College student housing options come in various different forms, prices, and yes even levels of freedom. My level of freedom is pretty lame because I chose the option of attending a university that is a bus ride away from home. Today’s article is probably not aimed the people like me since I want to focus on the different housing options available to college students with some additional thoughts.
First and foremost, a very popular option for college students is to live in a dorm room on the college campus. This is usually what most new college students do during their first year because it’s the easiest and most convenient option. The option for student housing on campus actually comes attached with most college information packages that are sent to your home along with your tuition payment forms.
Especially considering that most new college students come from either a different city or a completely different part of the country, it’s much easier to rent out a dorm room on the college campus then it is to find a apartment rental in a totally unfamiliar town. The college dorm room package usually comes with a prepaid food plan and room that is either on campus or right beside the college campus.
Apartment/home rentals are the route many college students take for their housing after the first year. College students find that there are usually too many rules and restrictions with living on campus. The living conditions are also sometimes not the greatest because a whole floor will have a common washroom, which really bothers some new college students.
The apartment search can take anywhere from literally 5 minutes until the first week of the college semester. Most college apartment rental units by the campus fill up quickly so if you wait until the last minute then you will have to settle for a location further away from campus.
Affordable housing is pretty hard to come by which is why most college students decide to come together and rent a rental home/apartment with a few of their friends. It’s usually your closest friends but I’ve heard funny stories from friends that got so desperate last minute that they moved in with strangers. Either way when you rent out a home it usually doesn’t matter how many of you guys live in the place as long as the monthly rent/lease is paid on time.
This is probably one of the most affordable housing options for college students because you have the ability to split the rent with others. Just be prepared to cook your own food (in other words ordering lots of pizzas in the middle of the night) and to be surrounded by lots of noise while you try to study (your friends chugging beers and watching the game).
photo: Katie@!
One thing I wanted to add is if you are paying for college yourself make sure you think long and hard before you decide to live in a dorm on campus or get an apartment. It can be very expensive and leave you with loans that you will be paying off for years to come.
On other hand it takes away part of the college experience living at home with your parents instead of living in a dorm / apartment.
I have mixed feelings as well. I moved home after having lived in the dorms, and then in an on-campus apartment for the first two-and-a-half years of college. Living in the dorms was a great experience, I loved it (even though the dorm rooms at my college were tiny and ugly), and I have no regrets at all about having gone into debt to live there for a time. I think it was an irreplaceable experience, for me at least. But eventually money got the better of me, and I had to move home to keep going to college at all. It definitely saved me a lot of money, but I’m still really glad that I lived on campus for the time I did.