Not By The Hair of My Chinny Chin Chin Part 2

Many students for a number of reasons, need to find—gasp—an apartment. This sounds like a big deal and it can definitely feel overwhelming if you are young, without credit, and worrying about when your financial aid money is going to come. The solution to this problem goes back to developing relationships. Often students find housing the same way people find jobs now--networking. This is where your efforts to connect with different campus organizations will help you. Start early in the spring semester telling people that you are looking for off-campus housing.  The more people who know that you are looking, the better.

Start saving early.  You will need money for your first months rent and for a security deposit. A security deposit is money the landlord hangs onto until you move out; it’s the landlord’s “security” against you breaking or damaging something in the apartment.  

To make sure you get the security deposit back when you move out, I suggest two things: 1. Don’t break or damage anything! (You are allowed what is called “normal wear". In other words, the carpet doesn’t have to be perfect, but it shouldn’t look like you re-built a Harley on it either.) 2. Take your smartphone, or borrow a camera with a date stamp capability, and just before you move in, walk through the apartment and take photos.  Make sure the date stamp feature is turned on. You can take a reliable friend with you too as a witness that you took the photos on that day.  Take pictures of the general condition of the apartment and especially any damage. This way you will be able to show the landlord later that this damage existed before you got there.

Besides money, the other thing you may need  is a co-signer. This is someone who has good rental and/or credit history and is willing to sign the lease along with you. Your co-signer is on the hook for paying the rent if you flake, which of course, you are never going to do.

Often landlords or apartment management companies want to begin the lease before the school year starts.  You will need to pay up front for the first month's rent and deposit often before financial aid comes to you in the fall.  Again, this is one of the advantages to living in a dorm.  The school will defer (put off) your housing payment for your dorm until financial aid money clears.  In other words, you can move in without having paid as of yet.  This same principle won't work for off-campus housing. This doesn’t mean you can’t do it but you will have to plan ahead.  

Remember, it was the smart little piggy that planned ahead, put in the extra work, and built her house out of brick.  That Beast could huff and puff all he wanted, and she was still safe and warm, studying for her biology final.

Not By the Hair of My Chinny Chin Chin Part 1

Remember the story of the Three Little Pigs?  There were three pigs. And one wolf.  Each pig built a house out of a different material.  The first built her house out of straw.  The second out of sticks.  Needless to say, the first two pigs didn't survive a visit from the wolf.  The last little pig was smart and built her house out of bricks. 

To tame the college beast you must build your housing out of bricks--metaphorically speaking. You want the strongest solution for you. 

Securing housing varies for every student because every student has different needs and every school has different housing options. If you live at home, you are lucky. I know it might not feel like that when your mom or grandpa or auntie is telling you that you better get your hiney into bed as if you were still five year's old. But it is very nice to have the security of  home during college and is one of the many benefits of attending a community college. For other students, living at home is not an option and even if it were they'd rather live on a park bench than live at home. You know who you are.

Many schools have dorms but the truth is more and more schools—if they provide housing at all—only guarantee it for the first year. (No worries.  My next post will cover off campus housing.) At schools that provide housing past the first year some students are content to commit to a second year of dorm life.

Here is my highly scientific formula for dorm happiness:

cool roommate(s) + respect+ common interests + common educational goals = dorm happiness. 

Notice nothing in the equation says anything about the size of the room or whether the shower is down the hall or if the dorm was built in 1921 or 2012. Dorm happiness has everything to do with relationships. This is one of the great benefits of dorm life. You learn how to get along with people, all different kinds of people, just like you will when you go into the working world. 

So, if you find you find yourself at home or in a dorm, be thankful that it's one of the strongest brick houses of them all. And when the wolf says, "Little pig, little pig.  Let me come in. Or I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house in." 

You can say to the beast, "Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin."

 Or there's always the classic California response, "Whatever, Dude."

Next post?  House of Bricks Part 2