La vieille ville est compacte et se parcourt à pied. Habiter de l'autre côté de la frontière est courant mais complique les démarches.
Moins cher que Zurich et Genève, et particulier à cause de la frontière : certains étudiants habitent en Allemagne ou en France et font la navette. Cela fonctionne, mais cela complique votre permis et votre annonce de domicile — vérifiez avant de signer.
Apply to the Studentische Wohnvermittlung the day you are admitted — the list runs 3 to 7 months, so it rarely helps for your first semester, but it costs nothing and it helps for your second. Everything else means the private market.
File your residence permit dossier about three months before you arrive; processing runs eight to twelve weeks and nothing downstream starts until it is in. Register at your commune within fourteen days of landing, and sort health insurance within three months. The full timeline.
Campus is at Petersplatz. Choose your neighbourhood by commute rather than by postcode — a cheaper room forty minutes away costs you two hours a day for a year.
Most University of Basel applicants get stuck on the same thing: an agency that wants someone resident in Switzerland to co-sign. We do that, for 3 months' rent — after we have read your file, and we do decline some.