LIVING IN RICHMOND

Student Apartment Shopping (RELATED LINKS)

RELATED LINKS

VCU OFF-CAMPUS HOUSING SERVICES

http://www.usca.vcu.edu/offcampus/

RICHMOND APARTMENTS FOR RENT

http://richmond.apartments.com/

LONG AND FOSTER REAL ESTATE

http://www.longandfoster.com/index.aspx?FromParnter=true

APARTMENTS FOR VA COLLEGE STUDENTS

http://www.campusrent.com/virginia_apartments.cfm

Student Apartment Shopping

Student Apartment Shopping

Finding a Place to Live is Not as Hard as Some May Think

(RICHMOND, December 3) Last spring, Cheryl Johnson did what many rising sophomores do each year. She began the search for her first apartment.

Johnson was overwhelmed in the pursuit of her dream apartment. Like many students, she wanted to find the perfect place, at a low cost with a short commute to campus.

“As long as it was walking distance,” said Johnson. “I knew that if it was too far and too cold, I would miss a lot of classes.”

With more than 32,000 students, VCU is currently the largest four-year university in the state of Virginia. With such a large student population, many of Richmond’s residents are college students.

Finding that first apartment can be stressful, but VCU’s Off-Campus Student Services Office can help students and parents take that initial step to independence.

Martha Harper, VCU’s supervisor of Information and Off Campus Student Services, supports off-campus living.

“Students who move off-campus feel a certain sense of freedom,” says Harper. “But people are usually hot or cold to the idea. There are a few that are luke-warm, you either want to live off campus or you want to live on.”

The common misconception with off-campus housing is that students do not want to live off-campus and are only forced to when on-campus housing is not available. Harper says that is usually not the case, and most students who live off-campus choose to do so.

Elizabeth Leatherland, a sophomore at VCU, changed her mind about wanting to live on-campus after experiencing the freedom of moving into her own apartment this year.

“I did apply to [VCU’s] housing lottery my freshman year,” said Elizabeth Leatherland, a sophomore. “But now that I live off-campus, I could never go back to a student apartment.”

Students are not the only ones worried about finding an apartment. Parents can sometimes be more anxious than their child about their well-being.

“My mom was a little hesitant about getting me a place off campus,” Johnson explained. “She wanted to come down and look at whatever place I was considering to make sure it wasn't ground level, to look for where I would park my car, and how close it was to campus.”

According to Harper, off-campus student services got many phone calls from stressed parents so they moved their station from the student commons Information Desk to their own kiosk down the hall.

“Ten percent of our customers are parents,” says Harper. “Ninety percent of them start their conversation off with, ‘I’m really upset my child can’t live in a dorm.’”

When parents call the Off-Campus housing desk, they can speak with student-employees who, Harper boasts, are very knowledgeable of the off-campus housing process. They are able to assure parents. After speaking with a representative, many parent’s nerves are calmed.

Students often pressure one another to find a place too far in advance. They also feel obligated by their parents to hurry up and get housing before it is ‘too late.’ According to Harper, the best time to actively look for an apartment is three months before you want to move in.

“I’ve never known a shortage of off-campus housing,” says Harper. “If you start looking in February, landlords don’t know what’s available yet. It’s just too soon.”

Although VCU’s off-campus student services are very helpful, some students receive help through other means.

“I got a real-estate agent in Fredericksburg at the end of Spring semester last year,” said Leatherland. “She helped me find a place that fit my needs in time.”

Parents will often pay extremely high prices for apartments that are right on campus. They worry about the safety of their children and the commute they will have to make each day. But there are many neighborhoods close to campus where the VCU Escort Service, a free shuttle ride during the night hours, runs.

During the day, students can walk together to and from campus from The Fan and Oregon Hill which are popular neighborhoods just off of the VCU campus.

Harper also runs a program each year called “Moving On, Moving Out” which focuses on the major concerns of finding a place to live.

“We do a lot about safety,” says Harper. “We want to help students find a place and there is plenty of housing. They just don’t need to box themselves in to much by having too many wishes on what their dream apartment will be.”

As for Johnson, it was simply having her own space that was most appealing. “Living off-campus is good because you don’t have to sign people in,” said Johnson. “You can also choose your roommate, and your boyfriend or girlfriend can stay as long as you want. And of course there’s privacy.”

On-Campus Housing at VCU

HOUSING IS NATIONWIDE CRISIS AND VCU HEADACHE

VCU Students also find it difficult to find a place to live

(RICHMOND, October 31) The nation’s housing crisis has forced many Americans into bankruptcies and foreclosures resulting in many Americans losing their homes. While Virginia Commonwealth University students may not be forced into such drastic measures, some will be experiencing a housing crisis of their own.

Although VCU students are only halfway through the fall semester, many are already thinking about where they will live next fall.

Why must students think about housing nearly a half a year in advance? VCU simply has too many students and not enough housing. Six high-occupancy freshmen-only dorms feed into VCU’s only five upper-classmen residence halls.

Another reason for the limited number of spaces available in on-campus housing is VCU has recently become the largest populated university in Virginia. More students are becoming interested in VCU’s programs so more are accepting admission.

“Out of an applicant pool of about 16,000, usually 65 percent are admitted,” said Ernesto Obando, a counselor in VCU’s admissions office. “We only expect a third of those who are admitted to accept our offer. But in the past few years, more students have become interested in VCU and more are saying yes than we expect.”

In February of each spring semester, VCU begins its housing lottery. Students sign up in January and are given a number at random. During the lottery, students sign up for housing in order of their number.

Last year’s lottery had more than 2,000 students scheduled to sign up over a weekend. By the time number 500 was able to sign up, there were no more rooms for females available. By the end of the first day, the Housing website posted there were no available rooms.

The lottery process overwhelms many freshmen, like Tony Butler. "Last year I thought that VCU's housing lottery was so terrible,” said Butler, now a sophomore. “I thought that it was not right for a school to not a have enough dorms for all of its students.”

“What made it worse,” Butler continued, “is that I had to call to housing every other day after [the lottery] was over and find out if anyone had dropped their contract so that I could take their spot.”

A petition was even started on the internet after the housing lottery of 2007 which indicates that the problem has been going on for years.

Students wrote statements such as, “The lottery process is totally unfair and doesn't take any financial or geographical issues into account,” and “It is really unfortunate for those who are out of state because they are obviously being stressed about this issue.”

Although housing on campus is scarce, the growth of the VCU population is not frowned upon by all students.

“I’m glad our school is getting recognized,” said Thomas Wooldridge, a junior, in a raised voice over the noisy student commons. “But with a bigger student population, we need bigger accommodations.”

To many students, the answer is simply to build more residence halls. But the problem is not so simple.

“People don’t see what goes on behind the scenes,” said Rodney Hall, an admissions advisor at VCU. “VCU has been doing things to accommodate our growing population, like expanding both campuses.”

There are efforts being made to accommodate the large student population at VCU. But many students want to know how quickly they can expect changes.

“I think we will continue to add more housing to meet the demand,” said Tim Coffey coordinator for residential education (CRE) for Rhoads and Brandt Hall dormitories at VCU. “I’m just not sure how quickly this will occur because you can only build so quickly and not run into a great deal of debt.”

Many students choose to live off-campus after their freshman year. Although some students are forced to move off-campus, many would rather have the freedoms of their own apartments and avoid the hassle of the housing lottery altogether.

“I like living off-campus,” said sophomore Cheryl Johnson. “It’s like actually being an adult. You don’t have people watching over you like in the dorms.”