<p>You have no RAs, GAs, quiet hours, alcohol rules, or rules in general save for whatever social contract you establish with your housemates. You also have the space and freedom to throw your own parties, etc</p>
<p>There is more responsibility–you have to clean your own bathrooms, etc. But with great power comes great responsibility. I prefer it.</p>
<p>and SPACE. I have a room that is bigger than my entire freshman double in Kings Court, and I pay less for it–even when you factor in the 3 months of summer. It is bigger than anything on-campus.</p>
<p>In the Quad and many other dorms you can’t fix any of your own food, except what you can do with hot water. Also, there is noise all night long and you have no privacy. With a slum-room, hopefully you can keep and fix some food, although in my son’s house the kitchen was so awful that he couldn’t do it and people took his food. His single in the quad was still noisy in the night and was absolutely tiny. The slum room was at least three times as big. This semester’s apartment is a one-bedroom, so it has a living room and kitchen (and a back yard) besides the bedroom. It is old, but better than the slum room.<br>
I will say that there certainly didn’t appear to be any alcohol policies in the Quad last year- and certainly no enforcement of quiet hours.</p>
<p>I asked my S that too. His answer? Because his friends were moving so he wanted to be with them.</p>
<p>I think it turned out to be more expensive because he had to buy furniture, pay rent for summer months and move his belongings from one slum house to another (end of jr to sr yr housing).</p>
<p>I don’t think he ate property either since the kitchen was too filthy to cook in, he bought all his meals either from Freshgrocer (prepared food), Wawa or the street food vendors(before Penn banned them after dark).</p>
<p>I was really surprised when my d told me that the houses for rent don’t have furniture. She had originally approached us with the idea of living with 7 girls in an off campus house which we vetoed for many reasons - primarily the distance from campus and safety issues. But the lack of furniture was another issue. When I was in school at U of Michigan all the rental properties came furnished - not that the furniture was anything decent but it was included.</p>
<p>Lots of the off-campus houses wind up coming with furniture because previous residents sell it (cheaply) or give it away). My son’s current apartment is furnished and even came with a TV. </p>
<p>I’m glad to hear that other kitchens are too filthy to use and it wasn’t unique to the house S was in last semester. It was so horrible that at one point his gf (didn’t live in the house) cleaned it thoroughly. In ONE DAY it was totally trashed and disgusting again. My son is a pretty picky and neat, so this place was a disaster. Plus, everytime we heard from him there was another demand for ultility money. Apparently the girl who was in charge of running the house and collecting rent, utility money etc wasn’t very good at estimating, and the ultiity bills were huge.</p>
<p>If you have to leave campus immediately after finals and fly 3000 miles away to start an internship, you’d have no time. Plus my S is the type who doesn’t want to impose.</p>
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<p>Yeah, some people who supposedly “bought” furniture from him after he graduated never paid him.They promised to send him a check, but never did. So I guess they would be the type who have “free” furniture.</p>
<p>I don’t know - if you can’t sell your furniture competently, I wouldn’t want you flying off 3000 miles to work at my company.</p>
<p>Get the cash in advance. No cash? Arrange for someone else. There are enough people in the market. </p>
<p>I have to wonder if all the parents on here are the same person. Your kid can’t sell his stuff? They can’t keep the kitchen clean? Come on. Tell them to grow up.</p>
<p>My kid can keep the kitchen very clean. The housemates would not. Own kitchen=clean. My son can also buy and sell furniture. No internship 3000 miles away.
I guess we aren’t all the same parent.</p>
<p>How far away do you guys consider the graduate hospital area to be? ( the house is approximately 1.5 miles from campus). Is this reasonable? It is a BEAUTIFUL house , and we’re getting an insanely sweet rent ( think, cheaper than on -campus housing, even when you factor in the 3 months etc). The only con to the house is the distance, and even then, I’d like to know if you know of other students who “commute” such distances?</p>
<p>“Graduate Hospital” is a neighborhood in CC/South Philly. It’s in the south street area. It’s a pretty far hike if you walk, but it’d be nothing by bike or bus. Many med students or grad students live in that area, but I don’t know of any undergrads - and I think it’s a bit too far for undergrads, most of whom live WEST of campus. But, you could have a really great experience.</p>