<p>Son just received word of an excellent opportunity. He was offered an internship for the Spring at American Enterprise Institute in DC and is supposed to start mid-January. He’s no longer a student (completed his grad program last week) so I assume student housing of any kind isn’t possible.</p>
<p>I’ve never even been to DC so it’s very hard for me to figure out where would be the safest and most location with DC for him to start looking. </p>
<p>I need a little direction on where to start looking regarding safety, accessibility to AEI, and shopping (for food and essentials).</p>
<p>Any little bit of help is well appreciated.</p>
<p>DS was in a similar situation a few years ago. He got his acceptance the week before Christmas and needed to start the second week of January. His internship coordinator helped him with areas to focus on. He was told that north, south, and west of the mall were fine, but not to go east of the Capitol Building.</p>
<p>He used Craigslist to find a place that rented specifically to interns (since it was only 4 months) and looked for places close to metro stops. He ended up a few blocks north of the White House, about 2 blocks from a metro station and it worked out great.</p>
<p>The main thing is to be near a metro stop. D had an internship at the Atlantic magazine and got an apartment (via Craigslist) in Rosslyn, VA, one metro stop away from her job. Prices were definitely cheaper there than in the district. Do you know what neighborhood the AEI is in?</p>
<p>Dupont is a nice area and one metro stop from AEI. I think as long as he is near a stop along the red or orange/blue line, he will have no trouble getting to work. There are also buses that run that he could also use.</p>
<p>Capital Hill, Dupont, Glover Park, Georgetown are popular areas in DC. Many young people prefer to live in Arlington, VA along the orange line, between Clarendon and Rosslyn. The blue line gives you access to Pentagon City where there are many apartments in the South Arlington area.</p>
<p>looks like AEI is on the red line, for the metro.</p>
<p>Northwest is generally the ‘nicest’ part of the city. NE is “up and coming” and SE should be avoided too far beyond Capitol Hill (SE by the Nationals stadium / Navy Yard is getting better). Do not live across the river in SE. U Street (east of Dupont Circle area) is up and coming also. </p>
<p>I really don’t know anything about prices, since I’m not looking to live in DC right now, but you might want to look into SW (SW is really small, since most of it was given to VA) near Ft. McNair. Dupont Circle obviously has stuff. Further NW, towards Tenleytown (American University) should have a bunch of stuff. Stuff in the Georgetown area is very expensive.</p>
<p>I can’t help any with bus routes, but they are better than the metro for getting around in DC. Metro is better for getting from VA/MD to DC.</p>
<p>edit: snowball mentioned the most popular VA locations</p>
<p>My daughter works a few blocks from there at 13th and K Street. She lives in a townhouse with three friends in Columbia Heights (a recently gentrifying neighborhood). She can either take the subway from the Columbia Heights Metro or one of several buses that run up and down 13th street.</p>
<p>It shouldn’t be hard to find a spot in a group house on Craigslist. Washington is a mecca for kids recently out of college living in shared group houses. Dupont Circle would be great, but pricey. Adams Morgan is good, but not that convenient to the Metro. Columbia Heights is more affordable and has good mass transit service. </p>
<p>With that work location, I wouldn’t look at housing on Capitol Hill. That area is pretty dead at night. The NW locations I mentioned would be better with more transit options.</p>
<p>Sorry, I don’t know much. We did get help settling S into Herndon, which was close to my son’s work place, near IAD but needs a car to get around. He’s had to move and now lives in Alexandria, which doesn’t sound like any of the neighborhoods mentioned. He found his new place in Alexandria through means unknown to use – likely Craigslist and people at work, but he has never given us details. We hope we will be able to see his place one of these days.</p>
<p>Try checking on CraigsList for shares or sublets anywhere along the western side of the Red Line within DC (go to [Metro</a> - Home page](<a href=“http://www.wmata.com%5DMetro”>http://www.wmata.com) for a Metro map). Dupont Circle, Woodley Park, Cleveland Park, Van Ness – it really doesn’t matter, the Metro stops are about three minutes apart, and the neighborhoods are OK, although some of the buildings are quite old. In this area, the Red Line basically follows Connecticut Avenue.</p>
<p>[Full disclosure: My daughter, who has graduated from college and is working, lives in one of these neighborhoods in the Connecticut Avenue corridor. It’s nice enough that I wouldn’t mind living there myself.] </p>
<p>Another possibility is the Foggy Bottom area, where there may be students from George Washington University who need to sublet a room in their off-campus apartment for the semester.</p>
<p>There might also be Georgetown University students who are looking for someone to sublet a room in their apartment for the spring, but the problem with Georgetown is that it’s not on the Metro. You have to take buses or walk a fairly long way to a Metro station, which is a nuisance.</p>
<p>There may also be rooms available in shared apartments in Crystal City or Pentagon City in Arlington. These areas are just as close in as some parts of DC and have Metro stations. Crystal City is basically a huge office park. Pentagon City is basically a shopping district. But both have apartment buildings.</p>
<p>My post-grad D moved to DC for an internship in September. Her office is at 14th and H and she does live in the Capitol Hill/Eastern Market neighborhood on the orange/blue line. It is definitely quieter at night than places like Dupont Circle or Columbia Heights, but she tells me that it’s a nice place to come home to. Her brother had lived in Columbia Heights and enjoyed it very much, but the yellow/green line commute didn’t work as well for her. She is changing jobs in January to work on the Hill, so now the location is just about perfect. An 8 block walk to work. She found her apartment (and roommates) through Craigslist. I went to DC with her as she spent a few days meeting possible roommates, going to open houses etc. Group houses seem to be the norm for DC, and can also provide built-in friends, or at least acquaintances. Warning though, DC is not an inexpensive place to live, and the prices she found generally reflected the safety of the neighborhood and condition of the apartments/houses. Although reluctant to admit being sexist, there were places I was comfortable with mu son living that I could not get my head around for my daughter. Having gone through this rather recently with a great outcome, feel free to PM me if you have additional questions.</p>
<p>S, who graduates this month and works at 18th & L, just moved into a townhouse in Glover Park. It’s not near the Metro, but has ample bus service and is convenient to grocery stores. It seems like a nice area & isn’t as expensive as Georgetown. He found the place on Craigslist. I agree with others who suggest looking for rooms/shares or sublets on Craigslist. He should just be sure that his roommates would be grad students/young professionals. Conflicting lifestyles & schedules might be a problem living with undergrads.</p>
<p>There are buses that run north/south down 11th street, 13th street, 14th street, and 16th street, so those may be even more convenient than the subway. My daughter lives a few blocks from two different Metro stations, but she has a bus that literally stops at the front door of her house and at the front door of her work. With an iPhone, she can sit at her dining room table drinking coffee and see when the bus is one minute from her door before heading out.</p>
<p>Thank you everyone! Each and every post has been helpful.
Son has inquired to a few possibilities posted on Craigs List and will continue to do so until something clicks.</p>
<p>I’ve been busy all day prepping for holidays and trying to catch up on errands. It’s been a whirlwind of a day.</p>
<p>That’s pretty much in the heart of Adams Morgan. Very popular youth nightlife district with bars and restaurants. Should be a good area. No problem. </p>
<p>Main disadvantage is that it’s not terribly convenient to any subway stations, but there is an L2 bus route that runs down 18th ST to DuPont Circle.</p>