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College Survival Strategies: Studying When You Live Off Campus
Living in a dorm may have been your first roommate experience, and it took some getting used to, but you managed. Now you’re ready to move off campus.
Let’s say—hypothetically speaking—that you and your best friend want to sublease an apartment close to campus. It will take four of you to afford the apartment, and you’ve found a couple of people that you both think will be compatible. You’ve all signed the papers, and you’re moving in. Living off campus is not the same as living in the dorms, and there are a couple of things you need to think about.
Establishing Rules
When you live off campus, there aren’t any pre-established rules, and there isn’t anybody to help you sort out conflicts. You’re on your own. One of the first things you’ve got to do is have a group conversation and sort out expectations and rules. Be sure to discuss what happens when someone doesn’t follow through, too. For instance, if someone doesn’t pay his portion of the rent on time, what will happen? Don’t be naïve and assume everybody will do her part and everything will be just fine.
One of the most important things to make sure you’re all on the same page about is studying. Each of you will have to compromise and make some concessions about your own study preferences in order to come to a solution that works best for all of you.
Study Tips
Once you and your roommates have hammered out the rules, you’ll need to figure out how you will study in this new environment. Here are some ideas that may help.
- If noise is a problem for you while you’re studying, use earplugs. If you like noise while you’re studying, use headphones.
- Respect your roommates’ study times and expect them to respect yours. It’s helpful if you can establish quiet times when everybody can study (or sleep).
- Communicate, communicate, communicate. Don’t let things simmer and poison your roommate relationships. If something bothers you while you’re trying to study, address it respectfully.
- Communicate with your roommates about tests and papers, too. If you’re going to be extra stressed and need extra study time, let everyone know.
- Form study groups with your roommates…and with other students. Determine to help each other out as much as possible.
- Figure out alternate places to study when your apartment is too (noisy, quiet, crowded or whatever) for you.
- Be disciplined in your own study habits. When you’re living off campus, in your own apartment, it’s easy to get distracted. You are responsible for your studying, not your roommates.
This may be the first time you’ve lived off campus, or you may have done it before. In either case, the biggest keys to living successfully with room mates are to establish the ground rules and communicate about everything.
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