Written by Mallory Harrison
As someone who has lived in dorms, Legacy apartments, an off-campus apartment and an off-campus house over the past four years, I like to consider myself well- versed in the various forms of housing that Harding and Searcy offers.
While dorm life was definitely entertaining and convenient, I am 100 percent an advocate for living off-campus. Off-campus housing provides students with freedom. This freedom doesn’t entail breaking every single rule there ever was and going crazy, but it simply gives students freedom to live like adults and make their own decisions.
Living off-campus frees you from the restraints of curfew, RA’s checking on you every night, randomly assigned roommates/suitemates, going home for a weekend without worrying about whether or not you signed out, midnight fire alarms and — most importantly — health and safety checks that you never seem to get a break from.
You get to choose the number of people you want to live with rather than the standard “four-to-a-suite”rule.I live with two others girls; we each get our own room, and rent is cheaper than when I lived in Legacy. Depending on where you live, you can easily reduce the cost of your housing by moving off-campus.
One of my favorite things about living off-campus is that there are no health and safety checks. My roommates and I keep our apartment clean and organized almost all the
time, and we don’t have to have check-ups every other week to make sure the space is clean.
The commute to classes really isn’t that bad, and it’s honestly nice to get a break from campus. If you don’t want to drive every day, you can find places to live that are within walking-distance from campus.
One of the biggest concerns I’ve heard with living off campus is that people don’t want to disappear or miss out on anything, but I believe that this is completely avoidable.While it’s easy to move off campus and become a hermit and never see anyone ever again, it’s just as easy to make sure you’re still active on campus and doing things with friends.
To put it simply: if you don’t want to “disappear,” then don’t be lame and stay in your apartment/house all the time watching Netflix.
