HarveyBirdman wrote:Stupid question about housing...I know it's notoriously expensive in a lot of neighborhoods in and around DC, but I also have the impression of DC having the typical impoverished inner city areas. So...do any law students live in said areas? I mean, I wouldn't be looking for a luxury apartment, I'd be looking to save money. And if there was a place in a sketchy neighborhood for a lot less and public transportation could connect me to the law school...that seems like a no brainer.
I don't know about the law students who aren't in the university dorms, but I think it's safe to assume that plenty of them live in various neighborhoods across DC. The city has lots of areas where $$ yuppie or gentrifying pockets of housing are bordering cheap and unsafe/sketchy neighborhoods, like in Brookland (near Catholic University), the U Street area, and in the SE quadrant (particularly farther out from Capitol Hill). I wouldn't feel scared to live in those areas, but I also wouldn't want to go jogging there at night either.
If you don't know the ins and outs of DC housing, stick to the NW quadrant. If you're lucky and vigilant, you can find fairly affordable housing in a decent place on craigslist. It doesn't have to be a shithole in a crime-ridden neighborhood for it to be affordable. And yeah, the metro & bus system in DC is great. (http://www.wmata.com) Unfortunately, the specific areas I mentioned above are kind of far from GW and require multiple train changes on the metro, except for Capitol Hill places that are on the orange/blue line.
Another option would be to look for an apartment in northern Virginia near a metro stop, like Rosslyn or Court House (one and two metro stops, respectively, from the Foggy Bottom/GWU metro stop). Those apartment high rises are usually in very nice, safe neighborhoods.