Does your school offer on-campus housing? If yes, have you been looking into living on-campus, or in the dorms? Then this post is just for you!
Ah. Residence.
If I could sum up my residence, on-campus living experience in one sentence, it would be:
✨"what an interesting learning experience"✨
To this day however, I still believe that living in a dorm on-campus played a major part in my transition to living in Canada - In terms of being all on my own for the first time, learning how to live and move about in an entirely new country, and ultimately, learning how to live in, and share a space people who may or may not have similar levels of broughtupsy** and living habits as you.
**
Having lived in one of the many residence buildings at York, I can only talk about my experience from my specific campus and building I lived in, but who knows, maybe you may share in some similar experiences, or my pros and cons list towards the end of this post can be of some help!
Applying to live in residence or in a dorm on-campus
At York (notably the Glendon campus) they offer different room sizes depending on what campus you're on and what residence you're applying to live in.
I went with the small single room option two years in a row - my main reason being the price, as it was the least expensive option for single occupancy, at the time costing $5,997.00CAD.
With residence being as expensive as it is, paired with a separately charged mandatory meal plan, I was trying to have as little of a financial impact on my parents as possible.
The small single room was noticeably smaller when compared to a regular sized single room, but since I was the only person in my room most of the time, it was cozy enough to accommodate just me.
I tried to doodle up a little room outline to help visualize what my dorm looked like. It's a bit exaggerated but hey.
All the rooms no matter their size had the same furniture; the usual twin-sized bed, chest of drawers and closet, desk and chair, wall shelving etc. The only difference is that regular-sized rooms had an extra chair, so I personally didn't feel like I was missing out much.
Plus, a huge advantage of a smaller room, is less space to clean. Unfortunately the floors in my building were carpeted, which were a huge pain to clean every now and again, so I appreciated the smaller space.
In my first year, I applied for residence in April, and by late May I got the approval email which included documents such as my offer letter which stated the building, room type and room number I would be in. Here I also had to select which type of meal plan I wanted (they were based on the prices, with the cheapest plan at the time being the bronze plan at $2,950.00CAD), and also check off if I would accept or decline the offer.
The last bit of the offer letter was a notice of a $250 non-refundable room reservation deposit I had to pay before the end of the month to ideally, secure my room - and additional documents that broke down the occupancy agreement (rules, what's allowed vs. what's prohibited etc.) and a fee and payment schedule, where you had the option to either pay the full accommodation fee up front in the fall semester, or have the total fees split between the fall and winter semester.
To my understanding the process is relatively similar in other schools, but the prices have increased quite a lot over the years.
Initially, when I first got accepted to York and applied for residence, I really wanted to stay in a double room, because it meant I could have a roommate.
I wanted to live the whole Disney Channel original movie fantasy of meeting my BFF on the first day of orientation week and randomly finding out we were roommates after meshing so well together - us staying up all night talking about all the classes and boys on campus stressing us out, you know, everything they made university seem like on TV.
Plus, the double rooms were the cheapest out of all the options offered on campus - but the process of finding a roommate through the matching portal they had at the time was taking too long, and I wanted to secure a room before all the spaces were gone, so that's how I ended up applying for a small single room.
Here's a brief look at what my dorm looked like in second year; First-year Maya did a terrible job at decorating, Second-Year Maya didn't do much better.
Your residency agreement + finding additional storage
Unless stated otherwise, an on-campus residency agreement is typically for the academic year, or two semesters, (The eight (8) months of September - December and then January - April.) Your offer letter should state the duration of your stay (move in date, move out date etc.)
HOWEVER: (Specific to some YorkU residences) you aren't meant to stay in residence over the holidays/Christmas break. To stay in residence during this time if you're not able to return home, whether home is a 40-minute drive away, or six hours away by plane, you have to pay a holiday closure fee, which was about $400 - and this is only after you apply and if you're approved by housing to stay over the break.
I'm grateful I was able to fly home during Christmas when I lived in residence, but for those who could not return home, it's a pretty steep fee.
If you are able to leave residence over the holidays though, since your residency agreement is usually for the academic year, you can keep all your belongings in your room and don't need to find storage units for the holiday break since you'd be coming back in January.
Just make sure you don't forget to lock your door, and don't lose your dorm keys abroad, or wherever you go over the holidays, because you guessed it, there will be replacement fees.
At the end of the academic year, there's typically a final move out date where ALL students in residence who are not staying for summer residence (if this is offered at your school) have to move out by, which is usually the last week of April.
However, especially as an international student - if your travel or moving plans are set for after that final set day for all students, you would have to communicate this with housing as soon as you can, as there are usually additional fees that apply per day if you have to stay beyond the agreement end day, but this is all dependent on if the housing at your school allows this.
The rate at the time in 2018 at Glendon at YorkU to stay beyond the official move out day for an approved reason was $30CAD per night. I'm unsure if it's changed since then though, and what the additional day rate charges would be at other residences or schools, if they allow students to stay additional days, as not all schools have this option.
The university and residence buildings also don't usually offer any additional storage options aside from what you have in your room. By additional storage, I mean a storage locker or unit separate from your room, to store bulkier things, or anything extra when it comes time to move out of your dorm. If you are in need of additional storage, you'll have to find it on your own.
At the time, SecondCloset was the answer to that problem for me. They were a storage company who came directly to my residence building to pick up items I needed to store, like my mini fridge, and whatever I wasn't taking with me to go home that summer that couldn't fit in my suitcase.
Unfortunately, SecondCloset has rebranded to a businesses called Bolt who are now focused on e-commerce and business order fulfilment, and are no longer a storage unit for the everyday person.
If you're in need of a storage locker or unit, or just want to explore your storage options, you can click here to be taken to a website to find storage units near you.
I paid about $40CAD a month to store two large boxes and two bulky items at SecondCloset when they were in operation if you want a reference when doing your own storage unit research. I was also charged a one-time return fee of $28.25CAD.
Canadian Tire and Home Depot are great store locations to get inexpensive cardboard moving boxes of all different sizes, and other packing materials like duct tape, bubble wrap and more. Eg. At Canadian tire, a larger moving box (18" x 18" x 24") costs $3.39CAD.
I'll split the rest of this post into a drop down list of pros and cons about living on residence/on-campus, since like all experiences, the dorm life had it's share of up and downs - but I'm still grateful to have been able to have the experience, and share it with all of you reading!
PERKS OF LIVING ON RESIDENCE/ON-CAMPUS
(1) Proximity to campus!
This is probably the biggest benefit to living on residence. (Tap here to read more)
(2) Friends being right down the hall!
Can you say one big, continuous sleepover! (Tap here to read more)
(3) Meeting new people is a lot easier!
Neighbors turned friends! (Tap here to read more)
(4) It’s a good backup option!
Apartment hunting is stressful, especially when you're new to Canada (Tap here to read more)
DOWNSIDES OF LIVING ON RESIDENCE/ON-CAMPUS
(1) Mandatory meal plan
Most residence buildings require residents to also buy a mandatory meal plan, where the price is not included in your residence room rate. (Tap here to read more)
(2) Residence bathrooms
Communal bathrooms (i.e. shared bathrooms) are quite the experience to say the least (Tap here to read more.)
(3) Inconsiderate neighbours
There is a possibility that you may not get along with everyone on your floor/in your building. (Tap here to read more)
(4) Not being able to stay over the December holiday break for free, or at all in some cases.
During the holiday/Christmas break, depending on your school and residence, you may not get to stay in your dorm, or if you are allowed, you may have to pay an additional fee (Tap here to read more.)
(5) A number of rules
Agreeing to live in residence means you're agreeing to the rules set in place (Tap here to read more)
Overall, like any experience you'd have, there are fun moments and the moments full of regret, and I experienced my share.
After my second year, I left residence and never looked back. What's for you is for you, and residence just wasn't for me.
However, it is definitely something I'd recommend to all first-year or incoming students in particular.
Overall as an international student, residence is an amazing way to not have to worry about your living arrangements as you get acquainted with your new life in the city, especially if you have no family or friends in Canada to stay with, like many of us moving abroad for the first time.
It relieves you of some worries, knowing that you're set with your living arrangements for the next 8 months, and are free to get to know the city and your surroundings at your own pace, knowing you have somewhere to return to at the end of the day.
That, and some friendly faces a couple doors down never hurt.
Did you live in the dorms at your university or college? What were they like? What was your experience like and how would you rate it overall? Share in the comments down below!
Thanks for reading!
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