I know housing selection is tough on everyone especially with deadlines creeping up on us, but if Amanda Bynes can make it out of 2013 in one piece, we can all handle the housing selection period without any major meltdowns. So here are some things to consider to help you figure out your next plan:
1. Consider all of your options. There is opportunity knocking all over the place at UT. We have a campus full of dorms that many people at other universities would kill to live in. Yes, that even includes McKay and the Boathouse, they’re better than a forced triple in some podunk Vermont town with a view of a cow instead of dolphins in the Hillsborough River, right? There is also an entire city full of apartments and townhouses with a lease just waiting to be signed by you. So whether you decide to stay on or off campus, you have plenty of places to live.
2. Make sure that you are financially stable if you choose to move off campus. Rent, grocery shopping, laundry, and filling up your gas tank is not cheap. And hello, you’re in college, you need to have some spending money for bars, concerts, restaurants, and spontaneous trips to Busch Gardens or Disney World. Have enough money saved up to hold you over for the year, or find a steady part time job to help rack in some extra change if you need it.
3. Get all of your paperwork and money in ASAP before the deadline. Reslife will not care that you forgot to put your deposit in by February 1st. They won’t help you figure it out. And landlords don’t want residents that can’t get their bills in when they’re supposed to – they’ll move on to other people interested. So be aware of all your fees and deadlines, please.
4. Don’t rush into living with people that you don’t know. This isn’t the next season of The Real World. Your junior year is not going to be four strangers, picked to live in a dorm room, study together and have their lives taped, because if you’ve noticed, there hasn’t been a single season where every single one of those strangers all get along perfectly. So please, don’t chance it. If you have the opportunity to get to know people beforehand, feel it out before you agree to live together.
5. Don’t feel pressured to live with friends. Not all friends are meant to live with each other. If you are true friends it shouldn’t matter if you live together or not to maintain a lasting friendship. And if your friends get mad at you for saying no to rooming with them, reconsider your friendship. And DON’T be that friend who is pressuring their other friends about living together. You don’t wanna be labeled the a-hole of the group that people feel like they have to live with in fear of what you’ll do if they don’t.
6. Ask all the right questions to the people who you think you are going to be living with. There’s nothing worse than everyone saying they don’t care about things, and a month into school World War III breaks out because someone won’t clean their dishes, or leaves their clothes all over the room. Room temperature, kitchen/bedroom mess, shower schedules, and company staying over are must ask questions. Are you someone who can fall asleep even if your roommate is up watching late-night television? Do you prefer to study and do homework in your room, is music a distraction when you have work to do? They might sound like monotonous questions, but if you don’t get to them now, you’re going to run into issues later.
7. Most of all, make the right decision for you. You are the one who knows yourself best, and you are the one who has to be living wherever you decide for a whole school year. You need to make sure that you are going to be happy. Because if you are happy, then your friends and roommates should be happy for you.