Is living around Mantua really that dangerous?

I wouldn't live there. Anything like north of Baring and you risk getting mugged and your chance of your car being broken into goes up a ton.

After a year of living in Old City, I now feel "meh" about the area. The restaurants aren't great, the place is CRAWLING with tourists on the weekends and mobbed by drunk college kids/yuppies Thursday - Saturday night. Lots of homeless, too. Oh, and it's super expensive. Nice parts are that the area is gorgeous in a lot of places, the apartments are well appointed, and it's near a lot of stuff.

How about south of Baltimore near the cemetary?

I'm looking through New Age Realty's site, and most of these apartments are in terrible locations.

I don't know how I feel about "meh" - I did know about the drunken college kids aspect, which would be annoying...unless I was one of them of course (minus the "college" part)

I just decided that this is where I want to live: http://philadelphia.craigslist.org/apa/1157120307.html
[ok, I know it's craigslist, so it must viewed with some hesitation/skepticism...but isn't it adorable!?]

EDIT: I wonder if the current renters/owners would let me keep that awesome shower curtain!

That area is pretty nice. Really close to South Street, if you like that. Can be loud, too. Not Old City, tho!

Thanks to this thread I am now doing absolutely no work at my job and just researching apartments.

Mantua - NO. Although, you may spend some time up there fulfilling pro bono requirements. It's a struggling community that's worth spending time to support, but not a good place to live.

6th and Spruce is great - Washington Square is a very nice, relatively quiet area. It won't be particularly noisy right there, just if you go a few blocks in various directions. If I wasn't where I am now (Rittenhouse Square), I'd have been near Washington Square. You're also close to a grocery store that I think is at 5th and Spruce.

Me too actually. I just found a really nice 1 bedroom on Spruce. Also, one on Cedar, a block from Baltimore. Both under 700.

Oh nice! Where on spruce?

It's near 49th, and closer to Walnut than Baltimore, but as long as I stay on Spruce or south I should be alright I think...

Oh I love Rittenhouse Square...I hadn't been actively considering it because I thought I wouldn't be able to afford it.

Is it better to live alone? I was kind of hoping I wouldn't have to, but my only potential roommates are non-law students (actually, not students at all). Would this be distracting, especially for 1L?

Distraction is what I'm worried about. I figure I'll find a friend during first year that I'll get a place with for the last two years.

Yea, it's not crazy loud right at 6th and Spruce but it can get loud if large groups move from South St north toward the El. And there's a Super Fresh I think at 5th and Spruce. It's also the CLOSEST GROCERY STORE TO OLD CITY. Ahem. Sorry, my frustration with Old City being a tourist/nightclub trap and not friendly for residents.

I'll be living with my GF who won't be a student. Let's hope that it's not too bad. I work fulltime now and she's fulltime in school and we make it work.

47th to 49th and Spruce is nice. It's ultra gentrified, so it's surrounded by some really low income areas, though.

Going back home alone in the dark to an empty apartment is what I'm worried about. yikes!

I'm sure someone from class will live next to you, but I understand the worry.

What kind of laptop are you getting/do you have? I have a Mac...am I going to have to get some special program for it?

On the Drexel portal, they mention that Macs are fine, but you need to have a Windows partition to run the exam software on.

I went to Drexel Undergrad and lived ALL over the city...so here's my general opinion on the neighborhoods.

University City/Drexel Campus- Relatively safe. Stay south of Baring St. East of 38th. A lot of the apartments are gross though, the landlords take advantage of the undergrads. University Crossings is a decent high rise on Drexel's campus.

University City/Penn/USP Campus- The area around 47th and Baltimore is pretty nice. Parking is easier over here. Spruce/Pine Streets up to the mid 40's are also fine. Avoid Clark Park at all costs. I know WAY too many people who have gotten jumped here.

Rittenhouse/Washington Sq- My personal favorites. Safe, convenient, but expensive.

Old City- LOUD and overpriced.

Art Museum- There are some really great/reasonable places over here. Green St is awesome. Do not go north of Fairmount.

Society Hill/Queens Village: Super safe, but a bit far. Expensive.

Graduate Hospital/South Philly- Up and coming...but there's still a lot of crime around here.

North Philly- No reason to ever go here.

Northern Liberties- The Brooklyn of Philly. Cool restaurants, bars, galleries. The rent is reasonable, but it's not the most convenient location to campus.

hahahahaha! Thanks for all the great info

Just to add -

Gayborhood: despite the name, this isn't the Castro - it's comfortable for straight people, there are just more gay bars/clubs than elsewhere in the city. It's 10th-Broad in Center City, and it tends to be a little bit cheaper for studios and shares than other CC neighborhoods.

South Philly: do go to the Italian Market if you can, and housing East of that and not too far South (maybe up to Washington) is fine (these are neighborhoods called Queen Village and Bella Vista) but it's far from Drexel's campus

I agree on North Philly - I've only ever been up there once, to Temple's Med School campus (farther north than the main campus), and that was pretty scary. Northeast Philly is actually ok, and there's a lot of cool Brazilian and Russian stuff, but you need a car to get to it. I've also heard that the Korean restaurants up there are fantastic, but again, need a car.

Oh, and Clark Park is fine during the day, just don't go at night.

Philly's a fun city; you guys are going to have a great time.

Just to let you all know,

During your 1L year, half of the class lives either in University City or Center City. By the time you finish, everyone leaves University City. I left there a month ago, and I now live in the Fishtown/Northern Liberties area. While it's not close to the school, if you live close to Front Street, you can get right on the El and be to campus in 15 minutes. Rent is cheap (I pay 300/month), and the neighborhood is great.

Hmm, I'm seeing a lot of affording apartments in Fishtown, would you suggest just skipping the whole University City experience and trying to start in Fishtown/Northern Liberties?