Your Notebook Is The Least Of Your Worries Right Now

Define Your Goals

First ask yourself, "What am I looking for in student housing?" If the answer is convenience of local proximity to school and you don't mind paying extra, on-campus housing is your best bet. If privacy and extra-curricular activities are your thing than you need to get your own place off-campus so you don't risk getting booted out of school.

Try And Live On-Campus

I don't care if you're an 11-year old genius who's starting their freshman year or a 50-year old soccer mom who is finally seeing her dream of a college degree, you need to live on campus. Let me explain.

You're going to get a lot more out of school if you live on campus. You'll stay later...not be in a rush to beat traffic. It's a whole different experience when compared to a 'commuter student' and that whole mentality of being sort of a part-timer...even though you're carrying a full load of credits. It's weird. Live on campus. Trust me.

Use A Property Management Company

When you want to find property managers in your college town, first you need to do some research. Do you plan on trying to get more people to live in the house than you put on paper? Go with a mom-and-pop property management company. If you want a nice place, then go with a big-named property manager.

Team Up

Carpooling is out of the picture if you live on-campus but off-campus carpooling has a big advantage. You'll save hundreds EACH TERM when you don't have to get a parking pass for every car in the house. Granted, you'll need to have some patience and expect to come and go home at predetermined times and that can make a work schedule nearly impossible. So, teaming up for the purposes of car pooling is hard in terms of scheduling and your willingness to get home.

But, teaming up with roommates for off-campus housing is your key to a great off-campus life. If you want to get 6 or more people to go-in on it even better. Sneak the extra friends in without putting them on the lease. It makes it much easier that way if you ever need to kick them out plus you'll save the headache of trying to go through your Property Management company and hoping he gets accepted. Plus, with 6-8 people coming and going to class, you always have new stories coming into the house.

House Smells

Keep your place smelling nice by using air fresheners or buy Scentsy and put in a system so that your guests won't die of noxious fumes and your place won't smell like ass/fart. Scentsy is a new thing where you melt scented wax and the nice smells fills the house. Quite effective!

Conclusion

When you team up, your bills go down to almost nothing and if your name's on the lease, you're the King/Queen of the house and get the big bedroom, make the rules, and be the leader of your domain.