A Guide to Finding Your Housing

Working as a graduate student liaison, one of the most common questions amongst incoming students that I get asked is about the housing options available near RIT. Coming from a different state or a different country, there is much confusion about where and how to book housing. At RIT there are a lot of on-campus options available such as Global Village, Riverknoll, Perkins Green, etc. The full list of on-campus for incoming Graduate Students is available here. Apart from the on-campus housing options, there are off-campus housing options such as Park Point, Province, The Hill, The Lodge, Brighton Village, Rustic Village Apartments, etc. that are available to RIT students.

Choosing amongst all the plethora of housing options could be overwhelming. I’ll try to describe some key factors you can look at while choosing your housing:

1. Rent: The first factor while looking for housing is the rent. Depending on your preference, the rent can easily range from $250 to almost $1000. RIT has an excellent house comparison tool that you can use to compare all the on-campus housing options available. Sadly there is no such comparison for off-campus apartments.

2. Commute: RIT provides FREE shuttles that run between various dwellings (on-campus and off-campus) and also connects the campus to different places such as Walmart, Marketplace Mall, etc. Some options such as The Hill and The Lodge also have their own shuttles. When choosing your housing, considering the time for commute is an important factor. The farther you stay from the RIT campus, there is a decrease in the rent with an increase in the commute time. If you own a car (or plan to buy one), the off-campus options could be better since you don’t have to depend on the shuttles while also paying less.

3. Amenities: Most housing options are fully furnished and provide amenities like a bed, study table, sofas, refrigerators, etc. Fully furnished apartments, however, might be on the higher end. If you want cheaper apartments and don’t mind buying your own furniture (one-time cost), unfurnished apartments available at dwellings such as Rustic Village and Brighton Village apartments might be the way to go! Other amenities that you should keep in mind are WiFi, Electricity, Heat (extremely important!).

Irrespective of the housing option you choose to go for, your first few days would be spent buying essentials such as lamps, floor mats, vacuum cleaners, bounty. You can easily find all of these at the local Walmart store or order them from Amazon!

Links to off-campus housings:

1. Park Point
2. Province
3. The Hill
4. The Lodge
5. Brighton Village
6. Rustic Village