The Dartmouth class of 2004 is experimenting with off-campus housing as a convenient and sometimes cheaper alternative to College housing.
"The Rock,"a house at 16 Sergeant Street, is traditionally run by Cabin and Trail, part of the Dartmouth Outing Club. Rent at this house averages out to under $250 a month, according to resident Heather Lapin '04 -- a tiny fraction of the cost of College housing.
But Lapin pointed to a more important reason she lives off-campus, one cited by others contacted by The Dartmouth -- the feeling of coming and being at home.
"For me, in high school you'd come home and it would be home -- you'd have that down time," she said. "Living at the dorms, you don't get that as much."
She also cited one of themo st frequent complaints of those living off-campus -- using a dialup connection.
Because she uses email less frequently than other, BlitzMail-obsessed Dartmouth students, "a lot of times, you'll miss out," Lapin said.
Lapin als said bad heating and a the ten-minute walk home make her house less agreeable in the winter.
She added that she was disappointed in how difficult it was to get off-campus housing, with it often being necessary to look sophomore Summer for Senior year housing.
The ABCDs are a group of four apartments on West Wheelock Street.
John Nixon '04, who lives in the "C" building -- the apartments are named because they are marked with numbers instead of letters -- shared a lot of his praise and a few of his complaints with Lapin.
Most off-campus houses either have people buy groceries for the house and then get paid back by other residents, or buy food individually. In the C building, residents have paid their rent and grocery money in to a common house account, either at the beginning of the term or monthly.
The result is that there is a common debit card that be used for groceries, less fuss about rent or grocery money that is a few days late, interest earned by the house account and a few very impressive meals to boot, according to Nixon.
Living off campus, students have a kitchen and usually a living or dining room as well. Like Lapin, Nixon said he liked the "feeling of independence" that gives him.
He also cited a rent comparable to on-campus rents -- between $1400 and $1550 for residents -- a close location, in which a steady stream of students mean constant visitors, and good experiences with landlords as strengths of the ABCDs.
Just past the ABCDs on West Wheelock Street is "The Love Shack," a house usually occupied mostly by members of the women's rugby team.
Like at other houses, residents share chores and spots in the house are passed down through a social network with little involvement from the house's actual owner, Philmco, Inc., according to house residents.
Rent at the house works out to between $330 and $620 for residents.
