Mid-way through his sophomore year at Harvard, Bartle Bull'93 and his roommate moved into a two-bedroom suite with hardwood floors, a vast kitchen, a sweeping bay window and "seriously high" ceilings.

And thanks to a Mass. Ave. location just a stone's throw away from Widener library, Bull can literally roll out of bed at 10:05 a.m. and make it to his 10 a.m. class before the professor have even flipped on the mike.

Not exactly the kind of pad you would expect from the Adams House sophomore lottery. But then again, Bull doesn't live in Adams House anymore.

Like a handful of other independent-minded students, Bull traded in his Harvard Harvard-assigned room for an off-campus apartment, and he says he's never regretted the move.

Bull says living off-campus allows him to "escape the madding crowd...the tiring thing of being around Harvard people every moment of one's life, which is exhausting."

"When you are a little bit distant, you enjoy Harvard more," adds Bull.

Mortimer Sackler '93, who moved into an apartment on Mass. Ave. after living in Quincy House for one semester, sums up off-campus living in a nutshell:

"I have more space. It's more comfortable. It's better food."

Yet only about 3 percent of Harvard under graduates choose to live in off-campus housing, according to Housing Officer Catherine M. Millett.

The remaining 97 percent live in one of the College's 12 residential houses or in the cooperatives, Millett said.

That puts Harvard way below the Ivy League and national averages for non-residential full-time students.

At Yale University, which features a house system similar to Harvard's, 10 percent of all undergraduates live off-campus.

Sky-High Rents

Tales of outrageously expensive price tags on apartments around the Square keep many Harvard students in the houses and out of the real estate ads.

But although prime apartment locations around Harvard Yard don't come cheap, many students succeed in finding reasonably priced housing, often matching on-campus costs.