Off Campus Life!! by: Deborah Kelly

Living off campus may seem like the ultimate freedom, but it has its ups and downs.  Although it’s off campus, most of the apartments and houses are located fairly close to campus.  It’s not hard to find a decent place to live within a reasonable distance from the campus.  Some of the students I talked to agree that the only difference with living off campus is that they have to pay bills every month.  “My apartment is on Broadway and it may seem far, but it’s so close to my classes since I’m always in Guild or Old Main,” said FSU senior Raven Robinson. 

When living off campus, cost is a major factor.  Before I lived off campus I had no idea how much it was going to cost and I just assumed it would be a ridiculous amount.  After doing my research I found that it was actually cheaper to live off campus.  I saved nearly $5,000 each semester when I moved off!  “When I lived on campus I could hardly afford my books, when I got my refund check after I moved off, I had enough for books and a lot of other things,” said FSU senior Marcus Wilson.

The downside to off campus living that I’ve come across is dealing with lazy landlords and roommate problems.  I’ve talked to students who said their landlords are like ghosts to them, they never see them.  They don’t answer the phone or return calls and that is very unprofessional and it makes the tenants unhappy.  I had an incident with my landlords where they weren’t responding to any calls and I kindly let them know that they would not be getting any money if my needs were not met.  I’ve never had a roommate problem, but I spoke with Rihanna Brown and she said, “I had a roommate who wouldn’t pay her rent and our landlord was threatening to put us out.  I let them know that my half of the rent was paid, but they didn’t care about that, they needed all of their money.  I sent my roommate a very threatening text and that rent was paid the next day!”  Communication was definitely the key to resolving these situations.