<p>Last fall my D interned in NYC, and the CC folks found a perfect place for her to stay, and even helped give us exact transit directions for her commute. Here I am again! This summer she will be interning in Boston, working in the financial district. I called Suffolk University, but they will only provide intern housing if they are earning credit, so that won’t work. Ideally, she would love to be able to walk, as she will be working long hours. Any ideas of places in walking distance would be greatly appreciated. I have also looked at Northeastern U dorms as well as Mass School of Art & Design. Any information on those locations (safety, etc) would be greatly appreciated. Northeastern looks like she can take the orange or green line. For Mass Art, it looks a little more complicated (bus and subway). Another alternative is bringing her car. How bad is driving in Boston? She will be getting to work very early and probably leaving late, so traffic shouldn’t be an issue. I know parking is expensive, but I am more concerned with shortening her commute than expense at this point. Any ideas and feedback would be greatly appreciated! Thank you.</p>
<p>MIT fraternities, some in Boston itself rather than Cambridge, rent rooms for the summer.
[Interfraternity</a> Council at MIT](<a href=“http://ifc.mit.edu/summer.php]Interfraternity”>http://ifc.mit.edu/summer.php)</p>
<p>Other resources can be found here:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1156276-summer-housing-boston.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1156276-summer-housing-boston.html</a></p>
<p>Thanks…do you know if any of the MIT frat houses are near the financial district?</p>
<p>I don’t believe any are near enough to the financial district to walk, but the ones near Kenmore square would be a green line commute.</p>
<p>Dumbo, traffic in Boston is always an issue and parking will be expensive on both ends (her apartment AND at work.) And “commute time” is not that much of an issue (less than it is in NY) since she will want to live in a neighborhood with other young people and lots of stuff to do- and most of those neighborhoods have great subway connections.</p>
<p>None of the MIT frat house are “near” the financial center-- and although it’s a flat and pretty direct walk, it’s not something your D will want to do on a steamy Boston summer morning. But the frat houses on the Boston side of the river are all near Commonwealth Avenue (one of the major East/West roads through Boston) and a very easy commute to anywhere downtown Boston. If you do a Googlemap, they will show up adjacent to or actually on the BU Campus (i.e. across the Charles from MIT).</p>
<p>Other colleges you can check: Simmons, BU, Emerson. There will be tons of sublets on Craigslist going up soon (probably April). If she can get the names of other interns from the company she is working for, she can start to network to see if they want to do a sublet together.</p>
<p>Don’t take the car. The T is terrific public transportation. When my son was BU student, he sublet his apartment from May 15-August 30 every year. I think he advertised internally at BU…many college students in Boston have year round leases and need someone for those summer months.</p>
<p>She does not want to have a car working in the financial district. Parking rates in the garage under my son’s apartment are $10 for the first 30 minutes. The financial district gives here a lot of flexibility commuting into Boston via the T though.</p>
<p>Ok got it, no car! Thanks for the input. I’ll try and figure out which frat houses are on the right side of the river, but honestly, I am concerned with housing her there. I know she would have a blast, but she is going to be working long hours, and she will be exhausted at the end of the day. I lived in a frat house back in my college days during the summer, and it was pretty loud and wild. While I’m sure she’d love it, I think she needs either an apartment or dorm style living, so she can get a quiet night’s rest. I had called Emerson…they won’t rent to non Emerson students. I’ll check on Simmons. Thanks for the ideas! CC is great, and I recognize some of the same users that help me last year :), which by the way, ended up working out perfectly!!!</p>
<p>Also, I had checked BU, but they don’t have AC, and that’s on my mandatory list. I know it’s Boston, and not as hot and humid as the midwest (where we live), but it still gets hot. She does have quite a few friends moving to Boston for the summer, so finding roommates is not an issue at all.</p>
<p>Also, does anyone know how hard it is to get from Northeastern dorms to the financial district? I tried going on mbta.com, but I couldn’t figure it out. I called them, and they told me the financial district is on the red line, while it looks like NE is on the green or orange line.</p>
<p>I usually use Government Center (green line/blue line) but it looks like State (yellow line/blue line) is an option too. I guess that you could get off of Park St (green line/red line) and walk too. I guess it depends on where you need to go in the Financial District as to which one is closer. Northeastern is on the “E” green line.</p>
<p>dumbo - easy peasy - the Orange line stops right on campus (Ruggles) and goes right through the financial district (Haymarket, State or Downtown Crossing) - maybe 3 or 4 stops away.</p>
<p>momofboston: that’s great. So if I read this correctly, you are saying she can take the orange line right from the NE campus, and it will go to the financial district. I’ll have to find out which stop, but that is great news. I did call Simmons, but you have to be a student there to get summer housing.</p>
<p>Last I heard students attending BU in the summer were assigned to the student village which has AC. However I do not think rooms are available there unless you are a student.</p>
<p>Dumbo…FYI, many dwellings in Boston do NOT have AC…they just don’t.</p>
<p>“How bad is driving in Boston?”</p>
<p>LOL</p>
<p>Agree with above posters on not even bringing a car for any reason. The public transportation system is very good, however.</p>
<p>How bad is the driving in Boston? It’s bad enough that whenever our relatives there email us directions, they remind us to watch out for the maniac drivers. And as noted by BC, parking is expensive. Your daughter would likely need to find a garage for her car (which is like paying rent for another apartment), as parking on the streets is limited, restricted, and in some places requires a permit. Take the T. It’s very easy.</p>
<p>She should get a Charlie card for the T.</p>
<p>To be honest, she should be able to get to her internship from almost anywhere taking the T. She might have to change lines but that is not a big deal.</p>
<p>Maniac drivers, streets that follow cow paths in circles, poorly marked pavement, and no street signs. Seriously, there are engineering issues with terrible pavement markings and there are frequently no street signs because if you don’t know where you are, perhaps you shouldn’t be there. </p>
<p>Other than that, driving in Boston is fine. :D</p>
<p>One-way streets too.</p>
<p>Get the plastic Charlie Card. The paper ones expire. BTW, one time I was trying to figure out how to get one of the plastic ones and I went to Alewife and looked all over the place to try to figure out how to get one. The machines dispense the paper ones but they will refill a plastic one. So I spent ten minutes walking around the station and someone came over to me to ask me if I needed help (there wasn’t anyone in the booth where they used to sell tokens and make change). I asked and he took out a stack of them from his pocket and gave me one. That was completely non-intuitive.</p>
<p>Just checked the monthly parking rate at son’s apartment: $300 (which isn’t all that bad) considering what a headache parking is).</p>
<p>Other stuff to consider: moving in, and furniture. Doing school dorms can be a lot easier because they usually provide furniture. They may even provide plates, cups, spoons, forks, etc.</p>
<p>My daughter is interning in Boston and has an apartment near Berklee. The building if full of students sharing apartments and interns/young grads like her. If you want to PM me, I can give you the building address and can also check whether the two guys she is sharing with will be there over the summer or whether they know of anyone needing to sublet for the summer. It is Not.Fancy.At.All but it is convenient, safe and many of the apartments have the potential to be furnished since most of the students will be coming back, so they might be leaving their stuff in the rooms.</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies. After reading this thread, she will not take her car. The only reason I really considered it was I mapquested from mass school of art & design dorms to her workplace, and it was under 3 miles and 10 minutes. On the t, it is estimating 30 minutes. But if the poster is correct that said the orange line goes direct from Northeastern dorms to the financial district, then that is a very good option. The only better thing would be if I can find an apt to sublet in walking distance. I know it is very easy to get around, but I’m trying to minimize the time commuting, as her hours will be very long. I just hate to add a 30 minute commute to an already long day, so the closer(or shorter) the better.</p>
<p>I missed the part earlier about AC. There might be a window unit in some of the buildings in my D’s area, but I doubt any of them are really air-conditioned. I don’t think her apartment has any kind of AC unit.</p>