housing and what to do if u land on weekends

Hi folks,
Of late we been getting emails (a lot personal to our ID's too.. Please avoid it and worst is chat/IM..) about 2 things

1. Housing
2. What if i come during weekdays


let me clarify both ..

1. housing

# on an avg 2 people per room in individual houses
# there r 3 big apts on campus
1. TPA/medical district city apt - in bet west/east campus
a little costly than houses. Rent around 1200 for 1 bedroom (max 3 people, but 2 on lease)) and 1600$/month for 2 bedroom(max 5 people live, but 4 on lease). Nice neighborhood and has a pool, fitness center and all.. But is quite costly for what u get here.

2. MDA/i forgot the correct name. - in Oakley Blvd. kinda ok, in west campus. Cheaper than TPA

3. Presidential towers
costliest and also the best one. Its in downtown, closer to east campus. Not many desis live but its a really nice one.

apart from these there r a lot of houses. Most desis live in

carpenter/miller/Aberdeen streets ---very close to east campus
Claremont/western/Oakley - close to west campus
flournoy/laflin/Loomis/Lexington/Polk - in the middle.

the way u look for apts,
once u come here go around and see the apts. See what u like and then decide.
we will help u on that. Most juniors tend to become roomies of the people to whom they r hosted (for instance i did).

after an year u might want to have a room for urself. So plan accordingly.
typical rent in houses - 200-400$ a month+utilities(60-100$)
apts tend to be a little safer than houses for obvious reasons.

there will be lots of houses for rent with realities/real estate owners and adds on uic_incoming (look there if u find one talk with them) and all over campus..

We suggest that u keep looking for houses in the evenings and for ur GA in day time...
its a hard phase everybody ash gone thru here.. So will u.


2. Second question
what if i come on weekdays.
We never said we wont pick u . It will be difficult. Try to take flights that come a bit late in the evenings say around 4 or 5. So that we can pick u up easily. Even if u have to land in the middle of the day let us know well in advance so we can try to do it. Most probably we will let u know if we cannot pick u up(very rare). Just in case u don't see one of us give us a call once u land and we will figure out something.

hope this settles it all.

Madhu
IGSA board