Apartment living

Student Lounge College Life
1

<p>One of my worries about apartment living is the option of having a roommate. I'm a little worried about getting that roommate that quits paying and has the possibility of damaging both of our credits (More specifically mine, I couldn't give a crap what happens to theirs)</p>

<p>It happened to my sister with one of her long-time friends when she went off to college. Her roommate eventually quit paying money altogether because his job at McAlister's reduced his hours so much that $100 a month was all that he had to contribute to a $800/month rent bill after a while. She forced her roommate to move out and left her with the entire responsibility for the rent and utilities. It got to the point where my sister had no money to live because she got paid so little (since jobs for college students are usually not that fantastic in terms of pay) She started working more hours, missing classes, and getting Cs and Ds in college because she was forced to miss so much. She eventually just dropped out of college altogether because of her financial situation: She wasn't going to be able to pay for living and still do well.</p>

<p>I've even researched this topic: It's a little more common than I thought. I would like to live as seamlessly in college as possible. The only option that I thought of that would help prevent the possibility of a deadbeat roommate is to live on-campus, but I simply do not have the money to do so. As well, I'll be an incoming transfer student, I'm not sure they'd even have housing for me. Cost of attendance including tuition, fees, room/board, supplies, etc. would be $16,000 on campus, and $11,000 off-campus. I've only got about $20,000 saved up for college--clearly not enough for the rest of the three years that I would spend there. I can't go to community college to save money and get my basics out of the way because I've ALREADY done that. </p>

<p>Is the reduced pay of rent with a roommate worth the potential risk of damaging your financial future? Should you pay the extra money for dorms so that this doesn't happen? Should you just live in the dangerous ghetto for a single apartment at $300/month? lol</p>

<p>What do you think?</p>

2

<p>Only take the apartment living option if you know people that you can trust that are going there. Otherwise, ALWAYS be on campus.</p>

3

<p>If you can’t afford to live on campus, I don’t see another option besides living off campus. In my experience, I’ve only known one person who had trouble with roommates, and she was living with random strangers in an off campus apartment. If you live with people who are responsible, who you trust, and who are financially stable, you shouldn’t have a problem, but it is riskier to live with strangers. I’m sure the number of people who live off campus without serious trouble, likely outweigh the number of students who do.</p>

<p>Make sure everyone’s name is on the lease, and there are some situations where people will rent by the room, rather than the entire apartment (though they are less common). I’m renting a house (by the room) with a couple of other people, and we’re each responsible for a portion of the rent for our room (if someone moves out, we’re still only responsible for our portion, not for covering the rent of the empty room). You could look out for a similar situation, although you may not always have the same control over who your roommates are, if someone does move out.</p>

4

<p>A lot of the big complexes on my campus have arrangements where the rent is collected separately for all tenants. This way when someone doesn’t pay, the other roommates don’t have to worry about it. The leasing office will deal with that person.
The only catch is that these places are much more expensive than normal apartments.</p>

<p>Otherwise you should either live in a university-sponsored apartment or just go into the situation where everyone is on the lease so the person can be held legally responsible as well.</p>