Being a junior at Oswego State, the fall semester is the time to go searching for an off-campus house. Many students that are juniors already went through this process their sophomore year. Many also decide to stay on campus for the rest of their time in Oswego. It all depends on what your preferences are regarding living situations.

I was one of the students who really wanted to live off-campus. Last year, a group of my friends and I tried to get an off-campus house, but it didn’t end up working out. This year, I handled everything about the process of preparing to live off-campus differently and it ended up working in my favor.

This year, my two friends and I realized that we needed to start looking for off-campus housing as soon as possible. Last year, our mistake was looking way later in the year at the end of the fall semester, which we realized was a terrible idea. By then, all the good houses are gone and it’s hard to find a landlord that is actually decent.

I was very disappointed that we didn’t end up getting a house because by that time, I was sick of living on campus. I was living in Onondaga Hall and I didn’t like it all that much. I didn’t like it enough to live there again. I wanted to be able to have my own space and be able to feel like more of an adult. Even though I didn’t end up living off campus this year, I still ended up in The Village, which is just as good.

We decided on a house quickly for next year. We found a perfect three bedroom house right on Bridge Street next to Friendly’s, so it’s very close to campus. The landlord we are renting from, Matt Brancato, is such a nice man and made the whole process of looking at the house and signing the lease so easy for us. As soon as we looked at the house, we fell in love with it and we knew it was a great match for us. We signed the lease as soon as we could.

If any of you are interested in living off-campus for next year, I highly recommend looking now or you will miss out on some good choices for houses. If you do end up looking at houses, make sure that it’s with people you can live well with, because you don’t want to have a terrible experience. College is supposed to be the best years of your life, so you don’t want to suffer with terrible housemates for a whole year.

I’m looking forward to off-campus living for my senior year, and I can’t wait to see what the experience has in store for me.