Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
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?
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.
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.
Last edited by muer; 03-25-2008 at 04:56 PM..
Reason: grammatical
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!
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.
I'm glad I found this thread. I will be starting a postdoc at UMass this summer and moving to the area in mid-May with my wife and 3-yr-old son. We're going to visit in a couple weeks to try and find a place to live. We'd really like to find something safe and quiet, but we know that noise can depend a lot on who the immediate neighbors happen to be.
Anyone here have experience with Hathaway Farms? I think it used to be called Hampton Gardens. The reviews online seem to be mixed, but I think those are often biased toward negative reviews (i.e., people might not be motivated to post a review when they're happy with a place, only when they're upset about something).
Any other recommendations or particularly good experiences? Thanks!
If you think SF is a small city vibe, you'll think Northampton and Amherst are tiny tiny.
Generally speaking people from Mass. are more reserved and maybe less relaxed than those from California. I don't think that's the same as not being down to earth. A lot of people in New England are very salt of the earth. As a result they don't try as hard to be cool.
I'd definitely suggest Northampton. It's much more city atmosphere than little Amherst, less undergrad noise, and still quite close.
Compared to most of coastal California, the area is cheap.
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!!!!
Northampton is awesome. Tons of great restaurants, tons of arts and culture, and a beautiful downtown area. It's kind of the "Berkeley" of the east coast, only on a MUCH smaller scale.
1. The commute to UMass isn't bad at all. The people who claim the commute is awful just don't know the backroads. If you do end up in Northampton, PM me and I'll give you directions. It takes 10-15 minutes and is a nice, scenic drive. Fridays take a little longer (about 20 minutes) because of bridge traffic.
2. There are tons of UMass students in Noho. I was one of them for a long time.
3. I think Northampton and Amherst define "college vibe".
4. I personally like Florence and Leeds, but it depends on personal preference. Florence and Leeds are quiet, more suburban sections on the outskirts of Northampton. Rents are cheaper, but they're also a little away from all the action. If you want to be in the center of everything, downtown is the way to go. However, all of Northampton is "Northampton". Neighborhood differences are so minor and there are very few. It's not like a major city.
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!!!!
I've known many Californians (and others, including my Buckeye husband) who HATE New England...mostly due to cultural differences of what constitutes "Friendliness" and so on. Check into THAT, so you're prepared. The Valley...yes, but Valley DUDE vibe, as in Calif.? No.
The good news is: W. Mass is MUCH more diverse, younger and hipper than the rest of the state. Noho is GREAT (It was my hangout all through most of the '80's)...and that being said, it is NOT the 80's now!
Some say it's "dead" and "commercialized" and that may be true. But in Mass., you will be hard pressed to find ANY town with as much to do, culturally, except Amherst (as in host of UMass).
As for the commute, whoever said 10 minutes must have a jetpack!!!
Plan more on 45 min.-1 hr. one way from either town to the other. Most residents ( myself incl.) zoom up I-91 to Sunderland and back down Rte. 116 (right next to UMass) rather than wait in traffic for that long.
A great alternative is to live in one of the bordering towns, like Williamsburg (to the West), Sunderland (to the N.), Leverett (N.E., just N. of Amherst) and hit Noho when there's something to do.
The prices for renting in the outlying towns will DEFINITELY be cheaper!
As for going south, then you're talking Holyoke & Easthampton and...you don't want to live there, trust me!
Also remember there's a great bike path (including a "Rail Trail") over the CT river, should you want to get some cardio in if you DO livei in Noho and believe me, you will probably get back and forth faster than by car or bus that way!
P.S.: DO NOT LISTEN TO THOSE WHO TRASH GREENFIELD! It has many of the amenities of Noho and Amherst (restaurants, health food stores, natural clothing shops etc.), it's RIGHT on the edge of some PRIMO hiking, canoeing and bicycling and has probably the lowest rental prices around. The people who speak against it have some kind of weird grudge against it which has NO basis in reality. If you don't have kids in primary school, it's FINE to live here!
I used to bike here FROM AMHERST to swim...great cycling...and swimming in the Green River, as well as boating on the CT!
Welcome to the Happy Valley! You'll never leave.....
Last edited by VlyRoadKid; 03-28-2009 at 06:20 PM..
Reason: Correct faulty info
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Northampton
