My daughter has been admitted to UMd for this coming fall. Her and her best friend want to get an apartment at University View Apartments instead of living in the dorm. Figuring out costs, it does seem to save money, however I am against this plan as I think she will gain a ton of benefit from living in dorms- making friends, not being worried about cooking/shopping, etc… Has anyone on here done this as a freshman? I’ve also read mixed reviews about The View apartments- some say they are fine, some say they tack on extra charges and it’s not good. I’m looking for any and all comments about this!!
Thanks!
Keep in mind off campus housing typically requires a 12 month lease and does frequently have a lot of extra expenses. My experience with 2 Terp kids is that it is not cheaper. There is a good chance her neighbors will be juniors or seniors and not freshman. Also, if she changes her mind, it is very difficult, but not impossible to be considered for housing in later years.
It will not be cheaper, and they will miss out on the social aspects of living in a dorm. An apartment and a dorm are 2 different environments.
That’s what I think and what I was leaning towards. Luckily today I think we’ve talked her out of this idea. I don’t think she ever really wanted to forgo the dorm- her friend was pressuring her.
As a former UMCP alum and someone familiar with the area, I think it’s also safer for freshman to live on campus at least the first year so they have time to become familiar with their surroundings. Some areas of college park are less safe then others, like all college campuses. After a year of living on campus, she’ll probably have a better sense of where she might want to live off campus. Our DS is at Salisbury, and he had no clue about the relative safety of different areas until he’d been on campus a year and got to talk with other students about it.