<p>Hey guys! So I'm going to be a freshman at UCR this fall and I was wondering between the two. As of now I was told by my financial aid advisor that if I switch to off campus and share a apt. I really won't have to take out any loans as long as I budget myself. Did anyone experience the same thing when they did do off campus? I really don't get all this financial stuff and Id really appreciate it if I could get some pointers from people who did off campus their first year at UCR. Thanks!</p>
<p>If you do off-campus you won’t get as much financial aid as a person on-campus. Because the govt assumes that if you live off-campus you have the money.</p>
<p>To be honest living on-campus is funner.</p>
<p>@Gunner4Life I actually ended up getting my aid package for off-campus and since I’m living with a friend, I dont have to take out any loans at all! Thank goodness, I really couldn’t afford to take out loans.</p>
<p>I hope you enjoy UCR, although I believe you are missing the college experience by not dorming.</p>
<p>I’m a social person so making friends wont be a problem and honestly I’d rather miss out on the dorming experience (I’m not looking forward to sharing 5 stalls with 50 people) then go into debt.</p>
<p>College is a lot different than you think, it’s not about making friends etc. But dorming really is a unique experience. </p>
<p>But, I respect your decision.</p>
<p>I would dorm if i were you, a lot of my friends attended 4 years right after high school and i ended up going to a jc. Most of them say they had very unique experiences their freshman years in the dorms. Thats probably one of my biggest regrets.</p>
<p>I just graduated from UCR, and I was in the same boat. I decided to live on campus in Pentland. Pentland is rather new so everything is clean. On top of that every hall has 2 bathrooms and in Pentland every hall is only about 5 rooms so you’re really sharing 2 bathrooms with about 10 people. Because each hall is rather small in size, it’s pretty quiet too compared to the other dorms so you can get a lot of studying/work done. Hope that helps! As for financial aid goes, it would definitely be a lot cheaper living off campus for reasons already mentioned, but I highly recommend the dorming experience. After all, you only go to college once and won’t get to ever do this again.</p>