Sound Off: Live On or Off Campus

Melanie Weingart lives in the Belmont with one roommate and pays about $625 per month plus utilities. The roommates each have their own bedroom and bathroom. She says, “The best part of living off campus is being able to cook your own meals or go out to eat and exploring Durham, also having your own living room.” To save money when renting, she suggests, “walking or taking the bus to school instead of buying a parking pass and also catching rides with the Shooters bus instead of paying for a cab.”

Andrew Pilling lives at Erwin Mill with two roommates, who pay $1,620 total each month. He suggests cooking to save money and notes that the best part of living off campus is “having your own space,” and the worst is “commuting to campus.”

Stephen Han lives in the Belmont with one roommate and pays about $630 in rent each month. He notes that it’s not as cheap to live off campus as some might think because of the added costs of a car, electricity, cable and internet, but cooking does save him money. He says, “Also, you really do need a car."

Sarah Bartleson lives in a house on Clarendon Street right off of East Campus. There are eight people in the house, each paying around $450 a month. She says the best part about living off campus is cooking because, as a vegan, she has more options. “It’s also been nice to be able to park right in front of my house,” she noted. She says having so many roommates is “messy – especially when people don’t do their assigned chores.” Before renting a house, she wishes she had known how many times they would need to call the handy-man. To save money, she suggests buying food in bulk from stores like Costco because “if you’re not careful, you could end up spending more than you would on campus.”

Grace Hopkins is living off campus after coming back from abroad, an option available to some lucky juniors. She lives at the Lofts at Lakeview complex with one roommate but will have three other roommates as a senior. She says she was sick of dorm life and wanted a getaway from campus, adding, “I wanted to live in a cleaner space that I could really make my own.”

She likes having kitchen appliances and complex amenities, like a gym and pool, that she does not have to share with so many other students. “I don’t think living on campus is a bad idea,” she says. “[But] you feel in charge of your own apartment and don’t have to be bogged down by Duke residence assistants and housing staff that are constantly watching over you.”