New Site Helps College Students Find Housing This Summer

A recent study released by Vault.com shows that almost 9 out of 10 (86 percent) college graduates reported completing at least one internship. This summer, many students will intern away from home, living in unfamiliar cities across the country. For these college students, securing an internship is only half of the problem; they still need to find housing, roommates, friends, and activities.

Unfortunately, there are limited resources for students seeking summer housing:
Craigslist.com. Useful in large cities, but apartment listings move quickly. Few security features and no way to search for college-aged roommates only.
Facebook.com. Summer features are helpful in identifying friends in the same city, but there are no classifieds ads. Students can only view the profiles of friends or of students at the same school.
Sublet.com. A multitude of listings, but access can be costly; they charge up to $75 to contact other users.
Local newspapers. Cheap and easy, but few newspaper listings have photos for each listing. No interactIve maps of the area and contacting the owner must be done over the phone. Print version cannot be searched.

Starting this spring, students at over 100 other national universities will have free access to a new online community designed for students with summer internships. InternNation (www.internnation.com) helps connect college students, enabling them to find sublets for their current apartments as well as housing and roommates for this summer.

"Last summer I had an internship with an ad agency in New York," said college senior, Willa Qian. "I couldn't find any housing when I got there, so I was forced to stay in a hotel all summer, and I still had an hour and a half commute to work."

Students beginning their summer housing search should consider the following factors:
Safety of neighborhood
Short-term lease
Proximity to work
Availability of parking
Proximity to public transportation
Cleanliness
Pre-furnished
Roommates
Price (including utilities)
Amenities, i.e. laundry, exercise, etc.

"InternNation helps students sublet apartments from one another. For example, a student in Seattle could rent a summer apartment from a student in New York, who could rent from a student in Atlanta. It's a win-win-win situation," said Fran Larkin, founder of InternNation.

In addition to housing resources, InternNation offers a wealth of information for interns in over 500 cities this summer, such as local classifieds, forums and events. The site lets interns join and organize groups to find others with similar interests and organize events, like a 4th of July picnic a summer soccer team.

College students can learn more and join InternNation for free at www.internnation.com.

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Media Contact
Francis Larkin
Founder, InternNation
[e] fran@internnation.com
[w] www.internnation.com