The transition from living in a dorm to living off campus is the next step into adulthood, another door to walk through. There are some advantages to living off campus — most notably saving money and the options of having pets and having friends over at all hours. For many students, living off campus is a perk of their senior year. However, before you trade your dorm room for a place with a lawn, here are a few tips to keep in mind. To live off campus, you must …
1. Be eligible: The Office of Student Life grants permission for students to live off campus if they meet one of the following qualifications: They must be at least 22 years old, be a graduate student, have completed 120 hours (or be in their ninth semester), be a part-time student, live with family or live with a faculty member.
2.Find housing: Finding housing in any college town can be tricky. The best advice is to start looking early. Don’t wait until the last week of the semester to find housing for the spring or summer. Scour bulletin boards in the student center and Pipeline’s classifieds. Look at Craigslist and the classifieds in the newspaper. Use your resources and network; ask teachers, friends, people who already live off campus and other students.
“Connections are really good things, because a lot of the places you can find are through friends who already have houses,” said fifth-year senior Brianna Sims, who found her house through a friend’s friend.
3. Consider the location: Is the drive time to campus worth the gas, or would it be more effective to pay more in rent and live within walking distance? It might be better to pay more in rent and save yourself a 15-minute drive every morning and afternoon. If not, bank on spending extra time in the car.
“Location is really important to me because I like being able to walk or ride my bike to campus and not waste my gas,” Sims said. “When you live closer, it’s not a hassle to go to on-campus events or if you forget something at home, it’s not a big deal because you can just go home and get it real quick.”
How close will it be to work? Consider safety issues. Are there a lot of break-ins in that neighborhood or apartment complex? Ask around.
4.Find out lease information up front: Be prepared to pay a deposit on the house and for the utilities. If you want to rent for the fall, it is not unheard of for landlords to make renters pay for the summer months as well to cover their cost for holding the house for the renters.
“Make sure you talk with the person leasing the house to you to reach a clear understanding before you agree to anything so you don’t have to fix things if they break and pay for them yourself,” said fifth-year senior Andy Townsend, who found his house on Craigslist. “It’s almost like you interview them before agreeing to rent the house.”
Similarly, it is important to read the fine print. Find out if the house is furnished. Ask if the utilities are included. Ask about extras, such as cable and Internet. Those tacked-on details can add on to the cost quickly.
5.Keep connected: Make a point to keep in touch with friends and involved with campus life if maintaining a large group of friends is a priority for you. Life in the dormitory facilitates keeping friends. There are always people to spend time with and those who can go with you to the cafeteria. Conversely, with off-campus living, you have to make it more of a point to see people outside your immediate circle of good friends.
It’s important to keep making an effort to be connected if that’s a concern when you move off campus.
“Try to stay as active on campus as you can,” Townsend said. “When you’re off campus, you can feel disconnected. You might just get lazy and not feel like hanging out with people outside of the people you already live with. It’s easy to lose touch with other people.”
These tips should make it easier to avoid some of the land mines of growing up, at least when it comes to housing.
