I lived in Harvard housing, and unfortunately, there are no deals. You pay market rent and probably need roomates.

Have you tried home?

Cambridge restaurant manager here! Tax exempt is super easy. Nearly every POS I’ve ever used has a tax exempt key. You just type in a certain code, then the tax ID # and that’s it.

I’d check out apartments in Porter, Inman, and Central Squares. I have a couple friends doing PhDs at Harvard on similar stipends and were able to find cheaper places in those areas, especially with roommates. All are within a 20-30 minute walk to campus depending where you’re heading and Porter and Central also have the T as backup, though tend to be a little more expensive than Inman because of it.

I found it doable, just don’t expect to be saving much! And I would recommend on campus housing. I wasn’t at Harvard so not sure exactly what’s available, but when I moved off campus I didn’t factor in all the things the dorms subsidize (e.g. free heat and good internet) and the dorms are responsive to building maintenance vs. a potentially crappy landlord

I spent years at Harvard and had no idea!

Yeah every grad student makes it work (not one any more, but was not so long ago and live w grad students). Cambridge, you should expect to pay 1200-1500 even with roommates, but Allston and Somerville are about 30min walking from Harvard Yard (or 10min bike) and you can get under 1000.

I would definitely explore the on campus options as much as you could. But if that doesn’t pan out, you should be alright in an apartment with roommates. You can likely find a room for around 1k within walking distance so you won’t have car expenses.

You won’t be flush with cash but I have a few friends who’ve been phd students in Boston/Cambridge and lived within a similar budget for years

I’m a current grad student making that amount while living in Cambridge. As others have said, I’ve been able to keep my rent around $1000/month by living with roommates. These have been in spots that are walkable to work. My understanding is that Harvard housing tends to be more expensive than this, but I haven’t looked recently. Feel free to DM me if that’d be helpful!

Try to cook as much as possible, grad student stipend is livable but you will have to make adjustments and compromises

His house looked like shit

37k is livable in Cambridge if you have a roommate or two and not many expenses other than rent.

Put universal remote back in docking station.

Sweet! Glad this could add some context! I would hope that any student or faculty would be understanding that you don't know how to process their documentation, if you asked them for someone you could contact to figure this out.

Yeah I might ask around some restaurant managers near campus.

Thanks for the offer. I got some insights from my friend tonight and will have a better way to talk to Harvard direct next week.

Thank you! Yeah good call not cross post.

Thank you for this. For sure spoke to my friend about it tonight and he gave me some insights so I have a better understanding and know what to talk to Harvard about when I call.

Thanks for this. Yeah I spoke to my friend who happens to deal with this stuff and he said it has to be pre approved if it is a business meal and they must use the p card or corporate card. But he did say catering is the most common.

Funny after I posted this I was hanging out with a friend who happens to know these things and he def mention that it’s mostly for catering and business meals but they have to get pre-approved and have a P-card or a corporate card. Which he actually had one on hand and showed it to me. So I’m for sure gonna call Harvard and figure out what is the proper way to handle this in the future.

For sure will give Harvard a call to get a better understand and proper way to handle this after reading comments such using P-card and not personal credit card, etc.

My main frustration is that there are tons of small businesses and mom and pop restaurants out there, and they really have no knowledge of this or know how to handle it. Restaurants where it’s just one guy in the kitchen who is also the owner, and how is he suppose to know when someone from a school show up with this and claim that they don’t need to pay the meal tax because it’s a business meal.

I’m not saying Org don’t have millions of things to do but they have people / departments who handles these things. Majority of small restaurants or retails don’t.

MIT library is indeed reopened to the public during published open hours.

Lamont at Harvard is 24-7 on weekdays…

… but without Harvard ID you’re not getting in.

I used to do this as the Treasurer of several MIT clubs, for events we'd run. MIT specifically told us we should say this was a tax exempt purchase, and to provide the appropriate document to the restaurant we were ordering from. We'd have to make the payment with our own credit card, and log the expense with the receipt to get reimbursed.

It was kind of a big deal to us broke college students, because we might not get reimbursed for tax on the order - MIT would (sometimes) say that tax shouldn't have been taken if we followed the correct process, so they wouldn't pay for it. For a $1000 catering order, that meant something.

The main branch of the Cambridge public library is open until 9 a few days a week. not sure if that’s late enough for you though!