Are you listening? College students hint at what they want (and don't want) in housing as they share their most memorable off-campus housing experience.

Listen to three college students describe their favorite off-campus residence, what amenities they love or miss, and why they love these residences most. One feature they all agree on? Hardwood floors. (More hot words are bookmarked in the audio.)

For college students, finding off-campus housing is more than just a rite of passage. Most of all, students need to be sold on the experience their housing can give them: how much freedom they have to make their place unique; how many of their friends are nearby; how close they are to hubs of social activity.  The criteria does branch out to more than just memory-making capability however, as  the “standard” (as defined by their generation) features like WiFi, fitness centers, dishwashers, and washer/dryer units are still very important. But at the end of the day, social experience has the most influence over where a college student chooses to live.

MEMORABLE QUOTES:

Name: Jamol
Age: 21 years-old
School: Towson University
Major:Mass Communication

"I had the option for hardwood floors, and as a college student, we don't normally get that kind of option. It was a very homey development. I really got a chance to know my neighbors and didn't feel like I was necessarily in student housing, but that I was kind of on my own for the first time."


Name:Erin
Age: 21 years-old
School: Boston University
Major:English

"Everything might have been a little bit old, but that was what made it charming, and I don't think that college students necessarily have the highest standards...we were moving up in the world in our eyes."


Name: Rachael
Age: 20 years-old
School:University of Maryland
Major: Journalism

"It was really nice because it was close to Route 1, which is where all the downtown stuff is, food, and CVS, and things like that. It's also in a neighborhood where a bunch of my other friends had houses, so I could be close to them without having to trek a really far distance."