Help me live in Boston this summer

March 3, 2007 12:38 PM

I'd like to live in Boston this summer, and at least break even. Any ideas?

This'll be this summer, in between freshman/soph year of college. I've been applying to a number of research programs & internships, but all of them are pretty close to here, & I'd really like to go back to Boston (I've visited once for 3 or 4 days, and yes, it was summer, so I know how hot/humid it gets).

In terms of what I'd do, I have no idea. I have a year & a half or so of experience with software development & some ecology modeling from a job at Oregon State University, & I'm taking chem & neurobiology at the moment, both of which are pretty interesting to me. I'm also potentially interested in digital compositing / color work for film, although I've only played with it myself, never had formal education. The big problem is, its hard to find stuff for just a few months, especially something that would cover living expenses (ideally I'd be able to have a small apt).

I'd love some ideas!

posted by devilsbrigade to work & money (7 comments total)

My first thought is house-sitting for an professor who's on vacation/sabbatical. Seems like a dream set-up.

If you're mainly interested in being in Boston and paying the rent for a summer stint, you could do anything since it's such a touristy town. By anything I mean scoop ice cream or wait tables. The key is researching studio apts or shares to know about how much you'd need to make for it to be feasible.

If the emphasis is on continuing your career and educational interests while in Boston, then I recommend sending emails to related departments at all of the schools to see if they have any paid intern positions for the summer, or if any of the professors are looking for lab/research help.

It's such an academically-oriented city, too, that you don't need to apologize a whole lot for looking for summer work. Many of us who went to school t/here have honestly said, "Right now I plan to be in Boston for the foreseeable future," knowing that meant until May.
posted by cocoagirl at 1:09 PM on March 3, 2007

You want to live IN Boston, by yourself, as an intern? ...

Well I don't live in Boston proper, I live 1.5 hours away and it is expensive to live in Amherst, nevermind Boston. Would you consider New England in general? For example, Wood's Hole on Cape Cod has a world reknown marine center that may take interns... and it's marginally cheaper than Boston. Or Maine? Portland is a very cool town. Rhode Island? URI has a great marine biology department.

I don't want to discourage you, just trying to give you some cheaper options that Boston proper in case that doesn't work out.

Good luck!
posted by absquatulate at 1:09 PM on March 3, 2007

Forget apartments. There are cheaper and funner ways to live in Boston.

I lived in Cambridge one summer on a research grant while in college. I lived in an MIT fraternity. Many of them rent their rooms for the summer. Its probably the cheapest housing you'll find and you are living in a huge house with lots of other summer people - mostly folks from other nearby universities. Best bet is just to look a couple up and start callinge/emailing them about rooms for the summer.

As for the job. I dont know. Boston has a ton of colleges. Your best bet is to find some professor/grad student you know at your current college to give you a referral.
posted by vacapinta at 1:37 PM on March 3, 2007

Oh good lord. I don't want to disparage absquatulate, but it is perfectly possible to live in Boston proper (and/or one of the close-in towns such as Brookline) for very little cash. You can spend under $700/mo for a room -- $500/mo if you're not terribly picky about the size or the quality of your personal space. Just know that you will not be able to afford your own apartment -- prices start at over $1k/mo in my experience. To find a place to live, look on the roomies wanted board at Craigslist. You will find a summer sublease in about 2 seconds.

Boston is a perfect city for what you want to do, workwise. I will echo vacapinta and suggest contacting professors at schools in town. Start with those in your areas of academic interest. March is when a lot of people seem to hire for the summer intern season, at least in the sciences, so if you have interests in those areas I'd suggest you start sending out some emails.

In the past, I have had significant success using targeted emailing techniques to get summer gigs in a research setting, and friends have gotten full-time research gigs thereby. Prepare a resumé and a semi-targeted cover letter and email it off to anyone and everyone with whom you think you'd like to work for the summer. Sound passionate. You will have a low, but nonzero response rate. With luck you will find someone who will at least talk to you, and maybe somebody who will hire you.

You might also want to try to network through professors at your school. There are 250,000 students in the Boston area; odds are at least one of your teachers, or one of their colleagues, was in grad school there and can give you some names or an introduction.

Good luck! Boston is glorious in the summertime.
posted by killdevil at 2:46 PM on March 3, 2007

If you do decide to go to Woods Hole and you still want to do ecological modeling, get in touch with Hal Caswell. He's the world expert on ecological modeling of populations.
posted by nekton at 4:30 PM on March 3, 2007

This may sound silly, but have you considered some of the residential sleep studies that are run by the hospitals here? By staying there all day with whatever entertainment you want, and off and on volunteering your saliva, heartrate, whatever, depends on the study, you can get something like $3,000 in 10 days (the longest studies run about one month). Then, the rest of the summer is yours - at that point, you are an appealing intern to any researcher since they don't have to pay you. Or, you could just bum around...
posted by whatzit at 7:57 PM on March 3, 2007

Killdevil: haha no worries! you have to understand I started my rent-paying career in upstate NY, so I'm still getting used to the sticker shock back here in NE. You gave great advice, and vacapinta, I never would have thought about renting rooms from greek housing!

Let us know how it works out!
posted by absquatulate at 10:57 AM on March 4, 2007