Anyone traveling to San Fran?

NedRN · May 24, 2016

Besides looking on Craigslist for shared housing, even better is posting your own housing wanted ad (skim Craigslist before choosing an assignment so you know what it might be costing you and where, then post your own ad as soon as you have decided). This is my standard advice (and finds stuff that is never posted), but even more important in San Francisco. The reason is that in San Francisco, housing costs are so high that sharing is common, often in very large houses with multiple roommates. Much more so than in other places, such large house shares really need longer term and excellent fits. Other potential housemates prefer short term and meeting interesting people.

Walnut Creek and San Jose are very different than San Francisco for the housing market. For the experience of being in exciting places, my priority would be SF, then San Jose, and last Walnut Creek. That priority coincidentally corresponds inversely to the local temperatures.

Both Stanford (in case you go there - weather is a bit warmer than SF) and UCSF have housing departments that posts availabilities in the community who may only post there and feel safer with a university connection. Stanford is more organized and you can look through their posts online as soon as you have a confirmed assignment (call the housing dept for passwords - they will see you your confirmation). I haven't been to UCSF for quite a while. As I recall, the housing department is just across the street from the hospital and is much more laissez faire than Stanford. Anyone can walk in at look at housing posts inside the office on a wall during open hours. The downside is you have to be there already, no phone or online help is or at least that was available when I was there.