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Boston, Massachusetts is a compact, history-soaked city that runs on its students, with Boston University strung along the Charles River, Northeastern anchoring the Fenway, plus Simmons University and Emerson College feeding a downtown built for people in their twenties. You're never far from a campus, a T stop, or green space. The Esplanade and Charles River paths fill with runners and rowers, the Boston Common and Public Garden mark the old heart of the city, and the Emerald Necklace threads parkland out to Franklin Park. Neighborhoods each carry their own accent, from brick-row Back Bay to student-heavy Allston and Mission Hill.
West along the Green Line, these are the classic undergrad zones, packed with shared apartments, easy eats, and a famous September moving-day chaos.
Sitting right against Northeastern and the medical area, these areas are popular with anyone who wants to roll out of bed and into class.
South along the Orange Line, Jamaica Plain trades some convenience for leafy streets, the Emerald Necklace parks, and a slower feel that grad students especially favor.
Here's what you need to know about getting around Boston.
Boston is one of the few American cities where you genuinely don't need a car as a student, and most people skip one. The MBTA subway, universally called the T, runs five color-coded lines, and the Green Line threads right past Boston University while the Orange Line serves Northeastern and Roxbury Crossing. Buses fill the gaps, the Commuter Rail reaches the suburbs, and everything takes a tap-to-pay CharlieCard. The T puts most campuses and neighborhoods within easy reach.
Walking is the real default downtown, where the old street grid is gloriously illogical and everything good sits within a mile or two. Biking is popular thanks to the Charles River paths and the Bluebikes share system. Drivers can be aggressive and winters are no joke, so ride with care. Most students cover daily life on foot and rail without trouble.
Parking is scarce, expensive, and often permit-only, so a car means real effort hunting for spots. Most students skip a car entirely given how strong transit is. If you do bring one, budget for permits and limited street parking. Day to day, a car is more burden than help in the city core.
Common questions from students searching for housing.
Boston is one of the priciest student markets in the country, so set expectations accordingly. A room in a shared apartment in Allston, Brighton, or Mission Hill commonly runs about $1,000 to $1,500 a month, while studios and one-bedrooms in the Fenway or Back Bay often land between $2,200 and $3,200. Living with roommates and staying a stop or two out from campus is the standard way students keep things manageable.
Boston is home to 4 universities, each with its own student housing market.
Boston University stretches about 32,700 Terriers along a mile and a half of Commonwealth Avenue, right on the Charles River in Boston. There's no quad to speak of; campus is the city, woven into the Green Line trolley that runs straight down Comm Ave to Kenmore Square and downtown. The Charles River Esplanade is BU's…
View housing near BUEmerson College plants about 5,100 arts and communication students in downtown Boston, with a compact campus wrapping the southeast corner of the Boston Common in the historic Theatre District. There's no leafy quad here: the city is the campus, and the Common, Public Garden, and State House are your front yard.…
View housing near Emerson CollegeNortheastern University packs about 22,905 students into Boston's Fenway area, with a compact urban campus wedged between the Fenway, Roxbury, and the South End. There's no big quad to speak of: the city is the campus, and the Museum of Fine Arts and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum sit right at the edge of it.…
View housing near NortheasternSimmons University sits about 6,300 students in the Fenway, one of Boston's most walkable and culture-dense neighborhoods, right in the middle of the city's college belt. The residential campus tucks beside the Emerald Necklace, Olmsted's chain of public parks, with the Back Bay Fens steps from the door. Just around…
View housing near Simmons UniversityBrowse student housing near each Boston-area university.