Son Looking at U of I law School This Fall (Chicago: real estate, apartment complex)

[Katiana]

From:
http://www.census.gov/population/www....html#Students

College students living away from home while attending college - Counted where they are living at college.

From www.ips.uiuc.edu/isss/OISAService/Publication/Passport/passports0001: (broken link)

What College Students in Champaign County Should Know about Census 2000

A census is the official enumeration of a population.

It's the law! The United States Constitution mandates a census every 10 years. April 1, 2000 is Census Day.

Students attending the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and/or Parkland College should be counted as residents of Champaign County.

A student's permanent residence may not necessarily be in Champaign County, but if the student is residing in Champaign County on April 1, 2000, he/she should be counted as a resident of this County. If you are not living with your parents, fill out your own census forms.

All students, citizens as well as non-citizens, are required to fill out the Census forms. Remember -- your answers are highly confidential!

Students in Residence Halls and Fraternity/Sorority housing will be counted beginning April 1, 2000. Students in off-campus housing will receive questionnaires via mail beginning mid-March.

Students living in an apartment or a rooming house will receive one form -- you need to list every person who lives in your apartment or house.

Census 2000 questionnaires will be easy to read. It should take no more than 3 minutes for the short form and no more than 7 minutes for the long form to be filled out. Most students will receive the short form.

A Census Taker, sworn to protect the confidentiality of your answers, will assist students in the Residence Halls and Fraternity/Sorority housing who have questions. Questionnaire Assistance Centers will help students living off-campus.

[pajisca]

I've recently been rental hunting in Champaign. My advice is shop around. There are some apartment facilities that are OVERCHARGING. My boyfriend was also accepted to U of I Law. We went on a preliminary hunt a few weeks ago. We found several apartment complexes who were trying to charge $500 PER person for a three bedroom apartment that I could barely turn around in. Anyway, fear not, we did find some great deals, but we had to hunt a bit. Look in the classifieds section of the local paper mentioned in an earlier post. We found some great places there especially if you don't mind living 10 minutes or so from campus. Good luck!

[marksind]

Well, I think the debate's concluded then. It's a college town, except for the part that isn't! Either way, sounds pretty safe and affordable from what I've seen on this site and others, and the law school has a good reputation. He's got to find an apartment - any ideas of places, things to consider, good or bad?

[marksind]

Pajisca, thanks for the input. Any particular complexes that offered decent accommodations and rent? We won't have much of an opportunity to find a place much in advance.

[pajisca]

It's been about a month since we went looking....so, I can't remember specific names. I'll try to remember to look at the list that we started from this weekend. I don't have it with me at the moment. My boyfriend went to their open house back in February and the law school had a informal listing of several places. So, you might want to try contacting the law school and see if they can send you a copy. There was a place not too far from the law school that had some really affordable GREAT looking condos. Some of them had been just renovated. I'll probably won't be able to get back to you until Sunday with that info. We're going to Virginia this weekend!!! There is a city south of Champaign-Urbana called Savoy that had some pretty cool rentals too...the drive wasn't bad either.

[M TYPE X]

I know a current law student who did his undergrad here, and he is living in one of those boring apartments in the cornfields of Savoy. He loves his commute.

[marksind]

Whenever you can get to it would be just fine. Do you know when your boyfriend thinks it's necessary to rent (that is, does he think he can wait until August to do so)?

Savoy, huh? I know law students don't have much time to do anything but study, but that sounds like it could be a bit extreme!

I appreciate everyone's helpful ideas.

[Drover]

Yeh, my BIL lived in that Savoy complex too. He couldn't stand his commute. Took something like 45 minutes even though it was a few miles from campus because the bus took a meandering route before finally going to campus. Plus the apartments weren't that nice for what they were charged, though there are a lot of amenities included such as all utilities (including cable and broadband), pool table, exercise room, pool, etc. -- in other words, all the stuff a law student will have little to no time for. One upside was that a lot of the U of I basketball team lived there (this was the year they were rated #1) so he got to watch them play some pickup games on the complex's basketball court.

As for when to start looking... now isn't too soon. In fact a lot of the decent options near campus may already be snatched up. If he waits until August to look, he may end up quite a distance from campus. Campus-area housing usually starts renting for the fall semester as early as February. So the sooner you start looking, the better.

[marksind]

So what do students do, pay rent for six months while they're not living there? Or do you reserve it somehow?

[Drover]

Some leases run 10 months -- August through May. Otherwise, yeh, they end up paying for the summer months, staying there year-round, or finding sublessors.