Debunking the Off-Campus Myth
You’ll hear the same thing from all the Cornell students. “Living off-campus is cheaper,” they say, citing the outrageous cost of a single room on campus, as well as the prohibitively high cost of dining. “$12 for dinner is too much to pay,” you think. What you don’t know is that living off campus can actually be more expensive.
Start with a single studio room in the south end of c-town. $625 / month, with a $300 deposit. Compare that to $6,645 for a single on North, over 10 months you only save $395, and you have to put up that deposit up front. Many rooms in central collegetown cost over $800 a month, especially in Collegetown Plaza, Eddygate, or 312. Then you have to pay utilities. Gas & Electric from NYSEG will set you back another $160 deposit if you stay for less than 6 months–and cost you around $60 / month, depending on the size of your room, the temperature outside, and your need to be warm. In Ithaca, you need to stay warm. Internet is another $30 / month, if you’re lucky, with a one-time installation cost of another $30. You’ll also need a telephone. Cellphones are popular off campus, and start at $30 / month for a basic plan.
Add all this up, and housing off-campus begins to look prohibitively expensive:
Monthly cost:
- $625, for rent
- $60, for heat and electric
- $30, for internet
- $30, for telephone
Total monthly cost: $745. Over 10 months: $7450. This is if you’re lucky, not counting about $500 in deposits and one-time fees. Living in collegetown for 10 months will cost you $805 more than living on campus. That’s 12% more, if you’re lucky enough to get one of those rare 10-month leases. If you can’t, and have to find a 12-month lease, living in off-campus housing will cost you $8940, 35% more than living in Cornell housing.
For some, living off-campus is actually cheaper, but for most–without careful cost-management–it will be an expensive proposition. Stick with oncampus housing if you can tolerate it. You’ll save a lot of money.
| This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 4th, 2005 at 3:05 pm and is tagged with cornell students, c town, nyseg, time fees, time installation, cost management, debunking, 10 months, single room, cellphones, collegetown plaza, ithaca, leases, myth, eddygate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback. |
6 Responses to “Debunking the Off-Campus Myth”
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My situation, on Stewart Ave., living in a 5 bedroom duplex apartment:
$500/mo for 10 months
$500 down
$12/mo electric
Gas paid by landlord
$10 on a shared cell plan (alright, does not apply to everyone)
$12/mo intern
And food costs roughly a quarter to make yourself (my average is $2/meal/person, which could definitely go down, but we eat well. Any 14 was over $8/meal in 2004.)
You’re lucky to be living a little farther away from the heart of c-town with lower rent and a 10-month lease. You also get to share all your food and utility costs with your 4 other roomates, which helps a lot. Good job on finding cheap housing!
Why don’t you compare living in 312 College Ave with on campus housing? You can tell everyone to live on campus, and college town will be deserted.
For me, off campus housing is so much cheaper and nicer (more quite, too!!). You can invite several friends over whenever you want.
This article borders on the rediculous. At best, it’s a straw-man attack. A studio apartment in collegetown is the most expensive possible off-campus housing option.
You can still have a ’single’ bedroom, but live in a 3-, 4-, or even 6-person apartment/house, where everyone gets their own room. These options are worlds cheaper (Sometimes by almost a factor of 2 less than the quoted price!)
Most people in the dorms (At least 2/3 by my reckoning) already have cell phones. So that cost can’t be thought of as ‘off campus’. And lots of apartments offer free internet, and free or discounted parking (saving you between $100 and $600 off of maintaining a car on campus!)
And you neglect to do the math on food. $12/dinner is too much to pay. If four people buy together and cook together, meals can be as low as $2-$3/each per person. You save hundreds on food by operating your own stove and microwave. Yes, you could do that in the dorm. But realistically, it’d be difficult because of food theft from the public fridge (Required to hold gallon containers of milk, etc), plus you’d need to get creative on storing cooking wares in your dorm room.
If you live in a fraternity or cooperative society, housing and meals can be even less.
My math:
$500/month (rent; a safe average)
$25/month (heat; what I actually pay)
$0 phone (I had it already courtesy of folks; same as most kids)
$0 internet (free with apartment)
$100/month (food costs; roughly what I pay, including beer)
x 10 months = $6250/total school year
Even if you had a full-year lease, that will run you $1000 more for the two summer months, or a total $7250.
2004-2005 cost of living in a double on campus and eating the Any 7 meal plan: $8200/year
Conclusion: The initial premise “living off campus *can* be more expensive” is true. That having been said, I think 95% of people who live off-campus save measurable amounts of money ($500 at the low end, upwards of $2000 if you live smart and frugally enough!).
Aaron,
Really, the deciding factor is not the type of room, but rather the location. Shared high-density housing in the center of collegetown is even more expensive than my studio several blocks away. Food is not something I considered when I wrote this, because of the huge variance in food costs. While it’s true that you can actually save money living off campus, it’s more likely that you’ll spend more to get equivalent service with the dorms. If you don’t mind cooking for yourself and friends, walking inordinate distances, living in sketchy housing, etc., then perhaps it *is* cheaper living off campus.
In Ithaca, as well as elsewhere, you tend to get what you pay for.
Why would compare a studio to on-campus housing? More realistically you would compare say a 5 or 6 room apartment with singles to a single in a dorm in one of the houses.
At, for example, Ctown Plaza, which is already close to campus, a 6 room apartment with singles is also 625 a month, including internet, heat and water.
Also, most people already have phones/would have a phone for other reasons, so adding it to a cost of living off campus is somewhat redundant for most people looking for housing.
Of course it’s not to say that you could be living more expensively in Collegetown – but most people are not looking for studios in 312, those who do are the exceptions.
I would say living in Ctown is generally somewhat cheaper (not necessarily by much – but it is possible to save alot if one is willing to sacrifice location, etc.)