One thing that gets students interested in moving away for college is the chance to live on their own. Read this post to find out three reasons why you should actually live off-campus.
Getting your money’s worth
This point will be especially important for students who are interested in saving money. For 2021-2022, the residence hall room rate for the river campus will be $10,693. For returning students who are interested in the upper-class residence options, the cost for housing could be as high as $12,789. Even when taking into account the proximity to campus and utility cost, this is still a very high price to pay for housing in a city like Rochester. To put it in perspective, even without picking the lowest cost option, I don’t even pay half of what I would if I remained on campus and I don’t have to share common spaces with 40+ people. The housing that I currently enjoy would have cost me over $12,000.
The Environment
The neighborhoods surrounded the campus are much more pleasant than the campus itself. On-campus, you are subjected to whatever noise people decide to make that day whether it be through the hundreds of events that occur or just students getting very excited and loud. The off-campus areas are more family-oriented and therefore quiet all year round. Living off-campus allows you to control your surroundings and the vibe of the place you live in. You can choose to live with friends, students, or even young professionals depending on what you want the housing environment to be like. This is something you cannot do on campus because student housing will forever be just that, full of forced and uncontrollable interactions. This is why living off-campus is especially great for studious individuals.
Learn Life Skills
You may think that now that you have moved away from home you are learning how to live on your own and gaining new responsibilities. Well, the reality is if you are still living on-campus, you might as well still be living with your family. Campus living has way too many safety nets and shortcuts to make an individual responsible and prepare them for the post-graduate life (unless you plan on moving back to your family). When you move off-campus (unless you are infinitely rich), you will have to cook all of your meals for yourself. This will require you to budget your food cost very carefully since you can only save money if you do not overspend. When you have to buy all of the individual ingredients to make a meal, you learn about the cost it takes to make the things you enjoy as opposed to buying ready-made meals on campus that you don’t have to put any effort into (because time is also a cost). You will also have to learn how to clean and take care of your own space to a degree that is probably much higher than what you would have to do at home or on campus because you have a security deposit on the line.
Rochester is a great city to start learning how to be an adult and take care of yourself. Whether you decide to attend the University of Rochester or any other institution, I wish you the best in all of the future endeavors.