Of 71 students who took The Hub@TTU weekly poll, most said they live in an apartment complex.
“To make it homey, I set things up the way I like it, I guess, on my side at least.”
Bryce Hamelwright is a freshman geosciences major from Euless, Texas. He went potluck, which means he did not know who his roommate would be when he signed up for a double-occupancy room in the Wall/Gates residence hall complex at Texas Tech University.
One significant change that comes with attending college is finding a place to call “home.” First-year students are required to live in the residence halls on campus unless they meet certain exemptions. But, there are other housing opportunities that open up after the first year. Some students continue staying on campus, while some move to an apartment or house off campus.
According to Texas Tech University Student Housing, there are 13 residence halls on campus. Each year the residence halls house more than 7,200 students. There are shared rooms, suite-style rooms and apartment-style rooms to choose from. Each building has various dining choices where students can use dining bucks, which are accessed by a swipe of a university ID.
Freshman Bryce Hamelwright relaxes in his room at Wall/Gates Residence Hall. Photo by Nicole Molter.
Hamelwright said there are pros and cons to living in a residence hall on campus.
“You don’t have to walk very far to get to class or drive,” he said. “Everything’s right there.”
Each room accommodates two residents, but recently three residents have been assigned certain rooms due to a housing shortage. Triple-occupancy rooms qualify each resident for a $1,000 discount per academic year.
Hamelwright said living in the dorms has social-life perks.
“It’s pretty social,” Hamelwright said, “because, you know, there’s people all over the place, and like Josh – my roommate – we’re friends now. That wouldn’t have happened if I wasn’t in a dorm.”
There are 13 residence halls on the Texas Tech campus. Screenshot.
But, the perks come with some downsides. Hamelwright said the cons of living in a dorm are the food — because it does not always taste good — community bathrooms, and finding privacy in a shared room.
To make his room more “home-y,” he said, he brought a television, an Xbox for games and Netflix, a small refrigerator, a Keurig coffee maker, and a fan to turn on when he sleeps.
“I’ve got a flag up there,” he said, “and that’s my decorating skills pretty much. I know girls do a lot better at it.”
Dining plans are one of the pros students said about living on campus. Screenshot.
Despite the less favorable aspects, Hamelwright said he will be living on campus for another year. He plans to stay in Talkington Hall where the rooms are suite-style. Suite-style housing offers students their own private bedroom with a shared living-space and bathrooms.
“I’ll be living with my friends again,” he said. “We kind of decided it’s hard enough to go to class already. If we lived off campus, we probably wouldn’t go that much, so maybe give it another year before we move off campus.”
After a year of living on campus, many students jump at the chance to move into off-campus housing.
Caitlynn Martin moved from New Orleans to go to Texas Tech. Photo by Nicole Molter.
Caitlynn Martin, a sophomore forensics major from New Orleans, said she lived on Bourbon Street before moving to Lubbock to attend Texas Tech. She currently lives at The Ranch apartments.
“I like not depending on your parents and having your own place and actually having something to call your own,” Martin said, “and making something that you want it to be instead of what everybody else wants it to be.”
She said her three-bedroom apartment is much cheaper than the apartment she had in Louisiana, where she used to pay almost $1,200 per month. She said she spends about $400 per month on groceries alone.
According to The Ranch’s website, individual apartments are furnished with a stove, microwave, refrigerator, washer and dryer, and cable television with HBO. Community amenities include a fitness center, tennis and basketball courts, a volleyball pit, a resort-style swimming pool and a computer lab. The Ranch, along with many other student apartments, has a bus that runs to and from Tech on school days.
The Ranch is one of the apartment complexes that cater to students. Photo by Nicole Molter.
Martin said she utilizes the fitness center and community computer lab frequently and enjoys the activities and parties the staff organizes for The Ranch residents.
“I love it. I do,” she said. “The computers are great because I didn’t get to bring mine from New Orleans, and the weight room is awesome, too. The parties and stuff are cool.”
Martin said some students might be discouraged from apartments because apartments do not have a yard, but she likes the living style and plans to live at The Ranch another year.
“I mean, honestly it doesn’t bother me,” she said, “because at my house in New Orleans, I lived on Bourbon Street, so I didn’t have a yard or anything. But here, there’s a little more room to run around. I mean, there are pros and cons to it, but I know there’s a lot of people here who have dogs, so it would be more difficult for them.”
Chelsie Miller, a senior English major from San Antonio, lives with her dog and roommate in a two-bedroom house in Tech Terrace.
The Ranch Apartment staff compared various student apartment complexes. Photo by Nicole Molter.
“You learn a lot more about life,” she said, “because even if you pay utilities at an apartment, this way you learn to communicate with landlords and all the different types of things that you have to do growing up. It’s just nice to have your independence in a house.”
Miller said she found her current roommate and house on Craigslist, and she and her roommate have become best friends. She said she pays $500 per month for rent plus utilities, which are usually about $100 per month.
Miller said furnishing the house was not as expensive as some people might think, either. She joined the “Lubbock Online Garage Sale” page on Facebook to buy the majority of her furniture and décor, including a table set for $60.
One of The Ranch’s community amenities is a resort-style pool. Photo by Nicole Molter.
“That’s one of the main things that I did when I was trying to convince my parents to let me move into an apartment,” she said. “If you see what they charge for living in a dorm — it’s maintenance and hospitality and all these different fees that end up being way much more than living in a house.”
Miller said the most challenging aspects of living in a house, for her, are buying groceries and cooking.
“It’s so much more easy to just go and buy food at the dorm,” she said. “It’s just like having a meal plan. You don’t have to learn how to budget, which I guess that’s like a pro, but you have to learn how to budget because if not you could end up spending way more just getting fast food and this and that.”
She said she really likes her landlords, too. The couple “flips” — the act of renovating and modernizing an older house to make it more desirable — houses like the one Miller resides in now, and they are quick to help with any problems she and her roommate have.
Chelsie Miller said she has enjoyed decorating to make her house more comfortable. Photo by Nicole Molter.
“The landlords are so willing to help if anything is broken,” she said. “Like, our dryer went out, and the very next day, they got a person to come in and replace it. Even living in an apartment, we had a week where we didn’t have a dishwasher because they’re not that worried about fixing things.”
She said she enjoys walking her dog in the neighborhood and walking to class. She feels safe because she feels like her neighborhood is very family-oriented.
“There’s a family that lives across the street with two little girls who, when it snows, they build snowmen,” she said, “and there’s a family living next door.”
Miller said she graduates in May and will be sad to move out of her house.
“We’ve made a home in a place,” she said. “I’m sure that’s how everyone feels. You spend a year making this your home and it’s hard to leave, so that’s what I’ve found.”
About Nicole Molter
