Every year around this time, first years are going manic looking for housing and realizing everything they want was gone in the first week or outrageous in price. Dealing with housing companies or even UVA housing is torture during this time of year, for those looking for apartments or those whose apartments are toured on what seems like the daily.
Here are a few thoughts that seem to be a consensus around grounds when it comes to everyone’s favorite topic: housing.
1. Lambeth is a joke, especially the kitchens
Somewhere in UVA’s head, they decided that not only should we make kitchens in Lambeth with no dishwasher but they thought counter-space was an unnecessary expense. They show floorplans with pantries that really just hold hot water heaters and air conditioning units that may or may not actually keep your apartment cool.
The best thing, though, is that they believed that people in six-person apartments should actually have a smaller kitchen then people in four-person apartments.
UVA logic, as always, is a mystery.
2. I love the idea of paying $850+ for plastic furniture
Often described as “custom” or “luxury” furnishings, these high-quality plastic couches and metal bedroom furniture make any apartment cozy. Best yet, you can have a bed that oddly resembles two dorm beds pushed together.
No doubt, if you live in a furnished apartment, you will be living in the lap of luxury alongside the other students at UVA who call a maze home.
3. $75 for parking each month is BS
Lucky for upperclassmen, you have the ability to bring a car to school finally. You think “How great! I will save my parents so much time coming to get me and it will be cheaper than Ubering to get off grounds.” Unlucky for you, you actually have to pay $75 or more a school year to have your beautiful white Nissan at your convenience.
Try not to think about what you could have been doing with that money, it makes the pill a little easier to swallow.
4. I could be living in luxury back home
For the price of my apartment each month, I could have stainless steel appliances, parking, a nice washer and dryer, guaranteed good working air conditioning, and live in a place that doesn’t seem to be collapsing at the seems. But here at UVA, I can live in a place with a kitchen the size of a mini bar, carpet that may or may not be safe to walk on, and a shower that only occasionally feels like it’s connected to a water heater.
Lucky for the rental companies around UVA, they will forever have an influx of students to pay their outlandish prices but lucky for us, we’ll hopefully already have contracts in place before they decide to raise the prices way above regular inflation again.
The only benefit that comes from the madness of housing is getting to experience it with your roommates since no bonds last longer than the ones that went through BS like this and made it out alive.
