Where do most L1s live- debating residence and off-campus

[blue134]

Just looking for some insight as the area is pretty new to me.

Should I be considering applying to residence? do most people live off-campus?

 

Any thought/opinions would be greatly appreciated. 

[Surgames]

There are a lot of students living on campus and a lot who live off campus. Both are fine options. Since you're not from the GTA I'd personally recommend living on-campus.

Pros for Campus

-Rent on campus is cheaper than you can reliably find anywhere in the GTA

- Commute to classes is 2 minutes of walking no matter which building you're in. Very nice to be close to library if you're a library studier.

- York is a surprisingly well-equipped campus; lots of food options, decent green areas, Shoppers etc.

- Can be nice to have friends in very close proximity.

- York housing for law students is specific to law or grad students so it's nice and quiet. 

Cons for Campus

- Grocery store desert--> need a car or delivery service to shop

- You're living in a residence and that always comes with not-so-fun surprises; there are fire-alarm tests very frequently

- maintenance service is dogshit

I don't live off-campus so I'm less aware of the pros and cons but you really don't want to live anywhere within ~20 minutes of YorkU for not-getting-murdered reasons so most off-campus students are commuting 30+ minutes each way (some of my friends have an hour plus commute).

 

 

[luckycharm]

10 hours ago, blue134 said:

Just looking for some insight as the area is pretty new to me.

Should I be considering applying to residence? do most people live off-campus?

 

Any thought/opinions would be greatly appreciated. 

 

[lawstudent9999]

Living on-campus is very convenient and much cheaper than anywhere else you will rent, but some of the units are in bad shape and some of the buildings have very bad problems with pests. Some of them are perfectly fine, but it is a bit of a lottery. 

Edited November 30, 2023 by lawstudent9999

[Turtles]

17 hours ago, Surgames said:

- You're living in a residence and that always comes with not-so-fun surprises; there are fire-alarm tests very frequently

Just FYI for out of towners: monthly fire alarm testing is a thing in all high occupancy Toronto condo/apartment buildings under the fire code, not just student residences. Frequent false alarms are exceptionally common in some (occasional but less common in others). Maybe you can escape it living in a townhouse or something but I wouldn't expect on-campus housing to be materially better/worse than the average condo or large apartment complex off-campus in this regard.

[Turtles]

On 11/29/2023 at 10:10 AM, blue134 said:

Just looking for some insight as the area is pretty new to me.

Should I be considering applying to residence? do most people live off-campus?

 

Any thought/opinions would be greatly appreciated. 

But for the COVID pandemic, my plan was to live on campus for cost and proximity reasons. With the uncertainty of those times, it was clear I didn't "need" to be on campus in the foreseeable future but didn't know if that may change with little notice. I also didn't want to move into on-campus housing for 1L and then move downtown for upper year, summer jobs*, or graduation. Coming from out of province with minimal stuff, I cringed at the thought of investing in stuff for an on-campus place and then needing to redo it all again in 1-2 years. (The osgoode housing process could only offer me an unfurnished 1 bedroom or furnished but tiny studio, I felt the studio was too small and I'd go crazy there, so I'd need to buy furniture for the unfurnished place and hope the same stuff would work with wherever I move next.) Finally, campus is fine but it's not downtown in terms of stores, restaurants, cafes, and things to do. 

Anyways I ended up working simultaneous to school and decided I could justify the marginal extra cost of living downtown with the added quality of life of having everything right outside my door. And in reality, few courses actually necessitate physical attendance due to lecture recordings being available for every single course (with few tech issues) except seminars (which you only can take a couple of anyways) and it's fine to commute in 1 hour on the subway when needed -- some semester that's only showing up to final exams, some semesters it's showing up once or twice a week for participation-based seminars. I also discovered many corporate-focused courses/clinics/workshops, many of which require in-person attendance, are actually taught downtown, and  individual classes get moved to Zoom on occasion the prof or guest speaker is sick / out of town / too busy to commute. In other words, depending on how religiously you attend class vs watch recordings, your summer job situation, and your area of focus / course selections in upper years, it's possible you live on campus but end up spending more of your time downtown than actually anywhere outside your unit on campus.

The other piece that proved advantageous to me living downtown from the get-go was that rents were deflated due to the pandemic. Thanks to rent control, because I moved in during COVID rather than pushing it by 1-3 years and living on-campus first, my rent downtown today is around $500/mo less than comparable units in my building. So I paid an extra ~$500-800 for 2 years for the benefit of living downtown vs on-campus but am now earning an effective discount against market rates of around $500/mo**, which will continue onwards for the next few years til I leave (unless market rates crash). Will market rents be higher or lower in 1-3 years? Based on the current trajectory, probably much higher, but who knows if/when the rental bubble pops. It seems unlikely for any current or future government policies to materially decrease rents by then, but who knows, COVID was a surprise too.

I also think it's worth explicitly saying that your personal situation (younger vs older, have moved around a lot vs first time on your own, familiar with GTA vs new to Toronto) will likely drive how you feel. I went to Osgoode because I wanted to ultimately live and work in Toronto. I like Toronto. I didn't think it made sense to move here and then delay living in Toronto proper. And I've moved around a ton in the past and am tired of moving. I just wanted to settle into a place, make it my own (to the extent any renter can), get comfortable, and lay down roots (like finding a permanent family doctor and dentist nearby). So I opted for "settle my roots downtown", vs "temporarily settle on campus then up-root and re-settle in Toronto proper", and I think I made the right decision.

Maybe your calculus is different, and that's ok. If I was still 21, I very well probably would have gone with living on-campus and sucked up the inevitable move(s). I used to crash on friends' couches for the weekend and live out of a backpack; now I want a really comfy mattress of my own choosing and my own washer/dryer. I got old and spoiled. Just sharing my experience with some personal context to help the conversation advance away from "generic list of benefit on-campus vs off-campus" or "how is OC Chambers", which are both over-done conversations with plenty of content available on this forum and online. Everything comes down to your personal context.

(* many people don't relocate from campus to downtown for their summer job, and no it's not essential, but I felt I would have gone crazy if my summer job was 5 days in-person and required 1 hour commute each direction given (i) all the hours you do as a summer student trying to impress, (ii) the ttc uncertainty and random security incidents / track problems / early maintenance closures, and (iii) the perpetual fear of being late. That said, obviously as a new student you don't know if you'll have a 1L or 2L summer job, let alone what the in-person vs hybrid environment may be like, and increasingly many top firms don't require a full 5 days in-person (although some students still strive to be in all 5 days to show face or build connections).

** Keep in mind inflation makes a difference between comparing 2021 and 2023 dollars. I definitely paid for the convenience of living downtown, but it proved effectively far less than the nominal difference in on-campus/off-campus rents.)