Since the start of the 2021 Fall Semester, Northeastern has rented housing on Wentworth Institute of Technology’s campus to provide enough living space for students living in university housing. 

Students at Northeastern University have been placed in housing off-campus since 2020 when the Westin was rented for student occupancy. Since then, the Sheraton and Midtown hotels have also been occupied for the N.U.in Boston program or when space was limited.

This year, some second-years with a later pick for housing were given no choice but to live off of official school grounds.

Situated on Huntington Avenue, Edwards and Rogers halls are apartment style residence halls that are occupied exclusively by Northeastern students this year. According to Northeastern Housing and Residential Life, they are a 7-minute walk from Centennial Common.

Northeastern students who spoke with the News living in these buildings say they wish they had the luxury of living on campus where they would be closer to classrooms, the library and other residence halls housing their friends. 

“Last year was more exciting,” said Emma Bagge, a second-year nursing major living in Edwards. “I was on campus surrounded by everything.”

Tara Meyyappan, a second-year international affairs and cultural anthropology combined major, lives in Edwards Hall. She said that buildings on campus commonly used for studying do not feel accessible because of the distance between these buildings and Edwards Hall.

“I do work a lot better in a separate space from where I’m resting, but I’m always considering that I’m going to lose 25 minutes by walking to Snell,” Meyyappan said. “My friends can easily go to ISEC. But I’m so far from that so I feel like I have to study [at Edwards] which is not super conducive to work.”

Bagge said she has faced the same problem and added that living next to the fire station makes working in her residence hall challenging.

“The fire station is really loud,” Bagge said. “The train is really loud. Being next to a fire station comes with the sounds of the cop cars and the ambulances. I’m studying here because of the distance, but the sound is constantly going off all the time.”

Bagge also said the Wi-Fi on campus does not stretch to Edwards and the Wi-Fi that she uses instead of NUwave is much slower, delaying her studies. 

“Everything takes 10 times longer to load,” Bagge said.

Students in Wentworth housing who spoke to The News also said they have felt an impact on their social lives. With the extra distance, some said they feel less inclined to see friends.

Many of Meyyappan’s friends are on Columbus Avenue and she said the 17-minute walk is unmotivating. Making the plan to walk both ways alone is “draining” for her. 

“All the people I know are living in West Village or Kennedy, so it’s really far for me to go out and see them,” said Kush Shah, second-year business administration major living in Rogers Hall. “If I’m tired, I won’t want to make the 10- to 15-minute walk when last year I would go up and down floors in the same building.”

Meyyappan, Bagge and Shah all echoed one word to describe the physical condition of Edwards and Rogers — “old.” 

In Edwards, Meyyappan said her exhaust fan hardly works and Bagge said she has water damage on her ceiling. In Rogers, second-year business administration major Aditya Jain’s room said her room has broken floor tiles, and an elevator stopped working recently, trapping Shah and others inside.

“I don’t know if there are any upsides of Rogers,” said Param Sheth, a second-year business administration major and current resident of Rogers.

Given the disadvantages of living off campus, some students who spoke with The News said they are wondering why they have not gotten a larger cost reduction for these living conditions. 

“If I was paying a couple hundred less a month, I would have no complaints,” Meyyappan said. “It’s not worth the price.”

Meyyappan says she is paying $5,965 on housing for the semester and that she plans on moving out of Edwards Hall for the spring semester if she can. 

“The fact that there are so many downsides and I’ll get no reduction [in price] is reason to move,” Meyyappan said.

Jain also said he feels he is paying in excess to live in Rogers Hall.

“We are not even paying much less than everyone who has singles in West Village and they have infinitely better apartments,” Jain said.

Since the start of N.U.in Boston in fall 2020, students in the program were given free unlimited CharlieCards to get to campus from the Westin and Sheraton hotels. Jamie Pan, second-year computer science major, was a student in the program last year. 

 “We got a free CharlieCard and it really was great for coming to campus or even just getting anywhere in Boston,” Pan said.

Some students living in Wentworth housing this year said they are frustrated that they are not receiving the same accomodation. 

“The hotels’ distances from campus are about the same as we are, so why don’t we get a free CharlieCard?” Bagge said.

Some Northeastern students living in Edwards and Rogers Hall have seen many negatives to their location, but others said it isn’t all bad. Bagge said her residence hall is closer to Mission Hill, which puts her closer to where some other upperclassmen live. 

Angel Garcia-Sanchez, a second-year computer science major, lives in Rogers Hall. He said he would have liked to be living among all of his peers, but has seen the added distance from campus as motivation to be more time efficient and organized. 

“I need to prepare to get to places on time with the extra walking time,” Garcia-Sanchez said. “If I want to study at Snell, I’ll plan my day ahead to do that. I’d prefer to be on campus, but now that I’m not, I’m just working with what I have.”