Top Five Reasons I'll Miss RPS

This past week I went on a college visit at Vanderbilt University in Nashville to attend a "visitation weekend" for graduate school. To be honest, I absolutely loved it. The campus was beautiful, I loved the city and all of the people I spoke to made me feel very excited about my Master's program. There is, however, one very tiny drawback that's making me nervous.

They do not offer housing for graduate students.

For many people, this would not even be seen as a drawback. A lot of students choose to move off campus after their freshman year, so this is no surprise. However, for me, this is nerve-wracking! Here are a couple of reasons why I will miss RPS (and why I've been lucky to live here).

1. Furniture
Move in day is hectic enough without worrying about moving in a bed, dresser, desk or bookshelf. For the past four years, RPS has provided me with all of the furniture I need for work and comfort (including couches and lamps in my new apartment). For a student like me who has plans to work overseas in the coming years, this has been a wonderful solution: I did not need to spend money on furniture then have to worry about selling or storing it when I was away. Unfortunately, Nashville does not seem to offer many "furnished" apartment opportunities. I'm going to miss my RPS couch, dining table and bed when I'm using a futon for all my furniture needs come next year.

2. Maintenance
There was this wonderful episode at the beginning of the semester when, while cleaning my fishbowl, I dropped six big marble glass beads into the garbage disposal. When Sarah asked me what had possessed me to take out the drainer, I could only reply that "I didn't want to get it dirty." Needless to say, our sink was out of commission, if only because we did not want to accidentally flip on the garbage disposal and witness the catastrophic event that would be sure to follow. I called down to the Center Desk and let them know, and the next morning my sink had been fixed by a maintenance worker while I slept in. No charge, no fee from a landlord, nothing. RPS provided the repair quickly and without hassle, and THAT is something I'm going to miss when dealing with a landlord in the future.

3. Payment
RPS takes all of the trauma out of paying for housing accommodations: they simply charge the cost to your Bursar bill in two installments (one for fall, one for spring). This system eliminates the need for students to pay rent on a monthly basis, and while that might not seem like it's a big plus, it is. I cannot count the number of times a classmate or friend has had to cut a group meeting short because they had to go back to their apartment and make sure that they turned in a check before the office closed at 5 p.m.

4. Convenience
I have grown accustomed to being able to walk to all of my classes and only take a bus when I'm feeling especially lazy. Unfortunately, any apartment within a mile of the Vanderbilt campus comes with the hefty price of over $1000 a month for a studio, and I would likely have to pay utilities on top of that. So, my options are to either go for broke and continue spoiling myself or live five miles away and learn to drive in city traffic. I haven't quite decided what I'm going to do yet, but I know that no matter where I live it won't be quite as close or convenient as my current apartment.

5. Fun
One of my favorite things about residence hall life is the social aspect. There are always free events and programs going on for residence hall, er, residents. At Union Street there was a Super Bowl Party this past Sunday, and the weekend before Spring Break there is going to be a video game war (which promises to be a day full of excitement and poor health choices). There are some apartment complexes off-campus that have social events, but for the most part people keep to themselves.

In summary, I know that I have to grow up at some point, but RPS has definitely been a helpful transition from living with my parents to living in the real world. Before moving off campus, think twice about all of the extra hassles that come along with it.