<p>DD has lived both on and off campus. She has lived in honors dorm, 4 person on campus apartment and now off campus (but walkable to campus) sorority house. She has many friends in off campus apartments.</p>
<p>Most issues with DD and friends in apartment living mainly revolved around cleanliness (or lack of) of shared space (kitchen and bathrooms), overnight guests (boyfriends), and transportation.</p>
<p>Most student apartments here are on a shuttle bus route but I would talk to some of the current or prior residents of the complex to ask about reliability of the buses coming on time. Friends of DD had multiple issues with missing classes when bus didn’t come on time or passed them by because it was full, particularly at the beginning of each semester. Even with a car here, parking on campus is a premium so if you drive to campus, you have to arrive really early even to park in a commuter lot and then you’re pretty much stuck for the day until you’re ready to leave campus for good.</p>
<p>As a parent, I would also check security at the complex by talking to people with first hand experience at that complex. Many of the complexes here have security gates but there were issues with the gates always being broken or out of repair - articles were written in the student newspaper so that might be one source of that type of information.</p>
<p>MagnoliaMom, it’s interesting that you say that overnight guests who are boyfriends are a problem.</p>
<p>In my son’s all-male off-campus apartment, visiting girlfriends were not regarded as a problem at all. But guests who were not anyone’s girlfriend were a problem. The reason: guests who were not dating one of the residents tended to sleep on the couch, where their presence interfered with the other residents’ use of the common space. Girlfriends slept in their boyfriends’ rooms and didn’t get in anyone’s way.</p>
<p>Both my S’s moved off campus after soph. year. It worked out well. S1 lived in a 4 br. apt. with separate leases for each roommate for two yrs. (with same three roommates). It was 4 miles from campus and provided bus service. He and same roommates moved to a rental house w/in walking distance to campus for senior yr. and loved it. One of the roommates had a gf who came over fr. nearby university and stayed every weekend. They guys knew/liked her and didn’t mind a bit. There was almost always extra guests on weekends but they were all friends so it was OK.</p>
<p>S2 went from the dorm straight to rental house. He really wanted to be within walking distance and not depend on the university bus service to the apts. He is very happy with his situation. They seem to have a lot of weekend guests but “the more the merrier” seems to be their policy. No guests through the weekthough.</p>
<p>Both kids rental houses looked like dumps but they thought they were/are great.</p>
<p>I can’t speak for daughters but can say for certain that sons are not nearly as concerned with asthetics as we Moms are.</p>
<p>I think it works fine for most kids. D moved off junior year, but should have soph year. She was SO much happier in her apartment- after 2 years of boarding school and 2 years of college dorm, she was ready for her own space and got an apartment by herself. At Rice there are great choices for off-campus housing. She did have a car. WildChild (also dormed-out) moved off soph year. He was ready. The choices for him were less good, to say the least, and the soph year off-campus housing was 2 successive dumps.</p>
<p>…off campus living has many unknown problems and known advantages that in our and DS’s opinions did not out weight the disadvantages of guaranteed 4 year, on-campus living.</p>
<p>Even as an independent person, DS, still lives in a shared housing situation, walking distance to his work, and services. He still gets care packages.</p>
<p>Fendrock
In my experience with your D’s location, there’s plenty of time to sign a lease on a place…there’s more new places every year it seems.I hope the complexes your D is interested in aren’t using undue pressure to have them sign so early…
The bulk of the signing will be before and after the spring break,right up until the end of the academic year in May.Thats when the complexes will advertise left and right, also, the U will have a housing fair right on campus where all the complexes will be present.As the season goes on, the deals get better (think no seq deposits,breaks on utilities,even plasma TV’s in the units,etc).
Parent guaranteers are common in these complexes but at least you are only guaranteeing your students individual portion of the rent.</p>