The advantages of staying on campus...

Colleges & Universities Florida State University
1

<p>A few observations from an FSU alumnus and now the father of two current students at FSU…</p>

<p>When I attended the university in the 1970s the dorms were a place to avoid. Few had air conditioning and most had community bathrooms. Some dorms had not been reworked since the 1950s or earlier. There was maybe one pay telephone per floor, if you found it working and unoccupied. The food was notoriously poor and few took meal plans. Dorm noise was terrible if you wanted to study. The population of students at the time was around 22,000.</p>

<p>Since then Florida State has renovated all the old dorms and built new dorms with very desirable designs. The student population now numbers around 40,000. Cell phones abound as does Internet service and related administrative requirements worked via personal computer. Food on campus is much superior to the past. The situation is now completely different from my time on campus as a student over thirty years ago.</p>

<p>After seeing first D1 and now D2 spend their undergraduate time on campus and off, I have to say staying on campus is now probably better than being in a private home or apartment. D2 decided to stay on campus as an upper level student while D1 opted to live in private housing after about two years in the dorms.</p>

<p>D1’s experiences with lazy landlords, leaking or non-working fixtures, poor heat, no A/C, poor insulation and the burden of year-long lease requirements have convinced me that D2 is having an easier time by staying on campus in the dorms. D2 has virtually no parking issues while D1 basically had to park on or just off a busy street and compete for a space at class time. D1 also had problems with neighbors not picking up their trash and just being undesirable. D2 has had no such issues and has the university authorities and the campus police to see that behavior is kept between reasonable lines, as well as the campus security systems to help with after dark excursions. D2 has had quite workable repair concerns while in the dorms, while D1 waited months at times and had complaints never addressed or rectified.</p>

<p>So far, so good for D2 in the dorm (McCollum) where she now has a single room and loves it.</p>

2

<p>Virtually no parking issues? Does she drive a car? lol</p>

<p>I’ve heard parking is absolutely dreadful on-campus.</p>

3

<p>Parking is competitive on campus. Yes, she has a car. She parks it on campus and only drives it occasionally. She walks and bikes most of the time. FSU’s campus makes this very workable.</p>

<p>It’s one way to minimize the hassle of parking.</p>

4

<p>Parking is really only a “nightmare” if you live off campus and try to park and get to class and get to class in 5 minutes . Living on campus, you generally leave your care put. You go shopping for groceries etc in the late afternoon/evening when you leave and come back to a great parling space. On weekends, you can even park in faculty parking, as long as you move your care before monday AM. So if you are out on a Fri night, you can come back and park in faculty parking, moving your car to one of the central garages on Sunday. It is living off campus and waiting until the last minute to get to class, and driving in on class days and expecting to park and run to class in no time. That is not going to happen. Just leave early enough to park a little further out and then walk or catch a bus to get closer to class. They just opened up a new parking garage on St. Augustine, and you can park in covered parking with little competition for spaces any time during the day. Just leave time to walk to class. You just can’t expect to get a spot at the garage by the union or the one by Park Ave Diner (which are centrally located) 5 min before a 11am class. My daughter is a freshman living on campus and has no parking problems.</p>

5

<p>FYI – Parking tickets are $20</p>

6

<p>I seem to recall that if you blow off paying the tickets they eventually wind up causing a “stop” on your registration…let the driver beware.</p>

7

<p>tickets are $20. got my first one last week. and they will put a hold on all your crap.</p>

8

<p>if you don’t pay the ticket in 10 days it says they charge a late fee of $10 more.</p>

9

<p>You can also appeal them online and write a little info as to why you should get out of it. It works most of the time if you make up a good story.</p>