The big debate
Signing a waiver that she wouldn’t eat the lead paint was one thing Liz Rich didn’t like about living on-campus. The “cinderblock prison” and lack of air conditioning were the others.
Rich, a senior majoring in interior design, said it wasn’t all bad.
“Utilities eat you alive,” Rich said. Since utilities, cable and Internet are paid for in on-campus apartments, this can be a factor in a student’s choice.
Living on or off-campus is a question freshmen and some upperclassmen face every spring when searching for a place to live.
There are ups and downs to each.
Kelly Hill, a sophomore in parks and recreation, said although she didn’t have to pay for utilities when she lived in the dorms, there was still a large price difference between living there and her apartment now.
“On-campus housing was almost a thousand dollars more expensive than Old Farm,” Hill said. However, utilities are not included in the Old Farm price rate.
She also said she didn’t meet as many people in the dorms that she lived in, although she did like being surrounded by freshmen that were going through the same things she was as she transitioned from home to USU.
“I like living off-campus a lot better. On-campus was a great housing arrangement for adapting to the college life. However, it was not half as social as Old Farm,” Hill said. “This year, living at Old Farm, I have met triple the amount of people I did last year on-campus. People are more involved and excited about college life.”
Either way was good for Lindsay Robinson, a junior majoring in biological engineering. The dorms are set up for their residents to be social and there is always someone to hang out with, she said, but she likes the nicer apartments off-campus.
“The dorms are good to make friends, but it’s better to live off-campus after you already have them,” Robinson said.
When living off-campus, students are more free, according to Rich. There are more options and the conditions are generally nicer, she said.
Having a Resident Assistant, or an RA, wasn’t bad, Rich said, but cleaning checks were.
“We had to get every nook and cranny,” she said.
The lack of microwave and small apartments in Davis Hall in the Student Living Center were some of the things Robinson didn’t like about living on-campus.
Jake Erickson, a junior majoring in marketing, said he lives in a house off-campus. He said he likes the house because it’s bigger and more private. He said he gets more exercise when he walks to campus.
Erickson also lived in Pineview apartments for two years, where he had access to a pool and hot tub. That was another benefit of living off-campus, he said.
Meredith McBride, a sophomore majoring in speech and language pathology, said one of the perks of living on-campus was the proximity to campus, but she lives a lot closer now in Darwin Ave.
The social atmosphere in on-campus housing is something a lot of residents are looking for.
Nicole Cecil, a senior majoring in elementary education, said living on-campus was social, but not necessarily better.
“It was kind of like forced friends,” Cecil, who lived in Davis Hall two years ago, said. “People just left their doors open, so you could just walk in and out as you please. Really safe, but whatever.”
One thing Cecil likes about living off-campus is that there isn’t a noise curfew.
“People can’t come and tell you to be quiet at 10 o’clock,” Cecil said.
Rich said she likes living off-campus because there is a better variety of people – not just freshmen.
Arti Olsen, a senior majoring in English, has always lived off-campus. She said she liked living around people older than her. She decided to live off-campus after she found out the dorms were full, but she’s glad she did.
“It’s a toss up – some people should live on-campus because they are surrounded by a ton of other freshmen and it’s a good social atmosphere,” Olsen said. “So it’s OK to live there too.”
“It’s nice to meet people who are in the same boat,” Rich said.
Both on and off-campus housing can be social though, depending on what the residents make of it. Olsen said the thing she likes about her first apartment at Pineview was the social atmosphere. Now she lives in Edgehill and said, “It’s not as social as I like it to be, but it has nice apartments.”
“I would recommend the dorms to a freshman,” McBride said. “But only that year, then they need to grow up and move away.”
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