Off-Campus Housing & Apartments near Louisiana State University (LSU)

Welcome to off-campus living at Louisiana State University. If you’re moving off campus for your sophomore, junior, or senior year at LSU, you have plenty of options. ForRentUniversity.com® can help your search with listings for the best apartments near Louisiana State University. You probably also have lots of questions: How’s student life in Baton Rouge? What are the best neighborhoods for LSU students? Read on for all the details in our Louisiana State University off-campus guide.

Louisiana State University’s Baton Rouge campus is the state’s flagship university. Other major campuses are in Shreveport, Alexandria, and New Orleans. With nearly 31,000 students – and one live tiger – LSU has a major presence in Baton Rouge. The enclosure for LSU’s mascot – Mike the Tiger – is right on campus. Mike VII began his reign on the first day of fall 2017 classes. If you ever want to know what the weather is looking like on LSU’s campus, or you just need a study break, you can check Mike’s live webcam. Tailgating is HUGE for LSU football games, an endurance sport of its own, with fans gathering five or even 24 hours before kickoff at Tiger Stadium. If you live south of campus in the Tigerland or Southgate areas mentioned below, the university’s shuttle service operates a special Football Route on game days, running along streets lined with more than a dozen off-campus apartment communities.

What’s it like for a student living in Baton Rouge?

Baton Rouge, or the “Red Stick,” is a mid-sized city with a larger-than-life reputation. It’s the capital of Louisiana, and the state capitol building (the tallest in the country at 34 stories) is about three miles north of the LSU campus. This being Louisiana, Mardis Gras is big in Baton Rouge, though perhaps a bit more family-friendly than what you might encounter down in New Orleans, and Cajun and Creole food is hot. When you want to get in a little culture, you’ll love the Shaw Center for the Arts in downtown Baton Rouge, which includes theaters and the LSU Museum of Art and an LSU School of Art gallery. One thing you’ll find here is that LSU is like a small community of its own within Baton Rouge. That’s partly due to geography, as the campus sits on a strip of land sandwiched between the Mississippi River and City Park and University lakes. As you’ll read below, this geography also defines the neighborhoods where students tend to live off campus.

Getting Around Baton Rouge and LSU

If you have a bicycle, you’re in luck. LSU has been recognized as a bike-friendly campus and has a dedicated bike-route map showing the best ways to get on and off campus on two wheels. If you don’t want to drive to campus and get a parking pass, your best bet is LSU’s Tiger Trails, a free bus service for LSU students, faculty, and staff. Tiger Trails runs routes both on and off campus. You can track buses online or check route maps to see if a bus goes by an off-campus apartment complex you might be considering. Students also can ride Baton Rouge’s Capital Area Transit System buses free with an LSU ID. Last, Zipcar also keeps cars around the LSU campus.

As we said previously, where students live off campus around LSU is somewhat defined by geography. Unless you want to cross the Mississippi River daily, your choices generally are to go north of campus toward downtown, south of campus toward “Tigerland” and Brightside Drive, or across City Park and University Lakes toward Perkins Road.

Northgate

This area is, as the name implies, just north of the LSU campus. You’ll find several newer student-friendly apartment complexes here, some with luxury amenities like swimming pools and fitness centers. This area also boasts numerous restaurants, coffee houses, shops, and entertainment venues along Chimes Street, State Street, and Highland Road. Neighborhood highlights include the Varsity Theater for live music and the original Raising Cane’s – “The Mothership” – to satisfy your late-night cravings for chicken fingers. You’ll find more apartment complexes as you head north of campus toward downtown, especially along Nicholson Drive, which you may see marked on maps as Highway 30.

Tigerland and Brightside Drive

This triangle-shaped area is to the south of the LSU Golf Course, which has discounted fees for students, faculty and staff. The heart of Tigerland is formed by several renovated apartment complexes just below the golf course. Several popular – some might say notorious – college bars are here along Bob Pettit Boulevard. You’ll find even more student-friendly apartment communities just south of here along Brightside Drive, plus shops and restaurants at the intersection where Brightside Drive turns into Lee Drive. Two Tiger Trails shuttles serve Tigerland and Brightside Drive.

Southgate

Southgate is immediately south of the LSU campus, very close to LSU’s College of Business, Ag Center, and Digital Media Center. The main street through here is Burbank Drive, which is lined with numerous apartment complexes, including one that boasts of the only lazy river swimming pool in Baton Rouge. This area also has numerous restaurants and shops. Where Burbank Drive runs into Lee Drive includes shopping centers with grocery stores, drugstores, and the second Raising Cane’s restaurant in the country, “The Deuce.” Northgate shouldn’t get all of the late-night chicken fingers. This area is served by several Tiger Trails shuttles that run along Burbank Drive, Highland Road, Ben Hur Road, and Nicholson Drive.

Southdowns and Perkins Road

Southdowns is a little farther from the LSU campus, across University Lake. However, the area is still served by a Tiger Trails shuttle that runs along Stanford Road and Perkins Roads, through the trendy Perkins Road Overpass area, and heads north into Baton Rouge’s historic Garden District. Southdowns is famous for its family-friendly Mardi Gras Parade. Along Perkins Road and College Drive, just below Interstate 10, you’ll find several shopping centers with just about every restaurant, grocery store, and shop you might need during your college career. And, yes, Raising Cane’s #25 is just across I-10 off College Drive.