One of the most important decisions you will have to make when deciding to live off-campus is whether or not you are going to have roommates or live alone. There are pros and cons to both, but I am here to give you some tips to keep in mind when coming to a decision. However, at the end of the day, it comes down to your own personal preferences.
The biggest thing to keep in mind when living off-campus is cost. Roommates can make a big difference when it comes to paying for rent and monthly utilities. The cost of an apartment or house will usually cost less the more roommates you have living there, whereas living alone will result in you having to pay lot more. If you live alone, the burden of money is placed squarely on you, but this can be good or bad depending on how much you have saved up. Money may not be a big deal to you. However, a drawback to having roommates that help pay can be a difficult roommate that doesn't pay up. This leads me to my second tip, which is choose your roommates wisely. A lot of people think that living with their best friend will be a dream come true, yet this often is not the case. There are plenty of horror stories out there about first year students moving in with their best friends and it completely ruining their friendship. This is because living with someone and hanging out with someone are vastly different. Take a good look at your potential roommates and ask yourself if you could spend every day with them. Are they a lot of drama? Are they messy? Are they always partying? Do they have a lot of people over? Are they irresponsible? These are questions you need to ask yourself when thinking about potential roommates. One bad roommate can spoil things for everyone and add unnecessary stress.
Another benefit to having roommates is that there is a plethora of knowledge between yourself and your roommates. If a lot of you are living together, there may be someone who knows something that you didn't, helping you to avoid potentially costly mistakes. I have personally been saved numerous times by my roommates. One example of this is that I was previously unaware that you needed to immediately switch utilities over into your name and pay a minimum fee every month. I had thought we could keep everything shut off until we moved in, but I was wrong. Luckily, several of my roommates knew this and had done all the legwork and gotten our names on the utilities. Something else I learned was that you can be fined if you don't shovel the snow off the sidewalk in front of your house. It is little things like these that make roommates invaluable.
As fun as roommates can be, some people just want to be alone. When you have lots of roommates, there can be a lot going on around your house or apartment. If you don't think you can handle this, then you should try to find a place for yourself. If you're unhappy or your roommates are unhappy, then it is a stressful environment for everyone. Consider what you need to be successful. Do you need close friends or socialization? Or do you need absolute quiet and a place to escape?
I hope these tips were helpful. Let me know in the comments if you have any tips of your own!
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