{"id":1157,"date":"2010-12-21T08:45:55","date_gmt":"2010-12-21T13:45:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/?p=1157"},"modified":"2017-11-19T17:36:26","modified_gmt":"2017-11-19T22:36:26","slug":"home-sweet-home-wherever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/?p=1157","title":{"rendered":"Home sweet home wherever"},"content":{"rendered":"

University is expensive, no matter how you look at it. <\/span><\/p>\n

As record high tuition collides with a turbulent economy,\u00a0 rising student debt is becoming a way of life.<\/p>\n

When students and their families crunch these growing\u00a0 costs, living arrangements top the list of expenses.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>It’s a smaller and familiar community in residence.<\/span><\/p>\n

Should students live off campus or in residence?<\/p>\n

The answer can have a deep impact on\u00a0 their bank accounts.<\/p>\n

Being part of Carleton\u2019s residence community can cost anywhere from from $8,000 to $10,500, which includes the student\u2019s room and board for eight months, a meal plan, the convenience of being on campus and the all-so-memorable university experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cLiving on campus is a blast, not to mention very beneficial,\u201d says current resident Sarah Daly. \u201cBut residence is really expensive and easy to live on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Daly, along with 2,870 other members of the residence community, enjoys the pleasures of waking up on campus just minutes away from class,\u00a0 not having to cook, the gym and a central transportation hub that connects her home to the rest of the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s simple,\u201d says Wanda Bochert, accommodations services assistant at Carleton University. \u201cYou pay for convenience.\u201d<\/p>\n

But is convenience worth this hefty tab?<\/p>\n

Daly, like the majority of students finishing first year, just signed a one-year lease to secure an off-campus house for next year.<\/p>\n

She is paying $4,800.00 for the year, which breaks down to a net cost of $400.00 per month plus utilities.<\/p>\n

Comparing these figures to her residence fees, which averaged out to $1,000 per month, it does not take a mathematician to figure out she has substantially cut her a major element of her living\u00a0 costs.<\/p>\n

But more factors come into play.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you can balance out the cost of rent, the cost of groceries and transportation, the comparison becomes much closer,\u201d says Bochert.<\/p>\n

According to Bochert, students are notorious for spending as little as possible on groceries, adopting the infamous student diet.<\/p>\n

With the price of bus passes going up, students are\u00a0 spending up to $110 a month on transportation.<\/p>\n

Do you really need a table and chairs?<\/span><\/p>\n

But now that Daly is sheltered, fed and has a means of transportation, she has to take the price tag of furnishing her new pad into consideration.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just living off campus, but its setting yourself up to live off campus gets expensive,\u201d says former residence fellow Ellen Mauro, who spent her entire undergrad living on residence.<\/p>\n

Daly must buy a bed, desk, and some furniture and kitchen utensils – items all included in residence.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would probably balance itself out in a way. Not having to buy extra furniture, bus passes and groceries can add up,\u201d says Mauro.<\/p>\n

According to Daly, living\u00a0 in residence is like living in a bubble where sleeping, eating, studying and socializing happen in the same captive area.<\/p>\n

But\u00a0 there is an opportunity to save.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think residence is necessarily more expensive,\u201d says Mauro. \u201cI know the numbers say it is, but there is less temptation to spend money spontaneously.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Not like the world outside campus.<\/span><\/p>\n

If everything is\u00a0 on site and prepaid, the\u00a0 that can limit the opportunity for spending extra money.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s shocking how much money I spend on little things I used to take for granted living on residence,\u201d says Chris Bracnik, who has lived off campus for the last three years. \u201cCable and internet, eating out and keeping my apartment clean add up.\u201d<\/p>\n

While every off-campus student has to\u00a0 pay these\u00a0 bills, those who choose\u00a0 universities in Ottawa face higher costs than in other cities.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost university cities just don\u2019t pay the rent we do here in Ottawa,\u201d says Bochert. \u201cLandlords have raised the bar, and people are paying for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking at other Ontario university cities like Guelph, Kingston, Oshawa and Thunder Bay, rent prices can be as\u00a0 little as 50 per cent\u00a0 less than in Ottawa. co
\nNeedless to say, residence fees across the province are very much the same.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn residence you make those connections that allow you to move off campus. That gives you the roommate, those housemates and those memories,\u201d says Bochert. \u201cThat is priceless.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

University is expensive, no matter how you look at it. As record high tuition collides with a turbulent economy,\u00a0 rising<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[232],"class_list":["post-1157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal-finance-2010","tag-kyle-palantzas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1157"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4349,"href":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1157\/revisions\/4349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}