<p>In general, how much does it cost the average student to rent an apartment with his/her friends for the semester/year? Is it a lot more than just staying in the residence halls?</p>
<p>Depends on the city and school.</p>
<p>Really depends. You'd need to look around and check out the rents on various nearby places first to see. For me, it was a lot cheaper to live in an apartment with roommates than it was to stay in the dorms - a little under $5k a year versus $9600 for the dorms, plus I got my own bedroom and a full kitchen. It's about equal in price for me to live by myself.</p>
<p>Remember that the dorm rent includes utilities (electricity, heat, water) and maybe also your Internet service, telephone, and cable TV.</p>
<p>In an apartment, you may have to pay for some or all of these things in addition to the rent. It's a good idea to ask your potential landlord what's included and what isn't, and to ask the landlord or a current tenant how much the not-included stuff costs per month or per year.</p>
<p>Also, make sure to compare rents per year, not per month. You may get stuck with a 12-month lease in an apartment (meaning that you pay for the summer even though you may not be there). </p>
<p>Despite all this, it may still be cheaper to live off-campus. Except if you're in New York City.</p>
<p>I am at Rice in Houston. We got a very nice place for $1190 a month. $300 per person. The majority of the places were cheaper, though.</p>
<p>Totally depends on geography. I believe that living off campus is (in general) cheaper than the dorms. But in Davis, it doesn't really matter anyway because only freshman live in dorms.</p>
<p>I'm at UC Davis... here a one bedroom apartment will cost $750-1000/month (the $750 one won't have air conditioning, dishwasher, or washer/dryer, etc... while the $1000/month one will have all of the above and be larger). Obviously a two, three or four bedroom apartment will cost more, and the more people you live with the cheaper it will be.</p>
<p>Some places allow you to sublet for the summer so a student taking summer school can rent your room & save you the rent while you're not there. Other places don't allow you to sublet so you're stuck paying summer rent anyway.</p>
<p>Definatly shop around & check cities near by also. Some places are just way over priced because they are closer to the school by like a mile.. moving the extra distance away from campus can save you a bunch.</p>