The following post was also written by guest poster Amy Skjerseth, who is a recent alumna and has done her share of apartment searching. Thanks for sharing, Amy!
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So you’ll be attending Eastman for graduate school in the fall—congratulations!—and you are wondering about finding an apartment in Rochester. As a recent undergraduate alumna of Eastman and the University of Rochester, I’ve lived in four different apartments during the past three years. I’d like to share some tips and resources with you that will help you get started on finding a place.
You can start by visiting the Office of Residential Life’s Off-Campus Housing database. The database includes listings from nearby property management companies and is easily searchable. If you would like to find a roommate, you can search listings posted by students who already have housing and want a roommate, or you can browse postings by students who do not yet have housing but wish to live with roommates. You can also try posting the new student Facebook group to connect with another new student.
Besides contacting property management companies, Craigslist is another way to narrow down potential apartments and locations. You could start your search by clicking the “apartments/housing for rent” category in Rochester, and type “East End” into the search bar. This will produce results for the closest apartments to Eastman; look on Gibbs Street, Grove Street, and Windsor Street. You can also expand your search to the nearby streets of East Avenue, University Avenue, Alexander Street, and Park Avenue, which transitions from the East End neighborhood to Park Avenue and Neighborhood of the Arts (NOTA). You can find out more about the neighborhoods surrounding Eastman in the section below.
Other useful search engines are Padmapper and Rent Rochester, where you can either search for listings on a map of the city, or search by neighborhood.
Where should I live in Rochester?
Eastman is located in the East End, which is home to many of Rochester’s cultural attractions. With the Little Theatre (an independent movie house), many cafés, restaurants, and the Rochester Public Market, the neighborhood surrounding Eastman has no shortage of fun things to do. If you come to Rochester during the summer to look for apartments, be sure to check out the Rochester International Jazz Festival, which is held each summer on Gibbs Street.
If you want to live as close as possible to campus, you should start your search very early. There is a huge demand for apartments on Gibbs Street, where the Eastman school and dorms are located. Just past the dorms, there are several apartments on both sides of the street. Some of the closest houses and apartment complexes fill up quickly for the coming year, with current students typically signing leases in April or May.
Here are some of the apartment complexes and management companies closest to the Eastman campus (contact them as soon as possible, as they fill up quickly!):
University Place is located across the street from Eastman, on 328 Main Street. Many students choose to live there for the convenience of being steps away from the school, and it’s a nice building with several amenities.
Halo Loftsare modern, well-managed,and contain many amenities (free internet and cable, as well as a washer and dryer in each unit). They are very close to the Eastman dorms, on 60 Grove Street.
Grove Street Management owns many apartments on Gibbs Street, as well as Windsor Street, which is only one street over from Gibbs. Look at their “Grove Place” neighborhood for the closest apartments to Eastman.
If you are looking to live a little farther away from campus and a 10-15 walk doesn’t bother you, consider living on Alexander Street, Park Avenue, or Prince Street. These streets offer an array of things to do that are only a short distance from Eastman, and often, apartments in this location are on the cheaper side of the spectrum.
Alexander Street, only a ten minute walk down East Avenue from Eastman, is home to many bars and restaurants. Just slightly past Alexander is Park Avenue, truly a neighborhood within itself. It has endless restaurants and shops on the “main drag,” in addition to several side streets where individual property owners rent out apartments. A walk down Park Avenue in the fall is a dream; its snow-covered buildings make it unbelievably beautiful in the winter; and in spring or summer, it is a favorite destination for Eastman students when venturing out on a walk or grabbing a bite to eat. The Park Avenue website is a great starting point for exploring the area.
If you want to live on or near Park Avenue, Flower City Management has a good reputation. Several Eastman graduate students rent with them every year and overall seem to be very happy with the apartments and the management’s attentiveness. Flower City also owns a beautiful building located on 8 Prince Street—a side street between University and East Avenues—that offers housing slightly removed from the liveliness of Alexander and Park.
Prince Street is near the beginning of the Neighborhood of the Arts (NOTA). Home to the University of Rochester’s Memorial Art Gallery and a public magnet arts high school, this neighborhood is an eclectic mix of arts facilities and residential streets. Scattered throughout this pocket of the city are charming, Victorian-style houses that are reasonably priced. It is close enough to walk or bike to campus, but I would recommend driving in at night and taking advantage of the free parking on the city streets next to Eastman (parking is free on weekdays starting at 6 pm and all weekend).
The South Wedge is a really nice neighborhood to the south of Eastman, but it is usually the farthest away that graduates students choose to live. You would definitely need a car (or at least a bike) for the commute, and Eastman students typically pay around $40 a month for the parking garage right next to Eastman (that’s the student discount). If you biked to campus during the day but wanted to drive in during the night, you could park free at the meters by Eastman starting at 6 pm or anytime on the weekend. The South Wedge is a really hip neighborhood with great restaurants, a European market, pubs, and shops. The apartments I have seen in the Wedge are newly renovated, and there are plenty of great deals in that area.
East End, Park Avenue, NOTA, and the South Wedge are all great places to live—it just depends on how close to campus you want to be. If you can’t find a place on Gibbs Street or would like to find a place farther away from campus, you would be fine waiting until late June or early July to visit Rochester for your apartment search. It is always a good idea to see the apartment before signing the lease. If you absolutely cannot make it to Rochester before school begins, the management companies that I have listed above have excellent reputations. Find out all of the information you can from them before you make your choice, regardless of whether you visit or not. Best of luck on the apartment search!