"Dorm room" .. are you kidding?

Parents Forum
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<p>oh, can anybody speak to sub-free dorms?</p>

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<p>What do you do when the apartments convenient to the college are run by slum lords? I've seen this in both rural and urban schools. How do you find a decent building?</p>

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<p>lkf:</p>

<p>You certainly have to be wary when looking for apartments. The availability of decent apartments will vary considerably with the locale. I tend to prefer the large apartment complexes run by companies that have a vested interest and wherewithal in maintaining them to keep them filled and I wouldn't look for the absolute cheapest places for the area. This option isn't available everywhere but it is available in a lot of places. The very urban environments are probably tougher on this point.</p>

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<p>thumper: No wonder your DS didn't want to stay in BU housing. Their dorms are like totalitarian states.</p>

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<p>Just FYI...my son had NO PROBLEM with the rules in the BU dorms. NONE. It's a urban campus and the security was top notch. He also was not interested in having visitors (unannounced) in the dorms after 1 am. He also had no problem having to register guests, and was happy his roommate(s) had to do so too...no surprise overnighters. AND he moved out of the dorm into one apartment and this year will be moving into a second apartment. Even HE agrees it's been a headache, and he should have stayed in the university apartments. Too late now.</p>

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<p>S stayed in a BU dorm for three summers. Compared to his Harvard dorm room, it was far more spacious!</p>

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<p>Our son moved to an off campus apartment and is saving a huge amount of money. Their rowhouse is divided up into 3 apartments and all three opened up last June. Him and 10 friends snapped it up and are paying $400/mo for rent, utilities, telephone, cable tv, hispeed internet, and FOOD. And they have a Weber grill on their back patio which they use throuthout the year.</p>

<p>One big advantage of an off campus rental is that they have housing at the college during breaks, holidays and the summer. Our son just finished taking his final advanced math class and is working with one of his profs on an open source applications project for a language developed in one of his departments AI labs. No pay but he was able to do it because there was not additional housing cost to him. Five of his apt mates are staying there over the summer too.</p>

<p>The building is more than 100 years old and could be considered slum-like compared to a newer apartment complex. But it is close to the campus, was recently rewired, has smoke alarms in all 12 bedrooms and his landlord lives across the alley from them.</p>

<p>He simply loves living off campus with his friends and is saving $4000+ for year round housing vs. a 9 month on campus apartment or dorm. And they are getting to experience more independent living and the responsibilities which go with it. The problem with keeping the common areas clean was quickly solved by creating a chore list early on.</p>

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<p>i had a decent sized room.. we had neat furniture where it was like a closet and a dresser together and your bed was bolted on top of them, and then you had a desk to the side.. some people left their beds up there, but most people brought them down.. my roommate and i always brought our beds down onto the ground and there was plenty of room... plus we added like a tv stand an stuff like that. after freshman year my friends and i decided to stay in the same dorm but all get rooms on the top floor... so that was pretty neat, we literally took over the top floor.. we had all of the rooms. and then junior year and senior year we moved into an on campus apartment which was awesome and if anyone would like to see pictures you're welcome to PM me.. it was absolutely huge.</p>

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<p>At Florida Gulf Coast Univ, the dorms are all suites with 4 single (large) bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, full kitchen and small living room. These things are important to my D who likes her privacy. She cares more about her daily surroundings that the quality of the education! But, if you love your surroundings, you'll love your school and do well.</p>

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<p>S and his best friend lived in one of the old '40s era dorms at their school. It had the biggest rooms on campus (12x17) and a sink in the room. There were community hall showers. He liked his hall style dorm better than the rooms of his friends who lived in the suite style (4 rooms with 2 kids each all sharing one bathroom, no common room) because he met more people that way and it just seemed lees claustrophobic. There were cinderblock walls and tile floors but the boys didn't care. The older dorms were the closest to the classroom building. At a large state u, that can make a big difference in how early you have to wake up.</p>

<p>He will be living off campus next year with 3 friends in an apt. complex built especially for students but not on campus or owned by the university. It will be cheaper to live there than the on-campus apartments.</p>

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<p>
[QUOTE]
The building is more than 100 years old and could be considered slum-like compared to a newer apartment complex. But it is close to the campus, was recently rewired, has smoke alarms in all 12 bedrooms and his landlord lives across the alley from them.

[/QUOTE]
I think this situations sounds great...he gets the charm of an old house, but doesn't have to work about faulty wiring and being in a fire trap.</p>

<p>In Boston, between BU and BC, there are some real slum conditions in student apartments. There was one building my students called "the pit" because there was a section where the wood floor was rotted through. For some reason, this was where many students went for parties. I wouldn't want to step foot in that kind of place.</p>

<p>I also remember a news report about a BU fraternity house was condemned just as students were moving in. The students didn't see anything wrong with the place. The inspectors and the parents interviewed were horrified.</p>

<p>By the way, in Boston and many other major cities, Craigslist is a great place to find furniture. You can find everything from cheap bookcases to nice couches in the</a> "for sale" section of the site.</p>

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<p>Having seen the on campus BC and BU apartments...I'm assuming the poster means OFF campus apartments in the above comment. If so, he is mighty right. Not only are they slummy, but they are also expensive.</p>

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<p>Sorry, I should have been clearer...the physical area between the schools, the Brighton and Allston neighborhoods, have some run down buildings traditionally rented by students.</p>