5 Things NOT to Consider When Deciding Where to Live

By Kaitlin Hurtado on July 20, 2018

Deciding where to live during your college years can be just as hard as registering for classes at the beginning of every term. Yes, you are going to have to suffer through the bad schedule you may end up with, or may not get the exact class or professor you wanted, but coming down to the final decision of where you are going to be calling home for an extended amount of time requires plenty of effort and thought. There are plenty of factors that may go into your final decision when deciding where to live: the amount of money you are able to put up for rent every month, how many roommates you are willing to put up with, or even the type of in-house amenities you think are necessary in your living space.

However, at the beginning of your search or in the middle of deciding where to live, you may find yourself struggling between multiple options because there are so many factors to consider when deciding where to live. To save yourself the trouble and time of excessively worrying about weighing the pros and cons of each housing option, you may want to consider cutting down the number of factors going into your housing decision. If you are looking to make deciding where to live a much easier decision, here are some things not to consider when deciding where to live:

gps inside car

Image via pixabay.com

Distance to campus (if you have steady transportation) 

As convenient as living on-campus may be as a college student, it can be the one factor holding you back when deciding where to live. Your housing options are severely limited when deciding to live on-campus. Most on-campus housing will be pre-furnished, meaning you will not be able to pick and choose how to fill out your living space for yourself. Most on-campus housing will also require for your roommates to be chosen for you. Of course, you can apply with your friends for housing, but the final say is that of the community’s management, not your own. Living off-campus gives you plenty more freedom and it is something you may want to consider when deciding where to live.

If you have already come to the decision to live off-campus, something that shouldn’t have the most impact on deciding where to live is the distance between your housing and your college campus. This depends on the transportation you have access to, but if you do have access to steady transportation, the distance shouldn’t be that big of a deciding factor.

Most apartments will come with at least one guaranteed parking space and street parking, so you can always commute to campus with your own car, while also being able to drive anywhere you want at any time. If you aren’t able to have a car for whatever reason, there are always alternate modes of transportation to get to where you need to be. Try your local bus system as a mode of transportation – many universities also offer their students heavily discounted bus passes for local transportation systems.

You may think that distance is the ultimate deciding factor – but what is a bus trip longer by a few minutes in comparison to a much cheaper monthly rent if you decide to live farther away from campus. Consider dropping the distance factor when deciding where to live. Think of the other factors that you can pay attention to instead when it comes to deciding where to live: lowered rent, more choices in apartment communities, and much more.

Access to social life

When most people with limited college experience think of college housing, they picture living in a dorm on-campus and heading to the dining hall, or living in a house while participating in Greek life. Despite what movies and other forms of media depict college to be, those representations are just a very small fraction of what college housing really is. Not everyone lives in a dorm their freshman year, let alone for the entire duration of their college career. Greek life definitely is not for everyone. So where do you live, then? There are plenty of options to choose from, but the picturesque on-campus living situation may not be the best option when deciding where to live.

Sure, it seems great to live on-campus and be able to walk to and from campus events whenever you wish, or be surrounded by college students your age, but it’s not the most important factor when deciding where to live. The access to social life that comes with your housing isn’t all too important in the long run.

You may think living off-campus may kill your social game – the farther away you are, the farther away you are from the current events and the guarantee of running into students your age. However, depending on your final living situation, your roommates can be your friends and you definitely will not be the only college student living off-campus.

You can always meet your friends outside of classes and your extracurriculars, and parties held on-campus never even last that long. Living off-campus doesn’t put an end to your social life if you do not let it, so you do not need to worry about factoring it into your decision when deciding where to live.

infographic

Infographic by Kaitlin Hurtado, via canva.com

Amenities included in your space

Everyone has at least thought of what their dream housing would consist of. For some, it is a grand staircase leading up to the bedroom of their dreams. For others, it is having their own in-house washer and dryer so they can do laundry whenever they want without a trip to the nearest laundry facility.

Deciding where to live can be heavily impacted depending on how much you value having access to certain amenities, especially when you want them in your own living space instead of your community. However, it is important to remember that the amenities you are looking for can just as easily be found around you, whether it be on campus or in your apartment community.

As convenient as it may be to have a washer and dryer in your own apartment, you may want to think twice when it comes to making it a deciding factor when deciding where to live. Being able to do laundry whenever you want may sound convenient, but it may cost you more in the long run when it comes to your utility bill. You can just as easily do laundry at your apartment’s provided laundry facilities, or even trips to your local laundromat if you prefer.

You may even be factoring in community amenities in your decision about where to live. A common amenity among college students is a gym – and the gyms in the apartment communities you are considering may not be up to par with what you are desiring. Your apartment may not offer up your perfect gym, but you can always find another gym elsewhere. Try going to your campus gym, which is included as part of your tuition. You can even try going to local gyms and signing up for a membership there if you are looking for a certain activity or machine in particular.

Amenities do not have to be a deciding factor when deciding where to live, especially when you can find those amenities just as easily around you.

Aesthetics of your living space

Deciding where to live can get tricky when you are seeking out a certain aesthetic for living space. However, when it comes to college housing, you are better off dropping the factor out of your decision about where to live. The aesthetics of the different housing options may be at the top of the list of factors that go into deciding where to live, but the decision on where to live can be made much easier when it is not a leading factor.

One important thing to remember is that you can always do small things to contribute to making your living space better. Install different lighting. Put up a tapestry or two if you do not have the ability to paint your walls. Ugly flooring in your kitchen or bedroom can be made much better if you put down rugs in patterns you actually like. The space you are living in is not going to be the space you are going to live in forever, so the aesthetics may not be the most important, especially when you can decorate to make the place feel like your own.

College housing, or apartment living, may not be the best for something that is really into interior design. There are limited options when it comes to customization and the lack of control you have over changing the space without risking your security deposit: painting the walls, putting holes in the walls with nails, etc. Most apartments don’t have that special “character” that many look for, especially if the housing is there to house college students and get quick money.

Of course, you may want the apartment you see on Pinterest when deciding where to live, but it is most likely isn’t a possibility during your college years. Aesthetics definitely do not need to be on the top of the list when deciding where to live in college, especially if affordability and other factors matter more when you think about your decision realistically.

What your parents think of your housing 

This factor will obviously vary depending on how involved your parents are in your search for housing, or even how opinionated and concerned they may be when it comes to most areas of your life.

Many parents will not hold their judgment of your housing back. It’s too small. There are too many roommates. The apartment looks outdated. What if the commute between your living space and campus is too far. Living off-campus may be more dangerous than living on-campus. The input from your parents may seem endless, but it’s important to remember they are just concerned for your well being and want the best for their own child.

From personal experience, your parents’ input may even make you rethink your own decision. You may be close to committing to a certain apartment, but any negative input from your parents may have you second guessing if it is really the best option for yourself. Unless your parents are paying for all of your housing and have more of a right to be a strong factor in your final decision, it may be better to leave your parents’ opinion out of your process of deciding where to live. Of course, you may want to consider coming to your parents with some questions and advice, but at the end of the day – you are the one living in the space you are choosing.

Remind yourself that your opinion is the one that matters. The space that you are choosing is a space for you, and deciding where to live is also deciding the place where you are most comfortable calling a home for yourself and not your parents. Deciding where to live is a decision on deciding where you are going to live, so if the main thing that is holding you back from committing to a final decision is your parents’ input – consider letting it go.

hand holding up keys

Image via pixabay.com

When it comes to deciding where to live, you may be finding yourself overwhelmed by everything involved with coming to a final decision. There are plenty of factors that go into deciding where to live, but they all will hold varying levels of importance in the long run. What you may consider a factor coming into the process of deciding where to live, may not even matter in comparison to other factors, or may not matter much at all when you can think of alternatives.

Deciding where to live is no easy process, but you can make the somewhat stressful decision much easier when you start cutting out factors that do not hold as much value as you think they do. Remember that when deciding where to live, what is important is choosing a space that is right and comfortable for yourself – a space you can call your home away from home.

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