<p>What exactly do you do with schools that do not guarantee housing like Penn? This is one of the schools on my list, but I live in Va, and so if I don't have housing after freshman year than that's going to be a problem...</p>
<p>At many schools this would be a big deal (in NYC for example)…however, there are many really close options at a very similar price range.</p>
<p>I’ll chip in what I know while we’re waiting for someone currently (or recently) at Penn to give you a better answer. I am a parent, I lived on the fringes of the Penn neighborhood for 10 years, and my children went to the University of Chicago that has almost exactly the same situation re housing, so that’s the source of my knowledge.</p>
<p>Penn has dorm beds for about half the number of undergraduate students. As a practical matter, I think that’s enough so that few people – maybe no people – who want to stay in dorms after their freshman years can’t get a space. </p>
<p>How can that be? Because the dorm rooms (most of them) aren’t so nice, and ARE so expensive, that almost everyone sooner or later prefers to live off-campus. Also, after a year or two of dorm life, people are willing to trade security guards and meal plans for getting their own bedrooms and kitchens, and not having RAs telling them what to do. Off-campus, you can either pay a lot less and get more (if grungier) space, or you can pay about the same or more and get much more, much nicer space. And the places where undergraduates live are all within a few blocks of campus. There are apartment buildings that are virtual dorms, some of them closer to the center of campus than the actual dorms that house the most students. Many frats also have places for people to live, and those are on campus, but not part of the dorm system. </p>
<p>It’s not like going to a commuter school at all. Students live with other students, and there are more students next door and across the street (with a few grad students and 20-something university employees salted in). The campus remains the center of people’s lives, and for most people it’s not even a 10-minute walk to get there. And the engagement with the real world that comes from living with your toes sort of dipped in it is part of the Penn experience.</p>
<p>You shouldn’t stress about this, because everyone winds up in the same boat. There are lots of structures in place to help students find apartments and deal with landlords (and the landlords are in the business of renting to students – they will be trying to help you, too, unless you act like a complete jerk). It’s a different business model from the colleges that house 100% of their students 100% of the time, but think about it: Princeton spent $136 million to build a dorm for 500 students. Chicago spent $175 million on 800 spots. Yale has budgeted $500 million for another 1,000 or so spaces. Is that really a good use of university resources? Is the university naturally skilled at renting residential space? Or does it make more sense to have private developers put up the capital and manage the operations? Also, if you want property owners surrounding the university to make the area safe and attractive, doesn’t it help tie them to the university if the university isn’t trying to monopolize the students’ housing and food needs?</p>
<p>That’s an excellent response!</p>
<p>I’m living in an off campus house for the summer and I know I will miss it once I go back to living on campus.</p>
<p>Like others have said, Penn does not have enough rooms to fit all of its students. However, since a significant population move off campus, I believe all upperclassman can get an on campus room of some kind as long as you aren’t picky about which college house you end up in.</p>
<p>Yeah getting housing is a very minor issue for students. I’ve lived off campus since 2008, and it was a terrific decision. It’s nice to have a gas range and a dishwasher in my kitchen – that trumps anything the dorms can offer!</p>
<p>Also, I would disagree that you need to pay the same or more than campus housing in order to get a room the size of campus dorms! It’s rare that an off campus house costs more than a campus house, and it’s also rare that a bedroom in an off campus house/apartment is smaller than a dorm. In fact, many houses on the 4100 block of Locust, Spruce and Pine have huge rooms (we’re talking 200 square feet) and cost significantly less than campus houses.</p>
<p>Off campus housing also gives you the flexibility of a twelve month lease. You can sublet over the summer … or you can not do that and just have a place to go to during the summer.</p>
<p>haha I wouldn’t call being forced to pay for 12 months instead of just the academic year “flexibility.” Everyone takes a loss on the sublease so it’s just a matter of how big of a loss. Also, not everyone finds a subleasee so pay the full price out of pocket. Factor those costs into your annual academic expense and suddenly on-campus housing begins to look competitive.</p>
<p>No, it doesn’t. It gets closer, sure, but you really pay through the nose and suffer all kinds of inconvenience for university housing.</p>
<p>Yeah. Even if I were to foot twelve months of $741 per month as my place costs now, it would be roughly as much as the average college house costs for the full academic year, and I have access during winter break and over the summer. Also, it’s not true that everyone takes a loss on the sublease. Some people do actually recover all of their rent on a sublease. Beyond that, look at your accommodations. In a dorm, you have (at best) a bedroom, a living room and a kitchenette. In any off campus house, you have a bedroom, living room, dining room and full kitchen. Most have back yards, some have decks and porches, and bedrooms are generally larger than even the largest college house rooms!</p>
<p>The biggest downside to off campus living is that you have to pay utilities, but it’s honestly worth it. From a time perspective, off campus living is much easier since you never have to deal with the high rise elevators!</p>
<p>If some people recover all of their rent on a sublease for the summer, then the person who is subletting from them is doing something terribly wrong.</p>