<p>So this is assuming I get in…
What’s living in Boston like? (I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, so I’m familiar with cities but I’ve never LIVED there.)
Also, does anyone know about vegetarian (or veggie-friendly) restaurants around campus or even at BU’s cafeterias? I know some schools have great veggie/vegan food, and others don’t.
What about concerts and all of that stuff? Are venues close and fairly affordable?</p>
<p>And yeah, in general, what’s it like to live in Boston?</p>
<p>I don’t know about the BU cafeterias or restaurants right near campus, but in general, Boston is vegetarian heaven.</p>
<p>Oh yeah, there are sooo many choices for vegatarians in so many aspects, including the vegan menu in the dining halls, and virtually every sit-down restaurant in the area had vegetarian offerings. There are tons of concerts throughout the year, both on campus and off. There are many venues close to Fenway Park that have well known people perform, and some venues in downtown Boston, which are a 20 minute T ride away. Transportation is incredibly easy via the subway, which although is not 150% reliable all the time due to delays and such, it does its job.</p>
<p>If you like ethnic food, you have a choice of every imaginable culture’s vegetarian dishes. The area next to BU (Allston) is full of Indian, Thai, Chinese, Viet, Korean, Italian, Latin, etc. places. Many are really, really good. Allston is not expensive. West Campus even has Super 88, a Chinese supermarket with a huge food court that has great places, including a new Indonesian one.</p>
<p>BU has a major concert facility. Agganis Arena is now the midsize venue for the city and shows that maybe didn’t stop in Boston because they’re too small for the Garden and too large for the clubs now come to BU instead of stopping only in Worcester (an hour away) at their midsized arena. Also on campus is The Paradise, which is one of the largest clubs in town - and has national acts. Landsdowne Street, next to Fenway, is lined with clubs that bring in touring shows. Downtown, other than the Garden, the main venue is the Opera House, just a short ride on the T to Boyston. </p>
<p>Depends on your taste. You could pay real dollars to see Paul Simon (or Dylan) at Agganis or less for a club act or even less for a band in one of the many smaller clubs. There’s also a lot of ethnic music around, e.g., lots of Irish musicians come through.</p>
<p>You really will have plenty of options for veggitarian-type food…as a devout meat eater, it used to bother me how much vegatarian food there was at times in the dining halls. There are several dining halls on campus, so if one does not cater to you enough, you have options.</p>
<p>As for concerts, one of the nicest venues in Boston is on-campus (Agganis Arena <a href=“Agganis Arena)%5B/url%5D”>Agganis Arena)</a>. There are also plenty of smaller concerts that happen around campus (such as at BU Central, which is part of the Student Union building).</p>
<p>In terms of places around campus, you’re about two blocks from Avalon (one of the more well-known clubs in America), ID and Axis, all of which have big name acts during the week. There’s also the Paradise Rock club on West Campus (also very well-known). Between those two, there’s probably a hundred smaller bars and clubs.</p>
<p>In terms of places that are off-campus but accessible, Boston has an ungodly amount of clubs and bars (all of which are T accessible) and many have concerts (such as the Roxy). You also have the Fleet/TD Banknorth Garden, which is right on the Green Line (about a 30 minute T ride from BU).</p>
<p>In terms of affordability, that depends more on your taste in music than anything. If you like big acts, you’re going to pay big money no matter where you see them (even on campus).</p>
<p>Boston is a very nice place to live. You have the benefit of living in a city, but it’s extremely tiny (only takes about four hours to walk from one end of Boston proper to the other), so it’s not a particularly overbearing place to be. I enjoyed it enough to move here after graduation.</p>
<p>I am vegetarian, and S is vegetarian in the dining halls (he eats meat at Hillel). Some of his meal descriptions make my mouth water! </p>
<p>I must have eaten 3 or 4 times at the Chinese veg restaurant on Washington St. when I moved him in freshman year. S told me there’s a branch in Allston.</p>
<p>Kinshasa, are you orthodox?</p>
<p>No, more Conservadox. My husband and I have been vegetarian more than 20 years and my kids grew up in a meat-free home. They eat kosher meat at Grandma’s and Bubbie’s houses. S really isn’t too fond of meat. During Passover he eats all his meals at Hillel.</p>
<p>There is a kosher deli in Brookline. Rubin’s, on Havard not far from Comm Ave. Just past that into Brookline is JFK Corner - or Kosher Corner. Area doesn’t really have a name but it has kosher catering place which sells food, The Butcherie (complete kosher market), some kosher restaurants (Israeli, chinese), a vegetarian asian place, etc.</p>
<p>Nice to see another Jew on the board Kin. What did you guys think of the Hillel? I loved it.</p>
<p>S isn’t too involved in the groups there. Occasionally he reads Torah for the Conservative minyan. It is a beautiful building, though. And it’s open to everyone, not just Jewish students.</p>
<p>Yeah, if I get in, I plan on spending some time there.</p>
<p>Living in Boston and attending BU is awesome–the best part about it is that there is something to do no matter what kind of person you are. </p>
<p>There are endless amounts of concerts–enough that I know people going to a concert nearly every night. </p>
<p>The shopping is amazing, the neighborhoods great, etc, etc, etc. The neighboring schools provide a lot of entertainment, especially MIT. Their parties are great!</p>
<p>One thing I think is surprising to people who haven’t been a student at BU is how much there really IS a campus feel. It’s easy to not really leave Comm Ave for weeks, and just hang around in the dorms and neighborhood apartments and frat houses from MIT. Honestly, people make such a huge deal about this being a “campus-less city school,” and it is in the sense that there are cars running through the middle of the campus, but I literally see 99% students on the street, hang around in the student union, etc, and it FEELS like a campus. But the good thing is that if you need to GET OUT and get some perspective on real life, or even if you just feel like going out and doing something non-BU related, there is always that option just a few minutes away.</p>
<p>yayit’sanna, what suburb of Chicago do you live in? I also live in Chicago, and the majority of the colleges I’m applying to are Midwestern schools. I dunno if I’ll like living in the East Coast…</p>
<p>nvk–I am a Chicago girl, but moved to NYC before freshman year of high school. I still consider myself a “Midwesterner” at heart.</p>
<p>Be prepared for a lot of Midwest stereotypes. There are people who will outright say that the only parts on the country that matter are California and the Northeast–everything in the middle is completely unimportant. Some people will assume people from the Midwest are hicks, boring, uncultured, not hip, not aware of music and fashion (even thought Chicago is hipper to new trends than 95% of the Northeast and California.) </p>
<p>I haven’t run into any real “problems” with people over the Midwest, but believe me, there ARE ignorant people…even sticking up for Chicago is hard sometimes–I can’t IMAGINE what it’s like to tell people you’re from Oklahoma or Minnesota. </p>
<p>There are some differences between Chicago and Boston, personality wise. Overall, people who work in stores (especially Newbury boutiques) are not as friendly as people in Chicago. Some don’t even acknowledge your walking into the store! Maybe I’m just used to over-friendliness, but there does seem to be a lack of respect for customers in a lot of stores. On the other hand, a lot of people here are absolutely amazing–mostly the people who work in less snooty fields. </p>
<p>Overall, though, living here is not a major change. If you are used to city life, you will get used to Boston fast.</p>
<p>nvk89- I grew up in Villa Park and a few years ago I moved to Maple Park (near DeKalb, about an hour and a half west of downtown Chicago)</p>
<p>My relatives live in Lincoln Park. Chicago is much, much, much bigger. If you drive an hour and 1/2 from BU, you are either on Cape Cod (S), almost to the NY border in the Berkshires (W), or above Portsmouth, NH, somewhere in Maine (N). If you live at BU, most of what people think of as Boston is within a 2 to 3 mile ring that reaches from Harvard Square in Cambridge down to the waterfront and across Brookline over to Jamaica Plain (a neighborhood). That includes all of the tourist and shopping Boston, all the museums, etc.</p>
<p>Thanks, guys!</p>
<p>How about living off-campus, but near it? I know freshman have to live on campus, but after that, what’s the availability of just small apartments around campus? I know Boston’s expensive, but what’s the general rent per month?</p>
<p>When I was there, I rarely saw cheaper than $1200 per month.</p>
<p>The way it usually works is by room, meaning bedroom. You divide up an apartment by the number of people and number of bedrooms - with some weird stuff if people share a room, etc. The most common area for renting is Allston, which comes up to West Campus along Comm Ave. Rents are high, so there’s no great savings living off campus (especially when you factor in cable, internet, etc.). My guess is you’d be hard pressed to find rent lower than $500 per bedroom and that might be a pit.</p>