Hi! What do people do who send kids to colleges in the big cities that don’t offer housing all four years?
My 11th grade daughter would like to apply to Parsons at the New School but I’m concerned about the cost for housing after freshman year, when it looks like she would not be guaranteed a spot in the dorm. It looks like she could find housing close and safe, but it won’t be cheap, or cheap and safe, but it won’t be close, and there is no close and cheap.
I don’t really want her to “commute” to college – there’s plenty of time in life to take a train to work. But I also don’t want to spend as much in rent as we do in tuition! Any suggestions or guidance from those who have gone before?
Wait until she gets accepted and decides to attend or not. They are adults be the time they are in their second year of college. She will know people and have her own ideas about how she wants to handle it. I think you’re planning too far ahead.
If you aren’t from the NYC area, your perspective on safety is likely VERY different from that of locals. So bear that in mind. I have friends from other parts of the country who can’t believe a parent would let a kid live in a building with no doorman (none of my kids could afford doorman apartments even when they lived in Manhattan and were working professionals). Their buildings were generally affordable, convenient, and safe- but not doorman apartments. I have friends from other places who think that if a building doesn’t have at least two elevators there’s no way a person could live there- the only time my kid minded the fourth floor walk up was on move in day. (which only happens once). I have friends from out of town who think that anything that isn’t within a stone’s throw of the Metropolitan museum must be a slum. There are beautiful and safe neighborhoods in every borough; there are fine (maybe not beautiful, but fine) safe neighborhoods in every borough, where people raise children and walk their dogs after work.
Your D should do some homework and find out where upperclassman generally live- and then you can do some research and identify safe and cheap. Maybe it will be a subway stop or two away, so factor that in as a trade-off.
NYC is honestly not as dangerous as people think it is. And even “formerly” rough neighborhoods have become safer, cleaner, and “less rough” over the last ten years.
@Lindagaf, I appreciate your perspective, as I do tend to think farther out than maybe I need to! But we will be paying for her housing costs in college and there will be limits on how much we can pay. If we can’t afford a place that’s safe and reasonably accessible, then it won’t matter whether she handles finding that place on her own.
@blossom, I’m sure my perspective is skewed! I made my first ever foray into Manhattan in March on a college visit to NYU. We have a number of friends and family with college-age and recent graduates living in NYC and in every case, the parents are subsidizing or completely covering their kids’ housing expenses. I’m sure there are lovely neighborhoods all over the city - my nephew is very happy living in Queens, but it takes him an hour to get to his master’s program at NYU. I just don’t want that for my particular kid at that particular stage of her life.
I guess one question I have is how much more it costs to live in an apartment near Parsons than it costs to live in the dorm at Parsons. I’m sure the answer is “it depends” but it would be helpful to get some idea.
NYU guarantees housing for all 4 years but many of the upperclassmen prefer to live out of dorms so I’ve seen active discussions on this in the NYU parents’ groups (you may want to check for a parent group for parsons or the new school you can can join on Facebook). It seems that roommate situations, usually with 3-4 in an apartment can bring the cost down to around the same as dorms in suitable locations. The bigger issues with renting privately seem to be factors involving landlords, those who only want a school year rather than full year lease, etc.
My niece just did a college internship in manhattan (attends college in Ohio). She stayed at a private woman’s dorm, had her own small bedroom, bathroom down the hall, 2 meals a day, for about the same cost as room and board as other area schools. Men aren’t allowed upstair# without an escort, but there are areas in the lobby they can be. She felt very safe.
OP’s kid won’t be able to stay at woman’s dorm while the school is in session. Her kid would need to get her own apartment with roommates like many young adults.
If you want to her to be close to Parsons (in Manhattan), I would budget for 1500-2000/mon. Check out streeteasy.com. It would give you pretty good indication how much apartments should cost. Don’t be surprised if 2 people can’t share a one bedroom, some landlord may allow you to convert the living room into a bedroom. You would rent the apartment for your kid or be the guarantor or pay for the rent upfront. As a guarantor you would need to make 80-100 times of monthly rent.
Agree with #5. I have an NYU student who was off campus this year. She lived, along with an army of other NYU students, in the very safe (and fairly reasonably priced since she lived with 4 girls in the apartment) neighborhood known as “Stuytown.” She stayed on her meal plan because she was at the Tisch building pretty much all day and much of the evening.
I appreciate all this info, folks! I will check out streeteasy.com and do a search for Stuytown. The guarantor requirement is a little daunting but it’s better to know that now than later. We had only put NYU on the list because it guaranteed housing, and that has been our approach as she’s looked at colleges in Boston and Chicago - that IF space is available in the dorm, that’s where she would live. But at Parsons it sounds like she would most likely have to look off-campus at some point - hence my desire to get some sense of cost and logistics before she goes tooooo far down that road.
I would ask ResLife what types of arrangements students find after freshman year. There might even been an off campus housing office there. Perhaps they can give some guidance.
The off-campus housing page for Parsons basically says there are apartments to rent but be wary of unscrupulous landlords. Which is good advice! But intimidating to someone like me who doesn’t have city smarts.
The biggest cost issue with an off-campus apartment is that leases run for 12 months a year but school starts in August and ends in May (or thereabouts). Not every landlord is going to allow your D to sublet the apartment for the time she’s not living in it (some will, some won’t) but if she comes back home for the summer and leaves an empty apartment, you’re paying for space she’s not using. That gets expensive.
The biggest cost savings with an off-campus apartment is not having to buy a board contract since cooking for yourself is a lot cheaper than having someone else cook for you. But this assumes that your D will, in fact- cook her own meals. If she ends up ordering takeout every night, or eating in restaurants, it will quickly become MUCH more expensive than even the most lavish on-campus meal plan. And getting groceries and carving out time to prepare a meal isn’t always part of a college kid’s lifestyle.
DS lived off campus for his last 1 1/2 years (he did a study abroad fall junior year). He and three friends found this very convenient…like right next to the campus…apartment in a three family. They hear about it from others in their major who lived on the third floor. My kid lived on floor 2.
This was all word of mouth. When the first floor tenants were moving out, the others told other friends in the same major…again…word of mouth.
All three apartments were folks in the same major who knew each other. It was great.
So far as I know…this whole place is still inhabited by folks in the same major…it had convenience, convenience convenience. So those folks spread the word.
For reference…my kid lived in a three bedroom apartment in 2005-2007 that was $800 a mont for his one room…not including any utilities. I’m very sure the same place is now $1500 or more…for each tenant.
There was no way he or his friends could have afforded off campus solo places. Just was not possible.
Anyway…if your kid does get to Parsons…it’s very likely she will meet others who know where there are apartment openings…you know…one roommate moving out or something like that.
But yes…in NYC, you will likely need to be a guarantor for the lease…in our case, we parents all had to sign the lease…and provide our incomes to be verified.