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Study in USA : Accommodation
Accommodation is expensive in U.S.A. It may take
up 1/3rd of 1/4th of the total cost of living expenses.
First year students are required to live on campus
in many Universities. Along with the admission notification or acceptance letter,
the university will send a housing application. If you have decided to attend
the particular institution you must fill out the application and send it as
soon as possible. Housing is allotted in the order of applications received.
Housing rent often include the cost of meals. A meal plan of the cafeteria
inside the campus have several choices, like 3 meals a day, break fast and dinner
only, only dinner etc. When you fill in the housing applications, you must fill
out the meal plan of your choice.
Accommodation Inside the Campus
Inside the campus there are residence halls or
dormitories which are Co-ed or single sex, apartments, fraternity and sorority
houses and some colleges have housing for married people.
Residence halls or dorms have mostly double rooms and some single rooms.
They have common bathrooms. Sorority and Fraternity houses are alien to
foreign students. These are closely knit groups of undergraduate men and women
. They use Greek alphabets like Alpha, Beta, in the names of their organizations.
They are called Greeks. These groups operate housing for undergraduate students.
Fraternity houses are for men and Sorority houses are for women. Here new members
are chosen and invited to live following a period of social functions called
'Rush Week'. They have an initiation ceremony also.
Accommodation Outside the Campus
If housing is not available inside the campus
you have to look out for accommodation outside, like apartments, private dorms,
Co-operative residence halls and rooms in private houses. When you choose
a housing outside the campus, see that it is conveniently located near the university.
Otherwise you will be have to pay more for transportation.
Rent of apartments can be expensive. The rent
does not include gas, electricity and telephone services. You have to pay extra
bills for the same apart from the rent. Water and garbage collection are usually
included in the rent.
Co-operative residence Halls are large houses
where a group of students live together sharing costs and chores like cooking,
washing, cleaning etc. Rooming houses provide single rooms with common
kitchen, bathrooms and laundry services. Rooming houses are cheap compared to
other housing facilities. Another option is to live as a paying guest with a
family. Some families expect the students to do some service in return for room
and board.
You can get information on outside campus housing
facilities from your student adviser, local papers, your college's housing office
or from any colleague.
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