If you have accepted an offer from IU, you should use the last bit of time between now and when you move to Bloomington to relax and try to spend as much time as possible with your family and friends. On the other hand, you want to be prepared and start making arrangements for life in Bloomington so you don’t feel lost when you move here. Housing is one thing that you need to start thinking about before you come.

When looking for housing, ask yourself these questions: Do you want to live by yourself or share an apartment/rental house with one or more roommates to cut down your cost of living? Do you have dependents who will move with you to Bloomington? Do you need a day-care/nannies for your children? Do you want to have pets? I would recommend on-campus housing if you anticipate living here without a car, with your children, or having to work late nights in the lab. There is an excellent transportation system in Bloomington consisting of both IU campus bus and city buses that go by all the on-campus apartments as well as the major grocery stores. There is also two day-cares located on-campus. If you work requires some night hours in the lab, you could request safety escort for free (http://safety.indiana.edu/).

There are several ways of looking for housing in Bloomington:

1. Apartment guide: It has a website as well as hard copies of housing info that you can pick up from grocery stores like Kroger.

2. Craigslist: Useful for sublets and roommates

3. OneStart: Once you have created an IU username and passphrase, you can log on to OneStart.iu.edu and go to the classifieds where you can post and search other peoples’ postings regarding sublets and roommates. This is how I found the apartment that I’m currently live in.

4. If there is an particular area of town that you like to live in, walk around and you’ll find phone numbers to call for rental inquiries.

If you choose to live off-campus, make sure you ask around about the property management’s reputation. Good luck!