Boston University School of Medicine student Ankit Agarwal said the student residence under construction in the Medical Campus will not only bring the student community together, but also serve as an affordable alternative to housing options.
“Costs have always been a concern,” Agarwal said.
BUSM students said the residence may help compensate for their costs and increase the college’s prestige.
The residence, located at 815 Albany St., is scheduled to be completed in June and open for the Fall 2012 semester, according to a Jan. 13 press release. When the nine-story, $40 million building is finished, it will be the first BU-owned medical student residence.
The residence will offer 104 furnished two-bedroom suites, each with a kitchen and common living area and a student lounge on the ground floor, according to the press release.
The long-awaited residence should benefit students in many different ways, said BUSM Communications Director Maria Pantages Ober in an email interview.
“Providing safe, affordable housing for our students will provide a sense of community for them as well as decrease their educational debt,” she said.
Students have been giving “overwhelmingly positive” feedback to the directors, Ober said, and many express an interest in living there.
BUSM student Erek Nelson said the new residence can help reduce cost of attendance for students.
“BUSM is exorbitantly expensive and is located in an exorbitantly expensive city,” Nelson said. “I think the university decided to build the new housing to try to correct for the cost.”
The potential for lower costs may help garner a larger and more competitive pool of applicants for BUSM, Nelson said.
“If BUSM can manage to bring down expenses and remove the price barrier, admissions could choose from an even larger group of excellent applicants,” he said.
The project began six years ago when BUSM’s advisory board sat down to discuss how to decrease the cost of attending BU’s medical school, Ober said.
The board began a fundraising campaign, which raised more than $11 million of their $20 million goal, Ober said. This money will be partly used to keep monthly rental rates as low as $850 for some units.
Current medical students, however, may not be able to reap the benefits from this new housing alternative, Nelson said.
“As the new residence will be prioritized to incoming first years and subsidized to below-market rates, I and many other current students don’t really expect to have a chance to live there,” Nelson said. “I don’t really begrudge the assignment to incoming first years as I think it will help us recruit a better crop of new students.”
Medical student Brian Koottappillil, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences and a future seven-year medical student, said he looked forward to living there in upcoming years.
“It sounds like a good option to stay connected with the other students,” Koottappillil said. “It will be easy to form study groups and have a constant med school mentality.”
Despite the reduced costs, some students said they would stick with their previous residences.
“The only real benefit to living in campus housing is its proximity,” Nelson said. “It doesn’t take me too long to walk or bike to class, and the area is much more comfortable while the rent is comparable to James and Harrison Court.”
James and Harrison Courts, the only available residence for full-time graduate students, are located across the street from the Medical Campus. BU’s Rental Property Management office maintains the building, but does not own it.
This addition to BUMC improves BU’s reputation as a medical school, Nelson said.
“BUSM’s rapid rise as a high-tier medical school has been extraordinary,” he said. “The school should do all it can to continue this trend.”
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