I. Types of housing
First of all, let me explain to you what types of dormitories students studying in the United States have.
1. Dormitory
Almost all American colleges or universities provide dormitories for students. These dormitories are located on or near the campus, and are generally single students, not couples or families. Dormitory is a good place to meet American students and make new friends. Dormitory rooms are equipped with simple furniture, and many dorms also have restaurants. Some dorms may have kitchens. Generally speaking, student dormitories have public recreation rooms.
The biggest advantage of campus accommodation is that classes are convenient and campus safety can be guaranteed. Under normal circumstances, students have a great demand for student dormitories, and it may not be so easy to want a dormitory. Fill in the housing application form and send it back as soon as you receive the admission notice from your favorite school. You may need to pay a deposit. Some university dormitories are very tight, and the school needs to draw lots to decide who can live in them. First of all, the dormitory is closest to the school, so it is very safe. The second point is that the dormitory in the school is cheaper and the facilities are particularly good. In addition, many school dormitories will also provide a living room (if you live outside new york, you will definitely rent out the living room, otherwise the rent will be too expensive), but schools generally don't let people live in the living room. At that time, the school will sign the contract according to the number of bedrooms, and you are not allowed to secretly add a person to live in the living room. One of my classmates found out and was asked to move out immediately. But if your friends come, it should be no problem to stay for a few days.
Some campus dormitories are closed on holidays; Dormitories in other schools are open all year round. If you need to live in the dormitory during holidays and festivals, you must ask in advance whether the dormitory is open during these hours. If your school dormitory is open all the year round, you can rent out the room when you go home during the holidays, but remember to apply, otherwise there may be disputes.
Many rooms in the student dormitory are shared with one or more other students. Your roommate will be of the same sex as you don't know. Of course, you can also apply to live with friends and classmates, but you must do it earlier. There are few times when roommates are not suitable. If you don't get along well with your roommate, you can discuss your situation with your dormitory counselor or anyone in charge of housing in the school.
2. Off-campus housing
Housing types include furnished and unfurnished apartments and houses, privately-run dormitories, cooperative apartments and rented houses in private houses. To find off-campus housing, please ask the university housing office, or look at the classified advertisements in the local newspaper (also known as "demand advertisements" or "classified advertisements"). Now many American newspapers have Internet addresses, so you can check off-campus housing before you come to the United States. You can also look at the campus advertisement column to see if anyone is looking for a roommate to rent an apartment. Ask someone who knows the local situation for help or ask the teaching secretary for information.
1) off-campus dormitory
Sometimes there are private dormitories near the campus. These are specially designed to provide accommodation for students. They operate in a similar way to university dormitories, but they are privately owned. Its cost is generally a little cheaper than that on campus. Our school has a special apartment building for international students, high-end atmosphere, basketball court, recreation room, restaurant, study room and so on.
2) Shared apartment/room
Generally speaking, a cooperative apartment is a big house rented by a group of students, who share the expenses and daily chores. Residents take turns cooking, cleaning the house together and doing outdoor maintenance of the house together. Because cooperative apartments are generally cheaper, rooms in cooperative apartments may be difficult to find. Some houses rent rooms to individuals, but sometimes two people can share a room. This kind of place often provides facilities for practice. Living in such a room is probably the cheapest, but sometimes there will be friction between tenants (sharing bathroom, kitchen and so on). If you are considering renting a room in a house, you must be very selective and ask many questions.
3) American homestay families.
There will be some families in the local community of the school who want international students to live in their homes, and the school usually has a list of these families. Sometimes American families expect students to do some housework, such as babysitting or housework. In exchange, families provide students with free housing or lower rents. Living with an American family may be a friendly and rich experience, but you should consider the family and related arrangements very carefully to make sure that you know what is expected of you. Check whether you provide services in exchange for your housing and meals. This arrangement may be regarded as employment by the U.S. government, so it needs to be bound by relevant regulations. There are many homestay services in America. If you choose a homestay, you can ask the other party or intermediary to provide their family details, credit records and other information for your reference.
Second, the leasing channel.
school
General schools will provide each student with a detailed list of accommodation for students to choose from, and students can decide what housing to choose according to their own preferences.
Contact senior and senior.
Contacting the seniors of the school is the most effective and accurate way to find a house. They have field experience and can tell you a lot about their experience. More importantly, although finding a house is a common problem faced by every student, the fastest way to get these minority information is to find it because the situation in each place is different. For example, when I was looking for a house, an off-campus house provided by a senior was close to the school and the price was low. This information is difficult to find when I search online, and even if I find it, it is difficult to judge and grasp it. In the QQ group of some school students, there may be authoritative experience in finding a house written by previous students. At the same time, you have never been to the United States, but you often have to pay a deposit to find a house in the United States. Therefore, communicating with China people is the most smooth and practical, which can let you know about the surrounding environment. After all, China people know the living habits and cultural habits of China people best. So my personal suggestion is that when I am in China, if possible, I'd better find someone from China to go to short rent and live in the United States for a few weeks and a month. Then, after getting familiar with the environment, find a house you like to rent for a long time. The stupidest thing is to rent it for a year before going to America, and then you can't even return it if you don't like it.
Find CSSA
Basically, every school will have its own China Students and Scholars Association (CSSA), and there will be many posts about renting houses on its forum. It's the easiest place to find information about international students renting houses in China, and it's also easy to communicate with people in China. Many students will post rental stickers on CSSA during holidays.
Rental website
Professional rental websites are not only for students, but also for society. Personally, it is not recommended that children's shoes rented in the United States for the first time choose this way to find a house for two reasons. First, compared with student housing, this kind of housing search is more risky and easier to be cheated or suffer losses. Second, even if you find a house, you may be far away from your classmates. When you are new here, you can act alone, which is not convenient for mutual concern and communication. But I still give some credible rental websites for your reference. Also, most of the posts on these websites are sent by intermediaries, and people are not there. It's best not to trust the intermediary.
Through an intermediary
When you come for a month, get to know the surrounding situation and start to prepare for long-term rent, you can actually find an intermediary to find a house for you. The agency fee is generally 12% to 15% of the annual rent. It should be noted that many students will offer discounts in the end, so you need to bargain with the intermediary. Finally, if the average student, the agency fee can be reduced to about 10%. Why choose an intermediary? Because it can save you a lot of time, after all, when you first came here, you were under great pressure to study and didn't have much time, and I need to remind you that when you first came here, your classmates were looking for a house, and all the good houses would be robbed. The later you rent, the more expensive the rent, and the fewer good houses there are. You just need to tell the agent all your requirements and the price you want. The agent will show you many houses, and then you can choose the house you like.
Third, matters needing attention
About finding a roommate
If you don't know who can rent an apartment, you can answer a student's query about finding a roommate and see if you can be his roommate. Students often post advertisements to find roommates. If you reply to such an advertisement, the other party may call you or have an interview. These chat interviews are an excellent opportunity to decide whether you can get along well. Before you decide to share a room with another person, you should first discuss the following questions, which are the most basic questions you must ask: whether to smoke, study habits, cleaning, partying, staying overnight, food, cost sharing and so on. If you don't get along well with your roommate, it may be a very troublesome thing in your future study and life. So it's best to share a room with your familiar classmates, or find a classmate in your QQ group as a roommate, so as to help each other in their studies. If you don't know each other, you must know each other first, which is an effective way to reduce asymmetry and reduce the possibility of conflict.
About signing a contract
If you find a house you like, you must sign a lease contract with the owner. This is called leasing. The lease contract is a legally binding contract, which stipulates the specific room or house to be rented by the contractor and the length of the lease period, and also stipulates that the owner must rent the house to the contractor during this period. Don't rent an apartment that must be signed unless you plan to live there for the whole contract period.
Many homeowners require tenants to pay the first and last month's rent in advance before moving in. This is called "paying rent in advance". The purpose of paying rent in advance is to ensure that the tenant will notify the landlord at least 30 days in advance before moving out. Many homeowners also require a deposit (also called "cleaning deposit"), usually the amount of one month's rent. The purpose of this deposit is to ensure that the tenant will not damage anything and that the apartment is in good condition when the tenant moves out. If the apartment is in a satisfactory condition when the tenant moves out, the landlord will refund the deposit. You should keep the deposit receipt as evidence. What needs to be emphasized here is that when you leave the room, you must move out all your homes or sell them. There was nothing left in the room, and then it was thoroughly cleaned. If the room is not sanitary, Americans will deduct a lot of money, and some even deduct the full monthly rent directly. This is very different from China. After all, the deposit is in someone else's hand, so there is no need to wrangle.
Before signing the contract, check the apartment with the owner or manager, and list all the defects that you should not be responsible for when moving out, such as nail holes, cracked floors, damaged wood blocks or dirty blocks on the carpet left by previous tenants hanging pictures on the wall. It is very important for you to know the rights and responsibilities as a tenant and the obligations of the owner. Ask about relevant regulations and restrictions. If there is anything wrong with the room, be sure to make it clear in advance, including utilities and light bulbs. It's even more troublesome to have problems after living in it.
Only written lease contracts with detailed rules and conditions are accepted. Before signing any rental contract, be sure to read the contents of the contract clearly and thoroughly. You can ask the landlord to take away the contract a few minutes in advance, or even a day, so that you can have a closer look. This is totally acceptable. You don't have to sign the contract at once. If in doubt, please consult the relevant office of the school. Many schools provide consulting services for students who plan to live off campus. As a tenant, the landlord should give you a lease contract. In America, the most important thing is to make full use of school resources. Finally, when signing the contract, be sure to ask about the start and end time of winter heating time. What if there is something wrong with the heating? I suffered a loss in this respect. At the same time, if you can't move into the house on the date stipulated in the contract, how to compensate. I was ready to move. On the day of moving, the previous tenant suddenly didn't want to move out, but did we specify in the contract what to do if I moved in a few days late? In the end, the owner didn't make any compensation, that is, the start time was postponed until the day we moved in, but it brought us great inconvenience. My roommate had no place to live for three weeks and had to find it temporarily. Therefore, everyone must read every clause of the contract carefully and ask all possible problems clearly, otherwise there will be a lot of trouble later. No matter how many pages of English are dense, you still have to bite the bullet and read on. After all, we have all studied abroad, so don't be too tired of these pages.