One of the most exciting (and stressful) aspects to a new school year is a new living space. The process begins about a year in advance when students are expected by October to know if they’re going to be living on campus or off, especially now that Binghamton on-campus housing sign ups take place in October and the student apartments off campus open up leasing to students on October 1st. It’s been almost a year since I signed the lease for my apartment at University Plaza, commonly known as UP and my very first time living off campus. While it’s certianly an adjustment not having some of the things that students take for granted when living on campus, there are so many reasons why I love where I’m living.
1. Big Girl Bed-
It’s both cool and strange when your bed at school is bigger than your bed at home. One of the perks of living in an off campus apartment is the full-sized bed rather than the twin xl size on campus. With a new bed comes new bedding, and while I enjoyed my old pink and purple bedding for the last three years, I was so excited to go shopping for a new look. After all, college changes you quite a lot so it’s no surprise that the bedding I picked out coming from my senior year of high school isn’t really my taste anymore.
2. Cooking-
Cooking is a huge perk of living off campus. It’s also a bit of a hassle if you don’t have the time for it, but there’s nothing quite like a good home cooked meal after a day of class, versus a to-go box from the dining hall. Cooking doesn’t have to be difficult when you live off campus! Some easy and healthy dish ideas? Quinoa and veggie stir-fry, whole grain pasta with sauce, a baked potato with broccoli and low-fat melted cheese, you can even simply stock up on frozen foods such as veggie burgers and sauttee it in a pan with a little olive oil for a quick, easy, and yummy dinner!
3. Proximity to Campus-
UP, unlike the apartments located in downtown Binghamton, is close to campus and located on Vestal Parkway. The bus runs every 15 minutes in the morning and every 30 minutes in the afternoon so getting to campus is never really a hassle. If you ever needed to, you could walk to campus as well. While we may be further away from nightlife, and have a harder time getting downtown to access it than people on campus or downtown do, our location to campus where we spend the most time anyways is a big perk.
4. My little town house-
UP consists of four apartment buildings. The 100 and 200 building are made up of single floor four bed, four bath apartments and some two bed, two bath apartments. Then there’s the 300 and 400 buildings which are made up of town-houses. The 300’s where I live are two-story “town-houses” and have four bed, two bath apartments while the 400’s are single floor, they’re made up of four bed and four bath. I love the 300’s where I live because having two floors really gives it a “home” feel than an apartment feel. Additionally, the 300’s are the most centrally located apartments in UP so in the winter, it’ll be really nice having a shorter walk to the bus stop than my friends who live in the other buildings.