Staying at Harvard? HCURA Can Help

Do your summer plans involve an extended stay in beautiful Cambridge? Are you still working to find a roommate for that enviable summer pad? A new Web site is trying to solve this by hooking up students (for housing) at DeWolfe and other residences around Harvard.

On the Harvard College Undergraduate Research Association’s site, you can register and then either browse the ads put up by other students or post your own. HCURA developed the site two or three years ago because “a lot of people, especially those doing research, are looking for housing,” said Carol Y. J. Suh ’11, a former HCURA president.

“Since then, a lot of people have been able to find roommates and places over the summer,” she said.

The site concentrates on DeWolfe housing with separate categories for gender, but it also has a place to post ads to find roommates who want to live in other areas. It’s open to anyone, not just Harvard students or summer researchers, according to Suh.

It may take a few minutes to figure out how to use the tool. To post an ad, you have to click “Roommate search” on the left, choose the category, and then click the “Submit ad” link that shows up at the top. There are only a few listings on right now, but it can’t hurt to browse and possibly put up your own listing if you’re sticking around for the summer.

Beyond the HCURA’s Web site, Crimsonlist offers a section on housing, but it doesn’t have a way to search for specific locations or for a particular roommate gender. Right now, there’s only one post for a sublet across the River—hardly a critical mass—but as people finalize summer plans, this may change.

In the search for a roommate, watch out for deadlines: for those hoping to sign up for DeWolfe housing, applications are accepted on a rolling basis until April 19, according to the Office of Student Life Web site.

Image courtesy of the Harvard College Undergraduate Research Association.