Inside Beat's 2024 guide to conquering U. student housing system

While it feels like the spring semester has just kicked into gear, it’s already time to start thinking about housing for the next academic year. Whether you’re planning to live on or off-campus, planning out housing can seem like a daunting task — but it doesn’t have to be.

First, you should decide where you want to live. With on-campus housing, you won’t have to worry about forgetting to pay rent every month, and you’ll typically be closer to class buildings, dining halls and bus stops. 

If you’re interested in on-campus living, Rutgers thankfully offers plenty of luxury options. If you’re not a rising senior it can be tough to get a spot in some of the more high-demand buildings like the Livingston apartments or the Sojourner Truth apartments on the College Avenue campus.

But there are other available apartments, like the Silvers on Busch Campus, Henderson on Douglass campus and the Newells on Cook campus, that offer amenities like a kitchen, living room, bathroom and bedrooms. 

On the other hand, with off-campus housing, you'll have more freedom since you won’t have to follow all of Rutgers’ housing guidelines — just those of your landlord. You can also usually accommodate a larger group of friends in houses and apartments than the typical tiny residence hall rooms.

Once you’ve decided what kind of housing you’re interested in, the next thing you need to figure out is who your roommates will be. If you’re jumping into the housing process by yourself, or if you and your friends are short a roommate, there are plenty of social media platforms to aid your search for housing. 

A popular place to find roommates is Facebook. If you don’t already have an account, it’s worth setting one up just for the housing process. Plenty of Facebook groups exist for each graduating class, as well as groups specifically dedicated to finding roommates or places to rent. Using Facebook will allow you to easily message potential new roomies via Messenger, so you can do all of your initial searching and contacting out of one place.

Another common platform to use during the housing process is Reddit, specifically the r/rutgers forum — a general landing page for all kinds of questions about Rutgers. During housing application season, an official housing/roommates thread is established in addition to users making individual posts. 

It’s a bit more streamlined to look for roommates on Reddit than Facebook, especially since everything’s all on the same forum, but Reddit is considerably more anonymous than Facebook. It’s important to make sure you get in touch with any potential roommates and meet in real life before deciding to live with them.

You can also use these forums to make sure you’ve chosen the right place to live. Users on both platforms post brutally honest reviews and stories, along with pictures. It’s a good idea to search your address and get a sense of the place you’re planning to move to before you sign a lease on an off-campus apartment that doesn’t suit you.

Once you’ve found your roommates and decided where you want to live, it’s time to do some interior decorating! Facebook Marketplace is an online shopping site where plenty of people post furniture and appliances that they’re selling or sometimes even giving away for free. If you’re in need of a new bed or table, this is a great place to start looking without breaking the bank. 

With all of these online platforms and plenty of options both on and off-campus, the housing selection process doesn’t have to be a last-minute scramble. If you take the time to do the proper research and get in touch with people early, it can actually be fun! Who knows, you might become lifelong friends with strangers you met on Facebook.