<p>I’ll try to answer your questions one at a time.</p>
<p>If you want to start living off campus during the summer, you will probably have to sublet from another student. To sublet is just to take over their lease for a period of time, so they’ll have signed a year long lease that starts in the fall, and you’ll agree to move in and pay rent on their behalf to their landlord. There are a lot of opportunities to sublet during the summer, because off-campus leases are almost always year long, but many students leave Columbus during the summer to return home or work. If you have friends that already have a lease for this coming year, but one of them is not going to stay for the summer, you can sublet from the person who leaves. </p>
<p>If you wanted to lease your own apartment or a room in a house, you generally talk to a few of the property management companies that manage the properties around campus. Often, they will have signs up on their buildings with their name and phone number. OSU’s off-campus student services also puts out a guide to off-campus living that you may find useful, and a resource guide that includes a ranking of the largest property management companies around the area. When you talk to these companies, you’ll tell them what you’re looking for, like a two bedroom apartment east of High and north of Woodruff, for instance, and they’ll give you information about what they have available for rent. Good apartments and houses go quickly, so around the period between Thanksgiving and winter break there is a flurry of lease signing. You will want to figure out where you want to live and sign a lease around that time, because afterward the options will be more limited. The companies should be willing to give you tours of the different options you want to see, and then if you find one you like, you’ll go back to their office and sign a year long lease. You’ll very likely need to have your parents co-sign a lease, however, which means if you fail to pay your rent for the entire period of the lease, your parents will owe that money. This is because most students don’t have enough income to really pay all their expenses themselves. </p>
<p>You’ll pay rent by writing a check to your property management company (either each roommate writes a check, or you all have to pool your money in a common bank account and write one check). You’ll also have to pay your utilities by check or by online bill pay. Keep in mind that if your rent does not include any utilities, or only includes one or two, you will have to pay the others on top of your rent. You will also have to pay a security deposit when you sign your lease, and you’ll have to pay your first month’s rent upfront when you first move-in and pick up your keys. You then pay rent by the first of each month, such that each month’s rent is due that first day of the month. You get your security deposit back after you move out and your lease ends, after the cost of repairing any damage is deducted. </p>
<p>Leases for the period of early fall 2013-late fall 2014 have already been signed, so you will have to wait until a month or two before the summer begins to agree to sublet from some other person. </p>
<p>I have never heard of OSU awarding extra money (in terms of grants or scholarships) for students who remain on-campus. If you are taking out loans, your costs may go down if you move off-campus, and therefore you may need to borrow less, but that would be a good thing. Whether or not moving off-campus will save you money depends on the choices you make–someone who finds a cheaper house or apartment and cooks the majority of their meals rather than eat out all the time is going to save money, but someone who rents a luxury apartment and eats out all the time probably won’t. The average rent around campus is probably around $350-$450 per month per person, plus around $70 per month per person in utilities. My food costs were generally around $150-$200 a month. If you’re an average person with those costs, for instance, you’ll pay around $7-8.5k for the total year, including the summer, which is less than the dorms and a meal plan cost for just the 9-ish months you’re in school. That said, if you move into an apartment or house you’ll also have to buy furniture, handle your own cleaning, cooking, and bill paying.</p>