I think one of the more underrated challenges of college is choosing where, and with whom, you are going to live. In my four years attending college I have lived in on-campus dorms, off campus apartment complexes, and rental houses and have had roommates that have been randomly assigned and chosen from amongst my friends. Each of these options had their pros and cons, the extent of which I rarely realized until I actually lived in them for a while. The dorms were great for getting to know people my first year, but the shared room started to where on me. I never realized some of my friends’ most annoying traits until I was roommates with them, and how much more annoying a randomly chosen roommate could be until I had one. Most of all, I wish I knew that living in a cheap house that is walking distance to campus is worth sacrificing both air-conditioning and personal space. My solution to this is to create a social review site for all the different housing options for a specific college town.
The idea is that it would be a kind of RateMyProfessors.com of housing choices. Users would be able to submit and read reviews of dorms, apartments, condos, and rental houses. Unlike other review sites, this would allow you to compare not only apartments to other apartments or rental properties to other rental properties, but all styles of living that are available in the town. This would all be free of charge and profit would be earned through advertising. The beauty of this is that, because the vast majority of the content will be created by users, most of the costs will go into running the site.
I would also distinguish my from Google’s rating system by allowing users to blog about these various choices. Some examples are “is it better to live in the dorms or look for off campus housing your first year?” or “should you rent or buy a property that can be flipped once you graduate?” Because the main targets of this site will be college students, it will rely on a Facebook fan page to spread the word.
I think this site would provide a much needed resource to many college students.
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