For the past couple of days, I have been searching for off-campus housing.

As for why, I have been spoiled by my current apartment and years of living in my own bedroom, enough to never want to repeat the experience of my Freshman year when I lived with an annoying roommate in a tiny flat. This led to my 4 main criteria: 1 bedroom (not a studio), close to campus, nice kitchen, hardwood floors.

Yes, I’m that picky. Spoilers: no I did not find something matching all of those again like I lived in this semester.

The Cause

When signing up for university housing, I didn’t get a single-bed room. They were flat out (wow I wonder why) and some other early riser decided to register themselves as my roommate without so much as contacting me first. I don’t blame them though; I blame the university for such a high-pressure system. You technically have all semester to find roommate pairs, but everyone I knew either had a roommate group already planned or was living on their own, and the one new potential roommate I found flaked on me in the last week before room selection. So, some other poor chap, also without a roommate and with only 5 minutes to register his room before his timeslot is over, sees a room with an empty spot on a low floor and just goes ahead because our sleep schedules aren’t that far off.

Now, I could deal with their sleep schedule. Maybe. I’m also picky about that. But what prompted the whole off-campus housing search was what I could glean about their personality from their online profile. Basically, they’re the kind of person to start a non-profit for their College application and ditch it after they graduate High School. I despise that whole concept, having gotten roped in to one of those once, and I don’t note it anywhere because I don’t believe it accomplished anything of value. Heck, I even list my 1kbwc game engine project and not that because at least the silly Python-and-pure-JS app shows something about my capabilities.

Is that a bit too judgemental of someone else? Probably yes. I’m sure it could’ve worked out, especially if I tried hard to rid myself of this animus. But after what happened Freshman year I don’t want to take chances. So anyways, back to the housing search:

The Result

Before this process, I had no idea how to conduct a housing search. This was always the realm of my parents when I was but a wee lad (duh), and I was content with University housing until the above. So I was not prepared for the process of “scheduling a tour only for ‘oh sorry someone else bought it already’” to happen like 5 times in a row. Talking to my parents, apparently this is normal for hot housing areas. People want property so you gotta play the game to get it. The landlords control the supply and everyone else is fighting over the demand.

Another thing I was not prepared for was “sorry we don’t sell to undergrads.” This came up more often than you’d expect, because I seemingly do not look or sound like an undergraduate to most people, so when I say I go to CMU they peg me as a graduate at first glance. I’m not entirely sure why some places have a ban on undergradutes, some hypotheses are that they make too much noise late at night or don’t do a good enough job with cleaning/maintenance. Neither of those apply to me I don’t think but some were pretty hard-line about this, which sucked because that landlord controlled a lot of property.

The Conclusion

In the end, I found a place that matched 3 of my 4 criteria, only difference being that it’s carpeted (I can live with that, so long as that’s not in the kitchen). I was pleasantly surprised when I inquired about it two days in a row and the unit was still available, so I sent in the application and fee and am now hoping for the best. The rent is slightly more expensive than CMU rent, but the latter was for half of a bedroom while this is for a full bedroom so I think that’s fair. Fortunately the rent will be completely covered by what I’ll make over the summer, so lucky to have no issues there.

In any case, I’m glad it’s all over, I can feel the difference in not having the weight of “where will I live next semster” on my shoulders. Everything tends to work out :)