By Brooke Martin
As this school year comes to a close, many students are debating whether to make the jump to off-campus living or remain in the dorms on campus. Moving off campus can be exciting because of the freedom that comes with it, but also daunting due to the added responsibilities and inconveniences. I personally switched to apartment life this past year and have enjoyed every minute of it. Here are some tips to make your off-campus transition easier!
1. Decide Which Housing Option is Best for YOU
The possibilities are endless when it comes to choosing a place to live off campus. There are many student apartment complexes around Fayetteville that offer individual leases, with layouts ranging from one bedroom to four. Another option is to live in a house. This could mean buying a house, renting, or whatever you may come across. Figuring out which housing option is best for you will then help you to gauge how many roommates you will need, if you will need to buy furniture or not, etc.
While there are lots of pros to off-campus living, there are also a lot of cons, including: it’s not as convenient, you may have to sign a year-long lease, you have more responsibilities and there is less social interaction. If you decide off-campus living is not for you, there are still upperclassmen dorms such as Gregson Hall and on-campus apartments ran by the university such as the Duncan apartments.
2. Figure out a Transportation System
Finding a way to get to class every day is one of the biggest challenges that come with off campus living. You will no longer be able to roll out of bed 10 minutes before class and walk there quickly. Personally, I utilize the Razorback Transit system. Students can use this bus system completely free of charge, making it a great option if your apartment or house is on one of the bus routes! Other low cost options include walking and biking if you are close enough to campus!
If you are not located on the bus route and want to drive, the university offers parking passes for the parking garages around campus. Some apartment complexes even have their own personal shuttle that run directly from the complex to the university, so ask before you sign a lease!
3. Meal Prep
Being off campus, you will no longer have the luxury of going downstairs to eat at Fulbright, Brough, or meal trading for dinner. Getting takeout every night will start to get expensive and cooking a meal every night became more of a hassle than I had first anticipated. Meals usually take a good amount of time to prepare, not including the time it takes to go buy groceries. One of the best things I started doing was meal prepping. At the beginning of the week, I would pick out a meal and make enough of it to last 3-4 days. I then portioned the food into containers and stored them in the fridge. This way all I had to do every night for dinner was grab a container out of the fridge and heat it up!
That said, there are still meal plans available for off-campus students who do not want to pack a lunch everyday but still need to grab a quick bite to eat in between classes. To learn more about off-campus meal plans, visit the University Housing website: https://housing.uark.edu/live-here/dining-information-and-rates.php
4. Keep Up with Rent and Responsibilities
Off-campus living will give you a taste of adulthood, so it will come with more responsibilities than on-campus living did. You will have to remember to go in and pay your rent/utilities each month. I set a reminder on my phone to go off on a certain day each month to avoid getting late fees! Depending on your leasing agreement, you will probably have to be conscientious in your electricity and water usage to avoid any overages or heavy bills.
Although you will now have more freedom living off campus, you will also be away from RA’s and not be surrounded by as many people like in the dorms. Always remember to be safe and make wise choices.
Finally, do not underestimate how often you will need to clean your apartment/ house. You no longer have just one side of a room to keep tidy like in the dorms. You probably have a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, and living room to keep clean, which is a much larger task to take on. Making a cleaning schedule is an effective way to stay on top of things and keep your living space from getting too dirty. My roommates and I like to break up the cleaning jobs each week to make it easier on everyone!
5. Make a Routine and Stick to It!
It can become easy to feel disconnected from campus life while living off campus.
Making a daily routine that gets you up and out of the apartment will help you to maintain social connections and set you up for success. One part of my routine is going to every single class, even if attendance is not necessarily required. It can be tempting to skip class because of the inconvenience of getting there. But, going to class will not only set you up for academic success, it will allow you to talk with peers in your classes. Another way I continue to keep social connections is by joining RSO’s. Although meetings for these usually are not every single week, occasionally going to the meeting will keep you in contact with the people in the group. This way you can make connections with them and even start to hang out with them outside of the RSO. Lastly, one of the biggest ways I have maintained social connections while living off campus is by studying with people in my classes. This could mean going to meet a group to study at Mullins, or there are even some people in my classes that live in the same apartment complex as me that we go and study in the study room the complex provides.
I hope these tips were helpful and good luck to everyone moving in in the fall!
