2022 Prospective Student Visit Days

Madison Neighborhoods Nearby Campus

Information gathered from UW–Madison’s Campus Area Housing Listing Service, the Graduate School’s Housing and Transportation website, and “A Newcomers Guide to Madison”.

For more information on housing and transportation in Madison, you can visit UW–Madison’s Campus Area Housing Listing Service , which maintains up-to-date listings of private housing vacancies, including apartments, houses, roommate options, and cooperative living arrangements. You can also find additional helpful information on Madison neighborhoods on the Graduate School’s Housing and Transportation website.

Near West (Regent, Dudgeon-Monroe, Vilas, Greenbush neighborhoods)

• The Vilas neighborhood is a quiet residential area near the UW Arboretum and Henry Vilas Zoo. This neighborhood is home to a good mix of UW undergrads, graduate students, staff, and faculty, and attracts more families with small children than some of the areas closer to downtown. The Regent neighborhood also has a similar feel.
• Nearby Monroe Street and the Dudgeon-Monroe neighborhood is home to several eclectic shops with a number of coffee shops and restaurants.
• The Greenbush neighborhood tends to have more undergraduate than graduate students in the area.

Isthmus/Near East (Tenney-Lapham, Marquette, Schenk-Atwood-Starkweather-Yahara neighborhoods)

• Lots of older rental properties and a healthy number of small parks, bike paths, and coffee shops make this area attractive to many grad students.
• Though both sides of the isthmus are well-served by public transportation, the Mendota side (Johnson and Gorham Streets and the Tenney-Lapham neighborhood) is on several particularly high-traffic bus routes, making for easy travel to campus and around Madison. Closer to Lake Monona, the Williamson and Jenifer Street areas (Marquette neighborhood) are within easy reach of two Madison food co-ops and numerous restaurants and coffee houses. The Atwood area, which is a little beyond Willy Street and somewhat quieter, is another popular area with shops, entertainment, and restaurants.

Downtown (State/Langdon and Capitol neighborhoods)

• Rentals closer to State Street tend to attract more undergraduates, but there are still plenty of graduate students who enjoy being centrally located.
• Langdon street is where many of the undergraduate fraternities and sororities are located. Many find the area just south of the Capitol near Bassett Street convenient – it feels residential, but is still a short walk from the university.
• Closer to the Capitol building and just east of the capitol has more of a mix of graduate and undergraduate students.

Near South (Park Street)

• Just south of the Greenbush neighborhood, you can find lots of affordable housing along the various offshoots of Park Street as you head south. This area has ethnic supermarkets, Mexican eateries, and some coffee shops.
• It’s popular among grad students, young professionals, retirees, and young families who want to live close to downtown, in a quiet neighborhood, and on a budget. It is also close to the UW Arboretum and Monona Bay, which make for great running or biking routes.

Tips on finding housing in Madison from current Political Science first-year grad students

• Facebook groups, Facebook Marketplace, Zillow, Abodo, and Apartments.com are all good resources to browse housing options.
• Communicate directly with the property management companies or landlords when possible.
• If you aren’t able to visit Madison, many landlords are willing to Facetime/Skype/Zoom to see a virtual tour of an apartment or house.
• Talking with (or read Facebook reviews, posts, etc.) from current tenants as opposed to just communication with the landlord. This can give you a better sense of the positives and negatives of a place.
• Parking at the University and on campus can be hard to find and expensive. It’s helpful to see if your apartment will be on a bus line. Many students do not drive to campus, even if they have a car.
• Google Maps is a really useful tool to look at different areas and how close to different amenities they are. You might consider how important it is to be near coffee shops, laundromats, etc.
• Generally downtown apartments right next to campus have lots of undergraduates.
• Talk with other students in your cohort!

Tips for International Students

• If you don’t have any credit history in the U.S., apartments and landlords may ask for a co-signer.
  • A co-signer is someone who adds their name to the primary person’s apartment application, agreeing to be legally responsible for the rent, and any additional fees, should the primary person be unable to pay.
  • If you aren’t able to find a co-signer, apartments may ask you to send the full amount of the rent of a year instead of making monthly payments.
  • Sometimes international students may start by living in University Apartments to build credit history.
• Apartments don’t always include utilities such as heating and electricity in the rent. If they don’t, you’ll need to pay for them separately in addition to your rent.
• Some apartments allow credit cards or transfer to their account, while others only receive checks or direct transfers from checking accounts.

Important questions to consider when looking for housing

• What is most important to you in selecting an apartment?
  • Things to consider: price range, whether or not utilities are included, location, laundry facilities, parking options, etc.
• Do you want to live with roommates or on your own?
  • Facebook housing groups can be useful to find roommates
  • You might also find roommates among your grad cohort
• Do you want to be able to walk or bike to campus and/or bars and restaurants? Will you take the bus? If you drive, do you have parking on campus and are you willing to pay for parking?