Top Business Schools: Where MBAs Live & What Rent Costs

UCLA Anderson MBA Students

UCLA Anderson

“Several Anderson alumni and students we interviewed for this guide informed us that although on-campus housing is available, most students choose to live in apartments off campus and primarily occupy several neighborhoods on the western side of Los Angeles, namely Westwood, Brentwood, West Los Angeles, and Santa Monica. According to a second year with whom we spoke, university-owned apartments are scarce, and students who are interested in such housing should apply for space early. This individual also recommended that students with children live in university-owned housing, because it tends to be more affordable than off-campus apartments. Four university-owned apartment complexes are located in the Palms/Mar Vista areas (approximately five miles from Anderson’s campus), and two are in Westwood Village, within walking distance of the school…

Getting around Los Angeles via public transportation is certainly possible, but for most Anderson students, like other Los Angeles residents, cars are the primary means of transportation (contributing to the city’s well-known traffic problems). In fact, one alumna told mbaMission that having a car at Anderson is critical.”

booth mba jobs

University of Chicago, Booth School of Business

University of Chicago (Booth)

For years, Hyde Park was maligned as a dangerous part of Chicago, but the neighborhood has gentrified significantly and appears to have even earned some cachet. Hyde Park is now perhaps best known for being the Chicago home of [Barack Obama]. Some Chicago Booth students are not concerned about Hyde Park’s safety but told mbaMission that the area is fairly quiet at night and that students who do not live downtown might miss out on all that Chicago has to offer. Still, Hyde Park has its charms, being a neighborhood where both professors and student families live, and it is economical, with one-bedroom apartments costing approximately $1,200 per month (according to real estate website Trulia.com), compared with approximately $1,900 per month downtown…

Commenting on the preference many students have for downtown living, one first year wrote in an April 2013 post on her personal blog, “MBAs have been out of school for at least three years (some of us even 10+ 13 mbaMission Insider’s Guide: Booth School of Business · 2018–2019 years) and have become used to living a certain way. If we have the opportunity to maintain that lifestyle (lack of income and debt be damned), we’re going to do it. Hyde Park is lovely, but most of us just aren’t about that 2.5 kids, Sunday at the park life quite yet. Chicago’s public transportation makes it easy to commute to school and we have lockers so that we can keep the stuff we need on campus to avoid extra trips. Given these conveniences, we choose to live where Chicago’s night life does.” One first year who had enrolled in the program with their partner wrote in a November 2016 guest post on the Booth Experience blog: “Residing in the Loop neighborhood has proved to be the perfect urban adventure, offering us quick access to restaurants, shops, museums, and Chicago hallmarks. Exploring the city is our favorite pastime activity.”

Columbia Business School

Columbia Business School

“Because CBS—like most locations in New York City—can easily be reached via public transportation, students set up residence in many different neighborhoods. Incoming students who were living in the New York City area before enrolling in CBS often keep their established apartments. Downtown New York is an approximately 30- to 45-minute commute to campus by public transportation, but given that Manhattan is notorious for cramped, expensive apartments, those seeking more space or more affordable housing may opt to live in Brooklyn, Queens, or New Jersey instead, though commuting from these areas can take an hour or more…mbaMission learned that generally, CBS students choose to live near campus, either in the Morningside Heights area surrounding the school or approximately 15 minutes south of campus on the Upper West Side (though apartments in this area can often be more expensive than those to the east)…

Rent is undoubtedly a factor in where most CBS students choose to live. Roommates are almost a must for single students…Prospective students should be aware that choosing to navigate the Manhattan real estate market with the aid of a broker often requires paying a fee and putting down a security deposit, which means that renters need a significant amount of cash up front to find and secure a place. CBS is aware of this issue and offers apartment listings for incoming students, but the school’s resources in this area are reportedly limited. Through email groups, first-year students can sometimes find other incoming classmates with whom to share housing. Some incoming students even arrange to take over the apartments of graduating second years, which in some cases allows the incoming students to avoid a broker’s fee. In general, students who share housing with a roommate should expect to pay at least $1,500 a month.”

The Cornell Tech campus on Roosevelt Island

Cornell University (Johnson)

“Johnson students generally live in apartments and houses near campus. Although Johnson offers some on-campus graduate housing, the best bet seems to be renting a place off campus. The Collegetown neighborhood is a short walk to campus, but some students with whom we spoke complained about density (in the form of limited parking space) and noise (in the form of undergraduates). According to a 2017 student survey available on the school’s website, titled “Destination Johnson Guide to Ithaca Housing,” the largest concentration of Johnson students—30% of respondents—can be found at apartment complex Collegetown Terrace. Rent, which includes most utilities, at Collegetown Terrace ranges from $1,050 to $1,560 for a studio up to $3,345 for a three-bedroom apartment…Renting private homes—either alone or in a group—is very common within the Ithaca housing market, but those hoping to stay closer to campus tend to opt for newer apartment complexes.

Tuck Tripod Hockey

Dartmouth College (Tuck)

More than half the first year class lives on campus in furnished dorm rooms with private baths, such as in Tuck’s Whittemore Hall, which opened in 2000, and the sleek and modern Living and Learning Complex, which opened in 2009 (and which includes Achtmeyer and Pineau-Valencienne Halls). Tuck’s residential community also provides convenience, allowing classmates to easily meet for study group sessions and social activities.

At roughly $12,100 to $14,700 per school year, the cost of on-campus housing is comparable to that of off-campus accommodations. However, only single students are eligible to apply for on-campus housing, which is limited to 145 rooms and is determined through a lottery. Referring to the quality of Tuck’s living options, a first year we interviewed commented, “There is no bad place to live on Tuck’s campus.” A second-year student told mbaMission that the dorms are “one of the really cool things for single people coming to Tuck. Because the dorms are connected to the classrooms, you get a large group of people who live, study, party, hang out, do everything in this series of buildings, which builds community…

Second-year students have off-campus housing options in Hanover and neighboring towns, which can be as close as a 10–15 minute walk to campus or as far as a 10–20 minute drive. Advance Transit provides free public bus service between the Dartmouth grounds and nearby communities, according to Tuck’s website. For those who prefer to live alone, one-bedroom apartments closer to campus tend to cost between approximately $700 and $1,300 per month, sometimes including heat and hot water.”

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