Housing at Penn:
A rough guide assembled by the Graduate English Association
Resources for your housing search:
Penn's Off-Campus Living website is extremely comprehensive, enabling students to look up housing information, view neighborhood maps, and so on. They have also prepared a Graduate-Student-specific Housing Guide, which can be found here (warning: large, and very long, file).
Penn OCL runs two powerful search engines which allow students to search current off-campus housing listings here and search for roommates here
You'll also find housing listings in the Philadelphia Weekly, the City Paper, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Daily Pennsylvanian (Penn's student paper), whose listings are mostly for West Philly and include ads for roommates and sublets.
About location:
Location is important! That said, many grad students tend to choose between West Philadelphia and Center City/Art Museum/Graduate Hospital (and occasionally other neighborhoods, e.g. South Philadelphia or the Loft District, usually later in their grad careers) based on a lot of factors -- cost, social life, amenities, proximity to school -- and do just fine. You might hear rumors about where it's safe to live in Philly; people have recently chosen to live anywhere between 19th and 48th. Note that rents will be higher in Center City and, in West Philadelphia, will be higher the closer you get to Penn's campus (which is bounded in the West at roughly 40th Street).
Center City offers many more high-rise (modern) apartment buildings than West Philadelphia, which is mostly brownstones or Victorians, although both areas have both kinds of housing.
Approximate costs in West Philly**:
| Unit Size | Rental Range | Average |
| Studio | $450 - $1239 | $ 736 |
| One Bedroom | $600 - $1570 | $ 924 |
| Two Bedroom | $750 - $2500 | $ 1324 |
| Shares* | $500 - $ 850 | $ 733 |
Approximate costs in Center City*:
| Unit Size | Rental Range | Average |
| Studio | $740 - $1900 | $1147 |
| One Bedroom | $1050 - $2400 | $1640 |
| Two Bedroom | $1325 - $3275 | $2172 |
* Center City runs from the Schuylkill River to the Delaware River and
from South Street to Spring Garden Streets.
** West Philadelphia runs from 38th to 50th Streets
Caveat Emptor:
These figures are drawn unedited from Penn's Office of
Off-Campus Living (OCL) Graduate Guide to Off-Campus Housing [linked
above, but in case you want to hyperlink this time around as well, the
URL is <http://www.business-services.upenn.edu/offcampusservices/documents/GraduateGuide09online.pdf>]
Most English grads pay a good bit less than the averages in the OCL
tables above. This is especially true in Center City, since OCL's
survey methodology tended to focus on high-rise buildings and rental
agencies, to the exclusion of smaller landlords. In addition, the
numbers reflect the rental patterns of all Penn graduate and
professional students as well as faculty (many of whose budgets are
more permissive than ours).
A quick survey of some current grads reveals the following figures for
rents in Center City during academic years '08-'09 and '09-'10:
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About landlords:
Penn's Graduate and Professional Student Association (GAPSA) hosts the results of an annual University-wide survey conducted to review and rate area landlords. You can look at the results here.
On-campus housing:
Penn has some grad housing: Sansom Place East and Sansom Place West, two high-rise towers, are located on campus within blocks of the department. These allow students various options: fully furnished single rooms or one- and two-bedroom apartments. More information can be found here, or in particular on the Sansom Place website here.
Getting around:
It's about a 20-minute walk to the English Department (34th Street) from 22nd Street in the East and 45th Street in the West.
School is accessible in a variety of different ways: walk (most common), take the bus (#21, #42), take the subway/trolley, or bike. The Penn Bus and Penn Shuttle (both part of Penn Transit) run during the evenings all year round, and can help you get home quickly, easily and safely; there are designated stops all over campus, or you can call 215.898.RIDE. There is also a walking escort (call 215.898.WALK). The Penn Transit website has a lot of useful information should you be interested in these services, and their map will help you get oriented in case you are looking to live within the area of service:
The South Street Bridge connects southern Center City to campus. Since late 2008, this bridge has been closed to all traffic (motor and foot) and will remain so for approximately two years. Alternative bridges for vehicles and detoured bus routes are Walnut, Chestnut, Market, and Spring Garden.
Basics:
Major supermarkets and stores:
Fresh Grocer, 40th and Walnut
Supreme Shop-N-Bag, 43rd and Walnut
South Square Supermarket, 23rd and South
Whole Foods, 10th and South / 20th and Philadelphia
Trader Joe's, 22nd and Market
Ikea, 2206 S. Columbus Boulevard
Target, 1 Mifflin Street
Walmart and Home Depot,1601 S Columbus Boulevard
University Square Farmers' Market, 36th and Walnut streets. Open Wednesdays 10am-2pm, through mid-November.
Clark Park Farmers’ Market, 43rd Street, between Chester and Baltimore avenues. Open Saturdays 10am-2pm Thursdays 3-7pm, May through mid-November, and only Saturdays, November through April.
Reading Terminal Market, an indoor market at 12th and Arch streets in Center City, offers an array of farm produce from local markets, fish, meats and cheeses. Open Monday through Saturday 8am-6pm and Sunday 9am-5pm.
Rittenhouse Farmers' Market, Walnut Street west of 18th Street, on south sidewalk. Open Tuesdays 10am-1pm and Saturdays 9:30am-3pm, through mid-November.
Fitler Square Farmers' Market, 23rd Street and Pine Street, open Saturdays 9am-1pm year-round.
