College is supposed to be one of the best times of your life. You can finally get out of your parent’s home and do your own thing. So one of the main questions is where to live.
Living in a dorm your first year is supposed to be part of the college experience. Students seem to buy that.
“Res Halls are much more than just a place to live on campus,” said elementary education junior and resident assistant Daisha Washington. “They offer a sense of unity and much more on-hand resources, especially for first year students, than off-campus does.”
Aside from being a freshman on campus, housing is convenient for people who don’t have a car or are just plain lazy. But, for the amount of money on campus housing costs compared to the condition of some dorms and apartments, why would anyone want to live on campus? It’s not worth it.
My freshman year, I paid $2,750 per semester to live in a dump called McVoy Hall. My mom’s middle aged coworker lived in the same hall when she was at LSU, and McVoy looked like it hadn’t been renovated since then. It didn’t have a front desk, and the lobby housed a hideous big back TV for our entertainment. At least “Dirty Herg” had a flat screen and a Wii in their lobby. The bathrooms looked like something out of a horror movie with around 40 girls sharing nine shower stalls and even less toilets.
My sophomore year, I moved to East Campus Apartments. “Wow, this is nice,” I thought when I first moved in.
Yeah right. The bedroom was the size of a closet, the stove burners were leaning sideways, the furniture looked like it came from the 1950s and, even though I was in an apartment, I still had a twin-sized bed.
Junior year, you would think I learned my lesson. Nope. I am paying $3,830 per semester to live in a three-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment which LSU kindly failed to mention was wheelchair accessible. My living room is a third of the size it was at ECA, I have no cabinets in my bathroom, hardly any cabinet space in the kitchen and cabinets so low I can’t fit any appliances under them. I also have an ant problem. Sure, my room is twice as big, but I still have that twin-sized bed.
If you count from August to May, my rent is equivalent to $766 a month. I can go to the Woodlands and get a room in a three-bedroom apartment with a full-sized bed, spacious living area, swimming pool, newer appliances and other nice amenities for $665 a month. Granted, not all utilities are included, but with Baton Rouge’s biggest swimming pool in your backyard, who cares?
Political science and philosophy junior Toni Coaston, who lives in University Edge, said the big difference for her parents was cost.
“I spend less for 12 months here than for the two semesters on campus,” Coaston said. “But for me, the bigger difference is the amount of living space. My room is twice as big and the kitchen has newer appliances.”
So is trading a few hundred dollars for “the ultimate college experience” really worth it? I am totally in agreement that living on campus your freshman year adds to your college experience. But with the current condition and high prices of some of LSU’s on campus housing choices, I would be careful where I choose to live. Many off campus housing options offer a more enjoyable living experience for more convenient prices.
Taylor Simien is a 20-year-old mass communication junior from Lafayette.