With the spring semester coming to a close, you may find yourself wondering about your living arrangements for next year. Firstly, you’re going to need to decide if you want to live on campus or off campus. Secondly, you have to choose between living alone or with a roommate. Thirdly, if you choose to live with another person (or multiple people), you need to take a long, hard think about whether or not you have people you’d actually like to live with.
Deciding between living on or off campus seems easy enough, but you shouldn’t rule either out until you’ve seen what both options have to offer you. Living on campus, you pay what may appear to be a lot of money for rent per month. Even though it will look like hundreds of dollars more each month, on-campus housing has the benefit of only being from September to end of April, whereas living off campus you’ll be paying 12 months of rent. For students from out of town who don’t want to stay over the summer, residence can end up being cheaper.
Being on-campus gives you the benefit of convenience, while being off-campus allows for more freedom – so ultimately, it’s about what suits you better. Both can be amazing options if it’s the right choice for you, but have the potential of feeling like a horrible trap if they aren’t.
Secondly, deciding between living alone and living with a roommate is a choice you need to make based entirely based on your personal habits. If you can’t handle another person making your house a home, you do not want a roommate. It is unfair to both yourself and your potential roommates to live with somebody if you aren’t prepared to compromise on things.
Thirdly, even if your best friend seems like the cleanest, quietest, friendliest person that you’ve ever met, you don’t know everything about them. They could talk loudly in their sleep, have a strange and hidden obsession with exotic pets, or seem to hoard their hair in the shower drain. You never know. The old saying, “You don’t know somebody until you live with them” isn’t something to be dismissed too easily.
Her Campus wishes you a happy house hunting!
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