Umass Amherst grad student, Noho a good place to reside? (Northampton: housing, condos)

[este justin]

hello everyone,

i will be a grad student at umass amherst this coming fall, and am looking at potential towns to live for about 2yrs. would northampton be a great place? other suggestions?? please let me know, as i know nothing about the east coast.. my whole life has been spent in California!

-how is the commute Umass?
-umass students in Noho?
-college vibe?
-what would be a good neighborhood within the town?
-how should i go about looking for housing?

Thanks!!!!

[Jeremy01506]

Answers to your questions, as best I know them:

-how is the commute Umass? 10 minutes with traffic, maybe less
-umass students in Noho? yes, definitely
-college vibe? very much so, extremely arty and quirky (I love it, personally!)
-what would be a good neighborhood within the town? not sure
-how should i go about looking for housing? Craigslist would be a good start (craigslist: western massachusetts classifieds for jobs, apartments, personals, for sale, services, community, and events)

Hope this helps!

[willdufauve]

For Noho apartments look in the Hampshire Gazette newspaper. You might also look at Hadley, Amherst and Sunderland for rentals and house shares with other students.

Avoid Greenfield like the plague.

[muer]

Originally Posted by este justin

hello everyone,

i will be a grad student at umass amherst this coming fall, and am looking at potential towns to live for about 2yrs. would northampton be a great place? other suggestions?? please let me know, as i know nothing about the east coast.. my whole life has been spent in California!

-how is the commute Umass?
-umass students in Noho?
-college vibe?
-what would be a good neighborhood within the town?
-how should i go about looking for housing?

Thanks!!!!

Where are you from in California? That makes a difference.

I wouldn't drive to Amherst, I would take the bus unless there's a big reason against public transit. The express bus takes 30mins to go from Northampton to Amherst. Driving takes 17mins W/O traffic.

College Vibe. Northampton, Amherst is a decent college atmosphere, again, you need to state where you represent so we can better give a decent perspective. For instance if you came from Athens, GA where they have events where the whole town goes to downtown to party and watch bicycle races, don't expect that here.
This area is way more individualistic, reserved, more booking-reading (not saying they are way intellectual, it's this places favourite past-time), into "Thai" and "international" cuisine, Whole-Foods organicky people. Understand?
There isn't community at all, people won't feel the need or desire to speak with you - or at least me -, they are more into nature and they love to use the word "gorgeous", "beautiful", and "stunning" to describe ordinary things.

The most frequent topic of conversation is someone's trip to Italy, France, or Germany. They love Germany. You will most likely first be asked where you did your undergrad. In Cali I hear it's "What neighborhood do you live in?" - at least in San Francisco.

They love dogs and yoga. Well the older people do the yoga.
People in Northampton try to look Cali-style, hipster and all, but it's all surface gimmicks. They aren't as down to earth and cool as Cali people. I know because I have danced with more girls from California than the number of Massachusetts people (guys and girls) I have talked to or have talked to me.

But these are my experience, you aren't me so people will more likely be more receptive.

There are apartments/houses around Smith College, As for outside of Northampton, you really don't have neighborhoods, houses line the main streets, so you won't find streets that go into a neighborhood.

I would choose Northampton, don't live anywhere else.Here's Northampton:
Northampton has a club for salsa dancing, some coffee shops, one club for hip-hop dancing, a popular bar called the Dirty Truth, a knitting store, and many international restaurants for it's size. There are alot of acts that play at the Calvin, Iron Horse (Iron Horse Entertainment Group Main), and Pearl Street. They tend to be overpriced at the Calvin though. Like $35-$50.

The younger kids don't dance, they usually frequent the bars, coffee shops, and concerts. Kids' favourite bands are Morissey, Bob Dylan, the LaMontagne guys that sings "Trouble", Belle and Sebastian, Tom Waits, Blackalicious....you feel me?

Here's the low down
There are UMass student in Northampton. You can look for apartments on Google, try "UMass renters pool" or (UMass Off Campus Housing: Home).

That's it.

[este justin]

i was born and raised in San Francisco, and finishing an undergrad degree in San Diego.. i am very accustomed to the small city lifestyle of San Francisco.. hope this helps!

[goyguy]

There's an "Off-Campus Housing" office in the Student Union building at UMass with a searchable database - Google it & you can probably log right in.

I lived in Noho for two years while a "Umie" and liked it pretty well, but it got deadly boring in the summertime. I say that as a city kid who'd never lived anywhere with less than a million population; Greater Metropolitan Amherst-Northampton houses less than 50,000 souls, not counting the students who are seemingly "everywhere." The row of early-20th-century townhouses I did my apartment-share in is now condos. Coming from Cali, you probably won't feel sticker shock, but the cost of living in MA - particularly "hot" areas like the Pioneer Valley - is much higher than it is in most of the country. Typical Noho housing is in older buildings, whether they be brick apartment houses or wood-frame 2-, 3-, or 4-family homes. Amherst and Sunderland ("Slumberland") are where you'll find cheesy apartment complexes like Brittany Manor, which date back to the 1960s and '70s. Avoid those like the plague unless you're into undergrad keggers. For more of a "country" feel to where you hang your hat, check out the towns of Hadley, South Hadley, Deerfield, Leverett, Pelham, and Belchertown. Belchertown and Pelham border Amherst to the east, South Hadley to the south and southwest, Hadley is between Amherst and Noho, Deerfield lies to the north, and Leverett is northeast. You'd be best off with a car in any of those towns, but there is some bus service to all of them except for Leverett and Pelham. Many faculty/staff types and "older" (over 24) students prefer renting houses in them so as to hear crickets or spring peepers at night instead of screaming drunken adolescents. There are also some nice "suburban" areas in Amherst, on the north side of town beyond the North Pleasant St dorms and apartments and east of downtown along Main St.

Route 9 can back up pretty badly during rush hours, and on-campus parking is tight even with a sticker, so a lot of people prefer the bus service for travel between Northampton and Amherst. The Valley is also just about the only place in the whole state where hitchhiking is still a widely practiced mode of transportation. Traveling by thumb's a great way to go when the buses have stopped running, which they tend to do comparatively early even on weekends. Historically, the prime "hitching corner" is the northwest point of the major intersection between Route 9 and Pleasant St in Amherst Center. I got back to Noho that way on many a late night.