahh the price we pay for convienence. I'm really happy with the place I chose though and it will certainly suffice for the first year or two until I can get off of the housing waitlist. Hope this helps, and talk to you soon.

 

[none]

Get on the on-campus housing waitlist immediately! And take the Warren housing if they offer it! It's crazy to try to live ANYWHERE in Southern CA off campus.

 

[Cambrian]

Woohoo !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I got off the on-campus housing waitlist for Warren Single Graduate Apartments. I'll be sharing it apartment with 3 other people (yikes !!!). But who cares. It's so close to campus. I feel as excited as when I was accepted to UCSD !!!!!

 

[dr kevin40]

one of my best freinds from hs, and she got a 2 bedroom apt in LA JOLLA for only 1400 i believe. i'll ask her waht complex it is. i've been there and its very big!

 

[pillbug]

Hey Guys!

I got offered Warren housing too...I'm not sure if I want to take it. Does anyone know how big the rooms are? Anyone who live there now what Warren is like?

 

[none]

Warren is pretty standard 10x10 rooms. There's 4 rooms to an apartment. There's one bathroom in the apartment and a livingroom/kitchen combination. I lived in the Muir apartments, which are similiar and loved it. I definitely say take the apartments! You really want to pay more to live farther away?

 

[Cambrian]

Originally posted by pillbug
Hey Guys!

I got offered Warren housing too...I'm not sure if I want to take it. Does anyone know how big the rooms are? Anyone who live there now what Warren is like?

Definitely take Warren. The four bedrooms and one bathroom is a turnoff but it's the best they have considering the demand for on-campus housing. Plus, you'll get to hang out with SDN people like me

 

[matthew0126]

hey guys, so... today I went and looked for housing and thought I'd share my experience (got a phaaaat studio in La Jolla shores by the beach)

I was looking exclusively for studios, btw.

A place really really really worth hitting up is Pacific Beach for studios. There are literally hundreds of vacancies coming up for end of August. And the greatest thing is that they are mostly relatively inexpensive -- relatively being the key word there. I still think prices are pretty insane, but at mid-700's up to the high-800's, that's not bad at all compared to other parts of north san diego.

My only prob. with PB is that it is a short drive from UCSD. Not bad definitely without traffic -- I might be underestimating, but it seemed like 5-10minutes. But with traffic, I hear it can be 30-45minutes.

As for UTC/university city studios, you can go ahead and search, but it's pretty much a lost cause. There are few vacancies and most are 1000+, definitely out of my league. There are a *few* studios in the 800-900's, but I asked some knowledgeable friends, and it turns out the two complexes that were offering those are infamous for thin walls and crappy construction.

Clairemont has next to zero studios -- mostly 1 and 2br. I didn't try mission beach or ocean beach because imo that is too far, as is hillcrest. Lastly, I did notice some listings that looked pretty tempting in Del Mar and Mira Mesa, but I passed on those for 2 reasons: traffic is hellish on the 5 north of La Jolla, and I don't want to live north of UCSD.

anyways, La Jolla: mostly rooms rented out of houses, but there were a few studios, mostly at outrageous prices.

Luckily , however, I managed to find one 2 minutes from campus and 1 BLOCK from the beach in La Jolla Shores in a really classy neighborhood (the one right next to the la jolla shores beach/scripps) for 850/mo including all utilities (even cable TV)! The studio is separate from the main house, which is cool, and there is a nice garden. It's not particularly big, but it's a decent size, and most importantly, I love the location, heehee. might wanna give la jolla a shot anyways

peace,
Matt

 

[Diogenes]

Matthew

How did you find your place? I'm thinking about going down there this weekend to try and find a place. I'm loking at on-line listings an whatnot, and I figure I'll just have to pound the pavement a bit when I get down there, but how did you do it?

 

[Hero]

the craigslist is really good in N. Cal I don't know if it's as good for La Jolla or SD but you might get lucky.

http://sandiego.craigslist.org/ (from www.craigslist.org)

The processes to find housing totally sucks. I learned the hard way to read the lease carefully. (especially the part where it talks about ending/breaking the lease) Good luck!

 

[matthew0126]

Yeah I agree craigslist is really useful in no.cali. didn't try it for san diego tho, but did notice that it has way fewer listings.

anyways, there's 3 main things I looked at: the off-campus housing office listings, the classified listings of the 2 sd newspapers (they have listings online), and the website where ucsd med students swap housing, etc. (there are links from the orientation website)

turns out I only needed the off-campus housing office listings, but if you don't find anything, look @ the newspaper classifieds. they have a ton

goodluck! -- see ya in september

 

[Darwin]

Hey Matthew - Congrats on your new place!!! I know how great it feels to have a nice place close to campus. I am so fortunate to have found my place when I did (although it did eat up some of my "have fun this summer" money ). See you soon.

Best of luck with those still searching and please let us know if we can help out. See you guys in a few weeks!!