Why You Should Live in a Student Complex in Tallahasee

Upgrades!

Ah, I miss living in a student complex. My perfectly curated little apartment inside a “cottage” a few miles from campus was gorgeous and certainly makes my current adult apartment look like a shabby little shack. If you’re considering moving from a dorm into one of these complexes, or if you need some help convincing your parents it’s better than a one-room dorm, read on!

Better Value

An FSU dorm which costs about $3,850 a semester, with a yearly price of $7,700. Living in an on-campus dorm comes with the perks of living on campus and…that’s it. In perusing student complexes with a similar yearly price range (including those two extra fun summer months,) you can usually find a complex that includes your own bathroom, or at least a bathroom you share with only one other person instead of three.

In referencing my own experience, the student complex I lived in with comparable pricing to dorms and always knew that apartment was going to be the most luxurious place I ever lived until I got well into my career. My bedroom in that apartment was bigger than my childhood bedroom, and it was the first time in my life I had a private bathroom. While living there, I also had access to amenities like a pool, a gym, study rooms, free Starbucks coffee in the clubhouse, and access to an FSU bus stop. I also had a walk-in closet, which very quickly became a crawl-in closet.  Of course, if you’re an FSU student, you can always use on campus amenities such as studying in the library or working out at the Leach, but I think using the amenities at your apartment complex are a better bet as they’re usually empty.

Regardless of which student complex you choose to live in, I’m 99% sure you’re looking at ones that come with those amenities. I loved the amenities that came with my last apartment. I rarely used them, but when I did, they were awesome. I liked studying in the clubhouse study rooms more than any other study location in Tallahassee. They were so carefully decorated that I could pretend I lived a Pinterest-perfect life. Sometimes, in the chaos of college, all you want is to sit in a room that looks perfect.

Why have an apartment with no perks when you could have an apartment with many perks?

Safety

Living with people in your same age bracket makes it feel like an extension of dorm life—except with a private bathroom. Dorm life comes with a certain air to it—that air is just the feeling of being near people you would probably get along with because you’re the same age, attend the same school, and live in the same place. That’s not a great basis for friendship, per se, but it’s a great basis for not worrying about who your neighbors are.

I lived at a complex where the apartments were little houses. I loved it. I felt like I was living in a cute little Desperate Housewives Wisteria Lane neighborhood. I still drive by sometimes because I miss how cute it was. I’ve always been a scaredy-cat when it comes to being outside (inside is so much better, sue me.) but I always felt safe inside of that complex. It wasn’t so much the gate in the front (it was always broken anyway), but rather just knowing that everyone around me was also just a stupid college student and that the most I had to worry about was someone breaking into my car. I circumvented this fear by leaving my Taco Bell wrappers in my car. Unclean? Yes. Did anyone break into my car? No, because all they saw was garbage. Very effective prevention system if you ask me.

The cute little complex I lived in where I could walk my dog without worries of running into anything other than an off-leash husky.

Full Freedom

What else does an on-campus dorm come with? An RA. Experiences with RA’s differ from student-to-student and. My first RA was a beautiful sunflower of a human being, and our hall decorations were sunflowers too! She was involved in her resident’s lives and left her door open if we wanted to stop by and chat with her. My second RA…I was unsure if he was alive for most of the year I lived on the floor. My only clue was I’d occasionally hear something move in his dorm because we shared a wall, and he’d bang on my door if I was being noisy. Fair enough, but I enjoyed the freedom of my off-campus apartment where I could be as loud as I wanted to.`

Regardless of how involved your RA is, they always have the most authority in your hall. That authority can lead some students to feel under certain pressure, and I for one didn’t like the whole constant-worrying of it someone was going to yell at me for anything.

The last thing you see before your RA leaves for class, leaving you locked out of your dorm because you lost your keys.

Bus Stops

I didn’t have a car for my first two years at FSU, and I worried about how I would be able to live off-campus. Thankfully, virtually every student complex that isn’t walking distance has its own bus stop, or a nearby one. (Hint, make sure you ask the leasing agent exactly where the bus stop is, so you don’t end up having to cross West Tennessee to get to it. The FSU bus system can also drop you off at multiple locations in the city if you need to get somewhere else like to your job in College Town or on Pensacola St.

Vroom Vroom to class without worrying about parking.

Privacy

The biggest perk we can’t forget about moving out of a dorm and into an off-campus apartment, is not having to share a room with someone. After a year of living with another person in one 4-walled room, and sharing a tiny bathroom with 3 other people, having a private, safe space to yourself is wonderfully freeing. Remember those days of coming home from your dorm

Personally, if you can spring for a studio or one-bedroom, you should take that chance so you can enjoy complete privacy and only being influenced by your own thoughts and decisions. If your budget doesn’t allow for a true 1/1 apartment and you must get roommates, always remember this: you can become friends with your roommates, but you cannot become roommates with your friends.

How you’ll feel after living in a dorm with a stranger about 1 month in.