You may invite any friends or relatives to your apartment without consulting anyone. If you should need another set of keys, ask the superintendent. If your guest will have a car, you may need to obtain a temporary parking permit from the parking office. (Generally leaving a note on the dashboard for overnight guests is sufficient to avoid a ticket, although this is not the university's official policy.)

That depends on what building you live in. Consult the information on storage on this page.

If the gophers and bunnies can get in, why can't you? (Seriously, the key that opens the building doors also opens the padlock on the garden gate.)

Sometimes residents are disturbed by unwanted solicitation. If you see solicitors around the complex, don't let them into the buildings! If you receive unwanted solicitation, contact Public Safety.

There are several grilling areas in the Lawrence complex. There is no process for reserving the grills. They are available on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Of course! The community room and kitchen are unlocked and available for all residents. If you would like to host an activity or event in the either community room (building 1 or building 14), please contact your Community Programs Coordinator, Olivia Martel for room availability, information, and room policies & procedures.

If you have a larger event planned, you must contact Olivia Martel and fill out an Events Registration Form.

The elevators in buildings 10 and 12 are equipped with an unusual safety feature. If the door tries to close and is forced open three times, the elevator will shut off. The elevator can only be restarted by a qualified person. To avoid this occurrence, please use the Door Open button rather than just holding the door.

The Lawrence Apartments do not have a central mail room where you can receive packages without having to sign for them yourself (like in the Graduate College).

USPS will deliver small or foldable items (letters, junk mail, small packages) to your mailbox. If the parcel does not fit into your mailbox, USPS will usually place it before the mailboxes in the lobby. Generally this has not caused any problems, but some packages left in this manner have occasionally gone missing.

If you are using expedited services which require a signature, the carrier won't be able to deliver the package unless you are there to sign for it. UPS and FedEx usually try to leave the package with your neighbor and leave a notice on your door. Please don't rely on this regularly, unless you check with your neighbor beforehand--especially if the package is large or you can only pick it up at odd hours or with a large delay. If you are not at home, most carriers attempt delivery another time.

The committee examined the idea of providing a central receiving service in 2007, but was told by the university that it was not possible. Redirecting packages to the Porter's Lodge at the GC is not permitted--they are already at capacity and cannot receive additional packages.

As a possible solution, many students can receive mail at their department. Please contact your department about their mail policy.

No. Even if your package doesn't not require a signature, there is no place to leave it if it is very large. Hallways serve as escape routes in case of an emergency, and fire safety regulations demand that they not be obstructed. You cannot send yourself furniture or other large items before your arrival unless you arrange with somebody to pick it up. Sometimes you can ask the carrier to hold your package until you arrive.

Some buildings at Lawrence have double entrances, split by odd- and even-numbered apartments. Although signs are posted at each entrance listing the apartments contained within, sometimes the newspaper delivery personnel still use the wrong entryway. If your newspaper is delivered to the wrong entrance, contact the newspaper directly to explain the situation.

The small mailboxes for the apartments fill up if you don't empty them at least every one or two weeks. Once the mailbox is full, USPS will not deliver any more mail to your mailbox. To avoid this, you can have the post office hold your mail (officially, mail be held for a maximum of 30 days, but if you ask nicely at the Palmer Square post office they usually allow a few extra days) or request that the post office forwards your mail to another address (eg your department, but please check with them first). You can find more information about delivery options at the post office website. Please note that Princeton University has a unique zip code, so if you want to forward mail to your department address, the post office will only accept paper forms, thus you won't be able to set up forwarding online.

Consult the mail page.

Consult the mail page.

With the unveiling of the new website, the Lawrence Apartments RSS feed is now active—subscribe today! RSS is a means of broadcasting changes to a website. It’s a convenient way to make sure that you always have up-to-date information, without having to check a particular website every day or receive emails about every change. (It’s sort of like Facebook’s information feed, but for following websites instead of friends.)

Click the link below for more information.

First, please understand that the Lawrence Committee is not qualified to advise you about tax laws and procedures, especially as the latter might change and we have neither the expertise nor the resources to keep up. The information below is provided "as is", and it is your responsibility to check that it is correct.

In previous years residents of the Lawrence apartments have been eligible for the tax rebate. The regulation change from year-to-year, however. The Office of the General Counsel of the university publishes some tax-related information for students, including information on the NJ state tax credit. You should consult the latest information at that site as well as your own tax advisor before filing your taxes.
 

If you go to a bank (you do not need to have an account) you can exchange a $10 bill for a roll of quarters. The committee has investigated putting change machines in the laundry room, but it is not viable to do so.

The emergency notification system includes contact information from SCORE. Please make sure that your contact information in SCORE is up-to-date. For further information and complete guidelines for PTENS, please see the following link: http://web.princeton.edu/sites/emergency/PUENS-FAQ.html

There is a large white metal "dumpster-style" donation box in parking lot #23 on campus. You can also go to the Nearly New Shop on Nassau at Olden.

The traffic light that leads to Alexander Road is activated by a sensor. In the past, residents have experienced problems with the light not changing to green. These problems were reported to the university and the township and we believe the sensor is working properly at this point. If you experience problems, please contact Olivia Martel.

There are many grocery stores near Princeton. Some favorites of Lawrence residents:

• Wegman’s. A few miles south on Route 1, at the Nassau Park exit. Next to Target.
• McCaffery’s. In the Princeton shopping center on Harrison. Within biking distance of campus.
• ShopRite. A more budget-friendly store. A few miles south on Route 1, at the Province Line exit. Near Office Depot.
• Whole Foods. Expensive and organic. South on Route 1, just past Meadow Road. Also accessible by bike. Near Staples.
• Whole Earth Center. Organic and natural foods. On Nassau, just past Harrison.
• Trader Joe’s (coming Fall 2009). South on Route 1, exit Meadow road. Next to Lowe’s.

In the fall and spring, there is a weekly farmer’s market on campus.

The university operates several free shuttle lines, including lines from Lawrence to the academic portions of campus, other graduate housing complexes, and even some local shopping centers. For more information, consult the Tiger Transit website.

Walking to the Dinky Station on campus takes between 10 and 20 minutes for most people. Walking to the academic portion of campus takes between 20 and 45 minutes, depending on where you are going. Be sure to study a map first--cutting diagonally across campus can save a lot of time and is much prettier than walking along the major streets!

Many people in Lawrence have a bike. There are several cycling stores in town where you can get a decent bike for around $300. (Most services in Princeton are expensive, and bike repairs are no exception. Consider this before getting a flimsy bike from Wal-Mart for $100.) You can also purchase used bikes on TigerTrade. Every fall and spring, the university has a bike giveaway. The bikes are those found abandoned on the racks around campus, so they are of varying quality--if you want a decent bike, make sure to get there early!

Whether you should buy a car depends on your habits and budget. Single students with little grocery shopping to do usually manage to get by without a car (with occasional help from others, e.g. when transporting furniture). If you are from outside the US, make sure that you want to pay the cost of insurance and repairs before buying a car. If you have a driver's license, you can also rent a car for occasional trips.

If you want to buy new furniture, there are few options in Princeton other than Skillman's on Alexander Road, which tends to be outside of the typical graduate student budget. If you have access to a car, there are two IKEA stores about an hour away in Philadelphia, PA and in Elizabeth, NJ. (New Jersey has lower sales tax than Pennsylvania.)

Many graduate students choose to purchase used furniture. Unfortunately most students sell their furniture at the beginning of the summer, so students arriving in August or September won't always have the best selection. The best options for finding used furniture are Craigslist and Princeton's TigerTrade.

No. See the information on cable television on this page.

Sometimes PSE&G will not recognize the address associated with your meter when they try to enable service. Winona Wilson in the housing department can give you the necessary information so that PSE&G can change the account to your name. The address listed on the mail page is correct, according to USPS standards.

Note: If you live in buildings: 8 - 14, all utilities are included. You don't have to contact PSE&G at all.

Consult the maintenance page.