Off-campus listings often use the same words: furnished, close to campus, all-inclusive. Read the lease if a parent is looking over your shoulder. The apartments we lease to students are the same ones we lease to everyone else: studios at 8 Main Street, two-bedrooms at 11 Main Street, and two-bedrooms at Mason Hall in Johnson City. Downtown rides OCCT: about 14 to 22 minutes on the bus, 30 to 35 on a bad run, door-to-door usually 30 to 45, free with a BU ID. Service is about done around midnight, and the article's published late ride is about $10 to $14. Johnson City is a car to campus, not a walk.
Some houses are loud by design. Some downtown apartments are quiet enough for an 8 a.m. lab. West Side group houses are the classic product, and quality swings hard. They are the wrong fit if you need quiet or a real 12-month lease. Do not sign because a friend did, take only one tour, ignore the block at night, bring up a guarantor too late, or assume pets from a porch dog. Tour two neighborhoods, read the lease sober, and put parking and utilities in email. "This will not last" is a sales line. Ask for the list before you sign: heat, an electric cap, Wi-Fi, trash, furniture, and parking. Also get academic year versus 12 months, joint-and-several liability, summer sublet, deposit return, and quiet hours in writing. Street parking on Front Street is a winter tow. The gated lot at 91 Front Street is the monthly pass if you live downtown.
