Mov­ing Up: The First Step

The First Step! 

Col­lege; a time of un­for­get­table ex­pe­ri­ences, find­ing your­self, mak­ing friends, and study­ing for classes all while try­ing to fig­ure out life. At this point in your jour­ney, if you are read­ing this, then you have al­ready ac­com­plished the first few years by your­self or are cu­ri­ous for what the fu­ture could hold. But nev­er­the­less, the jour­ney is far from over. As you ad­vance into the later years of school and have be­come com­fort­able in the sur­round­ings of cam­pus, it’s only nat­ural to look for a new change. The ex­cit­ing new­ness of dorm life had be­gun to wear off and wait­ing in line for a dryer no longer seems ap­peal­ing. Fresh­men run­ning down the hall­way scream­ing at 3am is­n’t funny any­more and the idea of hav­ing your own room seems like a dream. So, what’s the next step? Mov­ing off cam­pus?? Get­ting an apart­ment?? How scary does that sound? Where to even start or be­gin to look? Well luck­ily for you, this blog has the an­swers. Con­sider this your best friend and guide to mov­ing off cam­pus, mak­ing the process smooth and easy (or as easy as mov­ing can be). In this ar­ti­cle, Mov­ing Up, we will cover every­thing needed to know about mov­ing off cam­pus, from apart­ments to rent to sim­ple meals to make in your very own kitchen! 

The de­ci­sion to move off cam­pus is easy but fig­ur­ing out where to go af­ter that is­n’t. When do­ing a sim­ple Google search, hun­dreds of apart­ment com­plexes ap­pear. It can take hours to de­ci­pher through which com­plexes should even be con­sid­ered. To start off it is a good idea to ask your­self a ba­sic list of ques­tions to be able to cre­ate an idea of what type of apart­ment you are look­ing for. Some ques­tions to con­sider are: 

• What apart­ment com­plexes are most com­mon for Maryville Stu­dents?  

• Who do I want to live with? Do I want to live by my­self? 

• How far do I want to com­mute? 

• What is my price range?

What area of STL do you want to live in? What are the safest ar­eas? 

What apart­ment com­plexes are most com­mon for Maryville Stu­dents? 

When apart­ment hunt­ing, Maryville Stu­dents typ­i­cally look at com­plexes close to cam­pus and are col­lege stu­dent friendly. How­ever, since MU is in STL, it is com­mon for stu­dents to be found across mul­ti­ple com­plexes. A few com­mon places in­clude Whis­per­ing Hills Apart­ments , Wa­ter­front Cross­ing Apart­ments, Cove West Apart­ments, Vi­cino on the Lake Apart­ments, and Aven­tura at Mary­land Oaks. Al­though it is up to you to de­cide which would be the best fit for you and the apart­ment com­plex that will feel like your new home!  

Who do I want to live with? Do I want to live by my­self? 

Al­though all the ques­tions pro­vided above are im­por­tant, these ques­tions shape the path of your apart­ment-hunt­ing jour­ney. Do you need a 1 bed­room, 2 bed­room, 3 bed­rooms, etc.? Take the time to de­cide if liv­ing with your friends truly is the best op­tion or would you ben­e­fit from liv­ing alone? Liv­ing with a friend can cre­ate in­cred­i­ble mem­o­ries and growth within the friend­ship. How­ever, the tran­si­tion from sim­ply hang­ing out with some­one to liv­ing with them can bring chal­lenges and dif­fi­cul­ties that were not there pre­vi­ously. Even if you al­ready spend “every mo­ment to­gether” there are still things that you may not know about each other. On the flip side, there is the op­tion to live alone or with a ran­dom room­mate. When con­sid­er­ing this op­tion, it is im­por­tant to think about if you are men­tally able to live alone and han­dle all the re­spon­si­bil­i­ties by your­self. Be­ing alone can seem ex­cit­ing, but is it ben­e­fi­cial over­all for you? 

How far do I want to com­mute?  

 To have full hon­esty with this ques­tion, the de­ci­sion is­n’t en­tirely based on your opin­ion. In re­al­ity we all would love to be 5 to 10 min­utes away from cam­pus, how­ever find­ing an apart­ment com­plex that checks all your boxes as well as has avail­abil­ity, and a 5-minute com­mute is dif­fi­cult. I would rec­om­mend ex­pand­ing the range to at least 15 to 20 min­utes, to open your se­lec­tion. When look­ing at list of prin­ci­pal fac­tors to con­sider when de­cid­ing an apart­ment, the com­mute should­n’t be a strong “make or break” when de­cid­ing to rent there. Mag­gie Rent­fro (ju­nior; fif­teen-minute com­mute), a new com­muter, said, “Al­though orig­i­nally I wanted to be closer to cam­pus, I ended up lov­ing hav­ing time be­fore and af­ter class to de­com­press be­fore start­ingng in to home­work or goi work.” An­other com­muter, Sloane Medows (grad stu­dent; 10-minute com­mute), said, “ “The com­mute to school has al­lowed me to learn how to man­age my time bet­ter and has pre­pared me for my cur­rent ca­reer.” 

What is my price range? 

It is­n’t a sur­prise, that apart­ment com­plexes are ex­pen­sive, es­pe­cially in the St. Louis area. Or if you were not aware, this is your wake-up call. De­cid­ing your bud­get for rent is a key fac­tor in de­ter­min­ing where you want to live. Prices can range from $1,200 to $1,800 a month and are de­ter­mined by the apart­ment com­plex it­self, num­ber of beds and baths, style of apart­ment, and lo­ca­tion. When look­ing for the best deals it is ex­tremely im­por­tant to re­search! Two apart­ment com­plexes have sim­i­lar prices for rent, but one might be nicer/​more ac­com­mo­dat­ing com­pared to the other. 

The prices cur­rently listed for a two-bed; two-bath apart­ment is:  

• Whis­per­ing Hills Apart­ments: $1,805 

• Wa­ter­front Cross­ing Apart­ments: $1,075 

• Cove West Apart­ments: $1,495 

• Vi­cino on the Lake: $1,920 

• Aven­tura at Mary­land Oaks: $1,800 

*Prices are sub­ject to change through­out the year and may not be the same as listed cur­rently 

What area of STL do you want to live in? What are the safest ar­eas? 

Safety should be an im­por­tant fac­tor in de­ter­min­ing which apart­ment com­plex to live in. No one wants to come home af­ter a long day at school or work and not be able to un­wind com­fort­ably in their home. This is why it is im­por­tant to visit the com­plexes you are con­sid­er­ing get­ting a per­sonal feel for the area. As a twenty-year-old girl, who just moved off cam­pus, some top ar­eas I rec­om­mend in­clude Creve Core, Chester­field, Town and Coun­try, and Mary­land Heights. 

What’s Next?

Af­ter re­search­ing apart­ments, it’s im­por­tant to make a list of your top choices and to sched­ule apart­ment tours. To find the place that best suits you, go to mul­ti­ple lo­ca­tions! Like on­line dat­ing, pic­tures can only tell you so much about an apart­ment com­plex. I rec­om­mend sched­ul­ing a tour di­rectly from the apart­ment com­plex’s web­site, rather than us­ing an al­ter­na­tive source, such as apart­ment.com. Be­low are listed some gold star tips to lead you through the process of sched­ul­ing and at­tend­ing the tour! 

• Act pro­fes­sional both when con­tact­ing the com­plex and dur­ing the tour 

• Be sure to dress nice on the tour (think of it like a job in­ter­view) 

• Don’t be afraid to ask ques­tions! (come with a list pre­pared) 

• Ques­tions to ask on a tour  

• What util­i­ties are in­cluded/​not in­cluded in rent  

• What is the length of the lease? 

• Are there any spe­cial dis­counts or move-in of­fers? 

• What is the guest pol­icy? 

• What does the avail­abil­ity of the apart­ments look like? Is there a wait­list?  

• How do main­te­nance re­quests work?  

• Make sure to bring your ID with you on the tour 

Tak­ing the move off cam­pus is a sig­nif­i­cant mo­ment in many col­lege stu­dents’ lives. It’s ex­cit­ing, nerve-rack­ing, and anx­i­ety-filled all at once. But re­ally, all you can do is take it one step at a time. Be­cause al­though get­ting the apart­ment is just the first step, there is much more that comes with it. To re­cap, first con­sider the ques­tions: What apart­ment com­plexes are most com­mon for Maryville Stu­dents, who do I want to live with? Do I want to live by my­self? How far do I want to com­mute? What is my price range, and What area of STL do you want to live in? What are the safest ar­eas? Then, af­ter re­search­ing and de­cid­ing which apart­ments are your top choices, sched­ule a tour and re­mem­ber the gold star tips (found above) when at­tend­ing the tour. DONE! It’s that sim­ple! Con­grat­u­la­tions on your new apart­ment! (or fu­ture apart­ment). 

Want­ing to know more? Check back to Mov­ing Up for more need-to-know con­tent about life off cam­pus and to learn about the next step!