There are plenty of reasons to live off campus. You probably want your own room, I know everyone else does. The walls are too thin and the loud neighbors are extremely irritating in the dorms. It costs too much or you have to pay for everything up front on campus. Or you just want the off campus experience. Either way, the people who work in these off campus student housing options will try to convince you that apartments are basically perfect and you won’t have any problems. With housing, there will always be at least 1 downside but depending on your financial situation it could be a make or break situation.
1. Management changes
It doesn’t seem like a huge deal but this could change a lot about your future housing. It could be something as simple as the being rebranded into a new name to the monthly payments or even the workers who you’ll interact with on a daily basis. In my apartments, we had a schedule who when the trash will be taken in August. Now I just have to take a guess on when they’ll come for the trash, this would be the fourth time they changed their trash schedule. I’m having a similar struggle with the apartment bus.
2. Loud noises
Most of the time you can try to run away from the loud noises but you can’t always hide from them. In your new apartment, you might not hear your next door neighbors being loud anymore but you will hear when the police and the fire department come to stop tailgaters. It’s actually worse the closer you are to homecoming or end of the semester. If you don’t like the 23-24 hour quiet time, you might miss it depending on how loud your apartment complex is. If you are a light sleeper, it might be best to invest in noise cancellation headphones.
3. Isolation from school events
The ease you had when living on campus to only have 3-5 minutes before class starts and knowing that you can get there on time is gone living off campus. It wouldn’t be possible if you lived 5 minutes off campus by driving, then trying to find a parking spot close to your class, and finally running to class. It would take half of the class time to do all of that, it’s been tested by my partner and he has never made it to class on time. This can go with fun university activities as well. If you want to participate and get to the events on time, you have to hang out with those who live on campus or come 40 minutes eariler just to be safe.
These three issues might not be issues to everyone. Some students want to be isolated or can handle being in loud noises, their main issue might be location or roommates. Every situation is handled differently depending on the person. The best thing to do is read the negative and positive reviews and take those into consideration before signing a lease. One important review can aid in avoiding a big miskake.