<p>bill124,</p>
<p>My D is a soph. living in Courtyard. She loves it. As we are from far away, having the furnished apartment is nice. She is planning on renewing her lease for next year. She does have a car. Makes it easy to run errands(market). It is more than some other places, but includes utilities and cable…</p>
<p>bill124, my son who lives above iHop on main street parks his car at the courtyard and finds it very easy to access. not sure if any of your kids have told you about a convenient option that both my son and daughter utilize : OCMP which is an off campus meal plan that most of the restaurants on main street accept. It appears the only restaurant that doesnt accept it is Chipotle, much to the chagrin of my two. They mostly cook meals in their respective apartments but on the days they need to eat out, this is what they use.</p>
<p>Is there some advantage to the OCMP? Why not use cash or debit?</p>
<p>Sorry, have been away for a few days so didn’t see this until now:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Very, especially compared to living on North Campus, which he did for the first two years. He didn’t mind talking the bus or the longer walk to class then, but being closer now is a great perk. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Only in terms of food, since he shops and cooks much more than he did before. I consider this good training for real life. 
But there’s a washer/dryer in the apartment (which my 25-year-old D certainly doesn’t have in her NYC apt!) so laundry takes even less time than before.</p>
<p>momof2giants-the benefit to the ocmp is that it is prepaid with a finite amount on it giving them access to many food choices on main street . we use this option in lieu of buying a meal plan through the school and since we are paying for it, they don’t use their own debit card or their own cash.</p>
<p>thanks for the reply - I was just wondering if there was a consistent discount, but I’m assuming you would have mentioned it if there was :)</p>
<p>Our D used the OCMP for two years from 2008-2010. It was ideal for her because she lived in an apartment in the middle of Main Street. Unless it has changed with the OCMP each restaurant would identify what would be included as a single meal (i.e. sandwich, soup, drink or combo thereof). At most places this would cost (based upon what was paid for each meal when you bought the plan) overall a little less than if you just purchased the food/drink with cash (not usually a lot-maybe 25-50 cents less). So I would estimate that over the semester she saved around $50.00 by using the plan compared to purchasing the same food with cash. You can actually purchase less (or more) food than would be included in the defined meal and you then would be charged a percentage of the meal based upon the cost identified as the baseline amount for the meal (I believe this is $8.00). So you don’t have to purchase a full meal every time you use the OCMP card. You then get a receipt which shows how many meals you have left on the plan you purchased. This was convenient for our D as she then did not have to continue to replenish her cash from an ATM all the time nor did she have to carry her debit card around with her all the time (also then didn’t have to keep track of all the purchases to be deducted from her checking account). The only thing to keep in mind about the OCMP is that the meals purchased do not carry over from one semester to the next. If you don’t use them you lose them. I hope this info is helpful (assuming the plan works the same way now as it did when our D was there). </p>
<p>.</p>
<p>My D lived in Courtyard her sophomore and junior years. Positives - convenient to campus, fully furnished, utilities included. Negatives - her first year they sent an supplemental utility bill - said that usage was over “normal” amount, maintenance was very slow to respond, I had to fight with them to get them to return her security deposit, and you have to pay for a whole month (Aug) but they don’t let you move in until the end of the month. They also require you to carry renter’s insurance - which isn’t a bad thing, just adds to the cost. I think there was also a Town of Newark emergency fee that had to be paid as well. Over the years my daughter spent in Newark there were several crimes issues at Courtyards. Her senior year she rented a one bed room cottage on Elkton (now South Main) from a group called M&R Investors. Positives - no roommate issues. Negatives - slightly pricier than Courtyards, farther from campus. M&R was ideal to deal with, they let me extend her lease for 2 months at the end so she could take a summer course to finish up. Returned her security deposit lickity split. Courtyards charged a $300 security deposit when my daughter signed her lease in Feb of 2010. I paid $725 per month the first year and I think $775 the second year. M&R charged me one month’s rent when she signed the lease and I paid $800/month + cable. All in all I think I overpaid - I wish my daughter had found cheaper alternatives.</p>
<p>Unless you are extremely lucky it probably will cost $100-$200 per month per student to rent a furnished apartment. While this certainly is more convenient than having to furnish an apartment the added cost would amount to $1200-$2400 per year. This certainly can really add up if one plans on staying in a furnished apartment for 2-3 years. Our D lived in her unfurnished apartment on Main Street for 2 years. She initially furnished her bedroom space with a decent (for relatively short-term college use) bed, desk, and dresser drawer from IKEA for less than $500.00. She contributed about another $200.00 along with each of her 4 roommates and they purchased some additional furniture for the living/dining room areas and one of her roommates provided a large screen tv which she brought from home. When she graduated she/they actually sold most of the things she/they had bought initially to some students taking over the apartment so she recouped some of her initial cost (not a lot-around $200) and she therefore did not have to deal with moving the things out and bringing them home. This certainly ended up being a lot cheaper than paying for a furnished apartment for two years. IMHO these “life experiences” were also very helpful to her in the future and when she subsequently moved out from home shortly after graduation to go to NYC for her first job she had no problems handling all the apartment issues on her own. Just my perspective. Obviously if money is not an issue then all of this is moot. Good luck to everyone finding an apartment.</p>
<p>My daughter and three friends just rented a ranch house (3 bedrooms / 1 bath) about 1.5 blocks from Park Place / College Ave. $1800 / month plus utilities so she’s looking at ~$500 / month.</p>
<p>Having seen what $375 / month looked like over the summer, I’m thrilled!</p>
<p>my D is finishing up her lease tomorrow… 3 bedroom new townhouse on Elkton/S Main near Amstel. Only 3 of them so about $700 a month with utilites. They have the option to add a 4th. Beautiful place plus she needs a location that accepts service dogs since she and her room mate are raising a Seeing Eye dog in ProUD. I wish it was a bit cheaper but it’s a beautiful place.</p>