So it’s exciting times! I’m partway through my PhD, and I’ve been invited to do a 10-week internship related to my thesis at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. But short-term accommodations like that can be hard to get, especially if you don’t have any US credit history (I’m from Canada). My student funding won’t let me pay for a hotel for that long a period, so I’m looking for a cheap place to stay starting in mid-April 2013.
Does anybody live within range of the lab and have a spare room they’d like to rent? Or have a friend in Pasadena with some extra space? I’m quiet and I’ll probably be at the lab all the time anyway I don’t have any special needs or requirements – if I can easily get to work, get to a supermarket, and get some sleep at night, I’ll be doing great.
I’d be grateful for any help you can provide.
(I sought and received permission from the MPSIMS mods before posting this.)
FWIW, if you want to live close to the lab, you don’t want to look in Pasadena proper. The lab is in a weird little gerrymander tail of Pasadena and accommodations in La Canada-Flintridge or Altadena will likely be closer.
Congrats! JPL seems like an awesome place from what I heard and saw during their yearly open house.
The main JPL campus is a little remote from Pasadena itself. If you don’t mind being a little further away, I know parts of South Pasadena and Alhambra have plenty of cheap 1-bedroom apartments or rooms for rent that are geared towards students with not much money or credit. Try searching for apartments that are geared toward CalTech students. If you’re interning in the summer, some of those students might be willing to sublet for cheap.
If you are interning during the summer, get a place with AC. the Pasadena/San Gabriel Valley gets hot during the summer.
It depends on what you’re used to. I remember a few low 90 degree F days in the middle of June, but those are rare. Whatever the temperature during the day though, it usually cools down 10-15 degrees at night, so you should be fine if you’re spending most of the time in the lab.
Thanks again! I’ve managed to find one or two possible options - nothing firm yet. and the ancillary information on climate and things is also helpful.
I’ll have to admit I didn’t get those references at first
So, there hasn’t been much progress - partly because I was sick in bed for most of the last two weeks. During that time, there were a couple of possibilities that popped up, but didn’t work out.
The biggest surprise has been CalTech - it seems I qualify for their student housing, and I’ve applied. They’ll let me know if there’s a place for me two weeks before my proposed move-in date. This, of course, is a bit of a conundrum: if the answer is ‘no’, I’m left without a place on too short notice to sort something else out. So I’m still looking for other options.
I’m pretty much just monitoring Craigslist and the like for new listings, but it seems nobody wants tenants who won’t sign at least a nine-month lease. Here’s hoping!
Good luck on the Caltech housing. As you’ve discovered, the rental market is very short-notice in the area, but on the other hand, two weeks is an eternity for finding something, so if you don’t get housing, things will still be popping up on the market. Stuff appears on craigslist and then often disappears within days when it’s filled, and then the next things appear. If you’ll be in the area at any point before you need housing, you could walk though the graduate student housing complex and post notices on the notice boards asking if anyone has a room (or, heck, a couch or patch of floor) they want to negotiate a price for. 10 weeks isn’t too bad for this sort of living (at least as a grad student! ) and on the other side of the coin, the grad students might very well be up for making an extra few bucks to supplement their paltry paychecks.
The climate will be fine. You’ll have a hot spell or two, but nothing epic, and it will be cool at night, so a window fan will cool the room down if it comes to that. (Lots of places have A/C anyway. Aug/Sep can be brutal.) There will be a few spells of rain while you’re there.
Yeah, I suppose I could resort to some of those last-minute measures, but I’d love to have something more certain sorted out a little earlier.
I’m definitely not too worried about the climate in Pasadena - my bigger interest in that regard is the Mojave desert, where I’ll be doing some fieldwork during my stay at JPL. Seems it gets pretty hot out there
Well, it can be hot that time of year, but it’s not going to be near the peak of the summer (July and August, mostly). Highs are going to average in the 80s when you start, and then gradually average into the 90s towards June. You may get a couple of days closer to 100, but it will likely not be humid. Very manageable with a 5 gallon cooler of ice water, sunscreen, and a ventilated wide brim hat. As a Mojave Desert dweller, been doing that for the last 20 years, and not worse for the wear. But if you were talking about August and early September when there is a possibility of monsoon moisture, then being out there can be more taxing. Nobody likes 100+ temp with a 60+ dewpoint.
I had an excellent experience with Oakwood Corporate Housing in the past. Not sure what they have in the Pasadena area. It’s not super-cheap but should be cheaper and nicer than a hotel. Don’t go by their website though, it kind of sucks and seems to always tell you nothing is available. Try calling them though, you can talk to a real person who (in my experience) will be much more helpful.
Success! I have an agreement with a JPL post-doc geologist who has a house a short walk from the lab, and a reasonable walk from a supermarket. I’ll be renting a room for the period, and paying a rent that fits my budget. Quite a relief to have this sorted out. Thanks for the tips and pointers, everyone!
I don’t have any special needs or requirements – if I can easily get to work, get to a supermarket, and get some sleep at night, I’ll be doing great. 
