While most undergraduates live either on or very close to campus, a number of graduate students choose to experience Philadelphia beyond University City.
Most graduate students live in Center City or the surrounding campus area — in either University City or other neighborhoods of West Philadelphia — according to a housing guide compiled by Penn Off Campus Services.
This way, students are “within easy reach of campus, shopping, cultural and recreational attractions and outstanding restaurants,” the guide reads.
David Fajgenbaum and Jason Hurd are both second-year students in the School of Medicine. They attend similar classes and work nearly parallel hospital shifts, but they live across town from each other.
Fajgenbaum, who now resides in an apartment on 34th and Chestnut streets, moved close to campus after a year of long walks and trolley rides from 45th and Baltimore.
“If I chose not to take the trolley, I had to spend an hour walking everyday,” Fajgenbaum said.
“I had to bring gym clothes, all my books and food with me everywhere because I felt that when I left in the morning, I couldn’t go back,” he added.
For Fajgenbaum, this year’s decrease in travel time made all the difference.
“I am honestly so much happier,” he said.
Fajgenbaum said he — like most other graduate students — would be interested in spending at least a year in Center City.
Though he does not look forward to the commute, Fajgenbaum believes that living downtown would be much better socially and more advantageous in general than living in West Philadelphia.
Hurd, a Montana native and two-year Center City dweller, disclosed his initial reluctance to live downtown.
“I didn’t realize that Center City has great neighborhoods also just south of most of the office buildings,” he said.
Now an advocate for Center City, Hurd shared his favorite aspects of living there.
“A majority of my Medical School classmates live within five or six blocks of me,” he said. “We all go to the restaurants and bars in Center City and Old City.”
Though Hurd, like Fajgenbaum, must pack for the entire day, his bike commute is only eight minutes.
“It’s so nice to have both the city and University environments in my graduate school experience,” Hurd concluded.
Though Center City is an ideal setting according to these two students, the price of living is much higher.
The monthly rental rate for a one-bedroom apartment in Center City is almost $300 more expensive than that of a two-bedroom apartment in West Philadelphia, according to 2009 rental rates distributed by Penn’s Off-Campus Services.
Second-year Medical student Patrick Georgoff took price into consideration when he and his fiancee moved from Center City to 45th and Spruce streets this year.
“It was close and much cheaper,” he said. “We were able to get a bigger place.”
