<p>These are indeed some very anxiety producing posts and I’m glad I’m not dealing with it!</p>
<p>My son is a current freshman in honor’s housing with no housing scholarhsip. I told him early in the fall that he needed to start thinking about where he wanted to live next year and that he needed to start actively looking right after break.</p>
<p>I was planning on signing him up for the housing renewal as a backup plan. Around Thanksgiving he told me that he and a friend were thinking about getting a 2 bedroom at East Edge for next year. I looked at the price and said, “No way”. I said that if they found more roommates the 4 bedrooms at East Edge were possible, but I wasn’t going to pay <em>more</em> than I was paying for the dorm. So, he and his friend found another friend and also decided to look at a few more locations. They went to the Woodlands and “fell in love” - I’ve only seen their website, but son talked for days about how great they were and that they had a shuttle to campus and had hardwood floors throughout the unit. He was eager to sign the lease because the complex was offering a discount to students that signed before the holiday break. The units come furnished, but don’t include utilities, however you can pay an additional monthly amount that includes a capped amount of utilities - the discount was almost equal to the additional monthly utility fees. </p>
<p>The 3 of them figured out how to get the lease signed (which took some emailing and faxing since my son is 18 and too young to sign the lease in Bama, so technically it is in my name), paid desposits, and had everything in order BEFORE the holiday break.</p>
<p>When the date came around to sign up for the housing renewal, I didn’t even bother.</p>
<p>The total cost including utilities is about $2K less than I’m paying for honors housing and as he is very content living on those 50 cent frozen burritos, I expect he’ll need much less of a food budget. </p>
<p>The unit has a washer and dryer included so no more need to pay $5/week for laundry.</p>
<p>With the shuttle to campus, I’m hoping that may also be less in gas/parking money (we’ll discuss if he needs a parking pass for campus next year or not).</p>
<p>Also I can forego the cost of a PO Box, since he’ll actually be able to receive mail.</p>
<p>Back when I was in college, I also moved off campus after my freshman year and complexes that focus on student housing are really not much different than the dorms, just a LITTLE farther away. I’m not at all concerned about him moving off campus and am thrilled that he seems to be very happy with his choice and even more happy that I’m not sharing in all of this anxiety!</p>