Having tried options, housing tips offered

Living off campus should be a required part of the student experience. Just like living with a roommate, you have to learn to negotiate and fend for yourself in many ways. Living off campus means no more relying on the Festival or D-hall to provide you with food when you're hungry. It means making sure bills are paid when they're due. It means a lot more cleaning (for some people) than just your bedroom. At some point in the near future, you will have to live on your own (read: not under your parents' roof) so why not learn to do so while you're in college?

Even though we may take Harrisonburg for granted sometimes, there's a lot of options for places to live when you're ready to move off campus. Sure, there's not all that much to do for fun, but when it comes to housing, there's more than enough. There are so many choices that for someone making this decision the first time, I'm sure it's overwhelming.

Well, I'm here to help. I'm not going to call myself an expert, but I have lived in numerous places, so I can explain some of the basics.

If you're planning on living off campus next year and haven't started looking yet, go look — now. The sooner you figure out where you want to live, the better. Many of the major apartment complexes are renewing leases beginning this month or next; if you don't have an idea where you want to live by February, you very well may not get the place you want.

Like I said, there are a lot of places to choose from and each place offers a unique experience. You could get a house near Downtown Harrisonburg. You could get a huge townhome in a place like Pheasant Run or Foxhill. You could get a cozy little apartment in one of the smaller complexes around the edges of JMU. Or you could choose from one of the many apartment complexes in what I like to call Collegeville.

Currently, I live in Collegeville, in a place you might recognize from such events as the Commons fire. Collegeville is comprised of the complexes of the Commons, Ashby, South View, Hunter's Ridge, Foxhill and Squire Hill. While I am a little unnerved at recent events, there are still a lot of benefits that some college students might find in living in apartment complexes like the Commons. Since that's where I'm currently living, I'll start here.

Apartment complexes, like the large ones that line Port Republic Road and Neff Avenue, are a great place for saving money. The Commons is similar to many other complexes' package deals and lease agreements. Currently, I only have to pay two bills: rent and electricity. It's nice getting free water, phone, cable and Internet. It's also really nice to live where all of my roommates share bedrooms on the same floor and along the same hallway. I think it's useful for becoming better friends. (It can also be more troublesome if you already have issues with your roommates from the start.) Because these apartments are located in what I call Collegeville, there's always something going on.

There are downsides to Collegeville, too. Because of the dense number of people, parking can be horrendous at times. If other people in your building throw parties but don't clean up after themselves, it can be annoying. Walking around broken bottles or vomit on a Saturday morning when your parents are visiting isn't exactly a Kodak moment. For lazy people like myself, walking to campus from home is not an option, so relying on the bus or rides is a must (unless you prefer to deal with campus parking which is an entirely separate issue). Loud parties at neighbors' apartments can be troublesome if you're trying to study or watch a movie with a few friends.

Say you're the quiet type. That's more what I am (sometimes). You'd probably prefer a townhouse along South Main Street or a house downtown. Why? Well, many of the houses or townhouses in these areas are not exclusively occupied by students. Living in a house downtown, you're much more likely to have a family or an older couple as neighbors, and you can bet they won't be throwing wild parties any time soon. You also might have less problems with parking and getting to campus. Closer to downtown, you'll have all the convenience of fun restaurants and, of course, Kline's Dairy Bar.
On the other hand, costs are a lot higher in a house. Most likely, you'll have to pay for all of your utilities and even find providers for some services. When I lived in a townhouse downtown, we had to find providers for cable, Internet and phone. It's not necessarily hard, but it can be a hassle if you don't research the choices. Some of the houses have extremely high rent and you'll have to live with a larger number of roommates in order to afford the house. Of course, many of those houses are larger and more accommodating as well.

In the middle of these two options are townhome complexes like Foxhill, Pheasant Run, Forest Hill and Squire Hill. These offer some of the best options of both sides with some compromises. You'll probably have to pay more for a good townhouse than for a good apartment, but less than a good house. Space is a lot greater in a townhouse than an apartment and parking generally isn't as bad. Most of the bigger townhouse complexes offer connections to the JMU network and have affordable cable/ Internet/phone packages. In most townhouses, your neighbors more than likely will be college students. This could be an advantage or disadvantage, depending on your preference.

Overall, there are a lot of choices in Harrisonburg, especially if you start looking early and know what you want. For those of you currently living on campus and contemplating living there again next year: there are certain benefits to living on campus, but you're not really living on your own if you're living in a dorm. Unless you're planning on living with your parents for the rest of your life, try to live off campus for at least one year while you're in college. It's a good way to learn more than you can in a classroom listening to another lecture.

Ste Grainer is a senior SMAD major who really thinks the best place to live is in the Duke Dog house.