Is it better to get a costly off-campus apartment or live at home with parents where the rent is free?
Collegeboard.com states that 95 percent of first-year students that attend FAMU live in college housing and 75 percent of all FAMU undergraduates live in college housing.
Erica Starke, 19, a sophomore pharmacy pre-candidate student from Tallahassee, said when she moved back home with her parents, she saved a lot of money in comparison to living in Cropper Hall her freshman year.
“When you get your net check, you save lots of money,” Starke said. “It’s convenient because the University is right around the corner. I get free Internet access and free room and board.”
Other students said the cost of bills is worth their independency. Rudy Anderson, 19, a sophomore psychology student from Tallahassee, said liberation is worth the price.
Anderson, who moved into an off-campus apartment after living at home his first year, said he did not have the privacy he needed at home.
“My parents were in my business,” he said. “I couldn’t experience college like I really wanted to. I didn’t have the freedom that I wanted.”
Now that he has moved into his one-bedroom apartment, he said financial stability remains the least of his worries.
“It’s going to be hard, but what’s not hard on you?” he said. “I still have the same support that I did at home.”
Unlike Anderson, who lived at home his freshman year, Ricquel Jackson, 19, a sophomore business administration student from Tallahassee, lived in an off-campus apartment as a freshman.
Jackson recently moved from Hillside apartments back to her home with her parents over the summer.
“I was trying to get the full college experience,” she said. “I didn’t get placed in a dorm [my freshman year].”
Jackson also said her career choice will not allow her to stay in Tallahassee in the future,
“This gives me more time to spend with my little brother and sister,” she said. “Family is very important to me.”