As soon as break began, and I reacquainted myself with the comforts of home, I started thinking about my living situation for future semesters. I have no doubt that, for Barnard students, the Quad offers the best first-year living situation in terms of community and location. Still, living at college means my life revolves around college — the social dynamics, extracurricular responsibilities, and academic stressors are inescapable. I tell myself that I’m going to swallow my pride and finally buy proper groceries to meal prep on Sundays. But with the 19 swipes a week required for first-years, I’ve yet to attempt something more ambitious than melted cheese on bread.
Finding an apartment in the city is an enticing prospect for future semesters and I wanted to get a sense of whether this would be feasible. I spoke with two Barnard upper-class students currently living off-campus.
O, a sophomore, transferred to Barnard from another campus in the city. Because Barnard doesn’t guarantee housing for transfer students (and ResLife has up to three weeks before the semester begins to let you know whether they’ve got space!), O knew she needed to find an off-campus living arrangement fast.
At O’s previous college, dorm life was less than comfortable due to the pandemic, and she wanted her living situation to feel like a “second home.” Then, she got lucky: an acquaintance from high school studying at Columbia had a close friend looking for a fourth roommate. O jumped on the lease and moved into their apartment.
O lives in a building just a few blocks from campus. It’s a popular choice for Columbia students — she suspects roughly 90% of the building is affiliated with the university and describes it as “a dorm with off-campus privileges.” On the weekends, music fills the halls and many students living on campus come by. She notes that it helps to know people in the building and describes the community as a “ripple effect” of meeting friends of friends.
As an athlete, O often eats near Baker Complex for convenience and maintains a meal plan to socialize with friends. Her roommates have a system of buying groceries together at Trader Joe’s and cooking most of their meals in the apartment so they can stay on the smallest meal plans offered.
When I asked O for advice on the apartment hunting process and finding roommates, she suggested reaching out to upper-class students already living off-campus: “older students know about the clean, fun, primarily Columbia buildings.” She also recommended Zillow and NYC-specific rental sites. O assures that entering the New York real estate market is “not as hard as it’s thought of.”
I also spoke with J, a Barnard junior who lived in residence as a first-year. J wasn’t itching to get off-campus. But after spending her sophomore fall at home due to Covid, she chose to stay off-campus and find a permanent place to live so she could work in New York over the summer.
Because J moved back to the city in the spring, she wasn’t able to start a lease and needed to sublet. She searched for roommates and apartments through clubs and sororities, and discovered an open room through the grapevine.
Among the many benefits of living off-campus, J explains that she has far more space for a cost comparable to dorming at Barnard. Her off-campus apartment includes a living room, kitchen, and spacious bedroom with an ensuite.
In my view, rental cost and security are the two most important factors when apartment hunting. The right off-campus apartment can prove more cost-effective than dorming. O pays $1,300 per month, which is on par with the price of a room at Barnard prior to the added cost of a Barnard meal plan — mandatory for all students in residence. For both O and J, utilities and wifi are well under $100 a month. J speculates that housing up-charges students to account for utilities, and likes that she has full control over her electricity bill.
Both O and J live in buildings that don’t have front desk security personnel, but O clarifies that “without the key, you’re not getting [in].” O’s never felt nervous in the building. Most Columbia students use 110th St. as the unofficial boundary for living off-campus. Very few go below 100th.
I did some online real estate hunting for fun over break, and some of the options were horrifying. (I’m looking at you, furnished Craigslist closet with the scarlet red walls for $1,500 a month.) With this information, I feel far more prepared to embark on New York apartment hunting and I’m hopeful that, as an upper-class student, I may happen upon a great off-campus living arrangement.