Finding a place to live can be difficult when you’re new to an area, especially if you’re moving from far away and don’t have a lot of time to check out your options. Here are some online resources to help you out.

For one thing, you can sign up for the GSBB, the Graduate Student Bulletin Board, which is the student-run mailing list for grad students. People post rooms for rent and shorter-term sublets on there all the time, especially near the end of the summer.

You can also search on Craigslist, a free, public listing service. It’s extremely widely used and trusted. Apartments are often listed on Craigslist by neighborhood, and generally you’ll be looking for apartments in Fox Point, East Side, Wayland Square, and College Hill. While there are many other nice places to live around Providence, they are further from campus, and generally it’s useful to live nearby for at least your first year. Note that East Providence is actually a separate town, as are Pawtucket, Central Falls, and Cranston.

The university also has housing but it’s generally overpriced and not very nice. If you can find an arrangement that allows you to live in university housing for your first three to five months and then move out, it could be a good option. Additionally, the university has resources for international students seeking housing on a short-term basis. See the grad school’s housing page for more information.

The map below shows the vicinity of Brown’s campus.

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Generally you’ll want to look for places that are no further west than Prospect Street and no further north than Olney Street. As mentioned above, there are many great places to live elsewhere in Providence and the vicinity, but in your first year it’s helpful to live near campus. If you’re sharing an apartment, expect to pay at least $500/month; if you get a place to yourself, it will probably be more like $700 or more.